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.

2004 Raindrop

This was where we started last year, so this was the beginning of our second season. Raindrop is a nice tidy little rally held on one day usually just a hour's drive from Seattle. Unfortunately neither Benson or I was on our game, both of us were feeling under the weather a bit. We ran with the Curta and the Rally Odo but that didn't help much. We salvaged a third but really weren't too happy about it.

2004 Thunderbird

Finally....Thunderbird, the rally I've heard so much about. Thunderbird is one of the oldest rallies in north America, held in British Columbia in the middle of winter. The rally covers approximately 400 miles of snow-covered backroads. This event was one of the most challenging and most fun rallies I've done. We had a little of everything, deep snow, steep grades, fog, snow, and ice. If you ever want to really perfect your snow driving this is a great way to do it. I'm proud to say we only had one "off" with no damage. One stage was actually on a ice-racing course on a frozen lake. I can't recommend this event enough - go do it if you can!

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!