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!
Written by: Jessyca Keeler
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