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Ken Block led going into the final miles, but running first on the road gave Semenuk the powerstage advantage and victory
Brandon Semenuk and Keaton Willaims won the New England Forest Rally, round six of the American Rally Association presented by DirtFish National championship, over Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino by just 0.9 seconds.
Block had been leading the rally going into the final stage, which was also the powerstage, and ran second on the road to Semenuk. That proved a disadvantage, as he suffered through extremely thick dust that made it nearly impossible to commit.
“I got screwed because of dust,” Ken told DirtFish after the rally. “I lost a race because of dust.
“It’s real unfortunate because we weren’t given the opportunity to get the win there at the end.”
Semenuk’s Subaru Motorsports USA team-mate Travis Pastrana finished third and echoed Block’s comments, saying: “Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino went through sheer clouds of dust to where we couldn’t even tell if we were on the road, and put in a time that was still within only four seconds of Brandon Semenuk on that last one.
“We put on a good run, but was just completely blind from the dust.”
The dust was so thick, DirtFish’s photographers were unable to even get a photo of Block as he passed by at the finish.
But for the man up front, Semenuk, it was just a normal stage.
“Honestly, not much to report,” he said as he reached parc fermé as winner. “We just had a really clean, felt-good stage.
“I would’ve been stoked on even getting second in the power stage, to get max points and to take those seconds back from Ken, I can’t even believe it.”
While battle at the top was raging on, the LN4 class was playing out in the favor of one Klim Fedoff, who, after 20 years of coming to NEFR, finally got a chance to compete on it and found himself at the top of his class and in fifth overall.
“To participate, and to get first in class on the first rally is a very good feeling,” he told DirtFish.
Fedoff’s main competition, last year’s NA4WD class winner Arek Bialobrzeski, trailed him by a little over a minute. A puncture on one of Saturday’s stages didn’t help the team either.
Rounding out the LN4 podium was first-time US competitor Vincent Trudel, who, after competing the past few years in Canada, was able to get an impressive finish on the harsh NEFR in seventh overall.
Dylan Murcott had been a longshot favorite after getting the car out of the trailer mere minutes before he was schedule in at time control one, but with engine temperatures reaching into the 270F range, the team retired to avoid damage.
The two-wheel-drive classes had the biggest attrition rate of them all, and in the end the tiny, reliable, near stock limited-class Toyota Yaris of Tracey Gardiner proved slow and steady reliability can be all you need.
Seamus Burke had led the class up until SS12, when clipping a rock sent he and navigator Martin Brady flipping. Though both were uninjured, the car was unfit to race.
Burke’s main competition fell off on Friday with Michael Hooper suffering fuel delivery issues, and Cameron Steely having a stage one off and going into super rally there after. Steely could have put in a fight but motor issues took him out a second time on Saturday.
Nick Allen led the class in Burke’s wake in his Fiesta R2 right up until the final stage, where he rolled his car for the second time this weekend. Though the car was once again drivable, and crew once again uninjured, the time it took to get the car back on its wheels was enough for Gardener to move ahead.
The parallel Maine & New Hampshire Regional Rally was led from start to finish by TJ Pullen and Erin Kelly, but a five-minute penalty was assessed and handed down for allegedly checking in to time control 13 five minutes early.
Dylan Gondyke has therefore been named as the provisional winner. The pair are long-time friends, and had battled together the whole way into the final stage.
Following Gondyke is the Ford Fiesta R2 of Derek James, and then the BMW of Alex Kuklov, who led the rally after the first few stages on Friday.
Overall, out of 61 entries, a total of 39 competitors managed to finish the event this year, and two of those had retired earlier in the rally. The harsh and unforgiving stages of NEFR have proven once again to be some of the most notorious in the county.
Tags: America Rally Association, ARA 2022, Brandon Semenuk, NEFR 2022, New England Forest Rally, Subaru Motorsports USA
Publish Date July 16, 2022 DirtFish https://www-dirtfish.imgix.net/2022/07/Podium-9.jpg?fit=scale&fm=pjpg&h=520&ixlib=php-1.2.1&q=70&w=780&wpsize=entry-main July 16, 2022
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Copyright © 2022 DirtFish, LLC. All rights reserved.
Subaru Impreza STI Sedan & Hatchback Features
Roll Cage: Every rally car requires a welded-in safety cage. The roll cages in our cars are built in-house from scratch.
Racing Seats: Driver and co-driver need to be firmly mounted to the structure of the vehicle. The use of hinged-back seats in rally vehicles is prohibited in rally and most forms of racing.
Racing Harnesses: Safety first. A minimum of a 5-point harness is required by all American rally sanctioning bodies. The 5 points consist of 2 shoulder harness, 2 lap belts and a single anti-submarine belt (not shown).
Handbrake: Most rally cars use a hydraulic handbrake. The purpose of the handbrake maneuver is to turn a car around a very tight corner by locking up the rear wheels aiding in the rotation of the car around the corner.
Engine: Our Subaru STi’s use a 2.5 liter 4-cylinder Turbo-charged Boxer engine.
Drive train: The Subaru STi is equipped with an advanced all-wheel-drive system with an active center differential.
Gravel Rally Tires: Being a rally school, we spend most of our time on gravel roads. To maximize the learning experience, we outfit all of our cars with the latest gravel rally tires for maximum traction.
Method Rally Wheels: It is very important to have a durably strong, yet lightweight rally wheel that can hold up to constant abuse, rocks, rough roads and punctures. At DirtFish, we use and trust Method Race Wheels.
Suspension: Rally is rarely on a perfectly smooth roads, because of that rally cars require suspension that can take the abuse. We choose to use Reiger rally suspension on our cars.
Brakes: Rally cars commonly use a 15″ rally wheel. In order for the wheels to fit on our Subaru STi’s, we had to convert them to a Group N brake setup.
Underbody Protection: Driving at high speeds over variable surfaces can easily damage parts. With the constant spray of gravel that gets thrown at them, skid plates and urethane underbody protection help with the longevity of the underbody of the cars.
Roll Cage: Every rally car requires a welded-in safety cage. The roll cages in our cars are built in-house from scratch.
Racing Seats: Driver and co-driver need to be firmly mounted to the structure of the vehicle. The use of hinged-back seats in rally vehicles is prohibited in rally and most forms of racing.
Racing Harnesses: Safety first. A minimum of a 5-point harness is required by all American rally sanctioning bodies. The 5 points consist of 2 shoulder harness, 2 lap belts and a single anti-submarine belt (not shown).
Handbrake: Most rally cars use a hydraulic handbrake. The purpose of the handbrake maneuver is to turn a car around a very tight corner by locking up the rear wheels to aid the rotation of the car around the corner.
Engine: The Subary BRZ is powered by a 2.0 liter naturally aspirated Boxer engine.
Drive train: The Subaru BRZ is rear-wheel-drive and equipped with a limited slip differential.
Gravel Rally Tires: Being a rally school, we spend most of our time on gravel roads. To maximize the learning experience, we outfit all of our cars with the latest gravel rally tires for maximum traction.
Method Rally Wheels: It is very important to have a durably strong, yet lightweight rally wheel that can hold up to constant abuse, rocks, rough roads and punctures. At DirtFish, we use and trust Method Race Wheels.
Suspension: Rally is rarely on a perfectly smooth roads, because of that rally cars require suspension that can take the abuse. We choose to use Reiger rally suspension on our cars.
Brakes: Rally cars commonly use a 15″ rally wheel. Luckily with the Subaru BRZ’s, the stock brake system is more than adequate for our programs.
Underbody Protection: Driving at high speeds over variable surfaces can easily damage parts. With the constant spray of gravel that gets thrown at them, skid plates and urethane underbody protection help with the longevity of the underbody of the cars.
Below you will find an aerial view of the DirtFish property. Go through and check out the courses you’ll be driving on during your driving program! View everything from The Slalom all the way up to our longest course, the Advanced Mill Run!