Just three stages, repeated twice, will comprise the remainder of the 2021 Southern Ohio Forest Rally as communication issues have plagued Saturday’s schedule.
Both the Diagon Alley and Disco Inferno tests were canceled in the morning due to communication issues, forcing the crews to complete the stages at road speed instead of competitively.
Communication was fine for SS6 Top Gun North Short, but fallen trees delayed the start to that test too. It did go, ahead albeit over an hour behind schedule.
The earlier comms problems weren’t rectified in time for SS7-9 to run, but the USAC (which sanctions the American Rally Association National series) has confirmed that SS10-15 – which were supposed to be held on an entirely fresh batch of stages – will now be a third and fourth pass of Diagon Alley, Disco Inferno and Top Gun North Short.
The start of the Diagoney Alley stage, which will be SS10 and SS13 has been moved forward by 0.06 miles (96 meters) onto the stage, while Top Gun North short has also been shortened but competitors will only find out by how much when they arrive at the start of the stage. There they will be told the new location of the flying finish and where the stop control will now be.
Barry McKenna leads the rally by 11.9 seconds over Brandon Semenuk.
