Olympus Rally

As previously mentioned, the MaxAttack! event will be scored on the first six stages at Olympus due to the unfortunate loss of one of our rally friends.

Here are the updates from the teams from the last service last night, and how the teams ended up for the first round of the 2011 MaxAttack! Series.

There was a sad incident at Olympus Rally yesterday involving a national all-wheel drive team. Rally America and Rally Sports Group of America officials have decided to conclude the Olympus national rally and the MaxAttack! competition as of Saturday's specialtage 6.

Here is Rally America's statement:
http://rally-america.com/news/934/

Our condolences to the Marker family and to our entire extended rally family.

-A little more information on the #190 Jason Staats/Billy Irvin crash. The team carried too much speed into an R5 into L3, and it sent theNissan Sentra SE-R Spec V into the forest. We're glad they're okay.

-The Hintz Brothers, who are currently currently fighting just a few seconds down for the last MaxMoney position, are reportedly suffering from a slipping clutch in the #207 BMW M3. Let's hope they are able to nurse it through until they get to a long enough service stop to get it swapped.

MAXATTACK! SCORES AFTER 2 STAGES:

-After the early day stages, the #333 Mazda Mazdaspeed3 of Wyatt Knox and Ole Holter are in the 1st ($1,500.00) position with very consistent stage scores...a 5:41.9 on SS1 and a 5:41.3 on SS2 (same stage)!

-Despite belching a little more oil from the breather than the Demon boys are comfortable with, Tom and Don Burress have only given up 22 seconds to Wyatt in their #437 Volkswagen GTI, which for now puts them in the 2nd ($1,200.00) position.

-#214 Phil Meyers/Tracy Manspeaker are gambling a bit. The shift linkage on theirVolkswagen GTI broke, and the team had to stop and fix it on a hot stage. They figure they lost about 6 minutes, but, trying not to lose anymore time, they left their sump guard on the stage. The service crew has the shift linkage in good order now, but with no skid plate over the Washington rocks, they they are definitely rolling the rally dice!

-After the second service, the teams do a leg of 4 stages that do a big "out and back." The teams are on these stages right now.

Lots of early rally carnage to report, as the teams are clearly pushing the limits of their skills and equipment chasing after the $5,000.00 purse:

-#190 Jason Staats/Billy Irvin (Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V) is out with a broken control arm/crash. Both guys are okay physically. 

-We've just heard that Blake Lind and Joel Pacello's Toyota Corolla was the first MaxAttack! casualty of 2011. They are up against the "Maximum Permitted Lateness" (MPL) limit and are now just trying to get straight to service. They'll run tomorrow's regional rally after some repairs, but missing a stage takes them out of MaxAttack! contention for the weekend. Best of luck getting it repaired guys, and enjoy your day tomorrow!

-The cars left Parc Expose starting at 9am, and do Palix 1 stage for their first test. The stage is 5.6 miles long, and they have a service immediately after. We'll be looking for reports from that service to get some early impressions. The same stage is re-run (Palix 2) right after the 30 minute service.