Rocket Rally Racing finished its first full rally car season in first place with a convincing win at the Rally of the Tall Pines in Bancroft, Ontario, last weekend in the last event of Canadian season.
The Rocket Rally team and driver Patrick Richard of Vancouver won the event early in the competition when their main competition, Eagle Talon driver Brian Scott, rolled his car in the first stage of the competition. The two teams were neck and neck in the race and the standings at that point.
Although they had the championship clinched, Rocket Rally didn’t let up. "We still had to win this event in order for me to win the co-driver’s championship, so we couldn’t really take it easy," says Whistler’s Ian McCurdy, the Rocket Rally team navigator.
McCurdy and Richard, high-school buddies that moved from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Whistler in 1991, caught the rally car bug after ripping their cars around local backroads. Driving a 1997 Subaru Impreza, they took the North American rally car circuit by storm in the last year and a half, consistently winning in the Production GT class, and finished in the top 10 among pro rally cars.
By winning the Rally of the Tall Pines, Rocket Rally became the first rally team to win all three North American titles in one season; in addition to the Canadian Championship, Richard and McCurdy captured the Production GT titles in the American SCCA ProRally Championship and the North American Rally Cup.
"It was a fun event, and I’m happy that I was able to capture the co-driver’s title even though I missed one of the events this season," says McCurdy.
"I’m really, really pleased, to say the least," adds Richard. "What a season."
