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.