Don’t be fooled. On the face of it, last week’s Olympus Rally presented by DirtFish was one of the closest American rallies in history. It was. And it wasn’t.
Yes, Brandon Semenuk only beat Conner Martell to a fourth straight Washington win by 6.9 seconds, but the Subaru star was still fastest on 11 of the 12 stages.
And on the other one? He showed he’s human. He made a mistake.
For a day and a half, Semenuk had dominated the third round of this year’s ARA National Championship presented by Kubota. Coming out of the first stage on Sunday’s second loop, Semenuk and co-driver Keaton Williams were 3m19.3s in the lead – it would have been more had they not been hit with a 30-second penalty for a late departure from service on Saturday.
Then came Dayton 2. And the first bent panel on the #1 factory Subaru since STPR at the end of 2022.
The Canadian told DirtFish: “We were caught out on a kind of medium, slow corner through a dip, there was a bunch of organic [dirt], the road was quite narrow and I lost the front a little bit. The wheels went off into a shallow ditch and we hit the front corner – it was a bit of a bump, but it wasn’t awful. We got out and as soon as we started going, the hood flipped up. We stopped, put it down, but the pins had gone so we taped it down. It came straight back up and we ended up driving with it up for five miles. It’s not easy to see with the hood up on these cars.”
Three and a half minutes were shipped while the Subaru pair dealt with a smashed screen filled with a Red Bull-liveried hood. In the meantime, Martell’s WRX STI caught the leader and told the story at the end of the stage.
“I don’t know what happened, his hood was open,” said the Vermont SportsCar driver. “He was in front of us for two miles before he finally moved out of the way. I’m not super-stoked. He knew I was there.”
Semenuk dismissed Martell’s version, pointing out that he was slightly preoccupied at the time, but still pulled over at the earliest opportunity.
Ahead of the penultimate test, Semenuk and Williams whipped the hood off, cleared bits of broken bumper out of the intakes and looked apprehensively at a pinched pipe carrying air to the intercooler. Their lead had been slashed to just five seconds, but service was waiting for them in just six miles.
Semenuk's rally win was almost lost when he drove with the hood obstructing his vision
The WRX ARA25 might have been hoodless and with a slightly opaque windshield, but it was driving straight and not leaking anything. Semenuk sent it and, astonishingly, took more than a second a mile out of Martell.
Back in service, the Vermont SportsCar crew had the car looking brand new in no time and Semenuk repaid them with an untouchable time through the powerstage to take maximum points once more.
The decision was taken to hand Martell 14 seconds back for the time he lost following Semenuk, which meant a 6.9s advantage for the defending champion.
From a shakedown crash which almost cost him a start on the event, Martell admitted this was not his weekend.
“This was probably the toughest rally weekend I’ve ever had with ups and downs and [a lack of] confidence. We went off on testing on the first run, so we had zero testing which was a bummer. I had a bad note and that caused us to go off, there was quite a bit of damage but the boys were able to fix it and we were able to start the rally.
“We were way off the pace on day one. I wasn’t feeling good with the car, but as the day went on we made changes to the notes and the car and everything started to come together a little bit better. We’ve made a lot of mistakes this weekend which was not ideal, but we’re learning. Sunday was better, but this is definitely the hardest rally in the US.”
Ryan Booth delivered a second successive third place aboard his Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. His only issue came when he debeaded a tire, forcing him to drive four miles on a front-left flat.
“We didn’t have the pace this weekend to be close to Brandon [Semenuk] and Conner [Martell],” he said. “The car’s definitely capable of it, it’s just got to have the right person behind the wheel. We’ll get there.”
Fortunately for Booth, he did had the pace to get ahead of Semenuk and stay there when it mattered most: when the Subaru driver chased him through the service park trying to spray him with the celebratory beer.
“Yeah,” smiled Booth, “sorry I’m a bit out of breath. I’m not used to sprinting that far!”
Pat Gruszka had a fairly innocuous run to fourth in his Hyundai i20 R5, admitting Booth got the jump on him on Saturday morning and he wasn’t able to reel that time in and challenge him. He would spend much of the event in no-man’s land, too far down on the Fabia to chase it, but comfortably ahead of a L4WD fight headed by Nick Allen’s Ford Fiesta Rally3.
L4WD was, of course, the home for Travis Pastrana’s new Subaru WRX ARA25L and the seven-time American champion led the class early on, but slipped back when the decision was taken to skip Saturday’s final stage in an effort to solve engine problems which had caused the dash to “light up like a Christmas tree”.
With Pastrana out of the way, Allen was able to take a second class win in three rallies – this one looking just a self-assured as his podium-topper at Sno*Drift. Having crashed his Fiesta Rally2 at the last round in Missouri, Javier Olivares renewed a battle which raged through much of last season as he arrived in his Fiesta Rally3. The latter finished a strong second, but by his own admission was struggling to engage with the final tenth of the battle.
DirtFish Women in Motorsport Driver Aoife Raftery starred aboard a DirtFish WRX STI. The Irish woman delivered a stellar L4WD podium on her all-wheel drive debut – a performance which caught the attention of and drew plaudits from Pastrana.
“Aoife’s been fantastic,” said her Subaru factory rival. “I’ve been watching her times and her progress and she’s been amazing.”
Raftery’s pace was stymied slightly by some overheating issues and a puncture on Sunday.
But by the finish, she was all smiles – especially when she heard her name called out for the $1000 prize for finishing as first non-factory Subaru.
“This was definitely a switch-up for me in terms of driving style, coming straight here from driving a Peugeot 208 Rally4 on Tarmac,” she said. “Driving the four-wheel drive car on gravel was fantastic. We really got to know the car through the weekend and I got to improve my pace which was important. It’s been great to be here in America competing and working with the DirtFish team for the first time.”
DirtFish driver Raftery was a star of L4WD - claiming a podium in class on her AWD debut
Sean Johnston maintained the Peugeot 208 Rally4’s grip on the O2WD class, following Calle Carlberg’s 100 Acre Wood win in the same car last time out, while Chris Cyr was similarly strong in his Fiesta on the way to L2WD success.
Andy Miller delivered a Semenuk-esque drive in the Regional event – but actually went one better than the champ, as he won every stage in his NA4WD class Impreza. Not for the first time, the watching world was left to ponder what Miller might be capable of if he could pull together a budget which would allow him to stretch his legs and rally further afield than the Pacific Northwest.
Canadian driver Jason Bailey returned after a long absence to score second place in his Fiesta Rally3, while Daniel Sperry rounded out the Regional podium. Chris Miller delivered a mighty performance to dominate L2WD in his Scion, while David Clark (BMW M3) won O2WD and Sean Dorrough did the same in an O4WD Impreza.
