RallydriveUSA-Spring 2009
The first ever finals of RallydriveUSA were held on Saturday April 11th, 2009.

Here is the press release from European Rally School whom hosted the Ralllydrive USA competition:

RallydriveUSA-Spring 2009 Final 8
Kyle Robertson, Juan Cardozo, Blake Fuller, Nathanial Sparks, Gary Donohue, Josh Sher, Pierre Uteschill, Patricio Franulic
All 8 finalists had to go through the previous two rounds and nearly 60 competitors to get to the finals. The favorites of the final 8 were Nathanial Sparks, Patricio Franulic, Gary Donohue and Blake Fuller. Their times on the first two rounds were impressive.

The final 8 had to prove themselves over 3 special stages consisting of: tarmac, gravel and forest. A RWD Miata was the car used for the tarmac stage, a FWD Lancer was used for the gravel stage, and a VW Golf was used for the forest stage.

The first stage was 4 miles of tarmac. This was where the first upset came. Nathanial Sparks damaged the rear of the Miata when he hit the wall coming out of the corner. According to the rules given to the finalists, DNF’d (Did Not Finish). Gary Donohue took it steady, dropping 9 seconds to the fastest time. Blake Fuller was the fastest with 3min 49seconds. Juan Cordozo also dropped a lot of time here. Josh Sher was second fastest with 3min 50secs.

The second stage was 3.5 miles of twisty gravel. Patricio Franulic was quickest here beating Blake by one second. Gary Donohue was one second back and also picked up a 5 second penalty for cutting a corner. Kyle Robertson dropped time here.

The third and final stage was a very fast forest stage. The scene was set: Blake had a 2 second lead over Patricio, so Patricio had to pull out all stops. To no avail, Blake took fastest time 3min 52secs, Patricio did 3min 54secs, Gary did 3min 59secs, Juan took 4min 3secs, Josh Sher took 4min 4secs, Pierre Uteschill 4min 7secs, and Kyle Robertson 4min 11secs.

Blake Fuller wins the fully funded drive on Rally TN, a two day tarmac rally which is also a round of ARC and USRC, on May 21st to 24th, 2009. Second and third runners up received Rally Jackets and all Final 8 received ERS t-shirts.
Final Overall Results.
1. Blake Fuller 13min 20secs.
2. Patricio Franulic 13min 24secs.
3. Josh Sher 13min 40secs.
4. Gary Donohue 13min 41secs.
5. Pierre Uteschill 13min 48secs.
6. Kyle Robertson 14min 4secs.
7. Juan Cardozo 14min 11secs.
8. Nathanial Sparks DNF.

The next Rallydrive USA starts in September 2009, the prize will be a FULLY FUNDED drive on Sandblast Rally 2010. See http://www.rallydriveusa.com for details.

I would like to thank all the competitors for entering, I am sure they all learned a lot and took some valuable experience from Rallydrive USA.

Congratulations Blake Fuller!
You are “The Best New Rally Driver in America”!