A drive belt failure cost Lia Block her first-ever overall ARA National Championship victory within sight of Saturday’s finish of the Sno*Drift Rally.
The 19-year-old’s misery initially meant a maiden series win for Argentinian Javier Castro – only for Castro to be excluded from the rally after the finish, promoting Mark Piatkowski to top spot for his second career Sno*Drift and ARA National win.
Despite never having competed on the highly specialized Sno*Drift Rally before, Block was never out of the podium positions on the Michigan event. Second throughout Saturday’s leg, she moved to the front of the field when Subaru star Travis Pastrana went off the road three stages from the end.
Ford Fiesta Rally3 driver Block looked set to re-write American rally history by becoming the first woman to win an ARA National round – her success would also have marked the first for Rally3 machinery. Starting the final stage with a three-minute advantage over Castro’s Audi, the DirtFish Women in Motorsport-stickered Fiesta stopped 100 meters before the flying finish.
She pushed the car towards the finish line, then received a tow from fellow competitor Sean Donnelly to reach the final time control. But to initially get past the stage 16 flying finish and towards the time control spectators had pushed her car – which led to her exclusion from the rally altogether, losing what would otherwise have been third place after lateness penalties were applied.
Block's broken Fiesta was towed away by Donnelly's Clio following the drive belt failure
Amid chaotic scenes at the finish, Block told DirtFish: “I think we snapped the timing belt. We had people push us across [the line], technically we finished, but we have to get towed back out now.”
Castro had initally been victorious after Block’s last-stage drama but was also struck off the final results for exactly the same infringement as Block, albeit in different circumstances.
At the in-control for the rally’s final service, Castro’s Audi A1 was suffering technical issues. His crew pushed the stricken Audi through said control and into service, which breached the rule forbidding outside assistance under parc fermé conditions.
That handed Piatkowski victory, with Sean Donnelly registering his first overall podium in ARA National 1m08.5s behind the winning Subaru. Alastair Scully completed the podium in a 2019-spec Hyundai i20 N Rally2, 1m45.4s behind Donnelly.
Despite losing over 20 minutes stuck in the snow, Travis Pastrana had still done enough to secure fourth place. But he too was struck down by a post-rally penalty; he and co-driver Rhianon Gelsomino had left the warning triangle they’d set up while stuck in the snow on stage 14 behind, incurring a five-minute penalty and dropping to sixth place.
Jimmy Pelizzari dominated the Regional classification, besting Sam Jacques by 7m48.2s aboard his 2002 Subaru WRX.
