BRCC Rally Team Crushes Season-Opener Rally in the 100 Acre Wood
According to Henry Ford, “[a]uto racing began 5 minutes after the second car was built.” Dave Carapetyan, founder of Rally Ready Driving School, echoed Ford’s sentiment as he described exactly what rally is.
“Rally is the original form of auto racing,” Carapetyan said. “Before race tracks, there were city-to-city races; a gentleman’s race, if you will. But rally has grown into the most awesome and absurd thing you can do with two hands and two feet; from basically going sideways on narrow public roads, to driving all kinds of terrain that might not have existed 24 hours before when you did your recon drive.”
Black Rifle Coffee Company’s Rally team didn’t exist in November 2021, yet here they are, a full cast of the most talented and unique characters anyone could ask for: the reigning American Rally Association champ, Travis Pastrana; the current fastest Brit, Tom Williams; everyone’s favorite survivor, Mike Glover; action sports legend Bucky Lasek; and “some old dude with a crusty Subaru” (his words), Dave Carapetyan. This rally team competed against 94 other teams that featured notable names like Ken Block, Tyler Ptacek, and Brandon Semeneuk at the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood.
“It’s really cool to see everyone come together and share resources,” Carapetyan said. “Overall, the 100 Acre Wood Rally was a huge success [for our team].”
The Rally in the 100 Acre Wood took place Friday, March 18, and Saturday, March 19, in the Mark Twain National Forest and adjacent Dent and Washington counties in Missouri.
Photo by David Reardon/Black Rifle Coffee Company.
Unlike with a racetrack and its pit, the rally drivers are responsible for storing their cars at their hotels or Airbnbs. In the case of BRCC’s Rally team, it meant maneuvering down a super skinny driveway with a semi — in other words, a recipe for disaster. After a mishap with the trailer that resulted in a crane being called at 2 a.m. to lift the semi out of a lake, plus five hours of work to reset the hydraulics and get the trailer open, the team got their cars to the starting line of the race with minutes to spare.
“It’s just so appropriate that our first event would be 100% trial by fire,” Carapetyan said.
Photo by David Reardon/Black Rifle Coffee Company.
The race results were as follows:
Travis Pastrana: fourth overall and fourth in class O4WD
Tom Williams: fifth overall and first in class RC2
Dave Carapetyan: ninth overall and first in class LN4
Bucky Lasek: 12th overall and fourth in class LN4
Mike Glover: DNF
“There’s nothing more disappointing than a DNF [did not finish], but that’s part of the process,” Carapetyan said. “Sometimes you DNF because you missed a corner, or the car loses a bolt or spark plug, or you blast through a deep-water crossing — which we don’t have the resources to do like some of the larger teams — but in some cases, like ours, its still unknown what caused Glover’s car to DNF.”
“It’s the most annoying and cliche phrase, but you’ll hear it a hundred times a day during an event,” Carapetyan said. “When things don’t go as planned, the response is just, ‘shrug,’ that’s rallying.”
Photo by David Reardon/Black Rifle Coffee Company.
“This was a really special event, as my first proper stage rally,” Carapetyan said. “It was so great to kick of the season with an entourage of some of the best people we’ve been able to work with. It’s just really, really cool. I’ve been friends with Bucky [Lasek] for seven years, and being able to bring him along on this rally journey and getting to hug him in between stages is just so fun.”
Photo by David Reardon/Black Rifle Coffee Company.
“Our dream team of superstars performed exceptionally well throughout the rally,” Paul Pacillas, BRCC senior motor sports manager, said. “They stared some early adversity right in the eyes while grabbing another gear and sending it flat-out through the 100 Acre Woods. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited to see what the rest of this season brings. We brought home two class wins, and I couldn’t be more proud of everyone who helped make this happen.”
Where to find the team next: Carapetyan and Glover head to Mexico for the Rally of Nations, April 1-3, 2022.
