OpenPaddock RallyCast

We bring back our good friends Alex and Rhianon Gelsomino which is now an all Subaru family.  In this episode we discuss their recent vacation travels, review their experiences from the Olympus Rally, and delve into what to expect as challenges at SOFR this weekend. We also take a tangent into the WRC which was in Sardegna last weekend, where Rhianon shares the humorous tale of a long ride on, not in, a tow truck.

We caught up with Krista Skucas after a dominant win at the Mike Nagle Regional Rally co-driving for Derik Nelson in the Nordic Motorsports BRZ. We chatted about the event and it's new stages, a dramatic moment that almost ended it all, as well as how she got started co-driving. 

Part 3 of the 100 Acre Wood review, it's all about NA4WD.  We kick it off with regional overall winners Ryan and Rachel Rethy who had a fabulous run with some extremely close competition. Then it's Co-Driver Katie Gingras  who with driver Chuck Surdyke was battling the Rethy's until they got a little over ambitious into a fast left hander. And finally it's a chat with Arek Bialobrzeski about his killer H6 swapped 2011 Subaru WRX hatchback that was so fast that it was competing with the R5s at the front.

📷 David Cosseboom

It's our 100th episode! We start our chat with current ARA champion Barry McKenna who gives us all the details on his World Rally Car and all the changes they did to have it meet ARA regulations.  It's always a treat to be joined by Martin Brady.  100 Acre Wood didn't go so well for he and Seamus, but their speed was remarkable. Then it's co-driver Cameron Carr with some stories about recce and what it’s like to compete in an R5 for the first time alongside driver John O'Sullivan. 

📷 David Cosseboom

In this show we chatted with a bevy of 2WD competitors including National 2WD winners Michael Hooper and Kevin Allen, 2nd in National Limited 2WD Ryan Sanders, 2nd overall Regional and 2WD class winner Steve Olona, and 3rd overall Regional 2nd in 2WD Al Dantes Jr.  

Be sure to follow these competitors at their social media links below:

River City Rally Team
Tower City Race Team
Verve Racing
GoSPEED Racing

In this episode we chatted with Dr. "Koz" - Michele Kozimor, Dr. Barbara Prince, and Emalie Rell about a study they're doing about the culture of rally racing in North America. A long time Subaru fan, Michele had never been to a rally until a friend called about a bunch of Subarus running around Wellsboro, Pennsylvania.  That visit to STPR and her interaction with teams, fans, and volunteers inspired the project now in it’s 3rd year of research.

Follow the Rally Race Book Project on Instagram

In this last segment from Sno*Drift 2021 we chatted with Limited 4WD competitor Travis Nease, Co-Drivers Alex and Rhianon Gelsomino, and finish off with a talk with American Rally Association's Competition Director Preston Osborn about the choice to use RallySafe and how different it is running an event with this new tool.

In this episode we chatted with three of the youngest talents that competed at SnoDrift and all of them had podium results. Cian McCormack comes from a family with a strong rallying history and SnoDrift was his first national event. The youngest of the three at 17, Patrick Gruszka is the son of well known privateer Art Gruszka and is beginning to blaze his own path. We also had Patrick's co-driver Alison LaRoza to get her perspective on working with someone so new to the sport. And finally Andre D'orazio who first caught our attention last season doing amazing times when driving a Fiesta R1 and now in the higher performance Fiesta R2 is beginning to show national championship contending performance.

📸 by David Cosseboom of iHeartFast

Okay, maybe Winners and Binners is a bit harsh, but indeed that's what happened with the guests in part 1 of our Sno*Drift rally review.  The father daughter team of Stephen and Katie Gingras have shown impressive performance at other events, but unfortunately the icy conditions caught out the #12 NA4WD Subaru.  If it was slick for 4WD machinery, just imagine what it was like for a RWD Subaru BRZ!  And that's exactly what our next guest Santiago Iglasias of Escudería Boricua Rally drove to a class win in Regional L2WD.  Also at the top of their class was National NA4WD class winner Mark Piatkowski who said that the ice in Michigan is chemically different than anywhere else.  Adding to the winners circle of this episode is the energetic Fabrizio Mirandola, driver of the fabulous Fiat 500 Abarth that claimed the regional O2WD class win.  The car may be small, but it's quick, so quick it even claimed an overall class stage win vs. the nationals!  We round out the episode with Ryan Booth's Sno*Drift experience that started out great in a solid 4th overall and leading the class of high performance R5 machinery, but then it all went wrong on the first stage in the second loop. 

In this episode we speak with the Marketing Director of ARA Jeremy Meyer about their new changes including the addition of RallySafe and their media partnership with Dirtfish.  We also chat with Dirtfish Media's Trevor Wert about their new role, and with Kelsey Steven's of Cooper Autoworks who's also going to be at Sno*Drift with a small media team.  This is looking to be one of the best covered Sno*Drift rallies in ages!

And no, your ears do not deceive you.  I apparently can't count, because in the intro I state that this is episode 95, when clearly it is episode 94 of the RallyCast!