Words by James Heine
This article first appeared in the October, 2020 edition of SportsCar Magazine. Everyone can read the current and past editions of SportCar digitally here. To become an SCCA member and get SportsCar mailed to your home address monthly in addition to the digital editions, click here.
For 18-year-old Continental Divide Region’s Jacob Despain, SCCA RallyCross is the start of something great
As with many things this year, the RallyCross season for the Continental Divide Region’s Jacob Despain has been, in his own words, “short” and not at all what he anticipated. “We’ve been to the first event of the season, where I placed second in Modified All-Wheel Drive. I had to miss the second [event] due to my [high school] graduation ceremony, and the third event was canceled,” the 18-year old explains of a competition season interrupted by a pandemic. But nothing’s going to stop Jacob.
For the now-freshman at the University of Colorado in Denver, where he has embarked on a course of study in mechanical engineering, the year has not been a total loss in the motorsports department. He and his dad, Mike, have finished prepping a 2001 Subaru Impreza for ARA stage rally competition. Also, early this summer he attended a DirtFish rally school, and “I have a racing simulator in my room that I use to practice with or just to have fun,” he reports during a midsummer telephone conversation.
The DirtFish rally school — a two-day course in the rally-prepared Subaru he and his dad plan to share in stage rally competition — was probably the highlight of the summer, Jacob notes. “It was amazing,” he says. “The instructors — Mitch Williams and Michelle Miller — were fantastic. They made my own course, since I had a two-day private session. We just ran the course over and over and over and over again, letting me get a feel for the car and how it works and how it responds to things, since I hadn’t really driven it with the cage installed and with all of the other new things we added.”
Just being in the car with an instructor helped a lot, Jacob adds. “I learned you don’t have to go 110 percent all the time,” he admits. “You have to conserve the car over the course of the rally. You can’t win if you don’t finish.”
And because in their initial stage rally outings Dad will be piloting the Impreza, Jacob’s DirtFish curriculum included a classroom session on pace notes. “Dad will do the driving first [and] I will begin next year,” Jacob explains.
Back to RallyCross. If his 2020 SCCA season has been something of a disappointment because of the coronavirus pandemic, 2018 offered a great introduction to the sport, and 2019 was a blast in terms of Continental Divide Region’s competition, Jacob notes. In 2019, he was able to run eight of the Region’s 11 RallyCross events, and he finished second overall in Modified AWD.
He began his RallyCross career “maybe a week after I got my [drivers] license in 2018,” he explains. “It was kind of a learner day the first day and then a race day the day after that. That’s how it all began.”
As an additional 2019 laurel, it turns out Jacob also finished ahead of his dad, Mike Despain, in the Continental Divide Region’s Modified AWD class.
“In his first year, I was faster than he was,” the senior Despain notes, “but with practice and racing games, he did much better in 2019. He finished second and I finished sixth.”
Jacob’s best weekend last year occurred midway through the season at I-76 Speedway outside Fort Morgan, Colo., Jacob recalls. “It was a two-day event, Saturday and Sunday,” he says. “Saturday’s event was held in the afternoon and at night, which was really fun. The next day was my very first first-place position.”
What does he love about RallyCross? “Oh, man,” Jacob exclaims after stating that every aspect of the sport is fun, “I just love that on one run you kind of slide around the cones, and on the next run you’re super precise, and you shave four seconds off your time. It’s the most satisfying thing ever.”
“Jacob is extremely enthusiastic about RallyCross, to the point that he borrowed a race suit from me for his yearbook photos,” observes fellow Continental Divide Region member and three-time RallyCross National Champion Bret Hunter. “He isn’t just fast; he is super-fast. All of my interactions with him make me feel like he is a really good kid who is extremely passionate about racing. He is about to start stage rally, and it will be great to watch him progress.”
What do Jacob’s friends and classmates think about his passion for RallyCross? “They ask me about it all the time,” Jacob says. “They ask me how it’s going — they think I can really go big with this.”
What’s next? Where does he go from here? Well, Jacob says, “First, it’s school.” And then, after that, he will fit in as many RallyCross and stage rally events as he can, and perhaps with a bit of luck, even a hill climb or two (maybe even Pike’s Peak one day), with an aim to eventually developing a professional career in stage rallying.
“I’d like to try Solo,” he adds. “I really want to. I’ve never been to an event, but people seem to have a lot of fun, and at RallyCross events, we often see cars that do autocross, too.”
When we last checked in on the Hoosier Racing Tire Super Tour, SCCA’s premier road racing series was holding court in California at Buttonwillow Raceway Park. After nearly a month’s respite, the Hoosier Super Tour is back in action March 19-21 on the other side of the continent at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, during an event hosted by SCCA’s Atlanta Region.
This will be the fourth of 10 race weekends on the 2021 Hoosier Super Tour schedule. A glorious 2.54-mile, 12-turn circuit dripping with motorsport lore will be the battleground starting 8 a.m. Friday with 20-minute practice sessions for all eight race groups. The back half of Friday then sees 25-minute qualifying for each of those groups.
Saturday morning delivers a second qualifying opportunity of 15 minutes for challengers before racing starts at 10:50 a.m. local time. Then it’s 25-minute races for each group right through the day’s end. On Sunday, 35-minute or 17-lap races again face drivers with action starting at 8:25 a.m. and rolling right through the late afternoon.
Big Fields for Road Atlanta
The entry list for Hoosier Super Tour’s stop this year at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta looks to include upwards of 370 competitors across 27 different car classes! That is a fantastic turnout which will likely produce tremendous battles throughout the eight race groups on Saturday and Sunday.
With 70 entries each, be sure to keep an eye on the Spec Racer Ford Gen3 (SRF3) and Spec Miata (SM) classes. The SRF3 field includes top talent from east of the Rockies, including a handful of former SCCA National Championship Runoffs winners. The exact same can be said of the SM field, which will also include current SM Runoffs champion Preston Pardus in the No. 12 Mazda Miata.
Super Touring Lite (STL), contained within Race Group 1, has 25 entries and will be another class likely to generate excitement over the weekend. Two-time STL Runoffs champion Danny Steyn will be one to watch in the No. 9 Mazda MX-5 car, but he’ll have plenty of competitors gunning for him.
Another fun field will be B-Spec in Race Group 7 with 21 entries. Always willing to rub fenders a bit, the tenacious group includes a couple former Runoffs winners, as well as defending B-Spec national champion Riley Salyer in the No. 22 Chevrolet Sonic. Don’t lose track of this battle on both race days as the fight will likely come right down to the finish line.
There will certainly be some wonderful racing found in the open-wheel classes, too. Formula 500, Formula Vee and Formula F are almost always likely to produce some action. And with 19 cars entered, Formula Enterprises 2 could produce fireworks in the final race group of each day.
Second Round of GT-3 Challenge
The second competition weekend of the 2021 GT-3 Challenge presented by MPI is part of the Hoosier Super Tour at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. The series, which is boosting participation in the GT-3 class, is supported by Mazda, Max Papis Innovations, Penske Racing Shocks, Hoosier Racing Tire, Goodyear Tire and Ave Motorsports.
Included in the GT-3 field this weekend is former GT-3 Challenge champion Jeff Dernehl driving his No. 62 Mazda RX-7 racecar. It’s possible defending GT-3 Challenge champion Paul Young might be in the mix, too, but running a borrowed No. 44 Honda Civic instead of his Challenge-winning Ford Probe. Of course, also keep an eye on the No. 47 Mazda RX-7 of Stacy Wilson who won both GT-3 races last year during the Hoosier Super Tour weekend at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Welcome Back Spectators
Indeed, the Hoosier Super Tour weekend at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta is open to spectators! There’s lots of space to keep socially distanced while watching on-track excitement, but be sure to bring and wear facial covering — especially when visiting the paddock and food vendors where facial coverings are required for SCCA events.
Spectator tickets may be purchased from Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for $30 each for the 3-day event; $25 for Saturday and Sunday; $20 for either Saturday or Sunday; $15 for Friday only. The prices for participating car club members, or those with valid student ID are $25, $20, $15, and $10 respectively. SCCA members, retired military (including family), and active military (including family) will be admitted free of charge with appropriate identification.
Oh, and don’t forget that SCCA Atlanta Region weekends conducted at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta also offer track tours for the general public during Saturday’s lunch break. Drive your street car on the circuit, but everyone in the car must sign an insurance waiver, and speeds are controlled by a pace car leading the group. The cost is a mere $20 per car and offers a completely different perspective on Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Can’t make it out this weekend? Hoosier Super Tour fans can still follow the action live, online at SCCA.com/Live or click the banner on the front of SCCA.com to access live timing and scoring, live video and qualifying/race calls supplied by Hoosier Super Tour Radio.
For all the event information, including schedule, entry list, results and more, visit the Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta Hoosier Super Tour event page here.
