Jari-Matti Latvala was as disappointed as anybody, with the possible exception of Brandon Semenuk.
The script for this week’s Olympus Rally had long been written: the 18-time world rally winner would come to Washington and crush the opposition in his factory Toyota GR Corolla Rally RC2. One stage in and Semenuk was laughing in the face of that plan.
Despite limited testing aboard a Proworx-run Ford Fiesta Rally2, he grounded the flying Finn with a time 3.4 seconds quicker to move to the front of the field. One stage later and Semenuk’s challenge for a fifth consecutive OIympus win was done. A rear differential problem left him limping through the vast majority of the 18-mile Wildcat test.
The lead became ninth overall and nowhere.
After explaining the issues with the car, Semenuk took a breath. He’d come into the event chasing more Rally2 mileage, not allowing himself to think too much about the potential for a fight with Latvala. It had been there. But now it had gone.
Semenuk won SS1, but immediately hit trouble on SS2
“It’s tough,” he said quietly. “If I’m honest, I never thought I’d see my name above that name on a stage, but it’s one stage. My dream is that, even if he’d got the better of me, just having the battle… It’s not over, we can still put in some good stage times if we can get this thing fixed. Given the circumstances of the deal coming together so late, not knowing the car, not driving the car or the tires – I can be pleased with the time for sure, but I would still like to see more progress through the event.”
A recurrence of the problem on SS4, despite a change of rear differential, left the team considering a sensor rather than hardware-related issue. That Semenuk had slipped a further six minutes mattered little at this point. His focus was very much on the weekend.
But what about leader Latvala? He was completely in control – but the SS1 results had definitely woken him up.
“Brandon,” he said, “came to Finland last year and he was in a fight with EP (Esapekka Lappi) and so I knew he is fast – then he was taking half a second per kilometer off me in there and I didn’t have a bad run. I was thinking: ‘OK, now we’re going to have a fight!’ It’s a shame it didn’t last. I hope he can get it fixed and come back.”
The third stage was cancelled in an effort for the organizers to find more time to allow longer gaps between the crews as they headed into a dusty and dark re-run Wildcat.
Tom Williams sits in a Toyota sandwich overnight; second spot in his Škoda
Latvala was in complete control – with only Tom Williams able to keep the gap to the Toyota star under a minute. Williams’ Škoda was 46s down on the Corolla. The Briton sat second, a spin on the first run through Wildcat costing him time and early confidence.
Toyota’s rally rookie Seth Quintero impressed mightily with a consistent and quick run to third in the second works Corolla.
Leading L4WD runners Travis Pastrana (Subaru) and DirtFish Women in Motorsport driver Aoife Raftery were fourth and fifth overall. Still within striking distance of her American rival, Raftery was content with her Friday afternoon’s work.
“The rear of the car was coming around on me a little bit in the first two,” she said. “We made some changes in service, softening the car a little bit. It helped in the slower corners, we were able to find more grip coming out of the corners, but it was still moving around a fair bit in the high-speed. We have some ideas for tomorrow.”
DirtFish Women in Motorsport driver Aoife Raftery again shone in her Rally3 Fiesta
Hyundai driver Pat Gruszka is running sixth, with Martynas Samsonas seventh in his Subaru. Ricardo Cordero sits eighth with Lia Block one place further back and frustrated by having to stop and change a second-stage puncture aboard her i20. Alastair Scully rounds out the top 10.
Andy Miller is out front in NA4WD in his Subaru, Matt Nykanen’s BMW heads a tight O2WD battle from Michael Hooper’s Lexus while Henry Tabor controls L2WD in his Fiesta.
Josh Gierman leads the Regional event with DirtFish’s Michael Honn in an early provisional podium in third. Elsewhere among the DirtFish runners, Nate Tennis sits just outside the top 10, placing his Saab 99 13th at the end of the opening night’s action. Brian Miller (BMW) and Kendra Miller (co-driving Steve Greer’s Subaru Legacy) are both in the thick of the Regional action.
