Some prominent DNFs at Oregon scramble the Super Production field for STPR
By David Gee

"Left 5 plus - caution - over crest - wait - make that really a right 3, d___ that video recce, our pace notes are wrong and we're carrying way too much speed and the turn is less than 50 yards away and we're going 100 miles per hour, and oh, did we leave the road, we're airborne, soft landing though, thank you well placed tree saplings, modulate the brakes Pat, mind the #@$&* trees!, wow. You ok? Yeah, I'm ok."

Okay, so that is not exactly a verbatim transcript of what Scott Crouch said to Super Production driver Pat Moro on the seventh stage at Oregon Trail, but it was probably pretty close.

"I thought we had a pretty good game plan coming into the event," said Moro with a slight sigh. "The speed of the new car and the new navigator and everything was great and we were doing well. We just got caught out and got a late call coming into that right three and there’s a series of crests and its kind of blind. A little too much speed for a little too tight of a corner I guess.

So then what happened?

"That was pretty much the end of our event and then we were looking for a nice cold beer," Moro replied matter-of-factly, skipping to the very end of the story.

No, I said, pressing for more detail. What happened when you didn't make the corner and left the road?

"We went pretty far off into the trees, that's what happened," continued Moro. "The crazy thing about it is a couple other people had been off in that corner also. So I think it was one of those gotcha's. I also think if we would have been able to do the real recce, instead of having the video recce at Oregon this year, it would have been something we would have caught. Until we went off though, we had a great SP battle brewing between Piotr Wiktorczyk, Dave Mirra and myself. We were all within three seconds of each other and that makes it really exciting to be out there competing."

Even if he wasn't there at the end?

"Yes," stated Morro. "When we went off, Scott Crouch, my co-driver, kept saying 'I’m sorry,' I’m sorry.' And I was like 'Hey Scott, we just went into the woods at close to 100 mph. and we’re fine!' It could have been a really bad off, could have caused a lot of damage, but the damage was really minor. We bent a control arm and if it weren't for that we could have driven the car out of there."

Another prominent Super Production driver, Matt Johnson, who still sits in fourth place in the points championship despite his DNF at Oregon, also didn't seem too pained about his experience.

"It’s not painful, it’s racin’!" Johnson practically shouted at me in his good natured way. "We had a great display for the fans at Pioneer Square in Portland, we had a nice media turnout for some ride-alongs, but about that time I had a feeling things just weren’t right with the car. I mean it wasn’t anything obvious, the gauges were reading what they should and all that, the car just wasn’t responding."

Johnson and his crew found a couple of loose wires on their disc controller right before the first stage, and scrambled to get that right. When the stage did begin though he realized they may not have quite fixed the problem..

"There are some spots in that Friday night stage at Portland International Raceway where you can get some big air right in front of the fans, and I like to show off, and I meant to go big, I always go big there. But the disc controller was definitely not doing its job there and we ended up backwards, foot to the floor in first gear, with the cockpit just filling up with blue tire smoke! You know you’re spinning your tires a lot when you can’t even see out the windshield from all the smoke. I mean that might be common for drifters and such, but it’s not the usual thing for us rally guys."

The trouble didn't end there though. By the end of the first stage they had also suffered an engine fire, got that out, and then kind of putted through the second stage.. He thought changing out the turbo might solve some problems but as it turned out he says they were unprepared in terms of tools to do that job quickly.

"We have a smart crew but when the pressure is on my tool situation in the truck is a disaster."

When discussing the reliability of his Subaru motor though, Johnson wanted to quickly give me some background.

"It is not at all surprising we had some engine issues considering…this is the same engine I have used in all of my rallies since 2005, aside from the Open class rallies I had last year," Johnson said rather unbelievably. "We freshened it once with new bearings and new rings but otherwise it’s the same totally stock Subaru 2.0-liter motor we have been running season after season after season. With the 34mm restrictor and anti-lag (Editor’s Note: An anti-lag system, or ALS, is used on turbocharged engines to minimize turbo lag. ALS requires an air bypass, generally done in one of two ways. The first method is to use a throttle air bypass; this may be an external bypass valve or a solenoid valve which opens the throttle, allowing air to bypass the closed throttle and to reach the engine. The second method is to use a bypass valve which feeds charge air directly to the exhaust manifold. The higher exhaust pressure and temperature combined with the increased mass flow is enough to keep the turbocharger spinning at high speed thus reducing lag. Since many engine components are exposed to very high temperatures during ALS operation, this kind of system is very hard on the engine and turbocharger.) and other aggressive measures we have taken to try and keep up with 2.5-liter WRX STi Super Production cars, I knew we were pushing our luck. And when you push your luck with tired equipment it will catch up to you."

Ever the optimist though, Johnson is looking at the brighter side of this particular DNF.

"I hate DNFs worse than anything. I didn’t get to run for the win, and I didn’t earn the prize and contingency money I needed to be able to run the next event at STPR. But I enjoyed Portland and the Oregon Trail Rally experience and I didn’t wrinkle up my car. It was simply a parts failure and that is part of motorsports."

Let’s shoot ahead to STPR now. It has kind of changed a little bit since its inception. When you used to mention that rally to people, it meant talking about high pucker factors and was synonymous with speed. It still has the potential to be fast of course, but there are some slightly rougher special stages.

"I felt last year like there were some sections that were literally Jeep trails and not so much of a rally road," Moro said. "So I hope those are opened up a bit. In the 2008 STPR rally I just couldn't find the right gear at times.. First gear was too low and second gear was too high and you were back and forth between first and second so many times that I couldn’t believe the gearbox survived it."

"It’s funny, STPR used to be a drag strip where you had these long sections of being on the hammer and flowing through the corners, and the event was synonymous with speed," seconded Matt Johnson. "I don’t know that you would describe it so simply in those terms today. The one thing at STPR that hasn’t changed though is that it’s narrow and you have those trees and there isn’t much margin for error. It can get dodgy in a hurry at STPR."

While there is some disagreement as to just how "rough" some of the Tioga County Fairgrounds stages really are, there seems to be widespread consensus on the large number of hairpins at STPR.

"Back in the PGT days we would think of the hairpins as the 'got cha's,'" Moro stated. "In the PGT car you could never really grab the hand brake and whip the car around with a hand brake turn. You really had to use the momentum of the car and do your Swedish whip or Scandinavian flick to get it to come around the corner. You have the hydraulic hand brake in the SP cars now so we’re really looking forward to those turns. They should be a lot more fun."

One thing that has never changed at STPR is the trees. To say they're close is to understate the obvious when taking to any rally competitor, including Pat Moro.

"You always think of how close the trees are at STPR. Someone made the comment, I think it was J.B. Niday, Executive Director of Rally America, who once said that for some reason the trees seem to grow in the center of the road there. It’s so true. You’ll come around and you’re absolutely inches away from them and they're knocking your mirrors they're so close.."

The competition will be close as well, with the Swedish World Rally drivers Patrik Sandell and Emil Axelsson as notable newcomers battling the usual cast or rally characters for a spot on the STPR podium.

"Well, we’ll see how they do," said Moro somewhat cautiously. "Generally the roads in Europe are a lot tighter and more technical so they could do really well in those stages. But I think there could be some speed at STPR than some of these guys are used to, so the advantage there could swing over to guys from our side of the pond."

"I think Travis Pastrana should do really well at STPR," said Matt Johnson, who will be doing some commentating instead of his usual driving this weekend. "Andi Mancin has been driving really smart and calculating this season so far and he should have a chance. I predict the tight Waste Management stages are where Mancin coud really show up. The Polish drivers and the Brits and the Swedish guys and other Europeans get a lot of practice driving in some really tight stuff. It seems when they cruise over here and get in those really tight stages they just put the trouncing on everybody. It happened last year at STPR and we'll see if it happens again."