After 1 day of testing the new car, a 14-hour day of recce, and an unusually cold start to the day, we finally got the new Fiesta out on stage. ⁣ We stuck to the plan and eased into things, picking up pace throughout the day & ending Day 1 in 3rd place in the 2 wheel drive class. ⁣
⁣
Saturday started out much the same, and then, Hooper, who was running ahead of us, rolled on a sharp right corner which bumped us up to 2nd place. ⁣ We maintained 2nd until we got a flat tire at the start of an 8 mile stage. Instead of stopping to change the tire (a right rear) and spending 3 minutes on the side of the stage, we ran it through to the end. ⁣
⁣
The car was wild and all over the place, but we managed to finish just 1.5 minutes slower than we had hoped. That put us in 3rd place to finish the rally. ⁣ Unfortunately due to a dead battery we had to jumpstart the car in a control (against the rules) and incurred a 10 minute time penalty which stripped us of our podium placement. ⁣
⁣
The car performed great and I can’t wait to get it back on some rally roads out in Washington next month.