A story from the Sno*Drift Rally you didn't hear this weekend involves the Lauchlin O'Sullivan/Scott Putnam 2003 Mitsubishi Evo that finished second in the Super Production category Saturday night.

O'Sullivan, from San Francisco, and Putnam, from Minneapolis, both have considerable rally experience.

Lauchlin has been a rally driver for 10 years. In 2002 and 2003 he was a professional driver for Team Mitsubishi Motor Sports America, and the top American driver in the SCCA Pro Rally Championship.

Putnam's rally career started in 2001. He's even traveled to Finland for co-driver training. Putnam sold his first Subaru in May of 1988 and ever since, as he puts it, "I live, eat and breathe Subaru." He even manages the website Subaru.net where he sells Subarus and promotes the brand. So you get the irony here? How'd this team end up getting on the SP Podium in an Evo?

"It's a long story," Lauchlin said with a chuckle Saturday night.

The team finished fourth in Super Production last year. So they aren't novices at finding the category podium. But at the end of last year they wanted another Subaru for 2012.

They found the car, a late model Subaru body style, and were about to purchase it when the seller backed out of the deal at the last minute. On another path was California rally veteran George Plsek who found success purchasing the Mitsubishi Evo that Joseph Burke used for competition two years ago. Eventually Plsek and O'Sullivan cooked up a deal to rent Plsek's Evo for Sno*Drift and the "Subie" team was in awkward business.

The worst part of the deal came on Friday when the Evo's setup was so bad on Sno*Drift's icy roads that Lauchlin was ready to park it in a transit and return to the hotel to "go back to bed." Everything from the anti lag to the suspension fought O'Sullivan sometimes violently.

The crew, however, worked most of the night to rework the setup, change the anti lag and Saturday dawned a new day. The car kept getting faster until the O'Sullivan/Putnam crew climbed into second in SP on the last loop of stages.

"I feel like I'm cheating on my wife," Putnam said with a chuckle.

The crew is now second in SP points headed to the 100 Acre Wood Rally, the second round in the national championship, February 24-25.