Ya the rally went awesome, until i crashed. very small turn out this year, 4 cars + 4 bikes for friday night
Friday was only 20 competitive stage miles and I won my class by 7 minutes, I was 53 seconds out of the overall lead (Held by an Open-4 car a 91 Legacy with a 2.5 NA motor) Dick was beating me by about 2.5 seconds a mile (That's a lot)
8 cars + 4 bikes for saturday.
Dick had some bad luck on the 2nd stage and slide off the road and crashed Bending up a LCA pretty bad.
I took the rally lead there , Was up on next guy by 37 seconds after 20 miles of racing (He was in a Group-2 VW Golf driven by Andrew lockheart ) lost a 5 seconds to him on stage 3 and gained 18 seconds on him on stage 4.
There was a timing error After the 2nd stage and i was told i was in 3rd place overall. So when i came into the timing control after stage 4 of Saturday i was really surprised to hear i was in the lead. I got to enjoy the "i'm the leader feeling" for about an hour. 15 minute transit, 30 minute lunch service, 15 minute transit. Started stage 5 a bit distracted i guess. Only 1 mile in we were coming out of a very fast section of 6 lefts and rights (1= hair pin 6= stay flat on the gas )
We came into !! 4L/Crest o.c. into 3R+ n.c double caution 4 left over crest off camber into 3 right no cut
Well i never lifted or braked for the 4 left (this is where i ran out of talent) , i just tried throwing it in, as i passed the apex i could tell i was in serious trouble my car was tracking out much too fast and i ran out of road i turned the wheel back to the right so we wouldn't roll down the hill side.
We crashed back onto the roadway right where the "no cut" feature of the 3 right was. We slid across the roadway and hit hard into the hillside that the road has been cut into. 45 to Zero in a blink of an eye.
"omg omg Are you oK?"
"yes"
"you ok?"
"yes"
"what do we do?"
"Triangles!"
so i open my door , a little dazed perhaps and of course it just shuts on me because the car is stuck on the passenger side. so i opened the door to roll the window down. and climb out, John hands me a triangle and i run it some 300 yards down the road. as i'm huffing it back to my car i'm thinking "I bet i could drive it back onto all fours" so i crawled back inside. the moment i tried to engage reverse it felt like it was going to teter over so i took a moment to secure my belts, then i carefully backed up and plopped down level. I pulled up on the road to a slightly better spot and popped the trunk.
i undo a bungie and the rattle gun is free a few twist of the 19mm and the jack is free. our freshly welded 19mm lug nut spins off quickly to get the spare tire out. i do a tire change fast as i can, tell john to grab the triangles. and i secure the jack , rattle gun, and the mangled excuse for a rim that's laying next to the car.
I knew we had lost a lot of time there (6-7 minutes) as 3 cars had already passed us, and we were on two minute intervals. but i also knew my handling would be off because i had to steer full lock right to get the spare tire on, as the drivers side tire was pushed back into the wheel well. I drove the rest of 7 or so miles out like that. slowly working back up to pushing the car 100%, as i was having to hold the steering wheel a bit over a 1/4 turn to the right, just to go straight. the car took Left turns slightly better now, but didn't like turning right.
we drove up to the next start control where we caught up with 2 other competitors waiting to start the next stage. Dick rockrhorr told me to put my two strap around my A-arm and he would try to tug it straight. using his legacy rally car he tugged me so hard my car slid forward about 6 feet, and a 2nd tug that slid me forward about 10 feet. it was straighter but certainly not the right shape.
But good enough for me to set the 3rd fastest stage time on the next stage, Only 6 seconds back from the VW who was now winning the rally.
The service after that was only 10 minutes but tom was able to replace our A-arm we ended up checking out 3 minutes late due to a stubborn sway bar bolt and a little bit of fumbling to get both John and i back in the car (we were doing the work on toms trailer because the ground was so soft, and i think that cost a lil time too) only a 30 second penalty which didn't affect our overall position.
Stage 7 of the day (11 of the rally) was a repeat of the stage i had just crashed on. Instead of 70 mph i now took the corner at a slightly tamer 20 mph ..
and the VW got me by 12 seconds. on the last stage i really laid it all out and posted the 2nd fastest time Beating the VW by 5 seconds, and only 12 seconds back from the 2.5 powered legacy.
Very fun, but also highly highly disappointing to lose the lead of my home town rally like that. I'm still just barely in the lead for P-stock for the championship ... guess i should have been looking at the big picture the entire time. doh doh doh ..
Live , crash, and learn. Guess I'm the "other type" of rally drive now
Car will be fixed in time for Idaho Rally where i will hopefully keep it on the road for the entire rally.