Defending American champion Brandon Semenuk sits conflicted at the top of the Overmountain Rally Tennessee leaderboard on Saturday night.
The Canadian star won three of the day’s six stages to hold a 16.7-second lead over Josh McErlean’s Hyundai i20 N Rally2, maintaining the position he and co-driver Keaton Williams require to secure a third straight ARA title. Therein lies the conflict: to race or not to race?
“We have a job to do here,” the lead Subaru driver told DirtFish, “but I almost want to battle with Josh more than thinking about the championship.”
Stepping up to ARA National series status for the first time, Overmountain offers two days varied in speed and stage nature, with Semenuk fearing the Rally2 challenge more across Saturday’s roads.
“I didn’t think we would have a chance today,” Semenuk said on Saturday night. “The roads really didn’t suit our car as much as the Rally2, but it’s been a rad day and a really tricky new rally. I’ve enjoyed driving today, felt comfortable in the car and not really taken any big risks.”
And if McErlean takes time on Sunday morning?
“If we’ve got to take big risks, we’ll favour the championship,” was the response. “Tomorrow should favour our car a little bit more. It’s going to be probably a more challenging day, but there should be less twisty stuff and we can carry more speed. The long stage in particular, the 22-miler (Hellbender) is going to be gnarly. There’s five miles of Tarmac, so fast bits and then it changes a lot for the second half – so many rhythm changes. It’s going to be tough for tires…”
Arriving into Tennessee on the back of a WRC2 top-six result on the Acropolis last weekend, McErlean was reacquainting himself with Hyundai power after the thick end of a season aboard a Škoda. He did it quickly, fastest by Saturday’s third stage (SS2 was cancelled following an incident with the zero car).
Kevin Allen leads the Regional standings in his Subaru
He was happy to have beaten at least one of the Subarus on three stages through the day.
“It’s been a strong day,” McErlean said. “We had a small issue with the car in the afternoon, but the guys fixed it fine. Sixteen seconds over 70 miles isn’t bad for a couple of Irish lads! It’s been good. I’m not used to running so far up on the road, there’s a bit of loose around, but the car’s feeling nice and let’s see tomorrow. We’re going to keep the pressure on: Brandon’s only 16 ahead and Travis [Pastrana] isn’t far behind us. Tomorrow might be a bit more limited for our car, with some big straights, but we’ll just commit to the notes.”
Not far is 14 second, that’s the gap from the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy Hyundai and the second factory WRX of Pastrana.
“I feel like we’ve been driving pretty good,” offered third-placed Pastrana, “but I also think I’ve almost been off too many times to be so far behind!”
Michael Cessna starts Sunday with a 14-minute lead in the O2WD class of the Regional event
Sean Johnston (Ford Fiesta Rally3) tops L4WD in fourth place. The former WRC2 driver finds himself in no-man’s land, two minutes behind Pastrana’s Subaru and a similar distance ahead of Javier Olivares, making his competitive debut aboard the ex-Adrien Fourmaux Fiesta Rally2.
Irishmen Paul Rowley and Rory Kennedy round out the top six in a Fiesta S2000 Turbo, with countrymen Enda and Liam McCormack just 25s behind in their i20 N Rally2. Mark Piatkowski sits eighth overnight aboard his NA4WD-leading Subaru, while Michael Hooper (Lexus IS 350) enjoys a half-minute advantage over his O2WD rival Seamus Burke and that sensational V6-engined Ford Escort.
Just outside the top 10, Fiesta ST driver Chris Cyr leads L2WD after championship leaders Richo Healey and DirtFish’s Michelle Miller went off the road on SS3. Hoping to make the most of his title rival’s demise, Roberto Yglesias (Fiesta ST) went off one stage later.
In the overall Regional standings, Impreza RS driver Kevin Allen leads from the similarly mounted Dylan Gondyke by 22.6s. Michael Cessna (BMW M3) tops O2WD with James Pryzbylkowski (Impreza WRX) out front in L4WD and Chris Nonack (BRZ) leading L2WD, while Nick Bragg holds a lonely lead in O4WD aboard his Audi Coupé quattro.
Daniel Hayes enjoys the Newport Speedway superspecial in hs Mustang. Driver, car and stage were a big hit on day one
