Granville, Ohio, USA - It was a victorious weekend for the rally team of Justin Pritchard and Rachelle Kaltak, at the 2017 Rally America Lake Superior Performance Rally (LSPR), in Houghton Michigan. Pritchard/Kaltak achieved their and Hoosier Tire’s first ever overall national rally win.
Debuting Justin’s newly acquired turbo powered Open-Class Subaru for the event, the team anticipated a significant learning curve from the naturally aspirated car they had last competed in together, in 2015. Justin and Rachelle began the rally in 6th position on the road, in a field of 50 cars, on Friday afternoon. After the night stages on Friday, the team had climbed to 3rd on the road, “Our Hoosier Racing Tires showed great wear characteristics and really allowed us to push on the stages”, said Justin, “the bite of the tires in the corners was excellent on the gravel based roads and the tires were robust in standing up to the large rocks that had worked their way into the road from the cars ahead of us.”
Unfortunately the team incurred a 1 minute time penalty for moving through a control too early, on Friday evening. “After I’d read our score card incorrectly and had us enter stage 7 early on Friday night, I was bound and determined to push our hardest on Saturday, in attempt to make up the lost time” said Justin’s Co-Driver Rachelle. They began Saturday morning’s stages with a significant amount of time to gain back in order to remain at the front of the field and even reach the podium at all. The team was reseeded to 2nd position on the road for Saturday and ran hard all day in order to push past the 1st position car of Gruszka/Wronski, the current 2017 Rally America National Champions.
“We ran hard on Saturday, trying to make up lost time”, said Justin. “We had an off road excursion as we went wide and hit a large rock three corners into a 10 mile stage. The rock took a large chuck out of our wheel, but the tire held up, allowing us to finish the stage at full pace. We ran the entire rally without a single flat tire, winning the rally by only seconds. Hoosier Tires definitely helped us to the overall win!”
The rally covered a total of 388 miles, including 123 miles on 15 race stages.
Based in Williston,VT, Rally America, Inc., sanctions the Rally America National Championship, the premier performance rally championship in the United States and a number of regional rally championships from coast-to-coast. The eight-event Rally American National Championship stops at venues across the United States from Portland, Oregon to Newry, Maine. Rally America Competitors can reach speeds in excess of 100 mph in modified street cars on natural-terrain courses consisting of gravel, dirt or snow over a course covering hundreds of miles. For more information about Rally America, please visit their website at www.rally-america.com.
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