The New England Forest Rally this weekend marks the sixth event of the 2022 American Rally Association presented by DirtFish National championship.
And as the ARA is a championship that takes the best six of a driver’s nine scores, this is where things really heat up. We start to look at what rounds will be dropped, what teams can afford to lose, and what their strategy will be for the rest of the season.
While that analysis is to come after the event, for now, let’s look at where the three title contenders stand heading into NEFR.
1. Travis Pastrana
Current total: 78
Max total: 160
Leading the points despite only 14 stage wins and zero event wins, Travis Pastrana’s key is consistency this year. He leads his team-mate, Brandon Semenuk, by six points and Ken Block by nine. Although he has suffered speed-wise, Pastrana has excelled by finishing all four rallies he started this year, something that Semenuk and Block are unable to say.
New England could be his break-through in 2022. Last year he showed serious pace, holding close with the WRC Fiesta of Barry McKenna and the Subaru of Block, even beating 10-time champion David Higgins right up until a roll on the penultimate stage.
The biggest threat is the car-killing stages of NEFR that took out half his competition last year. If he keeps his consistency, he could come through looking good, but to hold off the rest of the field for three more events, Pastrana needs a win.
2. Brandon Semenuk
Current total: 72
Max total: 163
Brandon Semenuk started off the year looking extremely strong, and still does to a point. Southern Ohio Forest Rally didn’t go well, even before a mechanical took him out of the event, but even the best can’t be expected to be perfect all the time.
Semenuk needs to make this count though. Due to the way the rally calendar has played out the last few years, he’s running low on familiar roads where he’s strongest, and two rather uncommon mechanicals on his Vermont SportsCar Subaru don’t inspire the best confidence.
Strong powerstage results have gotten Semenuk a leg up on his competiton, able to earn a max of 163 points if all goes perfectly for him as opposed to the 160 Block and Pastrana can reach. But his retirements are his biggest threat. He can’t afford to use another rally as a dropped score.
3. Ken Block
Current total: 69
Max total: 160
Only three points behind Semenuk is the driver Subaru has been fearing the whole season, Ken Block. Block’s 69 points to Semenuk’s 72 means finishing ahead of the 180 car in the rally and on the powerstage all but guarantees him a jump into second place after NEFR.
More enticing is Block’s main target, Pastrana, eight points away. Pastrana has lacked confidence in his performance this year, at times referring to himself as “fourth fastest,” and while the implied Barry McKenna won’t be running at this event (despite initially entering), a gold for Block and a bronze for Pastrana would tie the two, and that doesn’t account for the powerstage.
A perfect event for Block would put him in the lead of a US rally championship for the first time in years, but Block’s last few runs at New England have not ended well for him. Last year, he lost the transmission on the rocky roads of New England and prior to that, in 2018, he infamously lost “Cossie” V1 to a fire.
Obviously mechanical issues in the past means nothing to Block now in the Hyundai, but anything can happen when pushing on these roads as we learned last year.
