Sandblast was our first rally of the year and our 22nd rally in the Ford Focus! We’ve been very pleased with the car and have learned a lot from it and our events together. We’re very proud of our record of 20 rallies finished.

Our in-car video from the Sandblast stages are available on our YouTube page.

We were determined to make a good showing at this rally and had carefully prepared the car over the winter break. Weather was a concern as there had been snow recently and heavy rain was predicted. The organizer, Anders Green, asked us to provide a lift to a guest Rally Moto competitor: Jonah Street. Jonah had just returned from Argentina and Chile having finished 7th overall in the Dakar 2010 rally. I picked him up at the Raleigh airport, he stayed the night and rode down to Cheraw, SC with us on Friday morning. It was interesting hearing his stories of the Dakar.

As usual Friday consisted of Registration, Scrutineering and Shakedown. Adam Amariss, a student at Georgia Tech, had volunteered to crew for us and met us in Cheraw. Our Crew Chief, Kevin Hoff, would join us that evening. Adam, Kieran and I got the car and service rig organized, and took the rally car for scrutinerring where it passed with flying colors. It had been raining heavily all day and the shakedown stage was a challenge - extremely slippery. We took 4 runs through the stage and Burak Tuglu helped us find the right tire pressures for the conditions. Later he also trimmed the wear bars from our two front tires to help them clear the expected sloppy mud and sand the next day. Parc Exposé in Chesterfield and a very slow dinner before returning to the hotel in Cheraw.

Saturday, rally day, starts with Parc Exposé in Cheraw’s main street and the official start. The weather is still damp but it’s not torrential like the day before. We’re hoping the sand will drain quickly but we know we’ll be facing some sections of mud and standing water.

Conditions are so bad on one stage (Sand Trap Reverse) that it has been cancelled and another stage shortened. We’ll be repeating another stage in place of the cancelled one. There are a lot of changes for the codrivers to make to their notes and there is a lot of codiver conferences occurring during Parc Exposé while the drivers wander around waiting for the start and joking about the codrivers’ sudden work load.

The first stage, Campbell Lake, is one of the two long 14 mile stages and we start at a good pace. I’ve forgotten just how much power the sand can steal from the car and wet sand is even worse. There are several stretches of nasty, muddy, slop we have to get through and a huge water splash. We hit it with such force that water came through the firewall and into my driving shoes leaving puddles of cold muddy water in the footwell. Unfortunately our camera didn’t get all  of that and some other stages. All our in-car video has been uploaded to YouTube.  We get through Hunter Pond, stage 2 with no issues (except power-robbing wet sand) and into the first service in Patrick. Kevin and Adam are ready for our service and get the car ready for the middle three stages.

Sextons Pond is stage 3 followed by our first run through Hunter Pond Reverse and Campbell Lake Reverse. Hunter Pond is the shortened stage and there is a section where we have no stage notes and I must drive what we can see. Campbell Lake Reverse is just as wet as our first pass through but we make it through with few issues. I do manage to catch and pass Andrew Frick in the other Focus. With less power than us he is really hurting in the soft sand.

Back to Patrick for second service. Car is in fine shape - some broken zip ties on the underbody protection but that’s the worst of it. Clean, refuel, mount the rally lights and back out for the last two stages.

It’s night now and I’m careful to preserve my night vision before each start - I need all the advantage I can get. I’ve asked Kieran not to share our times with the other teams or to learn of theirs - I want to concentrate on my own performance without stressing over comparative times. So we have no idea how we’re really doing. Michael Hordijk and Jessie Amend in the Golf TDi is a favorite to win having the most power of all the two-wheel-drive cars but they have an off on stage five and obliged to retire with some damage. They are safe however.

At the end of the day we find that we’ve taken 1st place in Open 2-Wheel Light class, 1st place of all two wheel cars and 6th place overall. We’re well pleased.

Many thanks to Kevin Hoff and Adam Amariss, our fabulous crew, and to all the volunteers who braved the weather to let us play in the sand.