16 Jun STPR Restricted Open 4WD Class Rally Review

Article originally written for American Rally Association here.

Wellsboro, PA (June 16, 2017)

Welcome back to our long form Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally (STPR) review series. Today we’re going to talk about the Restricted Open 4WD (RO4WD) class.

Jeff Seehorn and Karen Jankowski took the class in their 2015 Subaru STi after driving a steady rally, but it didn’t come easy. The pair were the only entries in RO4WD at this year’s STPR, making the rally their principal competition.

STPR is one of the most demanding rallies on the ARA calendar. 127 miles of tight roads, close trees, and rocky stages make car preservation difficult and long competition days tire drivers.

Before this year, Seehorn had never competed at STPR; his lone journey east taking him to New England in 2015. Fortunately for him, Jankowski has competed in Pennsylvania several times before to great success; even taking a podium on her last journey to the Susquehannock Trail in 2013. The team would need to leverage that experience, finishing STPR was necessary to keeping their championship points alive.

“Experience here plays a big part,” said Jankowski, “being able to say ‘hey I remember this corner, it’s really tricky’ or ‘somebody went off here before, let’s pay extra attention to that corner.’ Those kinds of things. Having a little confidence because one of us has been here and done well and knows what to expect from the roads. STPR is a co-driver event, so co-drivers make a difference here and I like that fact.”

Seehorn and Jankowski have been experiencing a binary season, either winning or failing to finish. The pair skipped ARA’s first event of the season at Rallye Perce-Neige. At Oregon the pair won their class, despite bending a connecting rod on the penultimate stage and their Olympus Rally ended early due to a broken timing belt.

With only a single finish in the points this season, Seehorn and Jankowski entered STPR well behind championship leaders Travis Nease and Krista Skucas, but they had a lucky break – Nease and Skucas were skipping this event and Seehorn was well aware of what that meant.

“The roads are very tricky, very narrow,” said Seehorn, “the corners are really long and sweeping, but they have a lot of opens and tightens in between. We need to be careful. We’re the only people in our class so we’re gonna use this round to our advantage and gain maximum points.”

Friday at STPR is a short one, the spectator friendly Day 1 covers 19 miles of smooth dirt stage roads unlike anything else in the weekend. Seehorn and Jankowski had a strong day, finishing the day without issue and holding fourth overall in the rally.

Saturday is where the real test for Seehorn and Jankowski began. The forest stages were unlike any roads Seehorn had previously driven on at speed, nearly 110 miles of tight and fast gravel stages.

Day 2 of STPR had an uneventful start for Seehorn; he settled into his own rhythm, approximately 5-10 seconds a stage quicker than Production 4WD leaders Lauchlin O’Sullivan and Scott Putnam. His goal for the rally was preservation, a skill that Seehorn has learned over the past few years. Despite the reserved pace, Seehorn was shocked by the technical challenge of the forest stages.

“Karen, during recce on Thursday, kept telling me, ‘these roads are very technically they’re very challenging’,” said Seehorn, “we got to speed and I said ‘Holy crap’. These are challenging roads, so narrow, so fast, very technical and lots of ‘ohh gotchas’”.

Halfway through Saturday, Open class drivers Barry McKenna and Leon Jordan went wide on a corner and struck a tree, ending their rally. The Fiesta driver’s retirement saw Seehorn and Jankowski inherit third place overall. The midday news wasn’t all good though, around that time Seehorn and Jankowski began to experience an engine overheat, their coolant reaching alarming temperatures.

Despite the issue, Seehorn and Jankowski brought the car home, finishing the rally and earning top points in RO4WD along with a spot on the overall podium.

The performance at STPR sees Seehorn and Jankowski close the gap to Travis Nease and Krista Skucas in the overall standings, the two teams now separated by 8 points.

“I’m so impressed, because it’s a really really hard rally,” said Jankowski, “it’s really cool that Jeff just drove his ass off and did so well. We had a blast.”

Next week we’ll finish off the 4WD cars with our Production 4WD class review.

Photo credit: Peter Lapinski (Top, 1), Matt Stryker (2,3)

About American Rally Association (ARA)

We are a member driven organization dedicated to the sport of stage rally by providing a transparent and inclusive sanctioning body. A 501 (c)(3) non-profit, ARA is lead by elected and appointed board members who deliver a framework for safety, competition, promotion, and educational forums for all aspects of the sport. The common goal of our members, volunteers, and organization is a thriving stage rally program in America.