Rookie of the Year – Jon Rea’s Synopsis at Tim O’Neil Rally School
I would like to start out by saying it was a great honor to be the Rookie of the Year for the Southwest Rally Cup Series in 2007. The award of the Team O’Neil 4 day Advanced Rally School is by far one of the best awards in club level rally in the United States and I felt lucky to have a chance to attend such a great course.
The first day of the school concentrates on the basics. The biggest ones for me were Left Foot Braking getting my eyes right. Years of bad habits show up on the first day and are a big factor in being a successful rally driver. The instructors pushed me mentally and there are a lot of things to keep track of; eyes, feet, turn in, braking, moose, counter steer, changing conditions, obstacle avoidance, weight transfer, bears, race line and shifting. These factors come faster and faster and we agreed as a class that it was a lot to keep track of. I left the 1st day tired but happy as I had already seen an improvement in my driving and understanding of skills required for rally driving. It was great to play in the dirt again!
Day two started much as the 1st day with some warm up exercises then progression on to more obstacle avoidance and some pendulum turns. I would have to say that pendulums for me were the most natural feeling maneuver and I love to do them. The afternoon of the 2nd day we also started to transition from front wheel drive vehicles to all wheel drive cars.
Day three began with more drills and then some introduction to real roads not just the skid pad and slalom. I was fortunate enough to be joined by Eddie Fiorelli and Erik Christiansen who are really great guys. These guys also compete in Group 2 with VW’s and absolutely excelled when it came to real roads. It was great to see fellow competitors excel as all of our skills grew. We were all fortunate enough to share some of these roads with Andrew Pinker and “Cowboy” Kenny Bartram who were testing for the New England Forest Rally. By the end of day 3 we were beginning to look like the pros.
The final day I transitioned into rear wheel drive to hone my skills since I rally a 1970 Datsun 510. Most of the instructors said students want to drive rear wheel drive but then after seeing how different it is they decide to go back to all wheel drive. Not me, I stuck with it the whole day and learned that when driven well, a rear wheel drive car can be competitive. The instructors took us on some advanced roads with high-speed sections to off camber down hill hairpins, jumps and tricky traction transitions with some obstacles that “magically” would appear in the course. All in all it was a great course!
I can’t thank Team O’Neil enough for the opportunity and the support of the Southwest Rally Cup Series by offering this great award. I would also like to thank Tim O’Neil himself who shared some of his personal tips for success not taught in the standard class. I also would like to thank the instructors; Wyatt, Chuck, Alan, Chris, Mike, Jay, Eric and Travis for their insight and for making sure we were safe yet fast. I would also like to thank my sponsor, Advantage Medical Inc. for providing the plane tickets to and from New Hampshire. Finally thank you to the Southwest Rally Cup Series for the opportunity to do what I love. Now comes the application and practice of the techniques that I was exposed to. I can honestly say that I hope to go back to Team O’Neil to hone my skills as an aspiring rally driver.
