2005 Thunderbird

Kathryn and I decide to make another run together, this time at one of the best rally's in all of North America: Thunderbird. This time the car is all sorted and we didn't need to call on Steve to patch us up. Kathryn re-acquainted herself to Mr. Curta and off we went. More awesome driving. We saw all sorts of treacherous driving from foggy twisties to mud and thin powder over sheet ice. We had the pleasure of planting the car twice into the snow bank, but both times the car just bounced back onto the road. No harm, no foul I say. Team Fugawi didn't have nearly the luck as in '04. Our last minute random novice team selection proved to be not so lucky. They were good, but went off the road in one stage collecting a max penalty. It was their first rally, and their FWD car was a bit of risk on those roads. But this was actually not our biggest disappointment. Our fearless leaders had a tough go as well and collected some unneeded points which left us out of the trophies as a team. No worries - we had a great time anyway at the BEST rally I've been to. If you get a chance, go to Thunderbird it's a great event!

2004 Totem

The fall B.C. classic Totem calls me north once again. This year I'm without my trusty navigator Benson, but find a very suitable replacement in Kathryn Hasnsen. Kathryne spends nearly every weekend participating in some form of motorsport from autocross to TSD and stage rally. Kathryn meets me at the rally start in Cache Creek, B.C. Everything's a go except my auxiliary driving lights - critical to a rally this late in the season. Fortunatly Kathryn's husband Steve is a very capable mechanic and we work up a nice jury rig that will get us through the rally with out incident. This is Kathryn's first rally using the Curta which adds a a new twist (pun intended) to the event for her. Kathryn catches on quick and we are off to running. Our scores were a bit scattered the first day but we do well in the second day and gain back some needed points. We finished out of the trophies. Considering this was a last minute effort and we have never run together this was a good result, plus we got to spend two whole days exploring the back roads of British Columbia! Great times, great friends and thanks to Kathryn - we stayed on course and on time!

2004 Wild West

My rally buddy from TSD rallying, Ron Sorem invited me to navigate him as the Slow Pace car for the Wild West ProRally. Ron has a late 80's Subaru RX hatch back, fully prepared for stage rally. As we were slow pace, we would be required to wear helmets but no firesuits, with that and my SCCA membership I was good to go. Ron and I drove over early in the morning and I soon realized how much effort goes into a ProRally. at 7am, 3hrs before the start the HAM radio was full of rally traffic by various folks pre-running and setting up the event. As slow pace, Ron and I's job was to be the first car to run the stage after Advance. Once we run, the stage is deemed "hot". We are followed by the Fast Pace car which runs 10 minutes behind us. As we are slow pace, we are to keep any eye out for stray spectators, and bad signage and banner tape marking off route areas. We are supposed to run at 70% rally speed. My job is to operate the Odo and call out the stage notes. Fast Pace runs at full rally speed behind us. Both cars carry Ham radios to alert each other and the rally organizers to any flaws or updates in the notes. This in turn can be given to the competitors to aid in their safe passage.

As this was my first time in the navigator seat in two years, and my first stage rally event I was pretty nervous. Calling the stage notes was not that hard as the notes were very similar to what we see in TSD rallies. The hard part was staying focused, and helping Ron stay focused as we had lots of Ham radio traffic to distract us. We had a mostly uneventful time both days and again I learned a LOT. Running as a slow or fast pace car is a great way to shakedown your car, or a new navigator as this was non-competitive, yet on the same roads as the rally but with out the entrance fee. There were actually two fast pace cars this year, both using it as a shakedown for the car and themselves. After running this event, I could see that I could navigate in a stage rally with more practice. I owe Ron a big thanks for this opportunity!!

2004 Dryad/Shitepoke Club Rally

I was asked to volunteer at the '04 Dryad ClubRally by some rally friends of mine. This was my first time working an event since the previous year's fateful OTPR. This time my job was to help work at the Arrival Time Control - this being the stop just before the actual stage start. It was fun as I was able to talk to each competitor and check their time cards in, as well as offer them any last minute advice about the stage. I didn't have my HAM radio yet, but sure wished I did. The high point was having a chance to drive the stage to deliver hamburgers to hungry workers down-stage. This was also a great opportunity to see what the competitors were bringing to a "small" ClubRally. I saw all sorts of cars - and since our stage was run twice, I could see first hand the damage and problems they encountered during the event. Only a few cars were knocked out of the event early, and all seemed to be having a great time.

2004 No Alibi

I didn't have a navigator lined up for this one, so I volunteered to work the event as a checkpoint worker. This was my first working a TSD event, and therefore my first time as checkpoint. I got my worker's route book and took off ahead of the rally by about 30 minutes and drove the event until I got to my prescribed location. I did the same on both days which worked well. Working the event was also fun and interesting. Fun because I got a lot of great roads to myself, and interesting to see how much work goes into running and designing a TSD. My worker routebooks were amazing - with special notes on how to shortcut the rally to make it to the next checkpoint ahead of the competitors. On top of that - the roads were amazing and the weather was excellent. Our overnight stop was in Clarkston, and we had some great roads on SE Washington. It was a bit tricky reading the notes on the passenger seat and operating the Odo myself, but I think I learned a lot too so it was well worth it.