2003 Totem

2003 Totem was the last event for the PCC. We had a solid second place in the championship, but needed to consolidate and not screw anything up. Totem has become the first of two great snow rallies in the PNW. It's held in November in the British Columbia interior, east of Vancouver.

2003 Night on Bald Mountain

In October, we were back to the fall classic: Night on Bald Mountain. As this years event was not part of the PCC, we opted to run in the equipped class and run the Curta. NoBM is a gravel event, starting in the early evening near Olympia. The rally finishes around 11pm after traversing various back country dirt roads. This time however we were not the only ones out there, as this was during the beginning of hunting season there were lots of hunters driving and camped along the roads. Combine this with pea-soup like fog and rain it was a challenging event. The Curta proved to be a strong ally, as our penalties per checkpoint were more than halved. It was not long before Benson could have entire stages pre-calc'd to all the NRI's. From there it was up to me to drove to the times. The only flaw was that we were still using the stock odometer, so we still had the navigation dificulties this offers like "when is the turn?" "in...uggg..aaa...pretty soon?!?". Benson and I really enjoyed NoBM as it was not far from home and felt like the right length. Since it was at night, we didn't feel like we were giving up our entire weekend for an event. With the night's challenges we were plenty glad to go home too! We also got some hardware for our effort as we took 2nd in equipped class.

2003 Wild West ProRally cont.

This is Mark Nelson in the Team Dynamics car - he did a helluva job on it! Mark was one of my instructors at the CRS Rally School.

2003 Wild West ProRally cont.

Glenn Wallace's Historic class Ford Cortina mkII sure is nice!

2003 Wild West ProRally cont.

This is Bruce and Lee's car.

2003 Wild West ProRally

My friend Lee was attempting to win the PGT ProRally national championship this year as a navigator and called on me to join the service crew for car #60. This was my first time working as a rally team member and it was a great learning experience. The amount of preparation, supplies and work and money that goes into running a rally car is staggering. Like most rally novices I thought the production classes would be simple: add cage and go rally. The #60 car was campaigned nationally that year, and had a full sized pick up full of spares, plus the trailer to tow the car. With only myself and one other to do the service (plus Lee and his driver Bruce) we had our hands full getting the car out on time in the FIA mandated 20min services. My job was typically to take the tires off and either change them or inspect them for cuts and then mount them. We used a Snap-On cordless impact drill - it's a MUST HAVE for a rally car. The logistics can be crazy for the teams as well. We had a park expose at a local college Friday night, followed by a parc ferme at another location over-night. We had a early morning start, with the last timed service before the park ferme at 10pm. I learned to take naps during the stages and be prepared for anything during service. I really have to thank Lee again for this awesome opportunity to see how a top flight PGT team is run. The car took second in class and Lee secured the national championship that weekend too!

2003 The Road Not Taken

This year, I reunited with my good friend Jon to repeat our performance from the previous year's running of TRNT. This year however we did it in my car, and Jon navigated for me, and TRNT was run in it's usual nighttime format. I picked Jon up at the Portland airport, and we headed down to the Rally HQ at the Spirit Lake casino in Grande Rhonde, OR. We change tires in the parking lot and took off into the mountains. TRNT is known for it's twisty, narrow and often steep roads over the mountainous coastal region of Oregon. We had no difficulties, but still the rally beat us bad. We only took away one point, which kept me in good standings for the PCC, but some of my competitors did well and extended their lead. This was unfortunately the last running of TRNT. It's was a great rally and I'll miss it. Both times I've run it, it's kicked my butt, but I wanted to get back and do it again as soon as possible!

#4 - we'll miss you!

I can't mention the '03 OTPR with out mentioning the tragedy that came to the #4 car. On the first stage on Saturday, the stage I was working on, Mark Lovell and Roger Freeman were the first cars out. Less than a mile in, they lost their lives in an awful shunt. There were no witnesses but it's understood both died instantly. Both men were in their 40's and had 20+ years of rally experience. Both were well respected and enjoying the new turn their careers had taken as team leaders for the Subaru Rally Team USA. The event was quite a shock for me, as this was only my second ProRally event, and my first as volunteer. The scene back at the next service was a somber one, the entire Subaru team packed up to go home. Several competitors did the same, citing a lack of commitment and concentration after such a horrible accident. The rally scene in the States hasn't been the same since. Although Subaru remained in the series for the season duration, they pulled out along with the archrivals, Mitsubishi. It was terrible timing for the sport, as it was just gaining momentum with increased television coverage and interest in the sport with the release of the US-Spec Impreza WRX and Lancer Evolution. That said, the rally community is a hardy lot and have shown to continue on regardless of the circumstances all to pursue the sport they love. Mark & Roger- we'll miss you!

2003 Oregon Trail ProRally

2003 Oregon Trail ProRally - After going to RIM, I decided to volunteer to be a Crowd Marshal at OTPR. It was great fun, as the spectators varied in experience with rallying but shared the enthusiasm. I also got to see my friend Lee, this time he was navigator in the #66 PGT car. Lee gave me a tour of the car and a review of his stage and the pace notes. The shear speed of the top factory cars was amazing. In the picture above, the top teams were doing nearly 90mph into that "easy left". I had a rock from their tires hit me from that position! OTPR is run by the Oregon Rally Association, check out their site for more information abut the Stage, TSD and Rally-X events they host.

2003 Coast to Coast Rally Cont.

The event was sponsored by Yokohama. We took first in our class (Paper) and won credit for two new tires of our choosing!

2003 Coast to Coast Rally Cont.

What a day - this late on Saturday - only four more hours to go! We finished at around 9pm - neither of us could barely speak we were so tired!

2003 Coast to Coast Rally

Oh Canada! The second event in the 2003 PCC series was the Island Rally Club's Coast to Coast Rally held on Vancouver Island, B.C. The event started in Courtney, returning there saturday night and finishing at Nanaimo on sunday. We drove over 400mi of smooth gravel roads all over the island. It was an amazing journey to say the least. If you ever get a chance to do C2C as it's called or even just go to the island for a drive - I highly reccomend it. For more information about rallying in British Columbia - take a look at www.rallybc.com

Gravel tires!!!

To get the gravel rally season started right - I purchased a set of Michelin FB80 competition rally tires. This was the best investment I could make. I justified it as "fun insurance". Less chance of cut tires and visits with the ditch!

2003 No Alibi Rally cont.

Water splash! No Alibi had lots of photographers on hand, combined with the great weather we had some great photos to shar with each other afterward. The event was good for us, but unfortunatly Benson and I were off the podium with a 4th in class and 22nd over all in SOP class. But it was a good start for the PCC.

2003 No Alibi Rally cont.

Sho' is!

2003 No Alibi Rally cont.

Is that a twister?

2003 No Alibi Rally

Now the Pacific Coast Championship begins in earnest with the Rainier Autosport Club's season opener - No Alibi. This is a great event, running all over central Washington on gravel back roads. Benson and I saw all sorts of animals, roads and weather conditions, including the squall infront of us in this pic. This stage lead us up and over a ridge that had just had at least an inch of rain fall on it in the previous hour. The mud pits were especially exciting. Have you ever driven through a chocolate milkshake? I have! No Alibi also re-united me with my friend Lee who was one of the first people to get me in to Rally. Lee has been rallying for many years in both TSD and Stage rallies and has given me all sorts of advice that has no doubt kept me out of trouble.

2003 Rim of the World Rally cont.

David Higgins wins again - on his way to a convincing win for the season.

2003 Rim of the World Rally cont.

Through a friend I was a guest of the Mitsubishi Rally Team - full access to the team, and and all the schwag and food I could snag!

2003 Rim of the World Rally

Rim of the World is the premier rally in the U.S. Held in desert and mountains northeast of Los Angeles, CA, Rim draws competitors from all over North America. This was my first time I had gone to a stage rally and when I got an invite to take my seat in a brand new Evo VIII and drive to the event from San Francisco as a guest of the Mitsubish Rally team, I couldn't resist. Rim runs friday night, and all day Saturday, ending early Sunday morning. Friday night we used our parking passes and got nice and close to the first stage start. Held in the mountains, we got on stage around 7pm, with a nice breeze blowing in the fog, and light rain. At 3000ft, it was pretty cold. This stage started on worn tarmac, and once darkeness fell it was an amazing sight to first hear the cars comming, then get blinded by their lights as they blasted past. This was the last year for the big factory teams from Subaru and Mitsubishi. It was really amazing to see the level of sophistication they bring to the sport with a full service crew. Watching them swap all four struts, and any other items inside a 20min service was pretty impressive.

2003 Raindrop Rally

Our first trophies - 2003 Raindrop Rally 2nd Place Novice Class. That's my navigator Benson, on the left. This was our first rally together and the beginning of a great season. PCC Championship – here we come!

TSD Gravel Rally Preparation

Before I could do my first gravel TSD, I had to get the car fully prepared to meet the safety and practical requirements of the events. Items installed include:

Aluminum front skid plate
Aluminum rear differential protector
Auxiliary driving lights - Hella FF200 w/custom mounts
Fire extinguisher - 10BC (5lb) with aviation horizontal mount
Navigator reading light - Hella with red lens
Competition gravel tires - 16" Michelin FB80 on OEM WRX wheels
First Aid kit
Safety Triangle
Tow Rope
Flashlights

Rally heaven in the Pacific Northwest!

In March, I moved to Seattle, one of the mecca’s of rallying in North America. I surfed the web to find out about every event I could find and vowed to attend as many as possible. It was then that I discovered the Pacific Coast Challenge – a four event series, consisting of brisk gravel TSD events in Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. I had to do this. A quick glance at the scores from 2002 showed that nobody competed in all four events. I figure that if I compete in all four I should at the least do reasonably well. But first I had to recruit a navigator, and my good friend and co-worker, Benson, was all over it. We identified our first event, the Raindrop Rally, a one day tarmac affair as a place to cut our teeth.