TRS RallyAmerica B-Spec Yaris

[Camberix]

Some of you may have seen Tracey Gardiner's Tag Rally Sport Yaris prepped for American stage rally. She is running with co-driver Tabitha Lohr this year.



I recently went to the annual RallyAmerica 100 Acre Wood rally in Missouri, which is one of the national (aka bigger) rallies on the calendar. I have been to 100AW a half dozen times or more, and crewed for a couple of friends' budget teams. You can get pretty up close and personal with the action in whatever capacity you attend, be it spectator, crew, event volunteer, etc.

A couple of pics I took:




The car itself is prepared for the B-Spec class offered by a number of sanctioning bodies. Most of the modifications are aimed mostly at safety and parity with other B-segment cars like the Honda Fit, Mazda2, and such. Outwardly, pretty all you see is the air vent on the roof, Braid rally wheels, hood pins, and mud flaps. A light pod goes on for dark stages. Inside is a roll cage, race seats, and not much else. These are technically still road registered, road legal cars.





I talked to Tracey's crew chief, who was Irish interestingly enough, and found out the car was prepared overseas. I don't recall where - Ireland assumed - but he says the Yaris is pretty popular in clubman-level rally there. This particular car may have a future rallying in Europe if/when Tracey no longer races it.

Not my picture, but you can see cars aren't treated gingerly.


An all-female driving effort, in the lone Yaris no less, was pretty popular with fans. I got Tracey's autograph to bring to my wife, who is a reluctant bystander to my motorsports interests.



TRS finished second in class at 100AW, so good result.



NBC Sports will be airing RallyAmerica events in coming months:
http://www.rally-america.com/news/en...sports-network