Co-driver for car #163.
Cindi Carlson
From Minnesota, and lives in Colorado since 2012
IG: @cindi005
In Cindi's own words
"People often ask me how I got into rally. It kind of tracks back to 2019, even though Drew and I participated in ice racing and Audi Club events, it wasn’t until then that my work had started a bucket-list sponsor program and announced they would contribute to one person’s bucket list per quarter. I told Drew I wanted to ride in a rally car, and he insisted I drive one instead. A few months later, my name was drawn, and I was off to DirtFish!!!"
"A couple of years later, after Drew had met Kubo and the gang, we were invited to participate in rallycross. We were immediately hooked! It snowballed from there, and I was now studying at OZ Rally Pro, Bridgestone Winter Driving School, and co-driving for hillclimb as well."
"Rally CO ’23 was my first stage rally. There were several lessons I learned from it, but one was to make sure I was properly fitted for the seat, and also that rally can have very real consequences. After the flying finish of our 3rd stage (Presser), we left the roadway and ended up about 20 feet down an embankment."
"I don’t have complete recollection of what happened, but after two weeks in the hospital, I left with a walker, an external fixator holding my shattered pelvis together, and a whole outpouring of love from the rally community. Bill, my driver, was extracted from the car with serious injuries as well; thankfully, he was let home even sooner than I was."
"A couple of months later, Drew co-drove for Kubo, and since I wasn’t in any shape to road trip yet, I followed along watching the live timing from home. Amazingly, after both days they finished 1st overall. At that point I was so excited and told Kubo I really wanted to co-drive for him too once I healed up."
"Another couple of months went by, and I felt up to making the trip to Potosi/Salem for Show-Me ’23 as Kubo and Drew were going to try to continue their luck. If it weren’t for a couple more surgeries in front of me, I may have tried getting back at it myself, but I hung out serving as official snack manager for the team."
"As I was preparing to get lunch, my phone started pinging me, and I was alerted by Drew’s watch that they had been in an accident. It’s hard to reconcile that rolls and crashes are common (and surprisingly uneventful even) in rally with the fact that I had just endured an incredibly traumatic accident myself, so I was left wondering how bad it was."
"As the minutes went by, my concern grew. Almost 10 minutes later, I received a response that Drew was ok, but Kubo was hurt; how bad, we didn’t know yet. An agonizing 30 or more minutes went by, and I got a call from Drew that we lost Kubo, and I fell to the ground in shock. It’s everybody’s worst nightmare. In an already awful year, it got even worse."
"It would’ve been so easy to give up after that- we had those conversations and collectively grieved with the whole rally family. Was it worth it? What about our plans to race together as a husband/wife team?"
"After months of therapy, tears, and feeling the community has our backs, we decided to build a silly car in honor of a silly person. Kubo will love it, and hate it at the same time. 😂 We were invited to go back to DirtFish and ease back into a race car (from the kindness of DirtFish and Oz Rally Pro), and a short 9 months after my crash, I was thrust back into a co-driving role for Andy Didorosi at 100AW ’24."
"Nothing has felt so much like home. Since that first race back, I have essentially packed my schedule with races, and I can’t wait to race our new build with Drew."
For more stories in Face of OTR 2025: https://www.apexiel.com/user/thread/7JF4Cwpb6jm7reUlVbH0
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