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A.Pinker gets commendable 3rd place finish!
T.Foust loses pace in the final SS and finishes in 14th place.
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The seventh round of RANC 2007(Rally America National Championship) "Ojibwe Forests Rally" was held on August 24th-25th in Bemidji, northern Minnesota. All 15SS stages, covering 150miles (240km), has consecutive rhythmical corners and is a very technical and heavily wooded gravel course.
This round, includes 4 night stages and a 23mile (37km) long stage, is a very rigorous rally for the driver, and the TEIN entries were from SYMS Racing, #5 A.Pinker (Subaru Impreza GDB-F) and #34 T.Foust (Subaru Impreza GDB-F).
Pinker and Foust, using renewed turbines from the "X-GAME" held in August, were driving constantly in the opening stages but Foust had differential problems and Pinker had turbo problems in Leg 1, and Foust had turbo problems in Leg 2.
And then in the final SS Foust, who was in 2nd place, damaged his right tire and lost considerable time. But both drivers pressed on until the end and Pinker finished in 3rd place and stayed at the top of the standings. Foust had a rough rally due to mechanical trouble and finished in 14th place.
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The "Ojibwe Forests Rally" which is extremely challenging and revered by drivers took place. Pinker and Foust, using new turbines, both felt good with the tests prior to the race and were driving consistently from the start of the rally. Both drivers were driving well in Leg 1 on 24th with Foust, even suffering differential trouble, marked the best times in SS4 and SS7, and Pinker driving with turbine trouble marked the second best time in SS4 and SS7.
In Leg 2 on 25th 2nd placed Foust, even with turbine trouble, was driving fiercely and was dominating SS11, SS12, SS14 until he suffered tire damage on the right side in the final stage and lost considerable time and positions. In the end, Pinker was able to keep his top position in the standings with a commendable 3rd place finish. Foust, who suffered an accident in the final stage, continued on to finish in 14th place. Both TEIN drivers drove persistently until the end.
Comments from TEIN engineer (TEIN USA/Mr. Katsuma Nakai)
Pinker's car was set up for general gravel roads, but Foust's car was raised slightly because he had hit the underside of his car in tests undertaken previous to the race. Both drivers suffered turbine trouble during the 2days before race day, but felt fine and had no problems with the cars suspension set up. We know how we want the cars set up, so for the final 2 rounds we want to work on feedback gained from P-WRC and try new set ups. |
| Pos. |
No. |
Driver |
Machine |
Time |
Diff |
| 1 |
199 |
Travis Pastrana |
SUBARU Impreza WRX STI |
2:21'49"4 |
|
| 2 |
43 |
Ken Block |
SUBARU Impreza WRX STI |
2:23'05"6 |
+1'16"2 |
| 3 |
5 |
Andrew Pinker |
SUBARU Impreza WRX STI |
2:29'05"4 |
+7'16"0 |
| 14 |
7 |
Tanner Foust |
SUBARU Impreza WRX |
3:01'21"2 |
+39'31"8 |
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