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features :: stories
 The Voice of Victory
The winningest driver in STPR history talks about what makes it special
By David Gee
Paul Choiniere has had lots of success at the motorsports event known as the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally, or just plain STPR as most people refer to it as. And yes, we know what religion the Pope is and what bears do in the woods.
He won the event an astonishing FIVE TIMES IN A ROW! in three different makes of cars from 1992 – 1996. And then he added two more victories in 1999 and 2005. So the dude knows of what he speaks when the subject turns to rallying in general, and STPR, specifically.
Last year I had the pleasure of speaking to Choiniere on the eve of the 2008 running of STPR, and liked it so much, decided to run it again. For the latest updates on all the action at this year’s STPR, we invite you to go to www.rally-america.com. Enjoy the reprised interview and the rally!
 There's an old racer's axiom that answers the somewhat rhetorical question how fast do you want to go with how much money do you have. Though horsepower and dollars go together in rallying as well as in any other form of motorsport, the truth is the size of your cajones may be even more important than the size of your bank account at the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally.
So climb in...strap yourself down...and pucker up...as we talk about the fastest event on the Rally America Championship Series with Paul Choiniere, a rally veteran who first contested it old-school style back in 1984, a time before pace notes and One-lap Reconnaissance actually gave drivers a clue about what lies beyond that next 80 miles an hour corner.
"It's not only fast, it's not just the speed, but it's the immovable objects...things such as the trees that actually grow right into the side of the road. As you're driving down the road at a very high speed, it makes you feel like you're on an edge with no room for error at all. The trees are big enough that you can't disregard them, or simply ignore them. Your eyes see them and the mind knows they're there, and that makes it even more difficult to keep your right foot down."
Paul Choiniere knows a little something about keeping your right foot down. In 1988, he won the North American Rally Championship, a series consisting at the time of 10 events throughout Canada and the United States, in the ex-John Buffum Audi Quattro Coupe. In 1989, he again won the North American Championship, and became the only American driver ever to win the Canadian National Rally Championship. He's sitting this season out to concentrate on his car business in these challenging economic times, but he is always willing to BS a little about the weather, or rallying, or even the two together!
“Certainly the weather can make a big difference at STPR. There have been years when it's really dry and really dusty and it's impacted the standings because of that. Then there have been other years here it has been really wet and slippery and that also has it's own impact. Road conditions seem to change quite dramatically with the weather."
The main reason why is the unusual composition of the forest roads around Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, the historic town that plays host to this storied event. The roads are clay-based with some silt and loose gravel and/or dirt on top of the clay. And if it rains, well look out. The hard roads turn slicker than the dickens.
"If there's any one rally that I've driven in this country, this always felt like the one where your mind can't rest at all," said Choiniere somewhat surprisingly, given that he has competed - and won - at obviously dangerous places such as Pikes Peak. "At any one point, whether you're winning by 10 minutes, or you’re ten minutes behind, you just can't relax. There are some really long stages and the roads throughout a single stage itself change. You might go down into the forest where it's really dark and shady and moist and the road surface will be one way, and then you'll emerge out into the sun and the roads will be hard and fast. Or it could be raining in one part of the rally and not another. It's quite a mix and literally your mind can't rest for a second."
As we said, he did run before the advent of pace notes and that's a different thing entirely. Competitors say you might be cruising along at 100 miles per hour thinking you're doing well and then all of a sudden the road character changes instantly out of nowhere, and next thing you know you're grabbing second and third gear where as just a few seconds ago you were in fifth.
"It can catch you off guard. Now with pace notes you sometimes get warnings about sudden changes in conditions, but it's still a huge challenge of course. You're on edge the entire time you're out there."
So is speed what defines STPR, now known officially as the Waste Management Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally, presented by Citizens and Northern Bank?
 "It's really the high speed corners. Everybody likes to talk about the acute turns and switchbacks that are there, but there are a lot of long radius turns that are very fast, and that's where time can be made or lost. If your car is set up well from a handling standpoint and you can comfortably go around those corners at 80 miles per hour say for example, that's going to mean a big difference over the course of the entire rally over another competitor who is taking those same corners at 75 miles per hour."
And how do you become the 80 mile per hour man? Well now we're back to the bravery thing, and that other "b" word that has to do with bravery. We also introduce you to a third "b" word, and now we're going to get technical.
"You want the car to be as perfectly balanced as possible to go around those corners as fast as possible. When you're going around that fast corner you don't want the car to understeer or oversteer, you want to be on the proverbial rails almost like a road racing car. Grip isn't really critical. However if the roads get wet and slippery, then tires can mean all the difference in the world. There is not a lot of room for error regardless of the conditions."
There is room for plenty of spectators though, and the rally roads that border two national parks are often home to some of the biggest - and most enthusiastic - of the season. To bolster that fan support even more, STPR changed to a two-day format to give spectators more daylight viewing options. Also featured again will be a Super Special Stage at the Tioga County Fairgrounds sponsored by Subaru and run once on Friday and once on Saturday. STPR has six spectator locations to show the sport to maximum advantage in all its exciting aspects to the public and media.
"There is also always a large group of locals who come out year after year and set up in the same corners at the same spectator areas," reminisces Choiniere. "After you run here so many years they recognize you and you recognize them and it's just kind of neat."
We thought it would be kind of neat if Choiniere would predict a winner. He didn't want to do that, but he did opine that there are a handful of cars that are fairly close in terms of performance, and drivers that are fairly close in ability, and predicted the winner might be determined by other factors.
"Experience can play a part, tactics can figure into it, the weather as we've said, but bravery, or lack thereof, I think determines the podium at STPR more than any other rally. So the guy posing with the winner's trophy on Saturday night might not only have been the fastest, but the bravest as well."
© 6/05/09 Subenet LLC
First, second, third photos by Morgan Segal
Bottom photo by Lorne Trezise
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