2021 RallyCross National Championship in Chillicothe, OH
Oct. 15-17 at the Ross County Fairgrounds
I'd like to do a write-up of the National Championship event from the perspective of the MR class and as a member of the DC region who rarely ventures outside the region. This is probably going to be too long and detailed for a lot of you, so I'll try to break it into sections so you can skim through if you would like.
First things first, I finished in 5th place, which due to the 14 competitors in the class, meant I snagged the last trophy spot. Hooray! The car made the 800+ mile round trip without a hiccup, and the event was a ton of fun for a variety of reasons. I also have a thorough and exhaustive list of the best excuses for why I didn't finish higher, so, you know, there's that.
The route we took to Ohio took us past one of our old venues in Frostburg, MD and on the way my wife (she drove her FX35 because we couldn't fit everything in my car, and she hates riding in it anyways) and I stopped at the ol' rest stop at the top of a mountain. Each way was about 7 hours.
The Weather
The weather can have a pretty big impact on RallyCross, and we had our fair share of interesting and changing conditions over the weekend. On Friday afternoon during tech inspection and the running of the 20 second practice course, temps were around 60* with a decent breeze. It started to drizzle pretty early, and the forecast called for rain overnight into Saturday morning. My wife and I stayed at an Airbnb, but a lot of competitors camped at the venue. All of us were jolted awake around 2 AM when our phones started going off, warning about a tornado alert, which was followed by another blaring alert 15 minutes later. It was around that time that the town tornado siren started going off. Naturally, I popped in some ear plugs and tried to go back to sleep, but those who were camping weren't quite so lucky. They had to pile into the (not large enough) bathroom building a ways away from the camp site and huddle there until everything passed. Winds were pretty strong and pop ups and tents were mangled as a result.
Saturday morning came around and it was still lightly raining when things started around 8, but it stopped not long after. From then on things slowly started to dry up, helped along by generous helpings of wind, but not much sun. Things started out even colder Sunday morning with temps in the low 40s, but thankfully the wind died down and the sun came out, so it didn't feel terrible.
The venue, surface conditions, and tire choices
The Ross County Fairgrounds site we were on was apparently once a parking lot (or something?) so the base was composed of rocks and gravel, which then had a layer of dirt on top of it that's a few inches deep. The surface was remarkable in that it held up incredibly well considering there were something like 125 people racing on it. There was very little rutting and once things dried up the grip levels were pretty good. Granted, they weren't Panthera or Summit Point Barn course levels of grip, but it was pretty good considering.
It helped that we ran three different courses that didn't really overlap. One Saturday AM (3 runs), another in the PM (3 runs), and then a third on Sunday (4 runs).
Most (8 of the 14) people in MR came prepared with tires that were basically tailor made for the conditions Saturday morning when things were still a little wet. Apparently the hot tires for that are either Alpha Eurocross or Alpha Radials. I'm not really sure what the differences are, maybe someone can chime in with that info. A number of people had brand new sets of them. I also saw a set of the Alpha Ultracross on a car. And wouldn't you know it, but the top 6 drivers Saturday morning all had some version of the Alphas on their car.
As condition dried out, tire choice became slightly less important and things equalized a little bit, but the fastest drivers still all ran Alphas Saturday afternoon. When Sunday morning came around, Brianne Corn made the switch from Alphas to Hoosiers, but I think that was the only tire change in the class.
Course design
The area we raced on was an open grass field with some elevation change. Nothing too steep or abrupt, but it was there. If I were to compare it to Summit Point Barn course (elevation change = 1) and Panthera (EC = 10), I would probably rate this at a 3 or 4.
As far as the course design went, it was completely different than what we've been running on in DC for the last 4 years. We're used to a pretty set course design, with variations limited to cone placement, due to running on established, compacted courses that we're not allowed to expand or open up. Obviously, running in an open field really changes things, which manifested itself in two main ways.
One, outside cones weren't really used at all. This allowed drivers to choose their own lines and experiment without fear of going over a cliff (Mike/Panthera) or hitting a cone wall (also, Mike). This had the effect of preventing the course from rutting up since there was a lot more variation in lines, while also allowing more aggressive driving styles to flourish.
Secondly, the open layout allowed vastly different courses to be set up that didn't reuse any elements from previous courses. Unlike DC, this meant that there was no running the same course, just backwards, in the PM. No, each of the three courses was completely new and required everyone to learn them on the fly. The speed with which the courses were set up was very impressive, and the variety was a refreshing change.
The MR competitors
1st place
John England - 1995 Mazda Miata, Supercharged on Alpha Eurocross tires. Apparently junky shock absorbers on stock (?) springs
Saturday AM- 4th place
Saturday PM- 1st place
Sunday- 3rd place
2nd place
Brianne Corn - 1999 Mazda Miata, mild bolt-ons, Penske shocks. Alpha Radials and Hoosiers.
**Peter Dozeman and his blue snowplow of a Miata (that Brianne drove and won with in 2020) had to drop out of the event at the last minute, so Brianne drove her personal Miata. It is not nearly as modified as Peter's car.**
Saturday AM- 1st place
Saturday PM- 10th place (off course penalty after course change)
Sunday- 1st place
(Picture missing)
3rd place
Mike Golden - 1986 Toyota MR2, 2ZZ + 6 speed swap, Quaife diff and steering rack, Euro Escort rally shocks, new Alpha Radials
Saturday AM- 2nd place
Saturday PM- 2nd place
Sunday- 6th place
4th place
Pete Remner - 1984 Mazda RX7, modded rotary making about 200 whp, Ford 9" (?) rear end, lots of mods. Dmacks in the rear, can't remember what was in front.
Saturday AM- 8th place
Saturday PM- 6th place
Sunday- 2nd place
5th
Nick Drymalski (me) - 1998 BMW M3, JVAB suspension, bolt-ons, Maxsports
Saturday AM- 7th place
Saturday PM- 5th place
Sunday- 4th place
6th
Scott Beute - 1989 Ford Mustang 5.0, bolt-ons, caged, wide and grooved snow tires
Saturday AM- 12th place
Saturday PM- 3rd place
Sunday- 5th place
7th
Rick Landis - 2013 Subaru BRZ, not sure of mods, and I think he was on gravel tires all weekend
Saturday AM- 9th place
Saturday PM- 4th place
Sunday- 8th place
(Picture missing)
8th
Ryan Redenbaugh - 1985 Toyota Corolla, not sure of mods, Alpha Eurocross
Saturday AM- 5th place
Saturday PM- 8th place
Sunday- 10th place
9th
Doug Leibman - 1971 VW Super Beetle, modded engine, just a shell of a car, Alpha Radials
Saturday AM- 3rd place
Saturday PM- 9th place
Sunday- 12th place
10th
Evan Authur - 1990 Mazda Miata, Mazdaspeed swapped turbo engine, pretty gutted, Pirelli Scorpion (gravel?) tires
Saturday AM- 13th place
Saturday PM- 7th place
Sunday- 7th place
11th
Jon Yanca - 2006 Mazda Miata, 2.5 Duratec swap with cams, snow tires
Saturday AM- 10th place
Saturday PM- 12th place (off course)
Sunday- 11th place
12th
Howie Johnson - 1995 BMW 318Ti - stock engine, gutted interior, Alpha Ultracross Sat. AM, then switched to Alpha Eurocross
Saturday AM- 6th place
Saturday PM- 14th place (DNF)
Sunday- 9th place
13th
Brian Strack - 1985 Toyota Corolla, not sure of mods, Alpha Eurocross
Saturday AM- 11th place
Saturday PM- 13th place
Sunday- 13th place
14th
Todd Wicker - 1988 BMW 325is - 885 head swap with cams, mostly gutted, Alpha Eurocross
Saturday AM- 14th place
Saturday PM- 11th place
Sunday- 14th place (DNF)
How it all played out
MR ran in the third of four run groups, so when we got started Saturday morning the course wasn't as wet as it was when the first run group went out. But still, there wasn't a ton of grip out there, and tire selection was crucial to finishing order. Mike Golden started the day with the fast run, with Brianne commenting to him that his speed worried her. This was surely the coolest thing anyone has ever said to Mike ;) From there, Brianne took over with the fast time on the last two runs and laid down the fastest time of the group on her last run. Mike was in 2nd, and Doug Leibman in the Super Beetle was in 3rd. All of the top 6 drivers had some form of Alphas on their car. I was the top driver who didn't have Alphas, finishing in 7th.
In the afternoon, the Alpha advantage seemed to dissipate as the more powerful cars were able to put their power down a little better, but again, lightness was king. After finishing 4th in the morning, John England put the smackdown on the entire class, putting down the fast time on all three PM runs as well as the fast time for the session. Brianne wasn't far behind, but after a course change before the third and final run, she made a mistake and went off course and drew a 10 second penalty, which dropped her into third when runs were over. That mistake allowed John to move into first and Mike into second. With a decent showing I moved into 4th. I'm not sure what happened to Doug in the Beetle after his strong finish in the morning, but he fell way back in the standings. I'd say the most surprising thing that happened was Scott Beute driving his 1989 Mustang 5.0 to a 3rd place finish in the PM runs after finishing 12th in the AM. The Mustang was not only the heaviest car in MR, apparently weighing around 3,500 pounds after the cage was installed, but also the most powerful, with over 300 HP. Great driving Scott!
Sunday morning rolled around after a far less eventful Saturday night (thankfully no more tornado warnings) and the course was drier than it was Saturday afternoon. It wasn't dry enough that cars were kicking up dust, but it certainly wasn't wet anymore. Brianne and John traded fast runs, with Mike off the pace a little bit. But Pete Remner in his RX7 got in the swing of things and was putting down very competitive times. I was running consistently and decently as well. On the third run disaster struck, with Mike rolling his MR2 after it apparently had a debead. Thankfully Mike was relatively unscathed with only some cuts on his elbow.
With the audacity that only a wizard can muster (have you seen his beard?), he successfully argued that since the tire debeaded BEFORE the rollover (hard to prove or disprove) that instead of getting a red flag penalty, he should instead get a re-run. With most of MR offering up their car for him to drive, he chose John's supercharged Miata which was currently sitting in first place for his re-run and then his 4th and final run. Mike's review of the car was something like "it's heatsoaked and doesn't have much power, and the suspension is garbage (blown shocks)". As a result, Mike was quite off the pace his last two runs, which dropped him from 2nd into 3rd and Brianne passed him. Had Mike finished the day in his car he may have held onto 2nd, or Brianne may have passed him, it's hard to say. On his 4th and final run Pete decided to release the kraken and laid down the fastest time of the group, passing me in the process and finished in 4th overall. I finished in 5th, which due to the 14 competitors in MR, meant I got the last trophy spot.
Final thoughts
This shouldn't be news to anyone, but tires and weight are very important. The top three finishers all had Alpha tires (although Brianne switched to Hoosiers on Sunday) and curb weights below 2,500 pounds, with the Miatas probably weighing closer to 2,200. I wouldn't call the surface super loose, like the moon dust we can get on parts of the Panthera course, but it was also far from grippy like the hard-packed surface we have on other parts of Panthera and Summit Point. I know I didn't drive perfectly, and left some time on the table, but I didn't make any mistakes either. Considering my car weighs anywhere between 600-900 pounds more than the cars that finished in front of me, I guess I can only expect so much. On hard-packed surfaces like we run on in the DC region I can make up for my heft with my horsepower, but that wasn't possible on this surface.
It was a great opportunity to compete against multiple prior MR champions, as well as a ton of other great drivers in interesting and new (to me) cars. It's not often that we get to run on a completely new type of surface with a completely new type of course design, and I was grateful for the opportunity. If Nats come back to Ohio again in the future, I'll probably make the trek, but I may bring some Alphas with me ;)