The 2011 Rally America season got under way on Friday with the first stage of Sno Drift, held in Atlanta Michigan. As usual the name told the tale with stages covered in ice and snow, with frigid temperatures in the teens and twenties for most of the event. There was less snow then usual, so the snow banks weren’t as high which meant there was much less room for error.
Travis Hanson makes history winning Sno Drift in his Super Production Subaru
The lack of snow banks had an impact right away for last year’s Rally America champion, Antoine L’Estage and his Rockstar Mitsubishi Evolution X as he went off on stage 4 and was forced to retire from the event after not being able to restart the car. Before the off by L’Estage, he held a 20 second lead over new Subaru Rally Team Driver David Higgins, who then assumed the lead. But the first day would claim Higgins and his Subaru STI as a victim as well. Going into stage 6 Higgins had a lead of over 2 minutes in front of Super Production driver Travis Hanson, but Higgins’ STI motor failed on the stage and he was forced to retire from the event.
The retirements of L’Estage and Higgins set up Hanson and his Super Production STI to make history. For the first time in Rally America history, a Super Production car would take the overall win and not by a small margin. Higgins would end up winning Sno*Drift by over 3 minutes ahead of Subaru Rally Team driver Dave Mirra, followed by Joseph Burke and his 2006 Mitsubishi EVO 9.
Mirra and new co-driver Marshall Clarke, suffered a huge set back on Day 1 when the suffered a puncture and dropped to 5th place. Mirra battled back and finally grabbed second on the penultimate stage of the rally giving Mirra his best ever finish.
Burke was the 2010 Rookie of the Year and despite limited experience on snow was able to claim the final podium position, his best finish to date. Burke’s EVO 9 was the only Mitsubishi to finish the event.
Dillon Van Way drove his Ford Fiesta to victory in 2WD at 2011 Rally America Sno*Drift
The 2WD class was won (8th overall) by Dillon Van Way making his debut in a Ford Fiesta. Van Way was able to edge out 2010’s 2WD champion Chris Duplessis who was also debuting a new car, a Scion xD, finishing just 38 seconds behind Van Way.
The Rally America season continues on Feb. 25th in Salem, MO at 100 Acre Wood Rally.
For event photos visit the Sno Drift photo gallery. For more information visit Rally America.
