Jonne Halttunen and Derek Dauncey know rallying. There’s not much they haven’t seen. Standing on West Washington Street, downtown Marquette in the fading light of Saturday, the pair agreed they’d never seen anything like this.
Dauncey is somebody who helped guide four-time world champion Tommi Mäkinen down what was, from time-to-time, something of a rollercoaster road. He was at Mitsubishi Ralliart in 1998 for what was then reckoned to be the World Rally Championship’s biggest, most unforgettable Margam Park moment* ever. Ever. Ever.
And, of course, Halttunen has lived the sport from all angles alongside Kalle Rovanperä as the pair dominated the first two years of the WRC’s hybrid era.
But this? No.
Oliver Solberg came two corners from becoming world champion just over a week ago. It was unimaginable that a final-stage twist would then decide Lia Block's fate only six days later
Watching Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin crowned in the most extraordinary final-stage thriller, six days earlier, Dauncey and Halttunen – like you and I – had only just caught their breath when it happened all over again at the ARA National Championship’s LSPR finale in Michigan.
Going into the third running of the Al’s Playground stage, Lia Block knew what she had to do. Her only rival for the title, Toyota’s Seth Quintero, was sitting second overall. She was third. She had to remain in that position overall and finish within two places of Quintero on the powerstage, were he to place in the top three of the rally’s final stage at all.
She had more than two minutes in hand over the fourth-placed Patrick Gruszka and she’d been second or third fastest on every previous stage. Three and three was not going to be a problem.
Dauncey being Dauncey, the Block House Racing team principal had used the two previous passes of Al’s Playground to build split times and an understanding of what pace would be required on the last stage of the season.
Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino had this. And then they didn’t. Quintero did.
A rock on the outside of a fourth-gear right-hander slashed through both Pirellis on the left side of the Hyundai i20 N Rally2. Committed to her line, avoiding action would likely have sent the Rockstar car to the trees, she took the hit – which almost whipped the wheel out of her hand – and said her prayers.
Both tires went down straight away. Third fastest and the American title became sixth quickest and a silver medal.
Before Block even had time to come to terms with her title ambitions falling apart at the last moment, she was having to change the wheels that had deflated her aspirations
Six days earlier, the world watched an inconsolable Oliver Solberg come to terms with dropping a championship two corners from the finish. The Swede offered the following response to Block’s social content conveying the message of triumph turning to disaster: “You should be proud, awesome drive all year. I know how you feel. All we can do is try again and flat out!!!”
Solberg held the world in the palm of his hand in Sardinia. His driving was off-the-charts impressive, but ultimately he went off the road. Block hit a rock.
“She didn’t deserve that,” Dauncey told DirtFish. “This rally…”
His voice slides away with the memory of another American title that slid through the Block family fingers in these very woods four years ago.
“The difference then,” he offered, “was that Ken went off. He crashed. This one really, really hurts – I would say it’s double the pain from Ken in 2022. Lia had this rally covered. We’d worked together, she and Alex [Gelsomino, co-driver] knew what they were doing, the strategy was working perfectly. Everything was calculated… But that’s the sport, sometimes.
“The preparation for this rally was right, we had everything ready. We know, for example, these roads here are really, really fast – so we’d found a test road with a long flat-out section and told her to get in the car and go as quick as she could. She sat at 121mph, absolutely flat out between the trees, without a question.
Block was understandably devastated by the cruel late twist of fate
“Honestly, this one really took my breath away. I’ve seen a few moments down the years, but nothing like this one.”
Dauncey was waiting for Block when she arrived at the final control.
“We talked briefly about what was going to happen,” he said. “Then she got on with it. She stood on the podium, finished second in the championship and took the whole thing on the chin. That’s Lia for you: the [F1] Academy taught her – and toughened her – plenty. Don’t worry, she’s got plenty more success coming her way. What happened in Michigan will definitely not define her.
“Talking to the team after the event, I asked everybody to remember: we took on the world’s biggest carmaker in Toyota and we almost beat them. We did beat Subaru. We can be proud. We can hold our heads high.”
And with that, a moment of reflection with Halttunen – his opposite number and the mastermind of Quintero’s rookie season title win.
“We stood there,” said Dauncey, “and said we would never see the like of this again in rallying. Two rallies finishing like this… it’s unbelievable.”
*For those born in a century beginning with the number two, the Margam Park moment was when the engine failed in Carlos Sainz’s Toyota Corolla WRC within sight of the finish of the final stage of the Rally GB. The Spaniard’s retirement handed the title to Mäkinen, who had crashed out on day one – then spent the next three days hanging around waiting to see if Sainz would score enough points to take the crown. Once Sainz was into the stage, Mäkinen was heading for the airport and a flight home. Only to get a phone call – around the same time Sainz’s co-driver Luis Moya was hurling his crash helmet through the Corolla’s rear window – telling him it might be worth hanging around…
