Richard and Ockwell take lead at Pines

Posted on 22. Nov, 2008 by Dean in Tall Pines 2008

Pat Richard and Alan Ockwell have
claimed a massive lead over the early stages of the 2008 Rally of the
Tall Pines. Their biggest competition, in the form of Antoine
L'Estage in his Hyundai Tiburon and Ken Block of the Subaru Rally
Team USA, both suffered problems in the early stages.

At the Parc Expose this morning,
spirits were high, and Ken Block was very open about his feelings
towards the rally.

“I'm feeling really confident, and
the car is great. I've had a rough time at Tall Pines and this time I
am ready to finish and do it all,” said Ken. Despite this attitude,
Ken knew he would need to push in order to beat Antoine for the North
American Rally Cup.

The first stage was blazing fast, and
Antoine, Ken and Pat tied to the second. Each would need to find a
little bit more to best their opponents. That little bit more would
end in problems for two of the three.

On the second stage Ken Block and
co-driver Alex Gelsomino drove off into the trees and broke the rear
suspension. They were able to continue but shortly after slid wide,
broke the front suspension and slid off the road, his rally ended.

Antoine L'Estage was also a victim of
the second stage, the legendary Peanut. He flatted a tire on the
rough and tight section of the stage and lost over three minutes. The
conditions have been very hard on tires and each team running the mix
condition winter rally tires were suffering extreme wear on the
frozen gravel and sand roads.

Andrew Comrie-Picard and Chrissie
Beavis are in the brand new Mitsubishi EVO X. The pair have been
battling some brake issues and spent a little time off the road,
dropping down the order. “On throttle the car is great, but we're
fighting rear brake bias problems. We've adjusted everything, even
removed the swaybar, but nothing's really solving it.”

For Dave Mirra, who had his rally debut
at Tall Pines one year ago this is an anniversary of sorts. “This
event is just so amazing, with constantly changing conditions, it's
just awesome.” Mirra is being co-driven by Vermont SportsCar owner
Lance Smith. Smith offered an observation on the tire wear being
experienced higher up the order.

“The tires they use have very few
treadblocks, but the whole weight is still on the tire, so the wear
is concentrated on these few blocks, like pinpoints.” Mirra and
Smith have been running on more conventional ice tires, with a much
larger contact patch and far less wear.

Rejean Losier has retired from the
event after a big roll ending roof down in water. Both driver and
co-driver escaped unharmed, but the event is over. John Vanos has
also retired from the event. Co-driver Ryan Huber started getting
sick, and could no longer read notes. Vanos also had problems with a
brake pedal sticking and eventually lost a few lugnuts. On closer
inspection, the wheel studs had started to fail, so the crew parked
the car.

Peter Reilly is having a great event,
debuting his new R32 VW Golf. “The long wheel base is much more
stable and smooth than the old car, and the power is definitely in
the back.”

Teams are leaving from the second
service of the day, with Antoine a minute and a half behind second
place. While it's likely he will make that time up, there is no way
he'll catch Pat Richard and Alan Ockwell, who sit over five minutes
ahead, unless that pair suffer problems.

We're heading back out to the stages to
get more of the action from the 2008 Rally of the Tall Pines.