good job Jeff

[:D][H][Y][B][<:o)]

Very Cool!

YAY!!! congrats.

I wish I would have stayed for the trophy presentation now. oh well.  

Yes, it was I who brought the rain.

Jeff, congrats on a great run. Ruth took some excellent photos of your car, here is one.

Anyone interested, send me your email address and I can set you up to view the photos.

way to go Jeff!

found a couple of other good pics of you and a good one of the Jeep on nasioc

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v668/WildKard51/stlsubaru/100AW/IMG_0377_E_lowres.jpg  http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v668/WildKard51/stlsubaru/100AW/IMG_0359_E_lowres.jpg   http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v668/WildKard51/stlsubaru/100AW/IMG_0356_E_lowres.jpg      http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v668/WildKard51/stlsubaru/100AW/IMG_0419_E_lowres.jpg    

 Thanks to everybody who came out, especially the workers who braved the rain and cold

No pics from the stages (as we didn't get a chance to spectate), but this was the view I had from service all weekend (higher res/quality availible)

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y72/acrnjeff/100aw/DSCF0002.jpg

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Pastrana groupies!

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y72/acrnjeff/100aw/DSCF0021.jpg

Improvisation: using wood to mount rally lights

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y72/acrnjeff/100aw/DSCF0025.jpg

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Congratulations, Jeff. I'm happy to have been a part of it all.

What's the deal with the championship?  I saw nothing on the Rally America website, nor did I see many mentions of Jeff.  Are they running in a different division or something?  Not that I don't believe you guys, just trying to understand the differences.

Rande

yeah, R-A is focusing on the National stuff pretty exclusively.  Its a bit of a shame, but what can you do.

For clarification, the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood is actually four events run concurrently.  To make things more complicated, teams were scored for anywhere from one to all four, depending on how they entered.

The primary event is the National (or Pro from the SCCA days), which consists of the entire event (fri. & sat. combined) and is the second round of the R-A National series, to determine the National Champion.  These guys pay more in entry fees than I spent the whole weekend.

The Regionals (or Club in SCCA lingo) can only be one day long, so the entire 100AW rally is divided into two regional rallies, Trespassers Wil on Friday and 100 Acre Wood on Saturday.  They are scored seperately and are completely independent of one another.  You could enter one or both or, if you didn't finish Friday, you could still run Saturday because its a whole new race for the regional folk.  If you're in National, you can't do this.

Finally, there is the 2006 Regional Rally Championship.  The top 3 drivers and co-drivers from each of the 3 R-A regions (East, West, & Central) are invited to come to this event and duke it out with each other for the top honor.  I finished 2nd in my region for PGT last year, so I was invited to compete for the championship.  The championship is scored just like the National, where it is the aggragate of both days and one must finish both days.

So my results were that I was 2nd in class for the Trespassers Wil regional, 1st in class for the 100 Acre Wood regional, and 1st in class for the Regional Rally Championship.

Hopefully that clears things up.

Installment one of my experience coming right up....

This year’s 100 Acre Wood odyssey began Thursday morning when Jeef arrived at my place to throw the last few things into the truck and head on down.  We stopped for gas in Fenton to meet up with Cody Caringer, my co-driver this year, who joined our little caravan down to the ozarks on a sunny and unseasonably balmy day.  As always, it’s a very beautiful drive down to Salem.

We arrived at the Fire House a bit after noon, which is when registration and tech opened for the day.  A number of competitors had arrived the night before so as to participate in the optional recce offered this year that took place all day Thursday, so it was pretty laid back at registration for those of us who had to work or didn’t want to spend the extra money for the recce.  The shakedown stage had also been moved from Thursday afternoon to Friday morning, so no one was in a rush, making Thursday a very relaxed day, though this was countered by Friday being nearly as long as Saturday.

Tech and registration went smoothly, minus the connector for my horn having come undone.  It was a bit nerve-wracking when the horn didn’t work, but it was quickly and easily remedied.

After grabbing a bite to eat from the local group that had set up a grill there, Jeff swapped on the rally tires and Cody and I went out on the odometer check.  We never did get the computer absolutely perfect, but we did get it within ~.01mi for every 5mi. traveled or so.

We returned back to Salem just in time to meet up with Phil & Steph who were just arriving.  Jeff and Phil consolidated tools and equipment while Cody and I looked over the Stage Notes.  Unlike the supplied route book, which gives only rudimentary “tulip” diagrams for the stages, often having no instructions for several miles, at National events one can opt to spend some extra cash and get organizer-supplied stage notes, which are similar to the pace notes one hears in WRC competition; the main difference being that WRC competitors write their own.  Its all in short-hand and describes every crest and bend through the stage.  An example: 

L5+ opens 150 smcr 30 R4>3/cr lg.

This would be read, “left five plus opens one-fifty, small crest 30, right four tightens three over crest long” and would mean that it’s a fast left that gets faster on the exit with a small crest 150 meters further on.  Another 30m after that is a medium right that decreases in radius as it travels over a crest and it is a longer than normal turn.  By contrast, the regular route book wouldn’t have anything in it for such a turn.

            Before this rally, I had been classified as a novice, which meant I was unable to use these notes.  It also meant that this would be my first rally with them.  Despite nearly 3 times my experience, Cody had also never used the notes, so we knew it was going to be a steep learning curve for both of us.

            We then headed to The Roadhouse for some dinner and beers, where we met up with Shawn, Sprite, Pete, and Mac.  A good time is always had at that tavern.  Cody & I were staying in Rolla so we left the brewhouse behind and tackled the half-hour drive up Hwy 72.

            Friday was considerably more hectic.  The shakedown was at an off-road park south of Salem from 8-10:30am.  The stage was supposed to be nearly 2 miles but due to rain spawning mud, it was shortened to a quarter mile jaunt out a narrow, rough, muddy track, turning around in a field, and heading back.  It was definitely not worth getting up early for this.  It would have been marginally better if we were running rough stages like Mail Route this year, but the aught-seven itinerary called exclusively for fast, flowing, and smooth.  Luckily, this would be the worst part of the event!

            Parc Expose that morning was held in the Salem Walmart parking lot.  Service was also to be held in the same location, so when we arrived after the shakedown, Phil and Jeff had already set up shop.   They looked over the car with a fine-toothed comb while Cody and I kept appraised of rally updates and continued to try and get comfortable with the notes.   Mostly, however, we just hung around and talked with various people, one of whom was Heath Nunnemacher, my co-driver from the 2006 edition who was driving his own PGT WRX (with his mom co-driving!), vying for the same regional championship as myself.  It was fun to catch up with him a bit.  Our other major competitors were the Hanson brothers (sure, old time rally…).  Before the event, I thought I might have a chance against them as they had been in a 5^th gen Celica All-trac last year, and we had been pretty close time wise, despite them being on stage notes then.  My hopes were quickly dashed when they showed up in a top-shelf WRX that was as well prepared as any there.  The other regional PGT entries consisted of a Galant VR4 and a 2.2L Impreza.

            After a brief drivers’ meeting, the cars started leaving one by one, once a minute.  We were to start 37^th out of 58, so we had a bit of a wait.  Eventually it was our turn and we headed south out of town nearly 20 miles to the arrival control of the first of the day’s five stages: Asbridge Hollow.  The organizers pitied us, starting the 110 stage mile event with a short 4.45 miler to get into the flow of things.  This was definitely our worst stage.  The positives were that Cody was using the proper headset instead of a different brand with an adapter as my co-drivers had used in the past and I could hear him really, really well.  I was also pleasantly surprised that I was actually driving half-way decently, knowing how hard it can be to shake off the winter rust.  Cody also did a good job staying on top of the notes.  However, the timing was all wrong and more often than not he was calling the note as I was already executing it.  We talked about this on the brief transit to SS2 and things were considerably better for the remainder of the event.  However, our time reflected this and we finished way down the order in 38^th, over a minute behind Block/Gelsomino.  Thankfully, this would prove to be our worst outing.

            On Stage 2, another 4 miler, things were already starting to gel between us.  By Stage 3, the first running of Little Scotia, we were already communicating well and I was starting to trust at least some of the notes.  The latter 4.5 miles of this 8 mile stage is one of the best roads to drive, period.  I by no means ever got everything I could from it, but it can’t help but put a smile on your face, except for the giant 3x3x2 boulder sitting a good foot into the road.  That was less good.  When the notes say “no cut” you damn well better not!  There is also a spectator point at the sole junction, where one makes a 90 right up a hill after a very fast section in the bottom lands.  I really nailed it and was quite happy!

            After Scotia, we headed back to Walmart for the only service of the day.  We had had no problems so Jeff and Phil looked over the car to make sure everything was ok.  Other than a loose strut bolt, the car was in good running order.  They bolted the light rack onto the nose and we headed out into the gathering dusk to run stage 4: Scotia reverse.  The spectator turn in this direction is considerably more difficult.  Once again it is preceded by a fast section, but this time it is accompanied by a hill decent with a blind right leading into the 90 left (R4 30 L2- @T for you stage note types).  You come around that right and it never ceases to surprise you how soon that left comes up at the speed you’re traveling.  Luckily, you can use that right to set up a Scandinavian flick and pop the hand-brake just at the right time to rotate for the left.  I did it pretty well, but it could have been better.

            Stage 5 was it for Trespassers Wil and by now it was completely dark.  Southern Loop was definitely the nastiest stage of the rally, and also the longest and just over 11 miles.  This stage is mostly in the bottom lands which means lots of water crossings and low-water bridges, which are just as hazardous when dry.  It also has a lot of steep, albeit brief, accents and descents which makes for a lot of blind crests.  Dust didn’t help matters and I felt very tense during the stage.  I couldn’t get into a rhythm which made it difficult for Cody to feed me the notes at the proper time, which just made me even less relaxed.  To make matters worse, we were coming into a sharp left right after a rough water crossing.  I noticed something sitting right in the middle or the road and our line.  It was about the size of a large raccoon and that’s initially what I thought it was and couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t running for its life.  Hope of it removing itself from harm’s way quickly evaporatated as I realized it was a skidplate.  It was that or the trees so we took it right down the center and luckily our skidplate emerged victorious.  I was happy when the stage was over, though oddly we got a pretty good time.

            At the finish back in Salem, we found the results for the day’s stages.  The VR4 and 2.2L Impreza hadn’t been able to match our pace, while Heath had been only marginally faster on the stages he didn’t have problems on.  However, he crashed on stage 3 (he said he over-reacted to that nasty boulder and went off) and lost a couple of minutes.  The damage wasn’t too severe and his crew fixed it during the service.  He then had some sort of clutch/tranny problem on the last stage.  The Hansons had a considerably better run, initially pulling 20-30sec. per stage on us but putting around a minute per stage on us later, as they fought with the top National PGT entries.  Overall, we ended the day 2^nd in class and 7^th overall out of the 29 regional teams that took the start.

            The day, or night more accurately, wasn’t quite finished as we’d picked up a death rattle by the time we arrived at the finish.  Jeff immediately said it was a broken and clogged catalytic converter.  Sure enough, taking a look underneath the car revealed that the errant skidplate had done some harm after all.  My cat is just aft of the terminus of my skidplate and its cylindrical shape had been flattened, forcing the catalyst to exist in only 2/3rds of its designed space.  We took the car back to the hotel where Phil and Jeff got to work unclogging the broken pieces in the cat.  There was a slight tear in the housing so we were left with a twinge of an exhaust leak, but it wasn’t a big deal for the remainder of the rally.

            At long last we got into bed in preparation for the early start in the morning, with a sense of apprehension about the forcast storms that were to shake the Ozark region by dawn….

I had planned for Part II to be inclusive of the events of Saturday, but it was just far too interesting of a day, so this is only the first installment [:)]

            The alarm roused us at 6am and we were greeted by a bright and sunny dawn.  No, wait, that’s not how it was.  It was dismal, depressing, and bitterly cold.  The rain was also just beginning to drip from the ominous clouds, portending the bearing of the nascent day.  In fact, by the time coffee had steamed our inards and the slow drive to Salem had begun, the precipitation had picked up the pace.

            After a quick run to the sole gas station in Salem with 93 octane, we gathered with our fellow gladiators under the gloomy sky in downtown Salem for the day’s Parc Expose.  Usually this is an extremely jubilant and exciting time but the weather kept the crowds of curious locals and fans mostly away and the crews huddled under awnings and in storefronts trying to maintain some semblance of aridity.  This proved futile, especially during the drivers meeting.  James E had arrived that morning and joined up with Phil and Jeff to form the triumvirate of crewing goodness.  None-too-soon, it was time to send the first car off to chase their fortune in these challenging conditions.  Ms. Salem was nowhere to be seen this year.  Our success the day before meant we had moved well up the field, starting in 21^st position, or solidly in the mid-pack.  Cody and I agreed this would be very important today, as the farther back you are, the worse the ruts and road conditions will be and each passing car also increases the chance of the stage being stopped.

            In all my years of helping out with the rally, I’d really never driven these roads in the rain, let alone the torrential downpour accompanying us to the start of Stage 6: Loop Southern.  This was a reverse running of the last stage from the night before.  Those of you paying attention will have already recalled my mention of all the water crossings on that stage and the fact that it had now been raining heavily for several hours and deduced that things were going to be interesting.  Certainly this was making the rounds of our imaginations as the sound of water splashed through the bare floor as we transited down Hwy. 19.

            Of course, this is rally.  There are no red flags for rain.  Or are there?  We arrived at the arrival time control to find the entire field sitting there, engines off, crews milling about with nervous energy mixed with tedium and anticipation.  Quickly the word came down the cue that the stage would still be run but a tree was down across the road that the 0 car was busy clearing.  A bit later the unmistakable sounds of the Open class cars signaled that the stage had gone hot.  We were informed of a new instruction regarding the tree and that the gap cut was big enough for a car, if only just.  It was marked as a triple caution, the highest there is.

            Our minute arrives at long last and we are off down the fast, wet stage.  It quickly became clear to me that my innocent hopes that the road wouldn’t really be that much slicker (it is gravel after all, right?) with the rain were misplaced.  While I’ve ice-raced and rallycrossed in mud and snow what ultimately had less traction than these drenched Missouri roads, this was by far the most difficult driving I have ever done.  I think this is because the speeds are higher (we were still averaging around 60mph!), there is extremely little room for error, and this was a highly competitive race, not playing on a snow day where its not a big deal to brake early or otherwise back off.  I can’t count the number of times during the day I thought we were doomed.  Just to press home the point, we passed three cars off on this stage, unfortunately including our own Kim DeMotte, who was co-driving for Justin Pritchard.

            It was shortly after we passed the second of these crashed cars that we had our own little incident.  We were coming into a sharp, short dip.  It had been dry the night before but now, as it turned out, it had a good 6 inches of water in it.  I broke somewhat for it, but not too much and the front end dug in a bit.  This is pretty standard.  However, the water forced its way up underneath my plastic bumper cover and lifter it off right in front of my eyes and then it whoosed past on my side.  Cody, being the diligent co-driver, didn’t notice as he had his head down in the notes and was quite alarmed when the finish workers informed him we had no bumper!  Meanwhile, I only had two thoughts go through my head.  The first was that I hoped Sweep recovered at least the license plate since I’d just gone through the hassle of getting my stolen tags replaced.  The second revolved around our light bar, even though it was only about 11am.  The bar bolts to the upper radiator support and is tied to the lower support but it sits on the bumper cover, which extends out and up beyond the bumper beam proper.  Without the cover, the lights would point at the ground and be unsupported.

            We finished the remainder of the stage without too much drama and headed to the second running of Little Scotia.  Here, however, we discovered we were not the only ones who came out rain or shine, snow or sleet.  Yes, the first half of the stage up until the spectator point had to be transited because of a conflict with the post man.  It was a shame to not get to but on a good show for the spectators gathered, but I did try to launch a little harder than normal to thank them for sticking around in the miserable conditions.   Scotia was just as slippy as the previous stage and we did our best to survive it.  On both stages, we had fairly severe traction issues.  This manifest itself in several tenths of a mile worth of wheel spin according to the rally computer, but more importantly in the odious understeer.  The new springs had helped the car some, as had reverting to the larger front swaybar, but I think the swaybar hurt us in these conditions.  The tires (which I also used at 100AW last year as well as the Rallye du Paris) also were no longer at their best.  This resulted in the front end washing out all the time.  Even on straights above 60-70mph, the front end would just be done and even on flat out turns I would have to give the throttle half a lift to set the nose so I could change direction even a bit.  Discretion being the better part of valor, we made it to the finish without further loss of body parts.

            Stage 8 was just outside Viburnum, so we had a long transit to make.  This stage is a real hoot and, much to our surprise, was fairly dry.  The rainfall was in one of its many ebbs and it seemed like the stage was paved compared to the southern ones we had left behind.  Objectively, there wasn’t as much grip as there had been the day before in the dry, but it felt so nice to be able to be aggressive with the car.  This was also probably helped knowing my wife was marshalling somewhere on the stage.  The spectators were also great and I was bewildered at their numbers given the inclement weather.  The spectator spot was at the end of this long, crested straight into a medium right that tightened as it went downhill.  There were a group of guys on the top of the crest motioning us to go flat out and, having confirmation from Cody, that’s what we did.  We must have passed them doing over 80mph and you could see how into it they were!  It helped encourage me to push really hard into the right afterwards, and we were flying.   The finish was also a hoot, as it was this fast, kinked blast down a steep hill.  In rally trim, the RS really doesn’t accelerate much once you go to 4^th gear at about 70mph...except downhill!  Good times, good times.

            A thankfully short transit later and we’re at the Viburnum High School for service.  The rain had picked up again and the conditions Jeff, James, and Phil had to work in could only be described as arduous.  It was cold, clammy, and miserable.  They didn’t care.  Or if they did, they pushed it aside to get the car fixed and ready to tackle the next four stages; the fastest of the rally.  James rotated tires while Phil checked over the suspension and engine.  Meanwhile, Jeff demonstrated his capacity for carpentry, bolting a piece of lumber to the front bumper beam and test fitting the lights for later.  As much as it pains me to say, this setup actually worked better than with the bumper cover, though it garnered us more than a few odd looks from control workers and residents who were watching us transit past their homes.  Phil declared that the car looked like a duck.  Whether you agree with his assessment or not, we all determined that this was propitious given the weather.

            Beyond rotating the tires to try and get fresher (less worn, really) rubber up front, I opted to drop the tire pressures to hopefully better match the muddy conditions.  In a completely and totally scientific method that would be too loquacious to describe in detail, I figured that dropping 4psi out of the front would give the front tires the optimal grip for the road conditions and a 2psi drop in the rear would aide rear traction, but not as much as the fronts, thus exorcising the understeer back to the netherworld.  Fix the car, save the priest’s fees; job well done.  I wash my hands of the matter.

            One calamity did befall us at service.  The MTC workers hadn’t mentioned it when we came in, and it wasn’t on the Official Notice Board, but the service had been shortened by 20 minutes to make up for the delays caused by the errant tree.  Our new ‘out time’ was on the new score card we had been handed, but Cody had simply done the math on when we were to leave and hadn’t looked at the card.  I started getting worried when I noticed people down the order from us heading to check out.  We figured out our error after a bit of confusion and raced to leave.  We picked up a penalty for being late, and we did take some consolation that a number of teams suffered similar fate, but now we were down the running order and back in a scrap for 2^nd in class.

            As we slowly regained our composure heading to Stage 9, it came to my attention that in the bustle and haste to limit the damage from our timing error, the crew had not had time to refuel the car.  I breathed a prayer of thanks under my breathe that I had topped off in the morning and hoped we would have enough to make it back….

Ok, this is a bit rushed but I wanted to finish it before the weekend.  There will be one more part devouted to analysis and Jerry Springer-esk final thoughts.

Stage 9:  Hazel Creek.  Despite the moniker, this was another ridge-top flier that 100 Acre Wood is famous.  As we counted down our minute, Cody and I tried to put our timing error behind us and focus on the task at hand.  Seven miles of fast, wet gravel requires a bit of concentration, afterall!  We started out well and had a good, steady rhythm going, pushing a bit harder to make up for the penalty, but also making sure to stay on the road and out of trouble.  After a little bit, that plan got chucked straight out the side window, which was the forward-facing window, and it yield a view of the Ozark’s fine hilltop forests.  As much as I like to complain about the mild understeer we had suffered from, completely unexpected snap oversteer is far, far worse, especially here, when the road isn’t much more than a car-length wide and its bordered by boulders, drops, tree, or all three.  As anyone who’s driven an AWD car knows, the only solution to this is full opposite lock, full throttle, and promises of bountiful sacrifices to the rally gods.  I still can’t believe we stayed out of the trees.  It wasn’t by much, I can tell you  that.  So off-guard I was for this, that I didn’t react quick enough as the yaw rate slowed, causing a bit of a tank slapper towards the trees on the opposite side of the road.  This slide was easier to correct and we galloped on down the road.

The same thing happened at the next turn.  I was half-expecting it so it was far less of a moment, but then I started wondering what had changed the car’s handling so drastically.  Was it a flat?  Something broken or loose in the suspension, maybe?  We had had strut bolts loosening up making for some variable camber earlier, perhaps it had happened again.  Maybe it was a broken front sway bar endlink?  The car was obnoxiously fine in the straights or fast turns, but a turn of 4 or less and it was dorifto time.  Even over-slowing before the turn would result in oversteering by mid-corner.  I can’t tell you how happy I was to see the finish line of that stage.

While we waited to check in to the start of the next stage, I got out and looked over the car.  Tires were all still there, the suspension looked ok, no loose lug nuts.  During the transit, Cody and I had discussed what could be wrong.  Having looked over the car, there was only one realistic possibility left: the tire pressure.  We didn’t have a gauge in the car so we couldn’t check, but it seemed the most likely.  Given that we were getting ready to start the muddy rallycross that was the Lions Park Super Special in Potosi, I figured a little extra oversteer would help our time and give the spectators lining the fence something to enjoy.  35 seconds and a lot of tail-wagging later, we were heading off to what I knew would be the fastest stages of the rally.   The fuel level was looking ok, but we still over 20 stage miles to go and about double that in transit.

Before the start of 11, we borrowed a pressure gauge from one of the other teams and took out pressure from the rear to bring them even with the front.  I had never driven this stage, or the next one, at any kind of speed before, but I had been captain of an alternate version of this one two years ago so I knew just how fast Floyd Tower was.  With the rain resuming and the high speeds this road can produce, we needed the handling of the car to be better.  Luckily, it was.  Actually, it brought back some understeer, but it was more akin to how it had been in the dry the day before and wasn’t near as extreme as it had been during the morning loop.  We had a good time on this stage and there were times where I really trusted in the notes and attacked some of the fast sections.  It is fun when you hit it right!  It was less fun being able to watch the fuel gauge move as you did so, however.

Pigeon Roost was up next and unsurprisingly proved to be the fastest stage of the rally, with the top cars averaging over 80mph over its near 11 mile duration!  Needless to say, we weren’t on quite the same rollercoaster.  Still, a car with as little top end as mine managed to average over 60mph with a top speed in the mid-90’s on the downhill sections.  The stage results are more or less sorted by power-to-weight, with some variability for bravado.  It was still a fun stage to run, excepting for one “uh-oh” moment on the downhill run near the end.  We had started the stage during a respite from the storm, but the last two miles required a flick of the wiper stalk to rapid.  This certainly didn’t help things on a R4 no cut.   Wed didn’t cut, but we didn’t cut more than most others and found our self on the loose slime off the relative traction of the racing line.  Terminal understeer.  Not good.  Made worse by the trees we were rapidly approaching.  Of course, we were approaching their upper branches because the outside of the road was the downhill slope of the mountain.  Great.  I got on the brakes and straightened the wheel out some and the instant I felt the front beginning to grab I floored it, breaking the rears loose allowing us to head in the direction of the road, or a close approximation thereof.  That was another one of those incidents I can’t believe we didn’t crash on.

We made it to the end but we must have used well over a gallon of gas to cover the stage.  Luckily, the next stop was service and the car sips fuel with discretion on the transits, so I figured we were ok.  I did place a call to Jeff to make sure they had gotten gas.  He informed me they had 5.5 gallons of 91.  (It was actually 2 gallons of 93 diluted with 3.5 gallons of 89, but Jeff wisely refrained from informing me of this little tidbit until the awards party).  Ok, fine, we’ll put that in the car and get a couple more gallons from a local station during service.  Not so fast, Viburnum only has 89.  Crap.  We pulled into service, and this time were on top of things since this one had also been shortened.  We gassed up the car and I gulped nervously at every drop that missed the funnel, knowing we still had over 70 miles to go, with 24 of those being on stage.  Over 20mpg off stage, under 10 on, you do the math yourself.  I did, and I knew it was going to be far closer than I would like.  No choice though but to get on with it.  A quick check of the car and the lights were bolted on.  I flipped the lights on so we could aim them using our new bar and the corning lights popped their fuse.  Hoping it was just a wet connector, Phil, Jeff, and James went to work.  New fuse.  Pop.  No matter what they did, the fuse would blow immediately.  Phil deduced that there was a wiring problem inside the light housing itself, but we needed to go so they spread the pencil beams out a bit to give us a bit more vision for when the moonless dark set in.

The last three stages of the rally consisted of a reverse running of the first three of the day.  That meant County Road 1 right outside of town was first on the agenda.  We had a solid, uneventful run, though the middle pedal did get a touch long towards the end.

We were doing ok on fuel, even after the loooong transit down to the penultimate stage 14, our final run through Scotia.  During the transit south, above us were the mournful clouds we had grown accustomed to.  However, the end of the front was starkly visible, with a clear orange sky flanking our lone glimpse of the sun that day.  This caused some very strange lighting effects.  Everything, especially the road, was reflective from the water and the trees were silhouetted from the backlighting of the sun.  An enormous rainbow was off to our right.  The forest and sky seemed aflame.  It was ominous and beautiful at the same time.  By time we turned onto gravel, however, the sun was set and pure black was creeping all around.

The stage was going well, though the brakes were fading with the light.  When we arrived at the spectator turn, it quickly became clear they weren’t up to the task of slowing the car in time.  I had already set up a bit of a flick so simply made it more extreme and threw the car harder.  This worked, albeit we were a foot or so off the apex.  The rest of the stage wanders the bottomlands and we had been warned it was extremely wet.  It was.  There is a very fast section just after the spectator point but it was extremely perfidious with all the standing water.  Knowing we were so close to the end I tried to just drive smart.  We made it to the finish, but the gas gauge was looking forlorn and the brakes appealed for clemency.

One stage to go.  A bastard stage.  A diabolical stage.  With no brakes.  Only two working lights.  And, what’s this?  Fog.  What more could one ask for after 100 miles of rallying!  The last thing I wanted to do was lose our 2^nd place.  Barring anymore wayward skidplates, I was going to drive fast but within my means, and we were going to finish.  Only 7/10ths of a mile in we passed a crashed Subaru.  I hardly noticed.  Unlike last night, I was focused.  For most of the stage, the fog was thick and I couldn’t see a damn thing.  I have never strained so hard to listen as I did to pick up every tidbit Cody uttered.  Then we arrived at the one junction, R4 short into L2.  We nailed it.  A little too well, actually.  Instead of the car bogging on exit, we’d carried enough speed to get a bit of oversteer.  It was controllable, mind you, but there was a very inopportunely placed oak tree right at the track out point.  Was the tail going to tag it?  Well?  No!  But it was close enough that Cody’s self-preservation instincts made him look up.  Inches only, but inches count!  Cody puts his head back down and I keep my foot in it.  “R5”, is the call.  But the road goes left?!  And its way tighter than that.  Cody got lost.  It happens.  I’m calling out what I see and he’s trying to figure out where we are, but with the odo so far off from the wheelspin, it takes him a moment.  We’re on a downhill run.  The fog is getting thicker as we make our way to the valley bottom.  I’m backing off a bit but I don’t want to slow down too much.   Eureka, he’s found the place.  “Shit, R4 drop outside!”  Shit, indeed.  Brakes, I command you to slow the car!  Gah, nothing, its pitching time.  I toss the car around the turn I can’t see through the fog.  We slide in the loose gravel around the outside of the turn.  Luckily, the fog also kept me from seeing how big the drop off was.  What’s next, what’s next?!  Uh, L2 over low water bridge!  There must have been a foot of water in the creek by this point.  We hit it and the car was reduced to a crawl.  I found 1^st gear and the wipers and we motored out.  Things were better after that.

We reached the finish line very relieved.  Turns out we set the 13^th fastest time, not doubt because of crashes upfield and people backing off, but it’s still pretty cool.  It was a slow transit back to Salem, allowing us to gradually relax.  The fuel gauge indicated “E”, or Enough to get back to Salem, if only just.

It wasn’t until people approached us as we waited to check in at the finish that we heard the news.  The Hansons had crashed on the last stage.  It slowly dawned on us that that was the car we had passed early on.  I’m so glad we didn’t realize it at the time.  That meant we were now 1^st in class for the Regional Rally Championship with only Heath having a real shot at overtaking us.  He was several cars behind us on the road, so we waited anxiously for him to show up.  He did eventually, but it was on a tow rope.  Apparently that big water crossing had shorted out his ECU.  Luckily he was able to restart and finish the stage, but the time it cost him was to our gain.  It definitely took awhile for it to sink in that we had won, but it was really nice hanging around at the finish with Cody obviously, but also Jeff, Phil, and James.  They were joined by Steph and, I was glad to see, Tara.  She still says rally isn’t “wife approved”, but she was happy for me.  That’s pretty much the same message my mom sent me later on.

The party was pretty much a blur, as was the next day, when James and I loaded up the car and trailered it back.  Thankfully it’s a short trip.  I unpacked and slept for several hours.

whew, that was some good reading.  I've mostly igored all the meds people needed in the last hour to get through it.

I guess we should put it in the supps that the MFA in Viburnum has 91 octane.  Nobody seems to know that as Dennis put 89 in my car too.

For both people that still look at this forum, here are some more pictures from the 100AW rally.  There is something jacked up with my username over at SCCA Forums, so this will have to do:

[url]http://www.daviscg.com/photo[/url]