As happens at most rallies, Saturday morning came way too early. Brent and Jose were up at 7 to make sure there weren’t any loose parts, add some gas to the car, and then we were off to Parc Expose. My focus for the day was avoiding the “red mist”, and the snowbanks it led to. After my “learning experience” Friday night, I’d been moved backwards in the start order, so I had some ground to make up. I knew from Friday’s times that I wouldn’t be able to catch Paul unless he stuffed it, so I just had to stay ahead of Greenhouse, Bushore, and Mann.

The first section was five stages, and would give us a good feel for how the day was going to go.

I started out too cautious, and we were in fourth after the first stage (SS9). Luckily Stage 10 was icy, and my patience paid off as I set the second fastest time. Stage 11 I missed a corner and went under the yellow banner tape. Backing up cost me almost 15 seconds, and I was fifth on the stage.
I scored a third and second on the final two morning stages, and was in second going into the service, with less than 20 seconds between me and the next two cars.

The afternoon stages started with the Superspecial.

The rule for superspecials is you can’t win the rally on them, but you can definitely lose it. I took it easy and ended up 5th, but held on to 2nd in the results.

We took another second place on SS15, even with a half spin and a snowbank after I completely ignored Jay’s three calls to turn right and set up to go left.

Stage 16 was the longest stage of the day. Fifteen miles of alternating fast and snowy and slow and icy. I was lucky to bounce off the snowbanks on the corners I came in too hot, and passed up four cars (one with mechanical problems, three in snowbanks). I scored another second and increased my lead on Greenhouse to 30 seconds.

The last stage before service was SS17. I lost some time pulling Greenhouse out of the snow, but his misfortune saw the gap grow to over three minutes on the new third place, Billy Mann. Paul Koll was still driving clean and fast, and after 8 stages had built an impressive six minute lead. He’d have to stuff it multiple times if I was going to beat him.

The car was running fine, until I pulled through the control and into our service area. I noticed a loud clunk from the front end as I was pulling into our service area. Brent and Jose quickly set about shaking wheels and checking bolts, trying to find the culprit. Finally, they figured out that one of the bolts on the front suspension had stripped. A new bolt fixed the problem, and we went out for the last group of stages.

Stage 18 was another run through the SuperSpecial. I think the video explains it well:

That mishap cut the gap to 20 seconds over Billy, so I had to focus on driving clean and fast on the final two stages.

Stage 20 was a highlight. The spectators had set up huge bonfires on the side of the road, and would throw gas on each fire as we passed. It was like being in a special effects stunt show, lots of fun. We ended up with the fastest time through the stage, and held on to second place for the day.

At the awards banquet, we won the drawing for a new set of Nokian snow tires from Dave Parps and Greer Enterprises, so we’ll have fresh shoes for next year!

All in all, it wasn’t a bad showing for my first snow event. It was often frustrating as we searched for grip on the icy surfaces, but also rewarding when we got it right, especially in the corners where we could tell so many other cars had got it wrong. I want to thank Jay for riding with me, my service crew, Brent and Jose, for braving the cold to keep my car running, and most of all the organizers and volunteers who made this a great event. A final thanks to the spectators who stood out in the cold to cheer us on. I was amazed by how many people came out to watch the cars.

Stay tuned for a highlight/blooper reel of all the stages.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 at 12:25 pm and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.