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Greenhouse battles icy roads & treacherous conditions at Sno*Drift Rally

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Photo by Elliott Sherwood

Chris Greenhouse and co-driver Phil Marsh took on the best two-wheel-drive rally teams in the US at Sno*Drift Rally, but came up short of a National podium finish after a mechanical problem on day 2 of the rally.

Sno*Drift is the season opener of the RallyAmerica National Championship series, and is held in Montmorency County, Michigan, USA, and it featured no fewer than 67 entries from all parts of the world. Studded tires are prohibited at Sno*Drift Rally, and the difficult conditions tested the drivers as the stages had a mixture of snow, sand, gravel and lots of glare ice. “Our recce notes were crucial this year,” said Chris. “It was very important to note the areas that had thawed and turned to gravel. It was equally important to note the icy areas and slow down appropriately.” Chris and Phil stayed mostly clean on Day 1, recording only one puncture near the end of Stage 5. Their fast but cautious approach kept them in a 4-way battle for second place at the end of Day 1, and they handily took their first Group 2 Regional class win of the year.

Overnight snow covered some of the exposed gravel on Day 2, but the team suffered a setback on the first leg of Day 2, after a minor run-in with a snow bank broke a CV shaft. “It was entirely my fault,” said Chris. “I bumped a snow bank that had some gravel and dirt in it, and even though we were going slow, we broke the left CV joint in two. That was on Stage 15, and it meant that we had to run Stages 16 and 17 with only one-wheel-drive. It took us 4 minutes to climb the first hill on SS16. In fact, we needed help from some marshals and fans to push the car up the icy slope. One little mistake from me was all it took to end our bout for a National podium finish.” After the crew quickly repaired the damage at service, Chris and Phil then went out to battle back for some Regional points. They pressed hard and once again displayed their perseverance as they came from behind to take yet another Regional Group 2 win, although they could only muster a fifth place finish in 2WD National. The Weasel RallySport team finished the event with a double Group 2 Regional win and Chris is now the Central Region Group 2 points leader.

The team will be back in action at Rally in the 100 Acre Wood in Salem, Missouri, USA in February. Chris and the Weasel RallySport Team would like to thank EBC Brakes, MadDog STS, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Angry Sheep Motorsports, Silco Fire Protection, Modern Performance and JayRacing.com for their continued support.

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