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Back Together Again – in Blythe
The reunion of Rally pros Lauchlin O'Sullivan and Scott Putnam at the 2010 Desert Storm Rally produces good times – and a win – with their Lucas Oil-sponsored Subaru WRX.
SUBENET IN-CAR VIDEO! What's it like to go 116 MPH down a gravel road? Find out as you ride along with Lauchlin and Scott as they flat-out on Wiley's Well, the fastest stage of the event! 
They came, they saw, they conquered.
BLYTHE, CALIFORNIA
It might be a little overstated to compare rally competitors Lauchlin O'Sullivan and co-driver Scott Putnam to the Roman warriors of old, but they did dispatch the competition at the 2010 Desert Storm Rally with a mighty performance.
"I think things went amazingly well, and I really couldn't have asked for anything more," said O'Sullivan, the driver of the Lucas Oil-sponsored Subaru, who luckily got to celebrate the Desert Storm Rally win and St. Patrick's Day all in the same week. "Both days we finished first overall and we didn't sustain any damage. The desert is a very demanding environment to drive a car, particularly given how fast some of the stages were, and how rough others were." 
In fact, during one stage, O'Sullivan and Putnam and their Vermont Sports Car-owned and prepared Subaru WRX were too fast. O'Sullivan said having time deducted for that reason was a first for him and his long rally career. 
"It was a 10-mile stage and we averaged 83 miles-per-hour, with a top speed of 116 miles-per-hour! They had to pull our time down when they realized the stage was way too fast. And keep in mind we achieved that 116-mph mark in a stock-engine, Group N car, not even a true Open class car. So some adjustments will probably have to be made there before next year's rally."
Veteran co-driver Scott Putnam knew some adjustments would have to be made from his seat as well, seeing as how it's been two years since he and O'Sullivan had last been paired in a rally car.
"There were really two big challenges to overcome," recounted Putnam, who is the fleet sales manager for Morries Subaru in suburban Minneapolis when he's not racing in them. "The first is that rally drivers have to retrain themselves to assimilate the pace notes if they haven't competed in a while because the language – ‘caution, jump into right 2 tightens, don't cut' – is so different. The second challenge, unique to Desert Storm, is that there are so few defining features on some of the roads."
The subject of pace notes is an interesting one, and they haven't always been around. When O'Sullivan first started competing it was in so-called "blind rally" events, where the instruction amounted to, "Go down this road for two miles and take a right." It's obviously a lot more sophisticated today, and a whole lot faster as well. 
"It's amazing how quick you can go when you're on the notes and you're clicking with your co-driver, says O'Sullivan, who previously paired with co-driver Scott Putnam in the Rally America national championship series. "I always tell Scott it would probably take me three full events to get back to where I was when I was a full-time factory driver. Because like every other form of motorsport, seat time is what rallying is all about."
"It didn't take very long for us to get back in sync," recounts Putnam of the Desert Storm Rally win. "From then on it was just a matter of managing our rally, and we did, all the way to the top of the podium."
One of the things they did to manage the rally, was slow down. No, not so they would get docked any more time, that was an anomaly, but rather to save the car. A Subaru that belongs, by the way, to Vermont Sports Car, the same stable that prepares the factory rally rides for the likes of Travis Pastrana and Dave Mirra.
"There are some massive washes out there," said O'Sullivan, referring to the 109 special stage miles they racked up in the Sonora Desert. "The roads take you into the wash and it would be like this big ridge going in. But once the car is in there, there's a big wall coming out of it as you go back up the ‘ramp.' That's the stuff we slowed down for and crawled through. Plus there are a lot of cliffs and berms and you have to keep it really straight and tidy."
"Everyone wants war stories after an event, but I really don't have one for Desert Storm," said an obviously pleased Putnam. "There wasn't a wheel placed wrong the entire weekend, and no moments of anxiety. It was all just a pleasure." There was a moment, however, in the turnaround area at the end of stage 3 when crew chief Graham "Whiskers" Evans wanted to remind the guys they had some strong competition. O'Sullivan explains. "Whiskers relayed our stage times and just wanted to let us now we had some other rally competitors who were out there really attacking the course. My reply to that was, ‘I'm trying to play it smart, trying to take care of the car.'"
There is plenty of care being given to a car during a rally. A typical service will involve pulling wheels, inspecting brakes, re-torquing suspension bolts, inspecting fluids, inspecting and/or changing tires and cleaning the windows. Often times though, there are more serious repairs required such as swapping radiators, turbos, struts, control arms and headlights. Fortunately, none of those more serious repairs had to be done at Desert Storm for the Lucas Oil Subaru.
"I think we hit a rock with a wheel once, but that was about the worst of what happened to us," said O'Sullivan, a former factory driver and professional rally winner. "We actually did spend a lot of time watching for rocks, which is why you can't attack every corner at 95%. Since we were starting stages first, and clearing the rocks for everyone else, we had to be careful. We were comfortable with our speed, and it was enough to win and it went really well."
Since O'Sullivan and Putnam hadn't been together in a rally car for two years, both said prior to the rally "they just wanted to do their best." Obviously their best was good enough.
"We had a down and back stage on the second day of the rally that was just sublime," Putnam said, smiling at the memory. "Everything was working, the car was great, Lauchlin and I were in sync, we could see around the corners and know there wasn't any danger lurking. It was one of those rare times in rallying where you really could just relax and enjoy the moment."
For his part, O'Sullivan enjoyed every moment. "To jump in a car for the first time, merely change the position of the seat, then go out and feel comfortable in it right away, is a beautiful thing. The camaraderie and the sense of community that's so strong in the sport of rallying is also a beautiful thing, and I sort of forget that when I'm not around it for a while. Of course, being in the car – and winning – is just about the greatest feeling in the world and I love that, too. I can't wait to see what the future holds."
