Lia Block has finally broken her duck in the American Rally Association (ARA) with a commanding victory at the Ojibwe Forests Rally. The 19-year-old was in a class of her own from start to finish, cementing her status as the title favourite this season.
It was Block's first ever trip to Minnesota, but she drove flawlessly. She led from the very first stage and never gave her rivals a sniff. Her stage one time was 16 seconds quicker than anyone else - a statement of intent that immediately put the opposition on the back foot.
Seth Quintero of Toyota was the nearest threat, but he crashed out in SS2 after a broken control arm. Losing his closest rival forced Block to change her approach. She no longer needed to push flat out, instead focusing on consistency and risk management.
"The first stage is the first stage," said Block. "We heard Seth had stopped on stage two and, obviously, our strategy had to change. That's a big sway in championship points for us and we had to finish. We had to drive with minimal risk, but at the same time you have to keep leading the rally. That can be quite a difficult thing to do, you can make mistakes when you're trying to make no mistakes!"
The strategy paid off handsomely. Block won eight of the 14 stages across the two-day event. The win puts her 21 points clear of Quintero in the standings with two rounds remaining, though dropped scores still need to be factored in.
"Derek [Dauncey, team manager] has worked out the dropped scores and when we drop our fourth place at 100 Acre Wood - our worst score of the season - then we should still be nine points ahead," she explained. "I'm happy with that, it's a more comfortable gap than we started and there's a bit less strain on me. For me, this was a really good event. I'd never actually raced Ojibwe before, but with Alex [Gelsomino] and Derek's experience, we got things like tire choices right, everything worked."
The victory also goes some way to making up for the heartbreak at the season-opening Sno*Drift Rally, where a drive belt failure denied her a maiden win. "Yes and no," she said. "It's definitely difficult to think about the beginning of the year and where we could have been now. But I believe everything happens for a reason - and I've just had to work my a** off that much more. And that makes the win that much more."
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