New for 2012 and offered to satisfy demand, Team O’Neil Rally School has designed a two-day Rallycross class that will take place January 19-20, February 2-3, and March 1-2.
While the course is designed to provide instruction for drivers who participate in SCCA-style sanctioned Autocross and Rallycross types of events, it also will help any driver learn better car control. Another factor that sets this course apart is that students will be able to choose the type of vehicle they want to train on – Rear, Front or All Wheel Drive – and use that type of vehicle during their training. Additionally, students who wish to bring their own autocross or rallycross car may do so; these can be used on Day 2 of the course after using TON vehicles on Day 1.
Students will learn TON’s proven LFB techniques and how to apply them to that vehicle, as well as vehicle dynamics, five types of skids, lines and apexes, five types of braking, and more. As with our popular rally schools, we will maintain a 2:1 student instructor ratio.
We expect the road conditions at our 600-acre facility in Dalton, NH to include packed snow and ice, potentially with some gravel showing through, depending on weather conditions. Please note that if you plan to use your own vehicle it will need to be prepared for such conditions. It is also important to note that TON will not take any responsibility for mechanical problems or damage to your vehicle.
Class size will be limited, so sign up now! The cost for the two-day course is $1,897; if you use your vehicle on Day 2, the cost includes a $300 discount (so $1,597).
To sign up, call us at 603.444.4488. If you have questions about the class, please ask for Chuck.
At Team O’Neil, we’re proud of the fact that our staff includes some really versatile people. Last week we talked about how some of our instructors and a mechanic are going to be rallying as drivers in some or all of the Rally America championship events. This week, we catch up with Chris Komar, a TON instructor who recently returned from Kenya, where we was invited to work as a mechanic for a rally team that participated in the legendary East African Safari Classic Rally (EASCR), an eight-day race that covers 2,000 miles.
Chris was working for Tuthill Porsche, a team that has participated in the Classic before, and which had nine cars racing this year. Three of those cars were sponsored by Race4Change, which was racing to raise awareness of microfinance as a tool for women’s empowerment. Team members included Travis Pastrana, as well as Bjorn Waldegard – a rally legend himself who won the race this year with his son Mathias co-driving – and Steve Funk, R4C’s mastermind who finished the race 6th with co-driver Andrew Doig. On a team comprised of over 50 people, Chris was the only American.
I asked Chris a few questions about the experience…
Q: What were your responsibilities on the team?
A: I was assigned to work on car #24, the car that Travis Pastrana drove for four days with co-driver Fabrizia Ponzi. After Travis left (he couldn’t stay the whole 8 days of the race), Patrick Njiru [Kenya's most successful indigenous driver] took over.
Chris Komar (background) works on a Porsche during the East African Safari Classic Rally
Q: How did Travis do?
A: He suffered some mechanical ills but he won the last stage that he ran and set the fastest time.
Q: You’re an instructor for Team O’Neil. What are your qualifications for being a mechanic on a rally team driving all Porsches?
A: Well, I have a long heritage working as a mechanic for Subaru Rally Team USA – I’ve worked with them since 2005 and I still work for them at the Rally America championship events, as well as at some rally cross events and at the X-Games, and I worked for them during several World Rally Championship rounds in 2007 and 2008. I’ve been with Tim [O'Neil] for about 10 years – I was his mechanic during the RA championship series in 2002 and 2003.
Q: What were some of the high points of the EASCR?
A: Driving around and seeing the Great Rift Valley, Kilimanjaro, the Serengeti and game parks. We were close to places like the Ngoro Ngoro Crater when we had a service in a little town near there, but we didn’t get to go in it. I did have a giraffe nearly jump out in front of me!
Q: How was it driving throughout Kenya?
A: The highways were deadly! I couldn’t let my gaurd down ever. Dangerous, ill-repaired overloaded, un-regulated trucks everywhere… horrifing crashes, taxi vans speeding and passing as if they had nothing to loose. Livestock, donkeys, goat heards, cattle, monkees, zebras, and a giraffe, all in the roads day and night. Locals walk and bike at the edge of the narrow roadway as if there is no speeding traffic, and there were droves of school children everywhere too. I saw a man – roadkill – crumpled along the highway south of Nairobi. I drove nearly two thousand miles. The upside was that I drove moran (dirt) roads of all types, night and day. Through Tsavo, Arusha and Amboseli national game reserves, and around Kilimanjaro. I loved the back country travel and could go on for ever.
Q: Tell us about the working conditions.
A: Sleep deprivation and long hours. We’d be driving by 4am and wouldn’t be going to sleep until 11am most days. We spent maybe 3-4 hours a day actually working on the cars, which were getting pretty beat up.
Q: Were there any particular fixes you found you had to keep doing on the team car?
A: We had to keep setting the ride height, work on alignment, replace torsion bars…
Q: What were the reactions of the people who lived in the places you were driving through (and that the race was going through)?
A: People were mostly excited and we had positive support. We always drew large crowds everywhere that we serviced – people just showed up. We were all over Maasai territory so we got to hang out with Maasai people of all ages – that was pretty cool.
For those of you who live in a part of the world where the seasons change, you know there are multiple seasons beyond just Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. If you’re from Northern New England, you’re no doubt used to talking about Mud Season, and maybe even the Tourist Seasons or the Off Seasons. But here at Team O’Neil our fearless leader Tim has coined a term for yet another season: Silly Season.
No, we haven’t added any circus funny cars to the TON fleet of Ford Fiestas, VW’s, Jeeps or other vehicles, and this isn’t our seasonal version of April Fools’ Day either. What Silly Season means here is that we’ve entered into a period of time –let’s just say it’s about a month or so – where we’re swamped with work on not one, not two, but FIVE Ford Fiestas that we’re prepping for our drivers as we get ready for the 2012 Rally America championship series, that begins with the Sno*Drift Rally held in Atlanta, Michigan, the weekend of January 27-28, 2012. That’s a lot of cars to get ready to race in just over a month’s time!
A future championship-winning R2 in the making!
So here’s the lowdown. Within the next week or so, Chris Duplessis is off to Detroit, MI, to bring home his new Ford Fiesta, in which he will be installing an R2 kit with the help of our master technician Ed McNelly and which he plans to race at Sno*Drift. Meanwhile, Ed is working with Wyatt Knox to put the finishing touches on Wyatt’s new R2 so that it will be ready for final assembly and paint and be good to go for Sno*Drift also. Tim O’Neil also just got his paperwork for the new Fiesta that Ford is giving him to run a limited championship series next year (more on that in a future post!), and that will also be getting the R2 treatment. He’s figuring out when he’s going to head to Detroit himself to get the new car, in the midst of trying to make sure he doesn’t forget his wife’s and his mother’s birthdays (Happy Birthday ladies!) and so that he can actually enjoy some vacation time next week. The Stage 1 Fiesta that Verena Mei drove (and rolled – good thing we fix stuff ALL the time too) at NEFR last year, and that Ed drove to a well-earned third place win in the 2WD category at the Rally of the Tall Pines in Ontario last month, is being reworked and upgraded with more power and better suspension so that she can drive it in the RA championship series next month as well.
As for Fast Eddie himself, he’s making upgrades to the R2 that Chris drove at the Susquehanna Trail Performance Rally (STPR) and drove to win the New England Forest Rally (NEFR) last spring and summer, that Joseph Burke drove at the Lake Superior Performance Rally (LSPR) for a 2nd place finish in the 2WD class, and that Wyatt drove to win the 2WD class at Tall Pines (yes, this is a car with some history in its short life). Ed will be racing that car at some of the championship series rallies this coming year.
Inside the event-winning R2 that Fast Eddie will captain in 2012
Phew! If you’ve been keeping track, you’ll note that we will have past champions, old champions, mechanics, instructors and movie stars building Fiestas here at Team O’Neil over the next month. Next we want to make the office staff rally champions! We know we can do it…
When you take all of this and consider that each build or rebuild takes potentially hundreds of hours to do, you can understand why Team O’Neil is in the midst of Silly Season now. Join me in wishing them all lots of good luck, no power outages and an abundance of caffeine for the next month!
Check out Ford Racing’s press release below to learn about it’s “Tournament of Ovals” Facebook contest, and be sure to vote for TON instructor and 2WD Rally America champion Chris Duplessis!
DEARBORN, Mich., Nov. 30, 2011 – It has been a banner year for Ford Racing. As the ‘Blue Oval’ celebrated the 110th anniversary of Henry Ford’s historic win in Sweepstakes, its drivers in NASCAR, NHRA, action motorsports and road racing have been carrying on Henry’s tradition of excellence in their Ford-powered competition cars.
Now fans and followers of Ford Racing’s Facebook page can help celebrate 2011 by crowning a Facebook Fans’ Driver of the Year in Ford Racing’s first Tournament of Ovals.
The Ford Racing Facebook Fans’ Tournament of Ovals features a field of 34 drivers, including brackets dedicated to Ford Racing North America’s primary programs – NASCAR (Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series), NHRA Drag Racing (Funny Car, Pro Stock and Sportsman), action motorsports (World Rally Championship, Rally America, Global RallyCross, Formula Drift and Lucas Oil Off Road short course truck racing) and road racing (Grand-AM and Speed World Challenge).
Each bracket will crown a champion of the individual discipline. The four champions then square off in head-to-head competition until one remains. The finalist who earns the most fan votes on that final match-up will be the 2011 Ford Racing Facebook Fans’ Driver of the Year.
“It doesn’t matter if you are a fan, a driver or a crew member, when the season ends the banter and the bench racing begins,” said Jamie Allison, Director, Ford Racing. “We are bringing the passion of our fans and the inevitable driver discussion and debate online and inviting our Facebook fans to participate. It will be interesting because most of our drivers are very social media savvy, so who knows what we will see in the next 30 plus days as they look for the support of the Ford Racing fan base.”
The tournament officially kicks off on Thursday, December 1, 2011 and features a daily match-ups working through the bracket until the finale. The driver who receives the most votes from the Ford Racing Facebook Fans in each pairing will advance to the next round. Fans can vote once per match-up.
The competition begins with “play-in” match-ups on December 1 between action motorsport rally drivers Chris Duplessis and Dillon Van Way, and in road racing between Grand-AM drivers Ryan Daziel and Enzo Potolicchio. The winners of those match ups will be inserted into the Ford Racing field of 32.
Round 1 begins on December 2 and runs daily. Voting is open to all fans of the Ford Racing Facebook page and is open from 12 a.m. ET to 11:59 p.m. ET daily.
When Tim asked me if I wanted to go to Rally of the Tall Pines in Bancroft, Ontario, I said sure! Then Tim told me that I would be driving in the rally, he said I would be driving the Stage 1 Ford Fiesta.
Having just come off a DNF at Rally Charlevoix with the R2, driving the stock fiesta with Reiger Suspension would be fun, but the R2 is WOW. You have to get back on the horse no matter if it’s a workhorse or a thoroughbred. I stayed up late Wednesday night and prepped the Stage 1 Fiesta AKA the workhorse. Thursday afternoon I drove over to Ontario and did my first 2 pass recce on Friday. I was glad I had the workhorse because the roads were extremely fast, narrow and rough.
Because my entry was late and I had not participated in many Canadian rallies, they stuck me with car number 62, which happened to be the second to last car. All I could think about was “oh boy, this is going to be fun!” As my co-driver Pascal and I rolled up to the starting line I told him he better tighten his seat belts because it was going to be a bumpy ride. We left the starting line in a flash, I drove the whole first stage flat out, as fast as she would go, hammering the car bad.
After doing three stages we went back to service. Now by being a mechanic by trade, I didn’t think the car would look like it performed well, but I found out that we had moved from 58th to 34th and the car was still in perfect condition. After service we went back out and ended up catching four cars on stage and I just drove the car for all she was worth (sorry car). Tim O’Neil was our crew man, which is usually my job at rallies so the roles were reversed. Tim told me to just use the skills that I had been put through at Team O’Neil Rally School and drive flat out, so that’s what I did out on stage.
In the end, the car held up like any workhorse would and Pascal and I finished Third in the Group 2 class. What a ride! Thanks for the horse Tim. Congrats to Wyatt Knox, my teammate, for finishing first in the Group 2 class. Great thanks to Ford for the awesome cars.
Here's a quote from one of our favorite fans, Michael Skiny Power!
"Just wanted to say a heart felt thank you. Just completed the Baja 1000 and everything I learned from you came into play and saved our lives on some very hairy scary cliff roads. I thanked you in every interview and mentioned you in our press releases"…..Thanks for sharing with us Michael!
Several Team O’Neil staff will be cutting their Thanksgiving festivities short this week as they head to Bancroft, Ontario to try to stake their claim at the Rally of the Tall Pines, the final event of the Canadian Rally Championship. Three of our guys – Wyatt Knox, Ed McNelly, and Danny Grant – will be racing in the “Group 2” (2WD) class, while Tim O’Neil, a three-time winner of Tall Pines, will be heading up in the TON service van to help out the guys on the TON team.
KNOX READY TO LET LOOSE IN R2 AT TALL PINES
2011 Rally America 2wd Champ Wyatt Knox, along with veteran co-driver Ole Holter, will be campaigning a Team O’Neil prepared Ford Fiesta R2 in this weekend’s event (see inside photo of the car, below), representing both their first Canadian rally together and their first event in the new car. When asked about his chances, Knox commented, “It’s great to finally be able to go rallying in Canada, this is something I have been looking forward to for a long time. It’s also really nice not to have the pressure of a championship on the line, Ole and I can cut loose a little and really have some fun… but at the end of the day it IS a race and I’d be lying if I said we weren’t going up there to try and win the thing. The car is easily capable, Ole is spot on all the time, basically if I do my part we should be right up there.” Optimistic words, against the largest field of teams ever entered in a Canadian stage rally. Knox recently took the passenger seat of the Fiesta R2 for teammate Ed McNelly at Rally Charlevoix, gaining valuable Canadian rally experience and seat time with the car. “The sequential transmission was the biggest obvious thing to get used to,” commented Knox after testing at the Team O’Neil Rally School. “After that, you just have to get used to the ceiling being so much higher than you’re used to. No aspect of the package was overlooked… The engine, trans, suspension, brakes… It’s all there, there’s no weak link. So driving it, it’s capable of so much that at first I was nowhere near the car’s actual limit.”
VETERAN O’NEIL WITHDRAWS FROM RACE, OPTS TO SUPPORT TEAM IN SERVICE
Tim O’Neil, who won this race not one but three times in three consecutive years in 1988, 1989 and 1990, had hoped to reunite with long-time co-driver Martin Headland for another shot at the title some 20+ years later, and to rally for the first time against his younger staff. However, due to delays in getting his R2 prepped, O’Neil decided instead to be a presence on the ground, helping his team in service and being available to chat with anyone interested in learning more about the school. “Yeah, I was excited to race but instead I’ll get to see old friends…it’ll be like Old Home Week!” he joked about his inevitable walk down memory lane. But on a more serious note, he wants to support drivers like Knox, who will be competing in an R2 in the U.S. Championship series this year. “Tall Pines is an excellent opportunity for Wyatt to play with the suspension set-up in the R2, and just get used to the car,” O’Neil remarked. “Canadian events are fun, and it’s always good to get to go to an event that’s not part of your championship series because there’s a lot less pressure.” If you’re at Tall Pines, be sure to look for the Team O’Neil Rally School tent in the service area and drop in to chat with Tim and Martin, who will be happy to talk about the school, or, well, reminisce about the good ol’ days…
TON MECHANICS ALSO COMPETING!
TON’s lead technician and shop foreman Ed McNelly returns to Canada as driver once again this week, and will be driving in a stage 1 Fiesta for the Tall Pines rally (the same car Verena Mei raced in July’s New England Forest Rally and other events – see photo above). The stage 1 kit is the classic starter rally car that sports simple modifications that make the car safe for rallying: it’s stock with the R2 Rieger suspension and has 130 hp. Next week we’ll touch base with Ed and get his take on driving the Stage 1 compared to the R2 in a competition. Danny Grant, who also competed at the Québec rally, will drive a 1990 VW Golf GTi that formerly belonged to Chris Duplessis, 3X Rally America 2WD Champion, who won numerous rallies and two championships behind the wheel of the Golf. Danny’s co-driver, Michael Beliveau, is the older brother of Jamie Beliveau, who has been a very fast driver on the rally circuit. Michael’s father and brother have volunteered for the New England Forest rally as spectator control marshals for many years.
Sixty teams are registered to compete in this race, which is known for the challenging conditions that it always throws at drivers, including dirt roads on which snow and ice regularly mix. Because this event is so well run, Tim, who is co-chair of the New England Forest Rally (July 13-14, 2012), said he also wants to pay particular attention to how this event is run so that he can take home ideas that can help improve the New England event. If you want more info about the Rally of the Tall Pines, check out their website at www.tallpinesrally.com.
STAY TUNED FOR A TALL PINES RECAP FROM TON NEXT WEEK!
In case you haven’t heard, Team O’Neil Rally School’s champion instructor Chris Duplessis left last week for Wales to participate in the WRC Academy finale at the famed Wales Rally GB, which will take place November 10-13. We thought we’d take a moment here to briefly explain what the Academy is all about, and provide a little history as to how Chris earned himself a spot there.
WRC Academy
The Wales Rally GB is the final rally in a series of 13 events that spans four continents. The WRC Academy is a new, six-round series in 2011 that will run as a separate category in the main WRC rallies “to ensure drivers gain relevant experience and exposure alongside the main competition.” The aim of the Academy is to “be the first step on the WRC ladder for young drivers and… give the stars of tomorrow an unrivalled opportunity to develop their talent on the world stage in an extremely cost effective way.” [TON note: “extremely cost effective” means something like $250,000.] In order to create a level playing field, all drivers will compete in identical Ford Fiesta R2’s build by M-Sport, Ford’s exclusive partner that manages its global WRC program, and all cars will be fitted with Pirelli control tires. Only 24 places are available in this year’s Academy, and to be eligible, a driver must be born on or after 1 January 1986. There is no age limit for co-drivers. (Reference www.WRC.com/wrcacademy)
What exactly is an R2, you ask?
Well, some of you know darn well what an R2 is. But for those of you who aren’t quite up to speed (no pun intended), Ford Racing sums it up best: “The R2 is a full kit made by M-Sport to make a stock showroom Fiesta into a complete top engineered, first class, rally car. M-Sport, located in the UK, has been building top-level Ford rally cars since 1979. The R2 kit includes a SEDEV flat shift 5-speed sequential gearbox, Reiger dampeners, AP Brakes, wiring loom, pistons, rods, and camshafts and everything else needed to make a complete rally car. All of this combined with the great platform of the Fiesta and the top of line engineering of M-Sport make a potent rally car.” Looking for more stats and information? You can download the sell sheet at this Ford Fiesta R2 link: http://fiestar2.com/index.php/component/remository/func-startdown/108/
A Little History…
In November 2010, Team O’Neil partnered with Ford to become the exclusive R2 kit reseller in the U.S., which is sold through Team O’Neil Motorsports, the arm of the company that develops and builds rally cars.
The first stateside R2 was built by Chris with help from TON. Chris debuted the R2 at the Susquehanna Trail Performance Rally, where he enjoyed an eight-minute lead in the 2WD class until a mishap ended his quest for the win. However, just a few weeks later Chris won the 2WD class at the resurrected Climb to the Clouds race on the Mt. Washington Auto Road, and the next month he took the 2WD trophy at the New England Forest Rally.
Chris is the first American rally driver to compete in a 2WD car in a WRC event. Factors including skill, talent, a solid history on the podium as a 2WD class driver and having more seat time in an R2 than any other US-born rally driver combined to earn Chris the opportunity to go to Wales. Financial backing and other support come from partners Team O’Neil, Ford Racing, M-Sport, RallyAmerica and RallyStream.TV.
Dearborn, Mich. — The 2010 2-Wheel Drive Rally America National Champion, Chris Duplessis has made the best of his limited seat time in Team O’Neil’s Ford Fiesta R2 by winning his class in Rally America’s New England Forest Rally and the 2WD class at the Mount Washington Hill Climb.
Now the 24-year-old native of New Hampshire is primed for a bigger challenge competing against some of the World Rally Championship’s brightest up-and-coming drivers.
Chris is a long-time instructor at Team ONeil Rally School. Go Chris!
All six of the students here this week came with different goals. Some want to learn how to control their car better in bad weather and some are looking to become a rally driver. Some simply want to add rallying skills their already accomplished road racing skills. The school has classes that run from two to five days and no matter your reason or your length of stay Team ONeil teaches the same fundamental driving principles across the board.
The walls inside the classroom where the students are gathered for the morning instructional session looks like a teenagers bedroom. Magazine articles on the school cover the walls and neatly organized plaques proclaim victory achieved at dozens of rallies. Theres an autographed Ken Block photo and a framed Travis Pastrana jersey with the superstars signature and sarcastic quip Tim You are insane!
DEARBORN, Mich., Nov. 30, 2011 – It has been a banner year for Ford Racing. As the ‘Blue Oval’ celebrated the 110th anniversary of Henry Ford’s historic win in Sweepstakes, its drivers in NASCAR, NHRA, action motorsports and road racing have been carrying on Henry’s tradition of excellence in their Ford-powered competition cars.
When Tim asked me if I wanted to go to Rally of the Tall Pines in Bancroft, Ontario, I said sure! Then Tim told me that I would be driving in the rally, he said I would be driving the Stage 1 Ford Fiesta.
All six of the students here this week came with different goals. Some want to learn how to control their car better in bad weather and some are looking to become a rally driver. Some simply want to add rallying skills their already accomplished road racing skills. The school has classes that run from two to five days and no matter your reason or your length of stay Team ONeil teaches the same fundamental driving principles across the board.
