Fast Eddie tells how he drove the Stage 1 from 58th to a 3rd place finish at Tall Pines

When Tim asked me if I wanted to go to Rally of the Tall Pines inBancroft,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.