Gorman Ridge Rally
2007
I didn’t think much about it, until we were on the first stage; it’s been over a year and a half since I last raced a full stage rally. So, I guess it’s been a while since I’ve had to write one of these for a full out stage rally. Don’t get me wrong, Rim of the World was a rally, just one of a different sort, closed stadium style. This was the end of a very long month of working late nights and weekends on the car to get it strong enough to take the abuse it was about to see. As it turns out, Gorman was the roughest it has been in it’s 25 years of running, so they say. Seemed about like the last two times I ran it, but this year I’ve got a much better car and a much better suspension.
For a new twist at Gorman this year, we got to pre-run (recce) the roads Friday afternoon and write our own stage notes. It was definitely time well spent. My co-driver Jen and I loaded up in the truck along with Jeff Rados and his co-driver, Jack in the Box food and all. Every stage was run twice with nobody going more than about 20 miles per hour. It was shocking to see so many racers going so slow; everyone was busy writing their notes. With four of us in the truck, it was very helpful in getting the best perspective on what everyone thought each corner was, “is it a 3 or a 4”. That night Jen went and reviewed and re-wrote her notes with yet another co-driver, to double check for accuracy. This seemed to work out perfectly as her notes were nearly perfect first time through each new stage. I would call out for one or two miner changed for the next time through and sure enough, next time through, spot on.
Now to the real racing, ours’ was going to start out slow, get a feel for how the car and my driving would be, then progress from there. By the end of the first stage I was pretty frustrated. My car isn’t finished being built for racing, so it has a tranny with the 1st gear syncro missing. What does that mean, it means I wasn’t willing to down shift it into first gear unless I was desperate. On stage one, I only did it once. This means I was loosing a huge amount of time climbing the hills. The next stage wasn’t too bad, not a lot of up hill sections, just one very surprising jump in a very rough section. I knew it was there, just wasn’t thinking. I hit a small jump in the middle of a riverbed looking section of road doing around 40mph, down hill. When the front hit the jump, it popped the nose up at a 30 or 40-degree angle, nothing but sky. I had enough time to think “this is the end of the race for us (fill in your own profanity here)!!” As the back end of the car rolled over the jump it somehow leveled out perfectly and we landed like jumping on a big pillow, so smooth. Huge shy of relief and a quick note for Jen, make me slow down next time through. I don’t think we would have been so lucky the next time. Stage three was a repeat of the first and this time I felt a little better about the car going sort of slow. I was able to carry a bit more momentum up through the corners and dropped .20 minutes off my first run through.
At the first service, the only thing we found wrong were a few nuts and bolts loosening up on the newly installed rear suspension. I had tossed the factory pieces aside in favor of steel tubing and heim joints (hardened steel pivot bearings). So far, they seemed to do the trick. The next three stages were the reverse direction of the first three. The roads flowed a lot better in this direction, improving our short stage time by around .25 minutes. This is also were I found my favorite section of the race. Down hill over three water bars, into an easy left, into short straight, into a tight right through the “Devils Sandbox”, into slight right to medium left, double jumps in 100. By the time I got out into the straight, I was full throttle, middle of third gear, push the clutch in right before the first jump (around 60mph), coast over, catching around 3 feet of air and flying around 50 feet, land with the car in neutral, coasting to the second jump at around 50mph, back up in the air, shifting into second gear with the clutch still in. As soon as the car lands for the second time, the clutch slips out and the throttle is back on the floor, now powering up a slight hill into a sweeping left hand turn. If you’ve ever jumped something (car, truck, bike, skateboard, water ski, boat, etc…) off the ground, you’ll know the feeling of exhilaration!! The rest of you will have to use your imagination. It puts a very big grin on ones face, just thinking about it, does it again.
Now, to why I really love Gorman, the Tri-Tip BBQ. In the past it was a post race dinner, but for the last couple of years it’s been a long mid day break lunch/dinner combo. Again, the BBQ beef was amazing, my only problem as a competitor, I didn’t want to over eat, my loss. This break was also a three-hour long service. The only thing we found wrong with the car now was its’ rapid tire wear. I’m running the hardest compound tire available, but with all the rocks, decent power and only one wheel drive (open diff.) the front tires were disappearing like a pencil eraser at a grade school math quiz. We decided, with my limited budget, to simply rotate the tires front to back, rather than destroying my only other two new tires.
The second half of the day saw the use of a new stage section, new to me anyways. The road is an extension of what was already a long, rough stage, but with the big jump section taken out. By the end of this new stage, my mouth was very dry and my mind in a daze. It takes a lot of concentration to race in the dirt. The cars’ heat, thick driving suite and helmet all make it for a bit of a dusty steam bath, also making concentrating difficult. To back up a bit and talk about the car, as a work in progress, certain things have been done and certain things haven’t. One of the things that hasn’t been removed to make the car lighter was the A/C. I couldn’t have been happier about this. Right before each stage we had it running full blast, cooling us off and getting the inside of the car down to about 75-80 degrees. We would pull up to the start line, wait until about 15 seconds left, then turn it off. By the end of each stage the inside usually gets back up to around 110-120 degrees, sometimes more. I’m now strongly considering leaving it in and even repairing it if/when it does stop working. The second half of the day also saw a change in my driving attitude. If the car dropped to 20mph, bang it into 1st gear. It’s amazing how little you hear gears grinding with all the engine noise and helmets on…
The last three stages where in complete darkness, a whole new view, or more like, lack of view of the roads. Again, our service was easy, wash the windows, check the suspension bolts, check the lug nuts and now, mount the light bar to the front bumper with it’s two HID off-road light. We didn’t have the time or place to properly adjust the lights, but this didn’t seem to hurt anything, they were close enough. The HIDs are very bright, flooding the road in front of us with white light. Not much excitement on these last three stages, we just kept the driving clean, too far behind the next two competitors and miles ahead of the two cars in our class still running. Jen and I made the decision to drive at a reasonably safe pace, don’t push it, but don’t give up a lot of time either. It all paid off in the end, 3rd in class, 9th overall. It was a great finish for a car that is barely more than stock. I dyno tested it a few weeks back, a whopping 115hp at the wheels.
Can’t wait for the new engine, new tranny and the NEXT race!!
Jon Rood
Car# 306
Ford Escort GT
2007
I didn’t think much about it, until we were on the first stage; it’s been over a year and a half since I last raced a full stage rally. So, I guess it’s been a while since I’ve had to write one of these for a full out stage rally. Don’t get me wrong, Rim of the World was a rally, just one of a different sort, closed stadium style. This was the end of a very long month of working late nights and weekends on the car to get it strong enough to take the abuse it was about to see. As it turns out, Gorman was the roughest it has been in it’s 25 years of running, so they say. Seemed about like the last two times I ran it, but this year I’ve got a much better car and a much better suspension.
For a new twist at Gorman this year, we got to pre-run (recce) the roads Friday afternoon and write our own stage notes. It was definitely time well spent. My co-driver Jen and I loaded up in the truck along with Jeff Rados and his co-driver, Jack in the Box food and all. Every stage was run twice with nobody going more than about 20 miles per hour. It was shocking to see so many racers going so slow; everyone was busy writing their notes. With four of us in the truck, it was very helpful in getting the best perspective on what everyone thought each corner was, “is it a 3 or a 4”. That night Jen went and reviewed and re-wrote her notes with yet another co-driver, to double check for accuracy. This seemed to work out perfectly as her notes were nearly perfect first time through each new stage. I would call out for one or two miner changed for the next time through and sure enough, next time through, spot on.
Now to the real racing, ours’ was going to start out slow, get a feel for how the car and my driving would be, then progress from there. By the end of the first stage I was pretty frustrated. My car isn’t finished being built for racing, so it has a tranny with the 1st gear syncro missing. What does that mean, it means I wasn’t willing to down shift it into first gear unless I was desperate. On stage one, I only did it once. This means I was loosing a huge amount of time climbing the hills. The next stage wasn’t too bad, not a lot of up hill sections, just one very surprising jump in a very rough section. I knew it was there, just wasn’t thinking. I hit a small jump in the middle of a riverbed looking section of road doing around 40mph, down hill. When the front hit the jump, it popped the nose up at a 30 or 40-degree angle, nothing but sky. I had enough time to think “this is the end of the race for us (fill in your own profanity here)!!” As the back end of the car rolled over the jump it somehow leveled out perfectly and we landed like jumping on a big pillow, so smooth. Huge shy of relief and a quick note for Jen, make me slow down next time through. I don’t think we would have been so lucky the next time. Stage three was a repeat of the first and this time I felt a little better about the car going sort of slow. I was able to carry a bit more momentum up through the corners and dropped .20 minutes off my first run through.
At the first service, the only thing we found wrong were a few nuts and bolts loosening up on the newly installed rear suspension. I had tossed the factory pieces aside in favor of steel tubing and heim joints (hardened steel pivot bearings). So far, they seemed to do the trick. The next three stages were the reverse direction of the first three. The roads flowed a lot better in this direction, improving our short stage time by around .25 minutes. This is also were I found my favorite section of the race. Down hill over three water bars, into an easy left, into short straight, into a tight right through the “Devils Sandbox”, into slight right to medium left, double jumps in 100. By the time I got out into the straight, I was full throttle, middle of third gear, push the clutch in right before the first jump (around 60mph), coast over, catching around 3 feet of air and flying around 50 feet, land with the car in neutral, coasting to the second jump at around 50mph, back up in the air, shifting into second gear with the clutch still in. As soon as the car lands for the second time, the clutch slips out and the throttle is back on the floor, now powering up a slight hill into a sweeping left hand turn. If you’ve ever jumped something (car, truck, bike, skateboard, water ski, boat, etc…) off the ground, you’ll know the feeling of exhilaration!! The rest of you will have to use your imagination. It puts a very big grin on ones face, just thinking about it, does it again.
Now, to why I really love Gorman, the Tri-Tip BBQ. In the past it was a post race dinner, but for the last couple of years it’s been a long mid day break lunch/dinner combo. Again, the BBQ beef was amazing, my only problem as a competitor, I didn’t want to over eat, my loss. This break was also a three-hour long service. The only thing we found wrong with the car now was its’ rapid tire wear. I’m running the hardest compound tire available, but with all the rocks, decent power and only one wheel drive (open diff.) the front tires were disappearing like a pencil eraser at a grade school math quiz. We decided, with my limited budget, to simply rotate the tires front to back, rather than destroying my only other two new tires.
The second half of the day saw the use of a new stage section, new to me anyways. The road is an extension of what was already a long, rough stage, but with the big jump section taken out. By the end of this new stage, my mouth was very dry and my mind in a daze. It takes a lot of concentration to race in the dirt. The cars’ heat, thick driving suite and helmet all make it for a bit of a dusty steam bath, also making concentrating difficult. To back up a bit and talk about the car, as a work in progress, certain things have been done and certain things haven’t. One of the things that hasn’t been removed to make the car lighter was the A/C. I couldn’t have been happier about this. Right before each stage we had it running full blast, cooling us off and getting the inside of the car down to about 75-80 degrees. We would pull up to the start line, wait until about 15 seconds left, then turn it off. By the end of each stage the inside usually gets back up to around 110-120 degrees, sometimes more. I’m now strongly considering leaving it in and even repairing it if/when it does stop working. The second half of the day also saw a change in my driving attitude. If the car dropped to 20mph, bang it into 1st gear. It’s amazing how little you hear gears grinding with all the engine noise and helmets on…
The last three stages where in complete darkness, a whole new view, or more like, lack of view of the roads. Again, our service was easy, wash the windows, check the suspension bolts, check the lug nuts and now, mount the light bar to the front bumper with it’s two HID off-road light. We didn’t have the time or place to properly adjust the lights, but this didn’t seem to hurt anything, they were close enough. The HIDs are very bright, flooding the road in front of us with white light. Not much excitement on these last three stages, we just kept the driving clean, too far behind the next two competitors and miles ahead of the two cars in our class still running. Jen and I made the decision to drive at a reasonably safe pace, don’t push it, but don’t give up a lot of time either. It all paid off in the end, 3rd in class, 9th overall. It was a great finish for a car that is barely more than stock. I dyno tested it a few weeks back, a whopping 115hp at the wheels.
Can’t wait for the new engine, new tranny and the NEXT race!!
Jon Rood
Car# 306
Ford Escort GT
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