Rim of the World SCCA Pro Rally May '01
Palmdale, California

I left San Jose around 12:30 on Thursday afternoon with much less difficulty then I had leaving for my last race. The trip was rather uneventful despite the wind’s best attempts to blow the trailer off the road. Arriving in Palmdale around 6:30, I checked in, unloaded the car, and prepared for dinner. Craving a good meal to start the weekend, I joined with fellow competitors for a nice steak dinner at the Outback Steakhouse. Returning to the hotel at about 9:30, I was just in time to catch the Survivor winner, and from what I heard, did not miss much in that whole episode. Anyway, moving on the important stuff.

Friday morning started like any rally, a lot of hurry up and wait. I perused the other cars, and the other teams who were frantically finishing up their cars, and thanking myself for all the prep work I had done prior to showing up at the track. Through registration with no problems, through tech with only a fire extinguisher issue (which was quickly resolved upon returning to the pits), and through CRS stock class inspection with still no issues. There is something to be said about proper car prep. (ouch, that hurts patting myself on the back so hard.)

The racing started around 7:00 pm or so with a parade lap around the spectator stage. I finally got to race the stage around 8:30 or so, thanks to my 5th from last starting position! A nice easy stage to start the night and a promise to myself not to impress the spectators with any carnage. Despite our “take it easy” approach we tied for second fastest 2wd time. Moving on to the real stages, I wanted a smooth start to this grueling race. That is not exactly what we were dealt as we rolled a tire off the wheel just 2 miles into the first stage. The total time involved in the change is calculated at a pathetic 5 minutes (something I need to work on with better tool and tire mounts). That cost us a time bar on that stage, and meant that we had little chance of finishing up top for the night. I continued to drive hard, but conservative knowing we were out of placement contention. Our times for the night kept us averaging around 20th place overall, and about 10th in Club competition. By the end of stage 4, my new navigator was feeling the effects of reading while driving twisty roads at high speeds at night (can you say lunch all over again?) By the time we made it back to service Bill BARFoot was done in the car and we had failed to locate a replacement from any of the broken teams along the transit. Lucky for me, Steve Westwood (navigator from Laughlin), was my service crew. He donned Bill’s suit and helmet and helped finish the night strong. A special thanks goes out to Steve for jumping into the car under those conditions, and doing a superb job all night. The rest of the night went well sans a light rub against a guardrail on the tarmac stages.

A 25th overall in ClubRally was all we could manage through minor problems we encountered that evening. However, our “good” stages showed some impressive times even though we backed down a little. A rough guess on placement without the tire issue is about 10th overall in ClubRally.

Saturday started out just fine after I talked Brad Boli, last years CRS Perf Stock driver champion into navigating for me. Brad has never navigated before, but after jumping in, did an excellent job for the remainder of the rally. Our first stage started out great until Brad informed me that we no longer had an odometer. This key piece of rally equipment is used to alert the driver to sharp turns and approaching cliffs throughout the stages. A little further into the stage I felt the brakes fade away due to heat. Despite these minor difficulties, we managed a 3rd fastest 2wd car, and first in CRS stock class. A little creativeness from Brad and competitor Doug Robinson resolved the odometer issue, and some down time helped the brakes cool down. Back down the stage we started knowing the day was going well. We moved up two positions overall, but remained 3rd and first respectively. Stage 10 started and I immediately felt at home as the course mimicked my favorite dirt bike trail from days gone by. It showed as moved up to 2nd and 1st respectively, and improved our overall position to an impressive 13th overall (pro classes included!). Heading in to a short 15 minute service break, we realized the need to change tires. Our brand new soft compound tires were shot after just three stages. Some spares went on the car, windows cleaned (thanks Joni) and we were off. Stage 11 showed similar results and we maintained our positions. The same can be said for stage 12. Again a service break, this time long enough to get some food and look the car over prior to the last 2 stages. Brad checked times and found that we were leading both CRS stock and SCCA Group 2, and were fairly high up in the overall club ranking. By now, I was tired, happy with my results, and wishing we were done so I did not have the chance to prove that I was driving over my head. We headed off with a first on the road in ClubRally only cars which meant we benefited from a 5 minute window, and less dust than almost anyone else there. Brad continued to stress that we only run at 80% and ensure our finish, but that is easier said than done after a day of excellent finishes. It was about turn number 3 of the 9 mile stage that I froze up and blew the turn. It was nothing more than a 15 second stop and back up correction, but it frazzled both Brad and myself. All I heard was Brad explaining that I had to slow down, and not hurt the car. We finished the stage smoothly, and found that despite backing up, managed to gain over 20 seconds on our nearest competitor. The final stage started with another explanation of what 80% really meant. So again, I took off like we were fighting for the lead. By ¾ of the stage, I grasped the concept and began to take it easy. The initial pace showed as we again gained about 30 seconds on second place.

With the race being complete, we headed back to headquarters feeling pretty confident. To our surprise, however, we were told that we only won Group 2, and placed second in CRS stock (after Brad slowed me down, we showed .02 seconds out of 1st place!!!) Luckily, it was a scoring issue and we ended the day 2.98 minutes ahead of second in our class. As the results were posted later that night, it was a surprise to find that we not only won BOTH of our classes, but also placed 2nd overall in ClubRally!!! This in a car that is legal for stock class.

Needless to say, I was a little unbearable for a while, but got lots of congratulation handshakes, and lots of good words.

As difficult as it would have been to predict, our second rally has resulted in an even more spectacular finish than the first one! I am holding my breath for the next chance to go play in the dirt, and will take extra precautions to ensure a safe finish. The car worked perfectly, and only needs some general maintenance before my next event.

Take Care and hope you stay as happy as I am,

Chris