Sunshine, Hail, Tornadoes. Oh My! 10,000 Lakes Rally 2016.

It was tough to get up at 8 o'clock after getting to bed at 2am, so coffee was needed first thing after the previous nights fun and games. As for breakfast; once bitten, twice shy. After my stomach gyrations on stage six, I vowed not to have a greasy breakfast. I played it safe with a visit to Caribou for coffee and some oatmeal before going down to the car. Everyone from Tower City Race team was there checking over the cars ready for the day. They had discovered that the night time landing at the big jump had not only flattened a tyre but bent both wheels so a wheel change was necessary otherwise it was unlikely we would have made it to Itasca service.
Even as we were driving to Itasca Adam wasn't happy. He was sure one of the boots on a CV shaft was worn and was going to take a look at it before we started and replace it if necessary.

Trailering car 50 up to Itasca service for the start of day two

We arrived at Itasca, de-trailered car 50 and immediately jacked up the Rabbit. The outer CV joint boot wasn't worn, it was ripped. I think there was a few other issues with it too, perhaps as a result of the landing at the jump. So the whole drivers side CV shaft was replaced before we headed out to the first stage.

Contemplating changing the CV shaft.

I left him to the task and took a stroll around the service park. Piotr Fetela was on his way out to the stages in his car. His crew had replaced the transmission overnight after the previous days failure. He was happy, he saw me and gave me a cheery wave as he headed out.
With the CV shaft replaced Adam was much happier as we headed out to the first stage of the day. Otterkill. This was the first stage I volunteered on last year. So I was a little familiar with some of its twists and turns. 

Otterkill, had been another busy stage for my hand signals to the driver, in fact my arm had got rather tired being held out in front of me all the time. Too many signals for Adam to follow. So we came up with a plan where I would leave him to navigate the 4's 5's and 6's himself. Whereas I would only signal curves of 3 and tighter, and crests only if there was a danger beyond them. This seemed to work, for we immediately started post the third fastest time on stages instead of fourth.
And what a stage the next one was! McKenzie Lake. The trail ran right along the shoreline of several lakes. At one point we passed by about 15 yards from a couple of fishermen in a boat. Then a few miles later the stage presented us with what must be the most gorgeous vista in the state of Minnesota. Surrounded by tree covered hillsides, we burst through a gap in the trees onto a causeway between two lakes. "L3 (between lakes) R3 L3 R3-lg" reads the instruction, but I was so taken with the view I forgot to call them. Adam was taken with the scenery too. It was all we could talk about on the short drive to the next stage, Strawberry Mountain.
Strawberry Mountain is a fast stage, probably the fastest on the rally. The curve severity was mostly 4's 5's and 6's with only two 3's. Several mile long straights were interrupted only by these slight curves. Adam could really put his foot down and with me giving minimal signals he could really concentrate on his driving. At one point the little Rabbit topped out at 85mph. Not bad for a little old car. Now we were feeling really good. Over the previous two stages the sign language had clicked and we had worked well together. We headed back to Itasca service feeling quite confident.

A quick look underneath at Itasca service and everything is OK.

The car had been running well, so we felt there was little to do to the car. It was quite a relaxed lunch break. Al told us that we were running third in class, just behind them in second. All we had to do was keep going to the end for Tower City Race Team to take two of the three places on the podium.
One day Al will learn to keep his mouth shut...
Service over, we refuelled and headed out to run the afternoons stages, but didn't get very far.
No, we did't breakdown. A monumental hail storm passed through. Hail so bad that we had to pull over, as did half a dozen other cars behind us. The windshield leaked, and I got soaked. I thought the windshield might break, the hail was so hard. I heard tell that funnel clouds had been spotted in the area. But as it is with these summer storms, it passed by pretty quickly and within a few minutes we were on our way again. But by that time the people at Itasca service were probably getting soaked to the skin.
Waiting in line for the start of stage 10, (a re-run of Otterkill) we noticed someone was missing.
Al and Brandon.
The other Tower City car had died. Their catalytic converter gave up the ghost and the car was spitting fiery balls of metal down the road. Their rally was run. I guess he shouldn't have said anything at service. It was now down to us to keep up the honor of TCRT.
The storm had played merry hell with the course conditions. What had been a dry, dusty trail a couple of hours ago was now a quagmire in places with lots of standing water. But as is the case with many of these small pocket storms, the worst conditions were over a small area covering the first 5 miles or so of the stage. By the time we crossed the finish line there was no standing water, and before we reached mid stage on McKenzie lake the roads were dry again. McKenzie Lake was just as stunning to view the second time around as it was the first and I managed to keep my concentration as we sped along that causeway again.
Stage 10, 11, and 12 passed without incident. It was difficult not to think about how we were doing. Apparently we were third at Itasca service. Al and Brandon's unfortunate exit meant that we could be second. Not wanting to tempt fate, I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind as we drove back to Detroit Lakes and entered Parc Ferme at the fairgrounds. We had after all, attained our goal of taking part in the street stages. Anything else was a bonus.

Adam, The Rabbit and yours truly at Parc Ferme.

It was a long wait until the street stage started. The running order was reversed, the fastest guys going out last, so that everyone got their moment in front of the crowds lining the street. As we waited the weather took a turn for the worse. A lot worse. The heavens opened again. The hail wasn't as bad as before but a quick check of the weather satellite imagery showed that the storm was purple in color and it was bearing down on Detroit Lakes! Luckily the eye of the storm passed north of the fairground, but apparently a lightning strike on our hotel a few miles away blew out the phone system.
The rain eased and we waited to start. Some crowd issues pushed the stage start times even later and we began to wish that we'd put the rally lights on the car again. We left the start line and disappeared into the darkness of the fairgrounds. After all that rain it was a mess. It was more like a mud bogging run instead of a rally stage as we slid around making our way to the streets, where due to the rain it was no less slippy. Gravel tyres are great for gravel, but not so good on tarmac, and even less good on  wet tarmac. We drifted around corners like a champ racing to the finish of the stage, pulling out a particularly magnificent drift around the corner by the pavilion. A drift so good that the street stage commentators remarked on it.
A quick trip back to the start line and we were to have a second run along the stage. This time as we entered the fairground we got a little too close to what looked like a puddle, but BAM! there was a deep pothole hidden there. It bounced the rear of the car up in the air. Adam was concerned about another flat tyre as we slid around the fairgrounds and onto the streets. He was having a lot of fun as he powered along the lake front drive sliding and drifting around corners again. With the last corner drifted around we powered to the finish line. We had completed the entire rally! We were over the moon.
We parked up the car and began to feel a bit lost. We needed to find out if we had placed on the podium. We believed we had but needed to confirm it. It took a while, but we found out we needed to take the car down to the pavilion for a champagne spraying celebration for all the regional winners. We had come second in G2, and with Al and Brandon getting third on Day 1 both of the Tower City Race Team cars were represented. It was a great time.

Tower City Race team. Ojibwe Forests Rally 2016. Me, Adam, Brandon and Al.

What a great weekend all around. A big thanks needs to go out to everyone involved in the running of the event. The event committee for all the organization behind the scenes and the volunteers for all the work they put in on both days in all sorts of weather. To all the fans for turning out. I hope we gave you a good show.
Finally to all the members of Tower City Race team. My Driver Adam, his father Roger for helping to crew. To Brandon, co-driver of car 50 for the sick bag on Friday night. Last but not least Al Dantes for putting me in touch with Adam in the first place. It was a blast to be a part of TCRT. I hope we can do it again sometime.

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Flight time and sick bags. Paul Bunyans Ride 2016

"Good luck!" My wife Lorrie said as she handed over our timing card as we left MTC at the end of Washington Avenue in Detroit Lakes. We were waved through the barriers and our rally was on.

Transit to the start of the first stage was a lengthy 63 miles and we were allowed 98 minutes to get there. Every minute of which was needed. There was some major road construction going on outside of town that involved cars being taken through the construction zone behind a pilot vehicle. 

The line of traffic waiting was already fairly long when we arrived.

"Good." Said Adam. "A long line. We shouldn't have to wait long."

Famous last words. 15 minutes later we were still there. The 15 minutes early we had been let go from MTC had evaporated and we were still only three miles out of town.
Then...
"F**k!" shouted Adam. He unbuckled his belts and flew out of his seat to the back of the car. I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Were we overheating? We'd been sat with the engine running for quite a while. Had that running motor caused something else? He got back in the car, clearly more relieved than a moment ago. Looking in the wing mirror he'd seen gas spilling on the road. He'd jumped out to see if we had a leaking gas tank or fuel line. The fuel had just overflowed in the heat because the fuel tank was topped up to the maximum. No problems. We carried on waiting.

Waiting...

There was still ample time to get to the first ATC as we drove through the construction zone and onwards. As we passed Nevis, I pointed out Lake Belle Taine where my brother-in-law puts on his stunning 4th July fireworks display. Then before we knew it we were in Akeley making a quick stop for fuel before making our way to the start of stage 1. Crossroads.

Before we get started, a quick reminder that this is our first time together and we also have no comms. Shouting and hand signals only. We had no idea how we were going to get through the rally. We'd give it our best shot and as long as we made it to the end we were fine. 

"I'll take it easy, no big jumps." Were Adam's words as he put on his crash helmet at ATC for stage 1.

Our countdown began. "5...4...3...2...1 GO!"

We were on our way. A smooth start as we powered away over the first 200 yards into a right three. It was there that I realized that Adams idea of 'taking it easy" was a little different to mine. No worries. That just took a few corners to get used to. Like I said before, it was our first time together. I think I felt much the same on the first corner I took alongside Dan Little, my regular driver. 

The next mile was lots of smooth fives and sixes, then we rounded a long right four and there it was. The famous Red Bull jump. The inflatable arch seemed to shine in the sunlight as we approached it and about 80 yards out I realized that Adam's claim for "no big jumps" was out the window too. We hit the crest perfectly and we flew for what seemed like an age. It was like slow motion in a way. I can vividly remember seeing the view in front of me change from trees and sky in the distance to the road as the nose of the car dropped and we landed relatively smoothly. For more by luck than judgment we were close to the optimal speed for a smooth landing and we allowed ourselves to shout "That was awesome" as we sped on our way.
Calling the pace notes when you can only use signs is very difficult. I was wanting to give as much instruction as if I was reading the notes but at times this resulted in just a blur of hand signals in Adam's peripheral vision. It took us into the next day to get to a situation we were happy with.
Blurry hand signals or not, we were third fastest in class on the stage. So things were going well.
As we arrived at stage two it was clear that there was a problem. The cars were starting to back up and I actually had to get out of the car and walk our time card into the control. Piotr Fetela's new Subaru had a transmission failure right around the first corner no more than 20 yards from the start. Add to that an extra minute between cars due to the dust and a traffic jam had formed. Piotr was gutted as this was his first race back since his crash at 100 Acre wood. We chatted for a while about it and he seemed genuinely interested in my rallying story too. An all round nice guy.
A good thirty minutes late and in fading light we started stage two. We were beginning to wish we had put our rally lights on at the start by now. The dust minute helped visibility a bit but we dropped to fourth fastest through that stage. Perhaps if we'd had rally lights on we would have made third who knows.
Stage three was to be quite eventful for us and many others. At the start line we were alerted to at least two, perhaps three cars off the road that we needed to keep an eye out for. We definitely needed rally lights now but we sped on, keeping a wary eye out for the cars off the road. Then about half way through the stage we hit a bird. A small one. It appeared in our headlights and smacked into the grille.  Feathers went everywhere. Thanks to the open quarter light windows on the Rabbit, many found their  way inside. I spat feathers out of my mouth for a while. Despite this we sped on regardless.
Stage three was a very tough stage on the stomach. Lots of crests, sharp curves, crests followed by curves, the car would go light, then heavy. All this in the dark with lights dancing off the trees flickering them as if illuminated by a flashing strobe light. Couple this with looking between the pace notes and the road ahead and motion sickness set in. Things did get quite bad for me and by the end of the stage I had to get out of the car just to catch my breath and calm down.
Then we made the easy on my stomach drive back to refueling and service in Akeley, where conversation among co-drivers quickly turned to the previous stage. Brandon Snyder, co-driver in the other Tower City racing car had been sick and he offered me a sick bag for the next time around. I gladly accepted, just in case. I also decided not to eat anything. Just in case.
Refuelled and lights attached, we headed out to do the previous three stages again in the dark. A totally different experience to the first time. We found this out at the jump. With no inflatable arch to judge the distance we hit it at the wrong speed. Too slow. We didn't fly as far as previously and we hit the ground hard. Very hard. We did some damage to the car as we would find out over the next 12 hours.
Within a few minutes of the impact Adam noted we had a drivers side flat.
"How far to stage end?" he asked.
I checked the instructions. "Four miles!" I shouted over the engine noise.
"We'll keep going!" He shouted back. With only 4 miles to stage end we would loose more time stopping to change the tyre than if we just kept going and waited to the end.  After a few miles the tyre started to shred. Lumps of rubber appeared in our headlights, tyre dust found its way inside the car, getting all over my stage notes and iPhone running the RallyTripMeter app. The drivers side front wing (fender) flapped around loudly. We made it to the stage end in one piece and made our tyre change and bent the fender back. What was left of the wheel looked a lot like Al Dantes' wheel at the end of Headwaters. Sure, we had lost some time, but not as much as if we had stopped in stage. It was easier to pop a new wheel on by the road side too, and we made a quick change and made it to ATC at the next stage on time.

What was left at the tyre at the end of stage four. It's a Tower City Race Team thing

Stage five was as unremarkable as it was when it was stage two. We got through it with no problems and like when it was stage two we were fourth fastest again.
Onto stage six, the final stage of the day's rally. It was midnight when we left the start line and headed into the darkness. There were a couple of cars off the road in places, we noted them carefully but it still didn't stop us going into a downhill right three rather hot and running off the road. Luckily Adam threw the car into reverse and we got out of there and carried on. The stage went on and I started to feel much the same way that I did the first time around. Except this time the stage went on longer, two miles longer and I felt worse and worse, then I knew that throwing up was not far away. I reached for the sick bag Brandon had given me. It was in the door map pocket. I pulled at it.
It wouldn't move.
It was trapped behind the roll cage.
I tugged and tugged, it still wouldn't move.
The feeling in my stomach got worse and worse. I didn't want to throw up in the car over my race suit, crash helmet, pace notes and time card. There was only one thing for it. Speeding along a narrow forest trail, I opened the door, pulled the sick bag out of the map pocket, shut the door, put the sick bag to my mouth and threw up. After that the end of the stage came up quickly and I was able to hand a clean card to the control worker.
After that I felt fine, and we were able to make it to MTC outside of Nevis without any problems. There we met up with Al and Brandon to compare notes before heading home. We all had a laugh when we saw the remnants of the tyre that we had shredded on stage four. I also found out that as many as 9 other co-drivers had experienced problems with sickness and nausea. I had been in good company. I had taken Dramamine before the start of the rally and and at the service break in Akeley. The conditions out there were too extreme for that. Some co-drivers swear by ginger, others Scopolamine  patches perhaps I'll see if my doctor can prescribe them for me.
It was getting late, or rather early. It was about 2am when we got back to the hotel in Detroit Lakes. So there was little interest in how we had finished. So imagine our surprise when we found out the following morning that we had finished 4th in class and 10th overall! We were just a scant 22 seconds behind team mates Al and Brandon. Twenty two seconds. If only we hadn't had that flat. We could have been third.
But that didn't matter. It had been a good day. We had certainly had some highs and lows, and we were most definitely looking forward to what tomorrow had to offer.
You're just going to have to wait a little while to find out just what that was...

Ojibwe Forests Rally part one. The pre-race show.

Minnesota's premier rally event is here! The Ojibwe Forests Rally (hereafter referred to as O.F.R.). Round six of the Rally America national championship arrived in Detroit Lakes with all the attendant stars of the US rally scene in tow. Five times national champion, David Higgins and co-driver Craig Drew, Travis Pastrana, Ryan Millen, and others were here for their championship. Supporting the big guys were us, the regional competitors. While the national guys were running one two day event, the regionals had two one day events over the very same roads. "Paul Bunyan's Ride" would be the Friday rally for us and on Saturday we were to run the "10,000 Lakes Rally".

I was up there to co-drive for Adam Van Damme, from the UP of Michigan in his 1991 VW Rabbit as a part of the Tower City race team. It was Adams third rally as driver and also my third in the "silly seat" so you'd think we were well matched in abilities. No. The Van Damme family have been rallying a long time, in fact Mark Larson, O.F.R. rallymaster, competed against Adams father, brothers and cousins when he rallied. Even competing against the car that Adam and I were running in! It is, as they say, a small world.

I mentioned in a previous post that Adam wasn't able to make it for recce, so we were to run the stages without being able to check the conditions. We did have experience of two of Fridays stages as we had run them at the Headwaters rally a few months ago but one stage we knew nothing of. 

We met up at tech inspection on Thursday afternoon and after initial introductions and meeting the car for the first time, we took the car in to be inspected to make sure it was safe and legal. 

Seeing the car for the first time.

Name and flag in place.

Our car was pulled into the inspection building the same time as David Higgins and Travis Pastrana's race machines. What a contrast that was! I don't know how many hundreds of thousands of dollars those 2016 Subaru WRX's cost but to see our little beat up old thing against those pristine rally machines was quite the sight. 

"Take a picture, you might never see a sight like this again" said one of the inspectors. So I did.

Subaru WRX and VW Rabbit. Grassroots and Professional

Tech was a busy place. Lots of people swarmed over the car, checking the engine, roll cages, lights and other safety equipment. We were through there in 10 minutes. The Rabbit got a lot of attention from everyone in there. It seemed like many people had actually owned one, or had memories of one. This was to occur all the way though the weekend.

With that done we registered, which is as unremarkable as it sounds, just signing papers. but did allow us to run into a few friends there before going our separate ways for the evening and agreeing to meet up the next morning.
Next morning I strolled out to the car and we checked it over, and made sure I could fit in the co-drivers seat and fasten the safety belts before heading over to the novice driver briefing with Adam. When I got there I received a nice surprise in the form of finding out I didn't have to be there.
"You're not on the list" said safety steward Steve Gingras. But I stayed to keep Adam company anyway. 
I am officially no longer a novice. So a quick word of appreciation for Steve and his briefings. The safety aspect is so very important for all entrants and it's vital for novices to know what to do if things ever go awry on stage.
With that done it was sit around and wait for Parc Expose to start. Lorrie and I grabbed some lunch. Adam took a nap. 
For a couple of blocks of the main street in Detroit Lakes the O.F.R. took over. All 43 entrants parked on both sides of the street so people could meet the drivers and see the cars close up. It was a great sight! The big stars like David Higgins and Travis Pastrana commanded most of the attention but quite a few people stopped by to chat with us. The Rabbit was, as I hinted at before, commanding quite a bit of attention. We would let little kids sit in the drivers and co-drivers seats, and their faces would light up. Parents would take pictures. It was great fun. I overheard one kid say to his father as he walked past the car and saw the tinted windows.
"Look Dad. That car has Purple windows!" Perhaps Purple was his favorite colour. 

Plenty of people on the streets

Car 210 nestles at the back of these cars at Parc Expose

Cars and people as far as the eye can see

The ninety minutes of Parc expose flew by and pretty soon we were at the drivers meeting. It was Rallymaster Mark Larson's final Ojibwe as Rallymaster after 13 years. Before that he was a volunteer, and before that a competitor. He even made a point of mentioning that he had competed against Adams father back in the day. So a big round of applause for Mark and huge thanks for everything he's put into the sport in Minnesota. With that done, we strolled back down to the trusty Rabbit and headed out. I picked up our time card from my wife working MTC and we drove away to the forests. But the tales of the two days exploits are going to have to wait for another couple of posts.

What a difference a year makes.

Isn't strange the way things turn out?

This time last year I was getting ready to head up to volunteer at the Ojibwe Forests Rally. As a course marshall I was there to keep a wary eye out for people who might get on the course. But mostly I took lots of cool pictures and hung out with great people. This year, I'm on the other side of the fence. In a car, racing on some of the same roads that I worked last year.

Some of the people whom I watched compete last year are now my friends. Good enough friends to help me find a co-drivers seat for Ojibwe when I thought I might not have one. Other friends and fellow competitors have approached me about co-driving in other rallies too. I could be set up for the rest of the year.

From volunteer to competitor in less than a year. It's not strange it's crazy.  

Off into the forests again.

It was back in June that I posted here concerning my availability as a co-driver for the upcoming Ojibwe Forests Rally. Things were very quiet for a long time though. The event was almost three months away, and drivers probably had other things, and other events on their minds, so I wasn't bothered about the silence.

It wasn't really until a month to go that requests started to dribble in. I even got a request to co-drive in the Summer Sno Drift rally, but I couldn't make the logistics work for an event that was an 11 hour drive away. Requests for Ojibwe co-drivers came from 20 event veterans in SP or OL class, they'd be looking for someone with more experience than I have (2 events in G2). So I wasn't bothered about being passed over in that case.

But requests from G2 (or even G5 drivers) were very rare. I was resigned to volunteering again, which would have been fine, volunteers are very important. I even registered to volunteer just in case. Then on Tuesday, Al Dantes of Tower City Racing, he of the three wheel finish at Headwaters, messaged me. His former crew chief was coming off a successful performance at Summer Sno Drift and wanted to compete at Ojibwe, but didn't have a co-driver. Was I interested?

Silly question. 

I texted the guy straight away and he called me back immediately. We got on well.

The upshot of this is I'm co-driving for Adam VanDamme in his 1991 Volkswagen Rabbit car #201 in class G2. It's his third rally. It will be my third too. We should be well matched. 

The Car, seen at Summer Sno Drift.

This is going to be an interesting experience, working with someone I won't even meet until the afternoon before the event. We've talked on the phone a couple of times though. 

Will I fit in the co-drivers seat? 

"How tall are you?" Asked Adam over the phone just now. 

"Just under six feet" I replied. That quickly established I should fit into the co-drivers seat.

The biggest difference will be in the field of communication as the car doesn't have a comms system. "We'll rely on shouting and hand signals." Adam laughed.

Don't you go laughing though, because that system garnered him a 4th place in class at Summer Sno Drift and a fastest stage time in class on stage 5 at Headwaters. Clearly Adam knows how to handle a rally car. I think I'm in good hands. 

Another difference as Adam is unable to get into town until Thursday afternoon, we won't have time for recce. No comms and no reconnaissance we really will be flying blind. 

"I'll drive to what I can see." He said. I feel the need for some serious video recce coming on.

However, our individual goals are the same. To have fun and get to the end. We both want to be there racing, in front of thousands of people at the Subaru Street stage on the lake front in Detroit Lakes on Saturday night. 

I'm very happy to be getting to compete in the event as I hoped, so a big thank you goes out to Al Dantes for helping to get us together. We may be rivals out on the gravel, but once the car engines are switched off, and we climb out of the cars we are mates. All of us. All looking out for each other. That's one of the things that makes rally so special.

If you see a Grey VW Rabbit on the stages, give us a cheer!