It took only two rallies for the Toyota GR Corolla Rally RC2 to win its first rally, courtesy of Jari-Matti Latvala.
One American Rally Association National championship event later, and now the program’s lead driver, California native Seth Quintero, has taken his first career victory in stage rallying at the Southern Ohio Forest Rally.
Quintero is on a bit of a roll: less than a month earlier, he took his first-ever World Rally-Raid Championship victory in Argentina in a Toyota GR DKR Hilux Evo. Having finished second on Olympus Rally in April behind Latvala, going one step better at the next round was a distinct possibility.
But Toyota’s task of repeating their irresistible form in the World Rally Championship over in the US was a tall ask. A works-supported Hyundai effort with Patrick Gruszka at the wheel – the highest-seeded entry – and a customer car driven by Lia Block were going to be strong opposition.
Gruszka fell first: he ran wide on a fast and sweeping left-right S-bend and clipped a drainage culvert, flipping his i20 N Rally2 into the trees and ending his rally on the spot. Aside from Block none of the other Rally2 runners could keep up with Quintero, with DirtFish Women in Motorsport driver Aoife Raftery in a less-powerful Ford Fiesta Rally3 their nearest competition.
Quintero celebrated a hard-fought maiden ARA win ahead of Lia Block
Eight wins from eight on Friday by Quintero laid down a marker, but it almost came undone on the final morning: the Corolla ran into mechanical problems and Block carved over half a minute out of Quintero’s lead, shrinking the gap to 12.2s.
A trip back to service cured the ills aboard the Corolla but still Block was faster – just not by a big enough margin. She ran out of stage miles to catch the Toyota and fell short of a first ARA National win of her own by 9.4s, so instead Quintero got his maiden winners’ trophy in Ohio.
“The first day went really well and we put a lot of time down,” said Quintero. “Then we had a little bit of an issue at the beginning of the second day that got my heart going.
“But that’s good for you: it means you’re alive and walking away with a win. I’m looking forward to the next one.”
The next ARA round for Quintero is Rally Colorado in July. But he is already thinking ahead: a delegation from the FIA, motorsport’s governing body, was present at SOFR to get a flavor of American rally ahead of their trip to Knoxville, Tennessee to assess Rally United States’ candidature for the World Rally Championship.
A first win in the US is a big step for Quintero and a potential WRC inclusion for next year has him excited. Though he accepts there’s still a steep learning curve ahead – and that W2RC is his primary focus – the thought of heading for a potential WRC round in Tennessee is in the back of his mind.
“I’ve got a long way to go,” said Quintero. “I’ve only got three rallies under my belt and haven’t really done any testing in between [ARA rounds], so I know I have a lot left on the table. We’re seeing my times getting better and better everyday, so I’m looking forward to getting better.
A WRC and a W2RC career? Quintero's ruling nothing out
“I know I’m not on a par with WRC guys yet, they’ve got years of experience on me. But I’m always looking at options on career avenues; I love what I do right now but if I can double down and do two things at once like I’m doing now but in a proper way, it would be really cool.”
She didn’t win the rally but Block still achieved another key objective: second overall and a powerstage win in Ohio moved her into the lead of the ARA National standings, six points ahead of Quintero.
For DirtFish WiM driver Raftery, a superlative run in third place was compromised by a puncture that damaged the brakes on her Fiesta Rally3, leaving her unable to fend off the faster Rally2 cars of Ricardo Cordero Jr (Citroën C3 Rally2) and Alastair Scully (Hyundai i20 N Rally2).
Though an overall podium finish disappeared, she still secured Limited 4WD class victory by over seven minutes from Roberto Yglesias and the powerstage win in the class for a second consecutive rally. Victory puts Raftery in the thick of the class title fight, moving ahead of the absent Travis Pastrana into second and only five points behind Sno*Drift and Olympus winner Mark Piatkowski.
