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    Prescott Rally report

    Prescott Rally 2008

    This time around I mixed it up a bit. Prescott is a two-day rally, and in CRS that means two different races, but awards are still based on a combined finish (fore-shadowing). One of my rally friends from up in Michigan (Tom Young) had been talking for several years about coming out sometime to run a race with me, or rent my car for a race. Well, we finally settled on running Prescott together, only a few stages, but several configurations of them run in different directions. The plan was to let Tom run about 40% of the mileage, with me doing an impersonation of a co-driver, sitting on the right side of the car. Having never co-driven before, and the fact that it’s my car, both made me a bit uneasy, but I was willing to give it a try.
    The crew and I all drove up together Thursday night so that Tom and I could do recce (pre-run) first thing in the morning on Friday. I thought we were all going to meet at the hotel at 6:00am, then caravan out to the stages, until I bothered to read the supplemental regulations a couple of days before hand. We had to be at the head of the stage by 6:00 am, meaning we had to leave the hotel by around 5:30am, not fun… Oh well, anything to make the rally go easier. When we got out there, they handed us the usual route book and then the surprise to me, they handed out organizer written and supplied stage notes, a turn for turn, crests, cattle guards, bridges, ditches, etc description of each stage!! This is something in the past we’ve had to pay extra for, usually about $150. So, we headed up the stages, check the book as we went, occasionally adding or subtracting notes like R5>4/CR we would change to R4/CR, personal preference, more cautious. That’s read as: Right 5 corner tightens to Right 4 over crest. And to further explain, a 5 turn is slightly less than full throttle, were a 4 is little to no throttle and possibly braking. 6 is the fastest turn, 1 is the slowest, I think Prescott has one turn that is a 2, the majority are 5’s and 6’s. (Read that as FAST) Tom had me do calling while he drove my truck for a couple of the stages, to get me use to reading the notes while he was driving. All in all, recce was a huge success and help.
    We got back to the hotel to start rounding up the crew by 10:30am, but that was just the beginning of the day, we still had registration, tech inspection, Parc-Expose and two drivers meeting before the race began that afternoon. I’m still the P-Stock and GT class Chairman, which means I always have two meetings. Tim’s Subaru of Prescott was one of the sponsors for the race, so they hosted all our pre-race events right at the dealer, including free lunch, very generous of them.
    Friday’s stages, for us, were all in the dark. Luckily, having been to Prescott before, I knew that dust would be a problem, so I had switched out two of the driving lights for fog lights, this worked out great, even though the dust wasn’t as bad as in the past. About 1 mile into the first stage, the car stepped over a bit wide and I tapped a rock on the left side, didn’t think much of it, but the handling kept getting a bit worse in the corners, over steering especially on left hand turns. The left rear tire was going flat and would eventually tear out the entire sidewall. My only concern was that it was on the side with the gas tank filler. For the last 3 miles of an 8 mile stage, the handling was horrible, every action caused a reaction from the rear, on the gas, off the gas, steering, bumps, etc… The car was a hand full, but I just kept the speed manageable, 40-50mph and drove it out. We got to the starting area of the next stage, where Tom ran the time card in, and sweet talked the starter into letting us start the next stage when ever we were ready, with out penalty. I got the tire changed, tossed everything back in the car and got back in line.
    Stage 2 was another tough one, loose surfaces with used tires made for poor handling, I’ll never start a race without new tires at least on the front of the car again. I was trying to save my only 2 new tires for day 2. About half way through the stage, we came across our first DNF’d car, they had spun out and dropped the car into a huge ditch, but they were OK. About a mile later, I was back to pushing hard, came around what I thought was a R5, but felt more like a R4 half way through it, since the car was not turning sharply enough. So, at 60mph or so, we were headed for a ditch of our own and tree and possible boulders, it was dark, so I had no idea what lied on the side of the road. I kept calm, did what I could to avoid hitting the ditch sideway and ended up jumping the driver side over the ditch, while the other side of the car stayed on the road, about 30-50 yards later, still going about 50mph, we must have hit something or I found a land bridge, because before I knew it we were back in the air, head right back for the road. Tom and I were amazed; the car felt fine, the steering wheel was straight and no funny noises from anywhere. No problem, got back on the gas and finished out the stage trouble free. On the way to service I came to the new tire conclusion. Two fresh tires on front and good used ones on the back, checked all the suspension bolts, was the windshield and off we went. The only problem I had with the next two stages, reveres running of what we just did, was a smashed bug right in the middle of my view, on the windshield. It was bad, but I was afraid to try and wash it off, fear of making it even worse. We ended the night 4th in class, not bad considering I hate night racing.
    Overnight, all we had to do was swap the front tires, side-to-side, check a few bolts and wash the windows. My service crew, on the other hand, helped out a buddy of ours with his now damaged Focus, broken engine mount and bent tie rod. They finally got to sleep around 2:30am.
    Saturday started out nice, 8:20am out time for us, from the hotel, over cast and not too cold, low 60s. This morning was Tom’s turn behind the wheel, and my first time co-driving. Stage 1 was a 21-mile uphill section, half of which we ran the night before. I must have been lost about half the time on this stage, but Tom did what he could to keep the pace and still be safe. Once we got to the top, it was a turn around stage, so there was plenty of time (hour and half) to talk things over, and make plans. I made his day, since I drove all of Friday, I offered up the chance for him to run all day, as long as he didn’t mind having a crappy co-driver. Big eyes and huge smile, YES!! My co-driving skills improved and Tom was able to pick up more speed as we both got more comfortable. A mile from the end of stage 2, it stared raining, and continued for the rest of the race. All except for the last few miles of stage 4, the rain actually made the roads grippier and took all the dust away, very nice change for the CRS. By mid-day we were up to 3rd place in class, with only 16 seconds to 2nd. Tom scared himself a few times, but was always able to gather the car back up and get it pointing back where it belonged. The last big scare, was a tricky down hill section of sandy road, about ½ mile or more of switch backs: L4 into R3 into L4 into R4 into L3 into R4 into etc… Well, needless to say, I got lost in the notes and Tom was getting too comfortable with my calls, came into a down hill L3 like it was a 4, “oh crap!!” brake tapping, down shift like crazy, then with one wheel hanging over the berm to a hill side, he finally got the power down and with a little hop, got the car back on the road to finish the stage with flying colors. At the end of the day, we had pulled ahead, made up good time and finished the day 2nd place in class!!
    We both had a great time all weekend, lots of excitement, challenges and teamwork. A big thanks to my crew: Eric S., Eric O., Jason M., and Shea B.. You can’t race without support, and with great friends helping, it make it that much more fun!! I still owe a big thanks to Mont’z for building my engine after I broke the last one, the power and gearing worked great all weekend. This time we also got in-car video, all weekend, thanks to Shea, can’t wait to see it and pass along little bits of it. The only disappointment came at the banquet, no trophy, between 4th on Friday and 2nd on Sat., we still came in 4th in Open2wd for the USRC, which is what trophies were being given out for. That means we had to compete with all modified 2wd cars. Oh well, there is still great satisfaction in knowing how well we did. The proudest moment was looking at stages times, the last stage, 8 miles of hill climbing, we were the second fastest 2wd car on the road!!

    -Jon Rood
    Car# 306 (Prescott Rally USRC # 20)

    #2
    Some pics from the race...
    -Jon
    Attached Files

    Comment


      #3
      Right on man.



      But I don't ever wanna try codrivin....
      '90 AWD Protege, full GTR drivetrain swap, ~320 whp daily driver, RIP, and
      '90 AWD Protege, yet another GTR swap, Open class rallycar with a Toyota GT4 gearbox swap, thus crossing the line between hobby and mental illness. And a Brabus E55 K8, removing all doubt.
      http://www.wihandyman.com/forum/vbpi...?do=view&g=110
      http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2599486

      Comment


        #4
        I wouldn't be excited about doing it again anytime soon, especially in my own car...

        -Jon

        Comment


          #5
          WOW, that took a while to read..but damn. sounds like fun..makes me want to go get a car and rally it..sounds like you had a blast.
          cant wait for the vids
          This is lolZz

          Comment


            #6
            Great write up Jay, thanks! I'll have to give rallyx a try sometime.

            Originally posted by jrally View Post
            R5>4/CR we would change to R4/CR
            Not only did I know what that meant, I imagined it in Nicky Grist's voice
            Last edited by cojsl; 10-06-2008, 08:43 PM.
            2003 Protege5
            1990 Protege LX (sold)
            1990 Protege DX (sold)
            1992 626 (sold)

            Common abbreviations and jargon on Club Protege: http://www.wihandyman.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34116

            Comment


              #7
              Glad you guys finished Jon... Wolfie and I were talking about Prescott at dinner on Friday night, and how I should fix the Evo.. It would be nice to go out and play again..

              Comment


                #8
                Instead, you guys left Piers to finish second with George, very generous... :-) He's become quite the EVO co-driving whore. That's a big change from where he started co-driving, in my 80hp Festiva.

                -Jon

                Comment


                  #9
                  What class do you run?

                  1988 White GTX - #1 parts
                  1988 Black GTX - #2 reliably broken touge monstar (294,000 miles no rebuilds) - dead
                  1988 Blue GTX - #3 in progress (view here)
                  1988 Blue GTX - #4 BPT swapped weekend warrior.
                  1988 White GTX - #5 Rally car

                  Comment


                    #10
                    It would be concidered Group2, in CRS it's CRS-2 (under 2.4L of adjusted displacement, 2wd). For the USRC part of the event, I was entered in Open2wd.
                    -Jon R.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      more pics.
                      -Jon R.
                      Attached Files

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Gotcha... I've been throwing around the idea of turning the gtx into a PGT car when its' not my daily driver... I'm gonna spend a few seasons rally-x'ing it first... and spend more time with the baldini brothers.

                        1988 White GTX - #1 parts
                        1988 Black GTX - #2 reliably broken touge monstar (294,000 miles no rebuilds) - dead
                        1988 Blue GTX - #3 in progress (view here)
                        1988 Blue GTX - #4 BPT swapped weekend warrior.
                        1988 White GTX - #5 Rally car

                        Comment


                          #13
                          I toyed with that idea too, had a GTX for a couple of years. It was going to be a track/smooth rally race car. That project never made it past the strip down and getting running decently stage. (decided to sell it, and blew the head gasket at the same time.)

                          -Jon R.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            yeah... the only problem is i'm going to have make the car slower to fall into pgt.

                            1988 White GTX - #1 parts
                            1988 Black GTX - #2 reliably broken touge monstar (294,000 miles no rebuilds) - dead
                            1988 Blue GTX - #3 in progress (view here)
                            1988 Blue GTX - #4 BPT swapped weekend warrior.
                            1988 White GTX - #5 Rally car

                            Comment


                              #15
                              You could always go Open w/ a 1.8 turbo, should still be farily competitive, since the car is light compared to most current AWD cars.

                              -Jon R.

                              Comment

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