Just waiting for Chad right now to pick me up to head down to 100 Acre Wood/Trespasser’s Will Rally down in Salem, MO.
Should be fun, this was one of my favorite rallies that I drove myself when i was driving, now it’ll be fun to be back codriving. I’m hoping for some fast gravel, but rain/mud looks to be what to expect the most of (that’s OK too). Both of us are hoping for no snow!
-Jay
edit: I forgot the website - www.100aw.org or as always you can check www.rally-america.com for updates.
Since the photog’s can’t seem to remember to only take pictures of the co-driver side of my car, I took advantage of the near 60 degree temps today and painted the new door and fender.
The bad (and good) news is that I ran out of paint. Bad because I didn’t quite get two full coats, but good because now we get to pick a new color after my next roll.
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.
Wow! What an event. It was a long, cold, icy weekend, but in the end it was a great event.
It started out like always, with little issues causing concern. Tech found a front wheel bearing that was starting to go, so we watched that all weekend, hoping it didn’t get loose enough to fail. Then, changing tires before Parc Expose, I noticed grease all over the hub. The clamp on the outer CV had fallen off. Luckily, the service crew (thanks Brent & Jose) was able to wrap some safety wire around the boot and it held all weekend.
The event started out great. My goal was to take it easy to feel out the grip. Stage 1 went well, I passed one competitor who was stuck, and ended up setting the 2nd fastest time in class. Then on Stage 2, I hit the brakes too hard coming into a tight corner at the end of a long straight, killed the engine, and shot through the corner into a snowbank trying to upshift to get it to restart. The car stopped about a foot short of a large tree and was BURIED in the snowbank. Some spectators came over to dig out the car, but it wasn’t moving. It took a few minutes for Jay to run the triangle up the hill we’d slid down and get the tow strap out, but eventually we got it and Billy Mann tugged on us until we were free. We ended up losing ~10 minutes and dropped to the back of the field.
The next stage was “The Ranch”. It’s a narrow road that turns into a jeep trail halfway through. It’s only plowed for the rally, so we didn’t have our normal stage notes and had to rely on notes our competitor, Chris Greenhouse & Don DeRose, wrote during recce. I really enjoyed the rough stage, and once again scored the 2nd fastest time.
Stage 4 was another reminder that this was my first snow event. I came into a corner just a little too hot and slid up on a snowbank, high-centering the car. There were no spectators at this corner, so we had to wait for the next car to pull us out. Another car went by while we were getting strapped in, and then he spun into a snowbank, blocking the road. By the time we pulled him out, there were two cars waiting behind us. I pulled over to let one by, then spun out a little further on and the second car went by while I got the car turned around. All in all, it was a disastrous stage.
At service, the crew knocked all the snow out of the wheels & put on the lights for the night stages. I set a new goal of not stuffing it the rest of the night, and backed way off, braking before the icy sections leading into the corners. It worked, and what felt like my slowest stage ended up being a class best. I felt I learned a lot on Friday, and while I was hoping for something better than fourth place, I was happy to finish and have a chance at redemption on Saturday.
That way all of our fans can check us out. I’m guessing we can try for wireless at night somewhere if we get time, but it’d be nice to have a way to do it with a cell phone. I’ll have to check that out.
I got sick of working on the rally car last weekend, so I took my WRX out to the ice rallyx with Fox Valley Sports Car Club on Lake Winnebago.
It was a great event. Just enough snow to make the course easy to follow, not enough to get stuck if you missed a corner. Plus the moon was full and bright.
The tires:
~120 1″ Grade 8 bolts each, sharpened with a snowmobile stud sharpener.
Turns out the noise coming from the front end was bad spherical bearings. The right LCA rear bearing and both strut top bearings were loose. I ordered up some teflon tops from Burmeister, and have a spare LCA to toss in, so hopefully that fixes it up.
The good news is that I didn’t have to remove the struts from the spindles, so hopefully it will be easy to get it realigned.
I finally got around to working on the brakes today. Rebuilt & bench bled both master cylinders. The pedal is now nice and stiff, and holds steady, even before bleeding the corners. I also finally did some calculations on what the braking bias was. It was at 60-40, I adjusted it to 65-35, and bought some extra hardware so I can take it to 70-30 if I need to.
Now to decide if I do the springs next, or the new transmission.
I finally did some work on the rally car today. It took a little modification, but I was able to install a 120A alternator from an Audi A4. As a bonus, it auto-excites, so I no longer have to rev up the car when I start it to get it to start charging. We shouldn’t have any problems running the lights now.
