Detroit Region SCCA

Andrew and Joe Layton, first on the road, set off on the last segment of the rally.

Saturday April 16 saw 18 teams welcome spring to the Detroit Region SCCA’s rally season. It was a rough ‘un. Rallying on back roads in April in Michigan brings its own set of challenges. True, there’s no snow or ice, and dust is usually not much of an issue. But frequently the county road commissions haven’t had the opportunity yet to get out and do their post winter road grading tasks. The result? A plentiful potpourri of preposterous potholes to contend with. Everyone had pothole stories to tell. Frequently a bit of spiffy driving could see one around the worst of a stretch of cratered road, but sometimes there were simply no clear paths through. Such occasions were true bone shaking, teeth rattling affairs. Reminiscent of that Washboard Road From Hell that rallyists who ran last summer’s Moonlight Monte may recall, but not quite so severe. But these are rallyists, people – a bit of rough road is not gonna send them home with their tails between their legs!

And so it was. The intrepid road warriors departed from South Lyon at 1 PM and proceeded to traverse ~175 miles of Livingston, Washtenaw and Jackson County roads. You can click here to view a map of the rally course. Mileaging was a challenge for most, with mileages going wildly and unpredictably up and down, likely due in part to the rough road conditions. At the end of the day, after passing 26 scored controls, the results revealed who was hot and who was not.

And here’s who was hot – Sawyer Stone and Alison Lee! Since starting their rally teamwork with the Detroit Region in 2019 Stone and Lee have stormed stock class, frequently finishing with scores that beat limited and equipped class competitors. For Twilight Tour the twosome produced a fierce and highly competitive run, taking the lowest score of just 27.9 seconds of penalty points and nailing the overall win. A remarkable performance – well done Sawyer and Alison!

The rest of the field awaits their times to start the last timed portion of Twilight Tour.

Equipped class fielded a five car contingent, and to the surprise of virtually no one, the ever excellent team of Dan Harkcom and Greg Lester notched the win with a score of 30.6. Competition within the class was strong, with less than 20 seconds penalty points covering the 5 car field.

Adam Spieszny and Piotr Roszczenko were the sole entrants in the new for 2022 GPS equipment class. Despite some timing and navigations issues, they pressed on for the class victory.

While Stone and Lee smoked stock class – indeed, the entire field – they were one of seven cars in the class. There were some good contests in the midfield, with Bruce Blow and Megan Harlow scoring 106.2 for second in class, followed just 20.6 points back by Chandra Koganti and Trevor Council for third.

Twilight Tour always has some novices come out, and the 2022 running saw three novice teams competing. Logan Senhauser and Zac Hudacko pulled off the class win with 493 points. Miguel Kanaski and Ben Loughridge came in second, just 10 points ahead of third place finishers Max Brown and Jordan Trinklein

As always, a huge thank you to Ken and Dennis Wiedbusch for their time and efforts in putting on yet another much enjoyed Twilight Tour.

View complete leg-by-leg results below, or click here to download a copy: