Dirty Drifters Look to Take Home Event Confidence on a Road Trip
After two consecutive mechanical DNFs provided a disappointing start to the Rally America National 2WD Rally Championship, the Portland Oregon based Dirty Drifters Rally Team bounced back in rounds three and four with strong finishes at both of the series west coast events. Finishing third at the Olympus Rally and fourth at the Oregon Trail Rally has the team feeling confident and itching to push. Gottlieb and Darrow will now look to carry this momentum east into the final two rallies on the national calendar.
The next challenge for the team is the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally (STPR) on June 3, 4 based in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. While the event is a country long tow from Portland, it is a homecoming of sorts for co-driver Patrick Darrow. Darrow is from the Wellsboro area and his first rally memories are of blazing lights, burping anti-lag, and glowing rotors on the STPR stages. Darrow remarks, “Running STPR is really a living the dream kind of moment for me. To say I am stoked to run these stages would be an understatement.” STPR is an event with a long history and great roads. The character of these roads is continually changing between tight and technical and blazingly fast, know for the large hardwood tree trunks lurking just inches into the shoulder.
The Drifters will then follow the series north to compete in the finale at the New England Forest Rally in Newry, Maine on July 15, 16. There they will look to wrap up a rookie season on the national scene that saw lots of hard fought battles, new friends
Brian and Pat would like to thank the awesome crew and friends that call themselves the Dirty Drifters, Garth Ankeny at Tackside Motorsports, Derik Nelson for building a great car, Sean Medcroft for his heroic efforts doing the reprep, and the Oregon Rally Group. If it were not for the efforts of these friends competing at this level would not be possible. Thanks for all you do.
And don’t forget to look for Dirty Drifters’ Pirate Radio coming to a service park near you!
Photos: Aaron Kathman
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