As a rally driver, your feet have two purposes: to accelerate, and to brake.
The right foot acts as the propeller, balancing itself on the throttle pedal and squeezing down as hard as possible to obtain maximum speed.
The left is the stabilizer. Feel through this foot is vital for gleaning the confidence required to balance the car and brake as late, and hard, as you dare.
What you absolutely don’t want is a sudden change in that feeling. Invariably, that means you have a problem.
Aoife Raftery picks up the story.
“We cut a corner and there were these concrete culverts on the inside, and a few drivers got caught out,” she explains. “You might’ve seen [Patrick] Gruszka and [Sean] Donnelly – the same thing happened to them.
“We just clipped it and the tire stayed on, but then I felt something coming, passing my feet. And I was like: I don’t know what that is.”
Rallying is all about rhythm and confidence. Understandably, this knocked the DirtFish Women in Motorsport driver’s. But rally drivers are nothing if not reactive.
“I went to brake,” she adds, “and there were no brakes, but it was the brake disc that had broke off and that I could feel.
“We tried our best to do what we could for the rest of the loop but we had no front brakes, and the hub was like three quarters of the way sheared. It was just holding on by the driveshaft.
“So the wheel was completely sideways and every stage we’d get to the start of Alex [Gelsomino], Lia [Block]’s co-driver in front of us, would come and look and he’d he’d just shake his head because it was getting worse every time. There was just so much going on.
“I was just trying to maintain it, get back to service, trying not to lose too much time, but just try to keep it on the road as well.”
All of this was happening while Raftery knew she was missing out on a podium result at Southern Ohio Forest Rally. She had been third, ahead of some Rally2 cars, before this escapade.
“It’s difficult trying to manage it because you just feel the time crawling away… not even crawling, just running away!” Raftery rues.
“It’s very frustrating because at the same time you’re still thinking about [the fact] I was in third overall and it’s quite disappointing. But it’s part of the game and we tried to manage it as best as we could.”
Brakes are super important in rallying... naturally
All was not lost though, as the Irishwoman and co-driver Hannah McKillop collected the winners’ trophy in the L4WD class in their Element Rally Sport machine.
“It’s actually our first class win,” she smiles. “We’ve been on the class podium for I think each event we’ve done in the US, but this was our first class win. So that was a nice touch as well.”
Raftery joined DirtFish’s Luke Barry on the latest episode of SPIN, The Rally Pod to discuss SOFR in greater detail as well as preview this week’s World Rally Championship round in Greece.
“Obviously Toyota has a very, very strong team, very strong drivers in it, but also does so does Hyundai,” Raftery analyzes.
“I think coming back to gravel now gives them a better chance of getting back closer to Toyota and fighting again for the title. I don’t know how close they’re going to get, but I definitely think for the remainder of the season they have a better chance at getting on the top step, getting more podiums.
Aoife is expecting a much closer battle between Hyundai and Toyota
“They’ve shown that the car is more capable on gravel than it is on Tarmac, so it’s going to make it a bit more exciting as well.
“I think of course having Sébastien Ogier back in for this round, if I have to my money on someone it’s always going to be him,” she adds, before revealing that the two share a birthday.
“He makes it bit more exciting as well.”
You can listen to the episode in full below or wherever you get your podcasts. An ad-free version is available for Club DirtFish members.
