Bonding takes on a new meaning in the Hanson family.
Father Terry and son Travis spend quality time together while careening around curves, blowing radiators, spinning out, getting stuck in snowdrifts and crossing finish lines under a champagne salute. The duo are beginning their second season as Team Hanson Racing, competing in the Rally America circuit's Production GT class. This class is a category below professional racers and their car has a stock motor plus an exhaust and suspension upgrade.
Driver Travis and co-driver, mostly navigator Terry piloted their Subaru WRX Impreza to a second place finish in the Sno*Drift Rally, held January 26-27 in Atlanta, Mich. This was their second attempt at a rally they used to enjoy watching as spectators.
Launching themselves into the fray for the 2007 season, the pair finished 14th overall out of 50 racers in all classes after traversing 16-17 off-road segments of between three miles and 24 miles each.
"It's quite a bit different from street driving,” said Terry, the service manager at Traverse Motors. "It's all attitude on how he takes the corners.”
The $2,000 purse won is but a small drop in the bucket of many expenses for their team, which includes repairs, tools, equipment, new tires at $140 each after every two races, drums of racing fuel, travel to and lodging at multi-day rallies and so on.
The team completes a lot of the labor for repairs themselves, Travis becoming quite handy at body work under the tutelage of Olson's Auto Body in Traverse City, one of their sponsors. Other local sponsors include
TranTek Automation and Cherry Capital Subaru.
The aim, of course, is to require less body work as Travis progresses in skills as a driver, a goal already bearing fruit this year.
"Bumper covers are pretty cheap but we just want to stay away from roofs and quarter panels,” said Terry. "As crazy as it might sound, I'm spending my retirement and my son's inheritance right now, but we're doing it together.”
The Hansons will head to Missouri later this month for a three-day race in the Rally America circuit, which includes ten events in the National Championship series. The first day in Missouri will be a reconnaissance of the route, an unusual happening in rallying where teams usually figure things out as they go using a detailed rally book and on-board computer.
"The biggest challenge is keeping up with the driver and getting instructions to him fast enough,” said Terry, noting that the team plans to complete the other eight races on the circuit this year, an endeavor that will take them all over the country. "Our goal is to be in the top three for the year, which is really very tough.”
Travis, a 2003 graduate of Traverse City Central High School and a senior at Kettering University in Flint, completed the four-day school a year ago at the Team O'Neil Rally School in New Hampshire. He so impressed the staff there that he is back through April as an instructor completing both a co-op requirement and a senior thesis for his school.
"We still consider ourselves beginners, competing against people who've been doing this for years,” said Travis, a mechanical engineering major. "Sure, we could keep improving for a long time, who knows where it could go?”
Team Hanson also includes a small crew of one or two people who help them at every event, changing tires, making repairs and generally pitching in where needed. These volunteers are a huge help during rallies, which cover between 700-1,500 miles over multiple days, depending on the event.
"My favorite part is the whole team element: nothing gets done by one person,” noted Travis. "We don't finish a race by just me driving a car, it's my dad with the notes and instructions and the crew that's keeping me in the car.”