My wife’s voice called out the countdown to the timing point, and our little blue BRZ answered. With only the rear wheels driving, it wasn’t the best machine for the snow, but it sure was fun. We had won our last (and first) rally in it, so our confidence level was growing as we took on the challenge of the SCCA Land o Lakes Region’s Flamethrower RoadRally, on February 25th. We had been going strong this rally. Battling back and forth with experienced competitors, we made mistakes on Leg 12, setting us back. Leg 13, we were determined to be precise and get some zeros. The roads and weather were perfect, the stars brilliant, the little BRZ skating around the undulating and curving roads. Our RabbitRally App let me know we were two-tenths slow. With a small hill coming up, I pressed the gas not to lose more “tenths of a second” but accelerate back to perfect time.
As is sometimes the case, adding power on an incline caused the back of the BRZ to break loose, the limited slip doing a perfect job of ensuring that both tires broke traction instead of only one. The back of the car kicked to the left, pointing us off to the right just as we crested the small hill, with the car getting light on its tires. I was turning the steering wheel left to correct for the right turning slide.
The front tires didn’t get traction until the weight returned to the wheels, and by that time, the right front tire was off the hard-packed snow and into the soft. “No problem,” I thought in that split second, “I can steer out of this!” For several more split seconds, a war commenced between the added resistance to the right side of the car, pulling us further into the softer and even more resistant snow and the steering wheel, willing the car back on the road. It almost seemed that it could have gone either way for several seconds until it became clear that the soft snow had won. The steering wheel had no more effect. We were barreling into a farmer’s field in a huge white cloud of snow. The good news: there were no trees or stumps to hit. The car emerged an hour later with the help of a tow truck with no damage except to my idea of my driving skills.
Next year, Flamethrower!
