After a year’s absence Monster World Rally Team driver Ken Block made his return to Rally America and what a return it was! On Friday Block and his Ford Fiesta jumped out to the lead early winning 5 of the 6 stages for the day. The second stage was his only set back where he spun twice and only had the 9th fastest stage time, giving up the lead momentarily to Subaru Rally Team driver David Higgins. But by the end of the day Block had claimed the lead back.
The first day of competition claimed last year’s winner, Antoine L’Estage who had to retire after stage 4 due to transmission failure. Crazy Leo (Leonid Urlichich) suffered a puncture early on stage 1 which put him out of the running, but had made his way back up to 4th spot, behind Krzysztof Holowczyc. But the battle would be between Higgins and Block on day 2.
Block took the first stage, but then suffered 2 punctures and significant damage to his left front fender on the 2nd stage and Higgins took the stage win by 42 seconds over Block. The 2 battled all day, but Block pushed even harder on the last 2 stages and took the victory by 29.3 seconds over Higgins who finished 2nd overall. The victory extended Block’s streak to 6 victories in 6 appearances. Third place went to 3 time Polish Rally Champion Krzysztof Holowczyc.
Lauchlin O’Sullivan put together an impressive come from behind win on the final 2 stages, edging out Travis Hanson by 43.9 seconds in the Super Production class. Chris Duplessis cruised to another victory in the 2WD class and Andre Comrie-Picard edged out 2nd place by just 2.8 seconds over Dillon Van Way.
Following his spectacular crash a few weeks ago in Canada, Crazy Leo was looking to finish strong again at 100 Acre Wood, but it was not meant to be. On stage 2 of Saturday, Leo hit a rock which damaged something in the steering. He attempted to nurse the car through the next stage to make it to service, but the steering gave out and the car ended up in a tree, ending their day.
2012 100 Acre Wood Rally Photos
Next up is the Oregon Trail Rally on May 4-6 in Portland, OR. Check out the Rally America site for all the details.
