The 2022 Colorado Rallycross season is officially underway with event 1 in the books. Our accommodating hosts at Pikes Peak International Raceway gave us a full weekend of dirty fun with our season-opening Saturday Novice School, overnight camping access and the first race of the season on Sunday.
Early Saturday morning, we were treated to many fresh faces as eager new drivers showed up in an array of well-chosen cars (some purchased days before the event). With three separate features to drive through and multiple friendly instructors at each, the students enjoyed huge amounts of low-consequence seat time and driving tips. After lunch, the practice features were linked into a full course and the students lapped at will as a few familiar drivers tested their cars for the season to come.
The dirt got faster and the smiles got bigger and the school concluded. PPIR opened their facility to campers, so the faithful stayed the night. A community dinner, propane campfire and a few beers had the campers cozy and happy for the night before the year’s first rallycross event.
Sunday morning, the course was set in the dirt north and west of PPIR’s banked oval. The 2-wheel-drive cars took their shot first and managed 3 runs a piece through the long course. A few pauses in the action were made more tolerable by the forgiving weather that kept workers cooler than expected with record-breaking temperatures forecasted. By the time the AWD cars finished their runs, things were running behind and a shortened lunch break helped get everybody back racing as quickly as possible. In the afternoon, two more runs decided the winners of event 1.
When the dust settled, the times were checked and the results posted: Tight battles were fought and a few new drivers took the glory of a class win.
Stock Rear is a new class and saw a battle of new competitors with Richard Alexander defeating the exuberant but cone-y Derek Davies.
In Stock Front, Brian Cather jumped into an early lead with blistering times in his (big)Mini, ultimately edging out Jerome Bozic in his (little)Mini.
A newcomer won Stock All, Roger Nallathamby outdrove his competitors.
The prepared classes saw wins from Jacob Light over Greg Sayers in the Front-Wheel-Drive category
The BMW of novice Trevor Geerdes got the attention of the Prepared All class, winning over Nate Hoobs in a close race
A Rallycross veteran won the new Modified Rear class, even a 5 cone deficit couldn’t stop Will MacDonald from beating the field in his Volvo.
Modified Front was won by a very fast Focus, but not by its owner. Jaylyn Daugherty lent his car to Eric Schaub, who beat Jaylyn to win the class.
The biggest class also saw the tightest race; Eric Genack edged out Dan Quiet to take the win by a mere 1.9 seconds on the day.