Long-time RallyCross Nationals competitors from the New England Region – Warren Elliott, Hal Denham, and Vaughn Micciche – all travelled south to Alabama again this year to compete in the 18th running of this national championship competition. Fun fact, Warren and Hal have attended 17 of those 18 events!
After three days of weather that was colder there then back here in Northeast, Warren and Vaughn both finished with 2nd Place trophies in Modified All Wheel Drive (MAWD) and Modified Rear Wheel Drive (MRWD) respectively. Hal rounded out their finishes with a 4th Place finish in Prepared All Wheel Drive (PAWD).
The Courses
Hal provided details on the courses. “The courses were smooth and fast. 33 acres of a former cotton field in the northeast corner of Alabama. Friday afternoon’s course was to the south of grid, just under a half mile of flowing offsets, sweeping turns and a decreasing radius 180 degree turn toward a sweeping finish. Saturday morning’s course was to the north of the grid, nearly six tenths of a mile with more offsets, sweepers and slalom features leading up to another decreasing radius turn to finish.” He continued, “Saturday afternoon we returned to the south course with a few minor changes. Sunday’s course (0.76 miles) was a combination of most of the south course connected to most of the north course run in the reverse direction.”
Vaughn added his two cents, “The course in Alabama is frustrating because it makes you drive it basically one way — tight and tidy. Any little mishap or wide line is punished with silt like fluff that is super slick. Letting the rear hang out, even before the corner in a rear wheel drive car can spell disaster as you are going for a ride on a mound of silty dust. Of course with no practice course you had to learn this on the parade laps and during the competition!!”
With the cold temperatures, cars were covered in frost every morning. But once the sun cleared the mountains, it brought the warmth with it.
The Finishes
For Warren, a multi-time National Champion, he had not driven the BWM in 2 years so he admits it took him a run on each course to get up to pace. With a 1.8 second deficit with 2 runs left, he made up 1.5 and left .3 on the table, leaving him in that 2nd place position. “I’m not disappointed at all! I enjoy driving well and the good competition. This wouldn’t be possible without Hal getting me there and listening to me for 32 hours.” Hal was sitting in 2nd place himself until Sunday, when he laments everything started to fall off a bit, leaving him with this 4th place finish. No regrets on his part either as he thought it was a great weekend too.
The 2nd place winning Porsche Vaughn drove had been sitting for 4 years, while he himself has been out of the game for over 2 with life getting in the way. Then just a few weeks out, the pieces and motivation fell together for him to make the trip. Once there, the weekend was hit with all the things that could go wrong, did go wrong. These included, the “fuel pump died, fuel filter clogged, battery was not being charged enough at idle speeds, constant engine tune issues and shortcomings, bad vacuum line, hole in tire tube, transmission stuck in some sort of non-neutral non-gear location mid run, no variable valve timing working with tune so low and mid range RPM have very little power.” But despite all that, he still finished the weekend popping a champagne bottle! If you have a minutes, read how it all came together on Vaughn’s Facebook thank you tribute, to all the people that helped make it happen.
