Two countries separated by a common language. SCCA Jack 'O' Lantern RallyCross

Rallycross is cool. It's one of the most exciting branches of motorsport that there is. 

It was invented by a British TV producer as a special event to fill slots between horse races during their Saturday afternoon sports programmes. The first meeting was broadcast from the now legendary Lydden Hill circuit on Saturday, February 14th 1967 and proved very popular with the viewers, and national championship quickly followed. This format, short car races over a small mixed surface race circuit, slowly grew to be the globally popular motorsport it is today with two major championships. Those are, the FIA World Rallycross, based around motor racing circuits and special Rallycross circuits and the Red Bull Global Rallycross which is US centric and more stadium based. 

Then there's SCCA RallyCross, which is totally different. Run by the Sports Car Club of America, SCCA RallyCross differs from the other Rallycross in that cars compete singly, over a short, mixed surface course and try to record the fastest time. Think of it as Autocross on dirt. You can turn up in your own street car, or even your rally car. There are classes to cater for everyone. Indeed, many rally drivers use RallyCross to hone their skills. This was the reason we found ourselves at the Rice County Fairgrounds in Faribault, MN. Many of our friends from the world of rally were there, both competing and organizing. Katherine and Kerry Freund were scrutineering the cars as well as running the timing and being in charge of safety. Then of course, we had interests in three of the cars competing. 

Paul Johansen and Susi Little and their Audi coupe

Kenn Parps and Emily Burton-Weinmann in "Renner" their Saturn.

Andrew Gawboy and Matt Stone in Andy's Mazda RX-7

There are no large crowds at a small affair like this, everybody pretty much knows everybody else. It's really informal and the best part was it was free!

The confines of the fairgrounds also meant that you could be pretty close to the action. Even though we were behind a tall safety fence at the top of a banking we could clearly see into the cars to watch the drivers working the steering wheel busily. If you were situated by the finish line you could even see the drivers reactions to their times on the scoreboard. Some would gleefully punch a clenched fist if they recorded a fast time, others would drop their heads dejectedly as they failed to beat their previous time even by a few hundredths of a second.
The event was divided into before and after lunch sessions. Each session consisted of two rounds. In each round, each entrant got three passes over the course. So the entrants got a lot of track time. It took less than a minute for a car to complete each run, and with cars setting off approximately every 30 seconds action was pretty much continuous.
Scoring is straightforward, and the fastest car wins. However, you do incur time penalties if you knock over one of the cones that mark out the course.
The course was a tough one, a short start straight led into a chicane that then opened out into a fast horseshoe curve. That was followed a sharp hairpin and some sweeping curves over rough ground and two more sharp hairpins before a dash to the finish where the car had to stop in a box marked by cones. Here they could see their times and you could watch their reactions.

When we arrived, the first round of runs had just started. There must have been some heavy rain a few days previously, for the course looked rather muddy with a lot of standing water. Most notably by the chicane, where I saw a couple of cars spinning their wheels, throwing mud in the air, and coming very close to getting stuck. But the unseasonably warm November sunshine very quickly dried everything out and by the last rounds of the day the dust was flying.

As the track dried out, the cars went faster and times fell. Drivers would push harder and harder, and as most of the spectators were friends and family of the competitors there was an atmosphere you don't get at bigger events. 

Small children cheered. "Yay Daddy!" When a car went faster than the last time.

As I stated before, you can bring whatever car you like to a RallyCross. So here's a selection of pictures of the cars that took part. Some guys clearly had invested some time and expense in their race cars, and others had just bought their road cars along. A special prize should go to the guy driving the Cadillac who gamely wrestled his car around the course, even ripping the wheel arch liner out from the front of the car as they went too wide and up the bank at the final hairpin on one run.

Curran Bishop-Wright's 1990 BMW 325i

Dillon Dunphy ran this 1988 Mazda323 in the modified 4WD class.

Yes, it is a stock 2003 Cadillac CTS. Big kudos to Aaron Conklin for driving all the way from Detroit Lakes to take part.

Brent Reinharts 2001 Hyundai Accent was the sole competitor in modified FWD

Evan Skilling's RallyCross Prepared FWD 2003 Escort ZR2

Dean Neuville raises some dust in his RallyCross Prepared AWD 2002 Subaru WRX

You will notice from many of the pictures that there are two people in the cars. It's not a co-driver, (though in the cases of the rally cars, it was the co-driver alongside). No, these were "Ride-alongs" and are common place. Drivers will often take friends along for a ride. All they have to do is sign a waiver, put on a crash helmet, strap themselves in and be ferried around the course. It's a great way to get a taster for the sport if you're curious. I was offered a couple of trips but I declined because, to be honest, I was having far too much fun watching and taking photographs. Perhaps next time I will have a go, because we will, for sure, be back.

What's all that smoke? Lake Superior Performance Rally Day 2

It was a tad chilly on Saturday morning as I stood on the doorstep of my room at my motel and watched the Rally Superstore van pass by heading to Parc Expose as I got in my car and made my way to the delightful coffee shop I'd discovered in L'Anse the previous day. I needed some breakfast and caffeine.
Java by the Bay sponsor my good friends Al and Brandon at Tower City Rally Team, so it was natural to support the business. It was a good breakfast, and excellent coffee. Highly recommended if you don't want a large meal to start to the day. It was still several hours to the start of the rally but streets in the sleepy town were closed and cars were arriving.

When I returned to my room, I got a message from Bill to meet at Hilltop Cafe for breakfast. That place is the opposite to Java by the Bay. Here you can have an all you can eat breakfast buffet with caramel rolls the size of brake discs.
It was a grey morning down on the waterfront in L'Anse for Parc Expose, but many people turned out to take a look at what was going on. It's very heartening to see so many people taking an interest. Some pessimists will say that rally has no following in America. Not to the level that it has in Europe certainly, but a good solid fan base to build on for the future.

Car 723 rests at Parc Expose

Parc is important to give back to the fans, to let them see the stars and all the cars close up. But I think we'd all rather be out there racing, and the time really seemed to drag by to our appointed start. At last it arrived and we began the short drive to the first stage Menge Creek. The stage notes say the stage is fast and flowing. It was. I was still on a note calling high from the previous night and my accurate calling gave Bill confidence to drive at ten-tenths and post what we felt was a quite good time, with our speed frequently topping out at over 80mph. Not bad for our little car. As the drive from Menge Creek to the next stage, Herman Nestoria was a long one we had plenty of time to reflect on how well things were feeling. Herman was billed as another fast stage and it felt to me like we sailed through it.
We approached the final stage of the morning, Silver Arvon with a little trepidation. We had heard it was rough, and when I had been doing some video recce for the stage before the event, I looked for some of the trail on Google Earth and I couldn't see anything.
This was a busy stage, and by busy I mean the instructions came thick and fast. I have never talked so much or so fast before. As we hadn't had the chance to do recce beforehand, I was also trying to edit what I was reading because some of it was just too much to say at speed.
L5->4-< >4+  "Left five minus tightens four minus opens and tightens four plus". A right mouthful. "Left five tightens four long" much easier and allows me to get onto the next note quicker. Perhaps I was was probably taking on too much, editing on the move, for at 5.2 miles I missed a call at a left three and we ran wide and nudged a tree.

Oops... 5.2 miles into Silver Arvon (Matt Todd photo)

Nothing serious, Bill threw the car in reverse and we sped on our way down the narrow forest trail that wasn't on Google Earth again. A few miles further along the trail we came to the spectator area. What a sight! Crowds were standing two or three deep for 200 yards or more along this horseshoe curve. As co-driver I pretty much had my head buried in my notes but I was most definitely aware of all the people around. The last mile of the stage was smooth and fast, so we really gunned it to the finish. I handed our time card over at the control.
"Ian Holmes?" The control worker asked.
"Yes" I confirmed.
"I read your blog. Great stuff!" I wasn't expecting that. I was a bit speechless. I certainly enjoy bringing this blog to you all and it's very nice to get positive comments, even if your mind is on getting to the next control.
"Thanks!" I gave a thumbs up, took our scorecard, and Bill drove off to service.
Because the entry field was so big, cars were already heading out to start the second round of stages as we headed back to service. Most everyone was sharing cheery waves with us as we met.

The car at mid-day break.  (Dexter Clark photo)

Service consisted of removing the wheels, cleaning out the arches, checking the brakes and remounting them again. Then grabbing some food quickly. We only had 30 minutes before it was our turn to re-visit the stages we'd just driven. Confidence was quite high as things had been going well. Perhaps too high. For I started to make a mess of the calling. I don't know why, it just became difficult. I lost place several times on the re-run of Silver Arvon. With an almost cumulative 100 cars passing over the stage before us, a stage that was rough to start with was a lot rougher. We were bounced all over the place what had been a difficult task the first time, became almost impossible the second time. But at least I managed to keep my wits about me as we approached the corner at 5.2 miles that we messed up the first time around.

Second time around and all is good (Matt Todd photo)

Then a short way down the trail, a rut forced us off the road and into a bank, but we got out of there quickly and sped on. Second time through the spectator area was as cool as the first, but this time we had to navigate our way around a couple of abandoned cars; Mike Hurst's beautiful Ford Capri and a white vehicle of some description. We plowed on to the stage end and were very surprised to find that we had been a full 20 seconds faster through the stage the second time! I guess things hadn't been as bad as I thought.
Second Time through Menge Creek was just as bad, probably worse, or so I felt. I lost my place a few times and could feel Bill ease up on the cars speed as my indecision crept in. How come I made a pig's ear of a couple of stages I'd aced just a few hours previously? I wish I knew. Was I complacent after conquering the stages the first time? Or was it just plain inexperience? Probably a combination of both.
Either way I was beating myself up pretty bad inside and the drive to Herman Nestoria was rather quiet on my side of the car.
During the drive to the start of the stage it rained and the trail was a tad slippy. This slowed Bill down a touch and allowed me to get some confidence back in my note calling and we sailed through the stage without a problem. This meant that we had reached our goal for the event, to drive the final stage. The street stage. It was still a sixty mile drive back to Houghton but because the previous stage had gone well the drive back was cheerier.
The stage was a short one, barely half a mile in length, but the layout of the streets and buildings of Houghton meant that spectators could stand around the finish and see nearly the whole course, as the cars crested a hill, navigated a chicane and a sharp hairpin to finish inside a parking ramp. A strange place to finish I grant you, but it was a great sight for the spectators that's for sure.
We pulled up to the start and awaited our countdown.
"5-4-3-2-1-GO!"
Bill dropped the clutch and let the handbrake out.
The inside of the car filled with smoke.
What was going on? I had no idea. I thought we might be spinning the wheels but there was no tyre smell. Did we burn the clutch? I don't know what a burning clutch smells like, but there wasn't much of a smell at all. Still the car was moving, and we were going to make it to the finish line Dammit! A friend of mine watching the live stream on Facebook and the street stage commentators reported sparks coming from the front of the car. It was only when we got the car to the hotel after the event and lifted the hood did we find out that a cable to the alternator had come off.
We made it to the finish and were very happy about that. No wins, no podiums, no champagne spraying. But that didn't matter. We'd had a really good time and that is what it's all about.
So, in closing I have to thank the organizers and volunteers who worked to make the event the great success it was. To Bill for letting me occupy the silly seat. It was great fun and beneficial experience in my development as a co-driver.
To Dexter and Fady for working on the car with such speed when it was needed.
Last but not least to Bill's wife Jennifer and Dexter's wife Michelle for keeping us in food when we needed it.
Hopefully I can co-drive for Tri City Evolution Rally team again someday.

In your dreams. (Lake Superior Performance Rally Day 1)

Whenever I do things that are out of my "comfort zone", I usually have bad dreams about them. When I used to act on the amateur stage, I had bad dreams about the performances. The same with all my rallies to date. There's always been some sort of bad dream one of the nights leading up to the event. Whenever I've had the dream things have invariably gone well at the events. So when I had a dream about the rally that involved taking a left three and instead of making the turn we drifted off through a forest for miles and miles not hitting a single tree. I took it as a good sign. So I was feeling good about the forthcoming event. But more of that later...

It's a long drive from the middle of Minnesota to the UP of Michigan. Very beautiful with all the trees that were at peak fall colours, but after six hours of them you're pretty bored with the oranges and yellows and reds. So I was glad to reach Houghton, Michigan, headquarters for the LSPR. I picked up my paperwork and headed to my hotel to wait for my driver for the weekend, Bill Marenich with his car. He was traveling up from Auburn, Michigan, another long drive. His was compounded by having to get some new rally tyres balanced on the cars wheels. However, he stopped by my motel on his way past so we could meet face to face for the first time and I could see the car. 

It was a chilly Saturday morning as I arrived to see the car up on jacks with our crew of Dexter Clark and Fady Kais hard at work. The brakes were being bled in preparation for the day.

Bill pumps the brakes, Dexter bleeds them and Fady records it on his iPhone.

I sat in the car for the first time. I've noticed that all seats and safety harnesses feel different. This was a quite comfortable seat probably because it was a large sized one. The harness looked new and was easy to adjust.

My "office" for the weekend

The set up was very comfortable. The ARM rally computer was easy to reach and clear to read. I was looking forward to using this as I have the set up on my iPad mini and have been learning how to program and use it. This is a serious bit of kit. Properly programmed this app will do everything from counting you down to the stage start and recording the times to keeping track of the time you spend in service and letting you know your average speed to get you to the stage starts in time. For this event I was only using it to record stage times.
With the wheels back on the car we had to take it to get checked over at scrutineering to make sure we were safe to compete. The car passed, but problems starting it led Bill to get a new battery and fit it with a few minutes to spare before we headed up to Parc Expose.

What an impressive sight it was as we arrived at Parc. Almost 80 cars registered for the event and there were hundreds of people milling around to look at them all. Pretty hectic. Most interest was centered on the cars of Travis Pastrana and David Higgins, the "stars" of rally in the USA. But our little Volkswagen garnered some interest from the rally fans. 

Nerves began to set in and a visit to the bathroom was in order. I stood in a long line next to a guy in a white race suit. He saw the Goodwood Racing sweatshirt I was wearing.

"Goodwood" he said.

"Yes" I replied. "My wife and I were at the Revival a couple of years ago"

"I've never been to Revival, I did race one of my Lola's up the hill at the Festival of Speed a few years ago"

Wow! I wanted to press the guy for more information, but as is the case with bathroom lines, one became free and he disappeared and I didn't see him again.

A bit of research and I discovered that this was Rick Knoop a very experienced race driver with a class win at Le Mans under his belt (Group 5 Porsche in 1978). He was here trying out Rallying for the first time. He was driving the Rally America B spec Honda Fit "Star Car"

Start time came and the cars left at 1 minute intervals to head to the first stage at the Houghton county fairground. A very short, (less than half a mile) spectator stage. Crowds ringed the amphitheater that was the stage. It consisted of a short downhill dash to a square left hander another dash to a hairpin left, to a straight and a hairpin right then a dash to the finish line. The sharp curves made for lots of mud being thrown up for the crowds enjoyment.
Five... our countdown began, Four, Three, Two, One, GO! We were off.
The downhill dash to the first corner was rough, So rough that the iPad running the rally computer bounced out of its mount and into my lap! I fumbled with it to check it was still running as we bounced and slid through the stage that by that time we were running had turned into a quagmire . I got everything in order in time to cross the finish line as we posted a time of 45.2 seconds. Stage 1 in the books we were happy.
"I'll zip tie that clip on the iPad to keep it shut when we get to service" Said Bill.
Service was 60 miles away in Sidnaw. We raced a third of a mile stage to drive 60 miles to a service.
Go figure.
We got to Sidnaw and the first thing we did was take the wheels off to remove the mud that was caked on around the wheel arches as a result of stage 1.

Some dried on mud from stage 1.

The short 30 minute service was over before we knew it and we were off out onto stage 2. Getting there was an experience in itself. Bill was asking me a question about the distance to the stage start and with my head buried in the notes I missed a turn and we had to turn around and go back. In fairness the turn was also hidden behind a building and was difficult to see anyway. Then on top of that, as we drove the last half mile to the stage start we came across an older guy in a truck towing a fifth wheel trailer trying to turn it around in the middle of the forest trail! How he got there I don't know, but he managed to turn the trailer around and allow us to get to the start on time. He yelled something about how the event should do some "proper advertising"as we drove on.

Very scenic as we all wait at the stage start

We were excited for the start of stage 2, a proper stage to tackle. But we didn't last very long for two corners in to the stage, the car began a violent fishtailing and dived into a ditch. So much for my dreams meaning everything would be OK.
We collected our thoughts, got out and went through the crash procedures. We set out the warning triangles, I held the OK sign out for passing cars to see while Bill stood there offering the end of the tow strap to the passing cars hoping for someone to pull us out. Car 881 of Geoff Weide and Derric Throne obliged. It was easy to get us on the road again. It was then we saw a problem, we had no steering. We could have been towed to the end of the stage by sweep but that meant that we would have been out of the rally. So we limped to the end of the stage at about 25 miles an hour, fighting our non existent steering. It took a long time to get to the stage end. Thirty-five minutes in fact. Thirty five long minutes, with the sweep truck right behind us. I imagined that David Higgins and Travis Pastrana and the others were waiting at the start for us to clear the stage.
Once at the end of the stage we could see that things weren't all bad. It turned out we had lost the pinch bolt that held the passenger side lower control arm ball joint to the knuckle. A member of the sweep crew had a suitably sized bolt to get us back on the road. But we missed stage three and four. We were out of the event. But all was not lost. It was suggested we have a word with officials at service. They might let us back in to run the stages even though we were out of the running. So a huge thanks to Steve Gingras for allowing us to run the four stages after service.
Another long wait ensued. We'd got back to service a long time before everyone else. Dexter and Fady checked the car over to make sure there was no further damage. But the car was running well. Bill's wife Jennifer and Dexter's wife Michelle kept us fed. Though to be honest, I wasn't hungry. I felt empty and lost. Cold too, it was a chilly evening. Perhaps, it sunk in that we'd just had a crash that had the potential to have been a lot worse than it was, mixed with the realization that we were out of the rally. Anyway, there was a part of me that didn't want to carry on. Remembering that at Ojibwe I'd thrown up in the night time stages was also to the front of my thoughts.
I pulled myself together and we set out. There was no pressure.
The night time stages went very well. The lack of pressure meant we could concentrate on communicating and working together. I didn't miss a beat calling the notes and Bill quickly found that he could trust my note calling and could go faster. The stages were a blast! Bill had fun executing some handbrake turns on a couple of sharp lefts, they felt great in the co-drivers seat too. We had an excellent time. The positive experiences made us feel confident for Saturdays stages as we all headed off to bed in the early hours of the morning
Though I do have to make mention of the one down point. In the break between stages someone who can only be described as an idiot put some large rocks in the middle of the road at a corner on the Bob Lake stage. There were no stage workers near enough to move them before the start, so we were told of the rocks location at ATC for the stage so we knew where they were and could take avoiding action. Even so it was still a shock to see them in the road when we got to the corner.
The stupidity exhibited by the person placing the boulders there is unbelievable. The damage that could be done to a rally car hitting one of the boulders doesn't bear thinking about. It could rip and axle off a car, it could roll a car, who knows?
But through the magic of the internet and social media the person who placed the boulders in the road  has been identified and the authorities informed. Hopefully he'll face the consequences of his actions.

Rum Runner 2016 preparations

After a summer filled with stage rally excitement it's time to get on and finish preparations for this years Rum Runner Road Rally. This years event, in October will be the fourth Rum Runner, and this time it's going to be something a little different. An Economy Run.

Economy runs used to be a big thing up until the 60's. Both in Europe and in North America.

In America the big one was the Mobil Economy Run, it ran from 1936-1968. To win the Mobil Economy run was a great honor among the American car manufacturers as these consumption figures came from proper road use, something all motorists could relate to, rather than running cars on a rolling road in a perfect environment like today.

What is interesting about the preparations is how strict they were. A manufacturer couldn't produce a special works car for the event. Instead the organizers, the United States Auto Club (USAC) went into a dealership, bought the cars, inspected them to make sure they were truly stock and then sealed the hood and chassis to prevent any manufacturer tampering. Then the fuel tank was disconnected and a special tank installed in the trunk to enable accurate, consistent refueling to take place. Only after all this had taken place could the car manufactures supply the driver, who was a specially trained individual. Even so, on the run the driver was accompanied by an official observer to make sure the rules were complied with.

There were as many as eight different classes for cars governed by weight, engine size, body style and even price, and for many years the results were calculated using a complicated theory involving the weight of the car and other factors. Rather than just a simple miles per gallon calculation. This favored the traditional old American saloon, the lumbering V8 dreadnoughts. But in the late 1940's the change was made to simple mpg calculations, and this tipped the scales in favor of the more "compact" cars. Cars like AMC Ramblers and Studebaker Larks. In 1959 an AMC Rambler recorded 25.2 mpg on that years run from Los Angeles to Kansas. AMC domination was so total that they were almost banned from the competition, so badly did they beat the big three automakers. But instead they were put into a separate class with Studebaker.

An interesting write up by an economy run driver can be found here.

During the boom years of the economy run people would line the streets to watch the cars pass through. But public interest eventually waned, less and less people turned out to watch and in 1968 the manufacturers informed the organizers that they just weren't interested anymore. The event folded just like that. 

Nowadays, the spirit of the economy run is carried on by a class of motorist called hypermilers, who even in these days of energy efficient hybrid vehicles, try to eke out every last mile per gallon out of their cars. I'll freely admit I've often tried to do that with the cars I've driven. 

Being fascinated by the economy run and its history, it seemed quite natural to want to extend this to putting on an economy run. Clarence Westberg at the Twin City Rally Club has mentioned the idea a few times over the years, and  as I'd had great success with my Navigating near Nowthen Rally earlier in the year, I felt good about presenting something new to the Twin Cities rally community.

But how to organize one? I wasn't interested in any event that involved complicated equations to get the result. So a simple mpg calculation was in order. I got in contact with Peter Baker who runs the highly successful Cotswold economy drive in the UK who was kind enough to give me some pointers about how to proceed. I presented the idea to the members at a TCRC meeting. It was met with unanimous approval. I was good to go.

I'd been planning the idea for a while and already had the rally route worked out. But doing a pre-check had been stymied for several weeks by road works and closures around the mid point of the route. So I planned an alternate route, and what do you know? The closed roads opened up! There was still road works going on so I decided that Lorrie and I would pre-check the amended course.

Some Tulips and notes. Changes are being made.

It's all very well working a route out on Google maps but you have to get out there and check every thing. Every single thing.

For example, less than half a mile from the start point, Google maps indicated a right turn on Baldwin  street, except that the sign listed the turn as 189th street. It didn't actually become Baldwin until a left turn just down the road. Then on top of that, even though the map showed the entire street as Baldwin, as we drove along the road, each time it went through a right angle turn the name changed. I'm used to that out in the boonies near Princeton. But I was surprised to see that in town. That alone made for three extra instructions in the first mile and a return to the start of the pre-check as we'd got lost... 

We started again, got out of town with no problems. Then as we were about to make a turn on a side road left I saw the road was gravel. There were to be no gravel roads on the economy run. I tried to make amendments to the route on the fly and we got lost again. So we turned around and headed back to town to start again!

Third time lucky? Not really. Sixteen miles in and I was looking for 109th street when I should have been looking for 189th. This time we backtracked to a turn, reset the odometer and carried on. This time we got through with no mistakes, all the way to the end of the rally. A few more instructions need to be added but the course is good I think. You'll experience different road conditions. You'll sit at traffic lights and stop signs. You'll be able to cruise on some main roads, as well as tackle back roads with sharp curves and some slopes. All in all it will provide a rounded driving experience.

The exact rules are still being ironed out, but the event will start and finish with supervised refueling. When you register you will predict your what your miles per gallon will be over the event. At the final refuel we will calculate your mpg and the most accurate prediction will be the winner. There may well be hidden observation controls and perhaps even speed checks along the route to keep you on your toes too. 

I'm excited by the idea and I hope road rally enthusiasts in the Twin Cities will be too. 

Off we go again.

The Ojibwe Forests Rally was a fairly successful weekend. No, it was a very successful weekend. Fourth in class on Friday and second in class on Saturday.  The car had no intercom and relying on hand signals it was a far, far better result than I expected. Those finishes also moved me up to third place in the regional co-drivers championship in class G2, to my great surprise.
Fired up by that success, I would expect you to think that I'd be champing at the bit to get out there to search for a chance to occupy the silly seat again. Except I wasn't in a hurry. I didn't need to be, because I had already fielded a request to co-drive at the Lake Superior Performance Rally (LSPR) in Houghton Michigan on October 14th and 15th.
Initially, I was a tad wary about accepting the offer, especially as this was before Ojibwe had even taken place. First I wanted to know what it was going to be like to co-drive for someone I hadn't met before. Co-driving with Adam at Ojibwe was a test to see how things worked. We got on well in the car, being able to work together to solve the communications problems and ended up with trophies. So I felt good about accepting the offer from William Marenich to occupy the silly seat in his 1991 VW Golf.

The VW Golf at Magnum Opus Rally. For LSPR the car will be #723

We're both looking forward to it. The event bills itself as "The oldest, meanest, toughest rally on the circuit", (though I hope it won't be as tough on my stomach as Friday night at Ojibwe). The rally, like Ojibwe, consists of a two day national rally, while the regional teams have two, one day rallies. The Lac view desert rally on Friday and the Ottawa rally on Saturday.
We've talked about the car and its set up, finding that we don't need to make any changes to the seat to get me to fit inside. The car also has the same rally computer that I'm learning to use, the ASE Rally Com. We also found that we share many common interests, which means we will have plenty to talk about during the transits between stages. Talking to each other won't be a problem as we have a working intercom in this car.
There you have it. A new rally, new car, new driver and new friends to make. If you see this spiffy looking VW Golf #723 on the rally give us a cheer!

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...