The long and the short of things: PoR Week 25 Recap

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The long and the short of things: PoR Week 25 Recap

It was wet in northwest Europe, and that led to some challenging conditions for Press on! Rallysport competitors in Week 25. In all, we had five drivers taking part in three tarmac events ranging from a 3-run hillclimb to a 23-stage IRC rally.



On the short side of things, Justin competed in the Course de Côte de Valderoure-Caille hillclimb in the mountains of southeastern France. This was a Cup event, meaning that the best two runs of three would comprise each competitor's time. Justin put together two very solid runs in heavy rain to finish 16th overall out of 291 competitors - an excellent result! The in-car footage from his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX shows how smooth Justin was in the rain and mist that lingered all day.



On the long end, Steven and Aaron competed in the 6th round of the International Rally Challenge, based in Ypres, Belgium. The rally consisted of 23 stages over two legs. Good weather held on the first day, but intermittent rain and dusk conditions upped the attrition on the 15 stages of day 2. Steven had an excellent rally in his newly prepared Peugeot 207 R3T. Other than a few minor incidents, he kept a clean sheet and steadily moved up the standings. In the end, he came home 51st overall and 24th in the 2-wheel drive category - earning a week-high 178 points.



Aaron, also running a new AWD Peugeot 207 S2000 had a difficult rally. He retired early on Leg 1, putting him far down the standings at the start of day 2. He had both good and bad moments on the second day, but made it to the finish - a claim only 81 of the 398 crews that began the rally could make. Both Steven and Aaron came away very happy with their Peugeot 207s, and we'll likely see more of them in the second half of the season.

Bret and Byran both took part in the Rallye des Vins de Chinon. As the name implies, the event took place in the wine country around Chinon, near Tours in west-central France. The weather was wet here as well, with rain and fog throughout. Bret had a good run going until SS5, when he lost control of his Saxo S1600 and hit a tree. The resulting engine damage forced him to retire. Bryan made it to the finish in 93rd overall and 13th in class N4, driving his Prodrive Subaru Impreza.



For the week, the team scored 254 points, keeping us in 27th place. Next week,PoR drivers are scheduled to compete in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Spain, on both gravel and tarmac. Good luck to all.