Weekend in Missouri

Everything was feeling great after two days of practice and shakedown at a Bison Ranch we visit in Potosi, Missouri, every year at this time to get the car set up for our first gravel event of the season: the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood.

Ken Block was there at the test location when we arrived, and his 10-man crew was pulling their competition car apart piece by piece to refresh it, no detail missed.

Their team chief kindly invited the three of us to join them for a wonderful dinner prepared by their in-house chef and, since the team is mostly Swedish and they're big hockey fans, we listened to the Canada-Russia Olympic hockey game on streaming audio – in Swedish.

Our car was feeling strong and we were looking forward to the race – even after we holed the oil pan of our street car during the reconnaissance pass. We were first on the road after the seeded draw and our strategy was to push hard and stay there all weekend with the aim of edging Ken, four-time event winner, out of the top spot this year.

No such luck.

We went out to do a couple of passes through a practice and VIP ride-along stage Friday morning and the motor blew -- just hours before the start of the event. Even if we had had a spare engine, which we didn't this weekend, it would have been tight to get it in and running in time. So we had to bow out of the competition.

But our fans in this part of the world have always been incredibly kind to us and we didn't want to disappoint everybody. So instead of going home early, we decided to stick around.

We hauled the car out to the starts and service areas and met a ton of fans. We signed autographs, had little kids sit in the car, and let some serious Missouri gear heads get a really close look at our car.

And we hung out with fellow competitor Travis Pastrana – who was in the lead after having won almost every stage until he broke a suspension arm on a Super Special late on Day 2 and DNF'd to surrender his lead to Ken. We helped with his attempt to fix the car, but there was no way to make it work.

We'll get 'em next time.

PS: We also found this puppy (the second puppy we've rescued in two years at this event) and found her a great home in Vermont with friends from Travis' team. She's called "Salem" -- after the town we found her in.

 

Comments

[Denni]

Please oh please come to Cincinnati!!!