Larson/Cox Take 2000 Headwaters ClubRally Class Win
The 2000 Headwaters ClubRally hosted the 1999 ClubRally Runoffs on Saturday, May 13 in Park Rapids, MN. As the 3rd place finisher in the SCCA Central Division in 1999, I was the alternate for the runoffs. Well, thanks to a screw-up in Denver, I received an invitation to the runoffs as a competitor, not as an alternate. Since the 2nd place finisher, Janusz Jastrzebski, was not registered, I naturally assumed that he had declined the invitation and I was invited in his place. It wasn't until we showed up for the event that I learned of the error, and that I couldn't compete unless he didn't show up. He had called to say he was coming, but had not registered as of the night before the event. It snowed and drizzled off and on all day Saturday. The roads would be slick for sure. It was my first time at speed in the car since November. I was running with my daughter, Kelly Cox. I was surprisingly relaxed, possibly from the disappointment of not competing in the runoffs. I just figured I'd do as well as I could and beat as many of the runoff guys as possible. Leg 1 started with a couple of jumps, which proved a little mild in the mud. On the second sharp downhill left-hander, I overshot the turn and went off the road on the right, unable to slow enough and not quick enough on getting the front end around due to my rustiness. Fortunately, there was not much of a dropoff, and we were able to reverse back onto the course. I took it a little easier the next couple of stages, trying to learn the car again. I felt that stage 4 was my best, yet, until an unmarked downhill left just before the finish. Again, I overshot the turn, but so did everyone else. At least half the cars went off on that corner. Chris Czyzio got it the worst, hitting a stump right below the passenger door and causing a lot of damage. At the reseed, we were 3rd in GT, 0.89 minutes behind Roger Hull and 0.66 minutes behind Chris. I knew the later stages would not be as slick, so I had high hopes of closing the distance, since I never do as well in slippery conditions. Stage 5 felt great. The traction was good, and we were really pushing hard. The car seemed perfectly balanced again. I think I was handling the car a lot better by then, and could maybe have not gone off on stage 1 at that point. At the start of stage 7, they warned us that the road was really slick for the first mile and a half. Of course, I didn't pay attention to the warning and smacked the bank pretty hard on the left in the first half mile. It was soggy enough we didn't do any damage to the car. I sensed that we were doing well and might have made up some time, but since Roger and Chris were running in the first group and us in the second, I couldn't tell for sure. We pushed really hard on the last two stages, getting a little hairy at some places, but staying on the road. Going through the stacked logs for the last half mile of stage 9 was kind of fun! At the end, I found out we were 2 minutes behind Roger and nearly even with Chris, with him winning 5 stages and me 4. I did the math in my head and came up in 3rd place. As it turns out, Roger was penalized for checking in 3 minutes late at a control, due to a worker writing his time on the wrong page, and Eric Carlson, Chris's co-driver, informed me that we had beat them by 1 hundredth of a minute! So, for the second year in a row, Kelly and I came from behind on the last two stages for the class win, this year in 5th place overall. The 2nd place gave Chris and Eric the 1999 National ClubRally championship. Congratulations, Chris and Eric! |
