Prescott Rally 2011
I had so much fun running Course Closing last year at the Prescott Rally and then again at High Desert Trails Rally, I think the Celica has found it's part time job. I signed up to do it again this year. My budget this year really was only going to allow me to run one race, which I had done the month before, Gorman Ridge Rally. As much as I love running Prescott, it can be a bit intimidating for a 2wd car, very high speeds. I found out the last time I raced it, I need new tires on the car for that race, unlike other CRS events that are slower and twistier. New set of tires, entry fee, gas, hotel, crew, etc., it all adds up. Course Closing cuts the gas bill in half, hotel and food for two, half the cost of buying for four, see how this goes...
I spent the weeks leading up to the race prepping the car, repairing a broken strut top from a few months earlier, installing the sub-belts to help keep the harnesses tighter, wiring for routing the HAM radio into the intercom, checking all the suspension bolts and installing my flashing green lights. The only thing I didn't really do was get a front end alignment, wish I had, but the car still handled great.
Laura and I took Friday off from work since we needed to be up there early this year. We got to the hotel by 10:15am, in time to drop the trailer off, chat with a few friends, deliver my driving suite, on loan, to my old co-driver Piers, then head out over to Tim's Subaru where all the rally activities where based out of for the morning. Laura and I got signed in for the weekend, wrist bands and t-shirts, then more chatting with friends. I eventually met up with Paula and Mike Gibeault to get the HAM equipment ready for the car. Being able to plug the HAM radio into the intercom was going to end up being our favorite toy of the weekend. Last year we ran with no headsets and only the loudspeaker of the HAM, so we spent a lot of time going slow or stopping to listen to or talk on it. I helped with 5 or 6 cars, doing tech inspection before Paula and I had to leave for the stages, to help set up ahead of time.
A few hours later, after setting up the scoring HAM radio repeater and chatting with the photographers and First View stage works, the cars started showing up. This year things not only started 1/2 hour earlier, but also a week earlier in the year. This didn't become apparent or so obvious until we realized the sun wasn't setting as quickly as it has in the past. A light rain came up right before the start, just enough to keep the dust down up top. Apparently it was raining a bit harder at the bottom of the stage and on Witty Tom. Stage 1 went off without incident, so we got to drive down at a pretty good pace ourselves. Of course I had to jump the cattle guard half way down. Last year, the same cattle guard broke a strut top on the last day of the race, coming up the hill. I've seen a photo of us hitting the guard doing about 65mph, funny, it felt like a jump, a decent sized one at that. But, in the picture, the front tire have so much droop, they are still touching the ground while the backs are up maybe an inch. The next picture showed the back end at nearly full compression, then the 3rd back to normal. Odd, because I remember it feeling VERY smooth, I guess that's what a good suspension does though.
Stage 2, Witty Tom North, didn't go as smoothly, one of the top competitors had a hard crash into the C-channel guard railing on a bridge. The car is pretty much destroyed, nearly ripping the whole front right corner off the car, but the driver and co-drive both walked away with hardly more than a scratch. (I think the co-drive had to get 5 stitches in the side of his hand) Great car construction and proper safety equipment goes a long way. By the time we got to the far end of the stage it was finally getting dark out, that's what surprised us so much.
We made our way to service, where Laura was waiting for us with a fantastic BBQ dinner she had picked up along the way, ribs, chicken and pulled pork along with salad and rolls too. Mike was too busy to eat with us and Paula didn't have much time while Laura and I were eating. Following the last car around means you are pretty much always on the move. Just as Paula started to sit down and eat, it was time to head back out to stage 3. Not a big deal, dinner came in nice to go boxes, just jump in the car and eat while I drove. One car didn't rejoin the race after service, not exactly sure what was wrong, but he would be back to race on Saturday.
Stage 3, Witty Tom South is my favorites, probably because of the long high speed sections and the fun twisty sections at the end. Starting out, the only car we knew of who was missing was #22, the pre-runner truck. We found him were the stage worker’s figured we would. He had gone off into some rocks, breaking his steering, but otherwise they were fine. As the stage progressed, what looked like a dry road in front of us turned out to be clay mud, kind of like driving on snot. The back end of the car started sliding around a bit more than it should be and mud started flying off the front tires. Later, I found out all the mud had ripped the driver’s side door number right off the car. On the radio, we could here that another car might be stopped with a flat, but by the time we got near the end, they had gotten themselves going and had finished the stage.
Stage 4, First View South was more of the same, we heard that one of the Subarus down from Colorado had run out of spares and had two flat, but was still moving along. We kept an eye out for them, both on stage and on the transit, but never did see them. Maybe the stories were exaggerated or someone loaned them tires. In the middle of the stage, things were quiet on the radio, so Paula decided to start reading the stage notes (her and Mike had spent nearly a week writing the notes). For about 3 miles, we charged up the hill, going a bit faster and faster, before I knew it, I was going 60-70 mph up the hill, quickly catching sight of the last race car. Good thing, since the top section is a bit more dangerous than the rest and we didn't have any helmets on. The Celica has a good cage in it, harnesses and race seats, but still, not as safe as a rally car while wearing helmets. We followed the last race car all the way back to the hotel for the final time control, just as we got there, so did the Subaru that supposedly had two flat tires.
Saturday morning would be spent try to de-mud the sides of the car and trying to control the swing of the exhaust into the frame rail, making for a decent amount of rattling. All the extra weight of the mud on the exhaust system made it move around more than usual. A car wash that was already full of mud from the other cars and a coat hanger tying the back hanger of the tailpipe a bit closer to center both did the trick. By 8:45 we were back on the road, following the race cars out about 35 miles to the first stage of the day.
Stage 5, the first two stages of the day are 21 plus miles long each in other words, same distance, same roads equals a turnaround stage. I believe this is currently the longest stage in our CRS calendar of events, possibly the longest stage I've ever run as well. The hour plus break at the top is actually needed, in my book. That much concentrating tires me out. By the time we started moving, we were on the look out of a broken truck and car, both just a couple of miles apart. The part that surprised me was how many crossed up tracks I saw in the road. The overnight rains had made the roads fresh, so out of place tracks were easy to spot. The first stopped vehicle was the truck, electrical issues, pulled safely off to the side of the road, out of the race lines. Spent a few minutes with them, trying to get it going again, but without any luck. We took their time card and headed up to the next break down. Next was a Honda Civic, small amount of rear corner damage, mostly looked like a torn bumper cover, but they had pushed the engine too hard, and tossed part of what's suppose to be in the inside of the block, to the outside of the block. We got the car safely off to the side, took their time card as well and continued up the hill.
Stage 6 start wouldn't be for almost an hour, so we got the Celica parked near the start line, for a quick getaway, then Paula and I both decided, lots of walking around and socializing was in order. Laura had made up a bunch of little bags of candy to hand out, mostly to the workers, but this seemed like a good time to give some to the competitors too. About 1/3 of the cars took me up on the candy, the rest looked like they preferred to be healthier or were too stressed out to think about eating anything. I got the chance to also talk with a lot of people, friends I don't get to see very often, some I hadn't seen in a few years, etc.. While I was being social, Paula was busy try to get the teams reactions and thoughts on the stage notes her and Mike had written. Eventually, the stage got on the way and we headed back down the hill to the north. This stage is First View from the night before, combined with Perkins Ville Rd to the west, such a great stage, good mix of high speed and tight/twisty sections. After passing the Civic and then the truck still parked where we left then on stage 5, we heard reports of a another couple of cars pulled over or missing. Sure enough, about a mile or two past the truck, we came across the black VW Golf, sitting on the side of the road with a wheel sitting behind it, and the brake assembly still inside of it. They had rolled lightly onto the side of the car, got pushed back over and then a few miles later, twisty "S" section of turns and pop, the spindle snapped. They were fine, the car was well marked, so they jumped into the heavy sweep rig and we all continued on. We did eventually find the car that had been missing for a long while. It was the leader, like the car the night before, he ran out of spare tires. Two flat and one spare keeps you from getting very far along. or at least very quickly.
We arrived at service to once again find Laura with great BBQ lunch as we had ordered, meat and buns separate so they wouldn't get soggy before we got a chance to eat them. She had stopped at the same place as the night before, between the four of us, we decided it had been good enough to have again. Not much going on, drama wise, at service, just eat and get back on the road for the last two stages. I'm thinking the rain on Friday night kept the wildlife mostly away, we didn't see nearly as many animals out wonder around as last year. The long transit down a rough gravel road to stage 7 reminded me of this, since it's where I saw a lot of animals last year.
Stage 7 was well into running by the time we got out there, in fact we were already hearing reports of cars starting stage 8 when we pulled up behind the cars. The rest of the race would be pretty uneventful, we would hear reports of cars stopped, but then eventually they would be going again, never to be seen by us until the end. The part that amazed me was while running stage 7, Witty Tom South, in the middle, where is was snotty, muddy, slippery stuff, as seen all over the cars, was now a hard packed, smooth road, pretty much just like pavement. I could even see black marks from the tires, that's how hard it at gotten in the morning sun. Fine with me, we blasted through that stage hitting speeds over 70mph, felt like 35 to me, easy driving.
Stage 8 was changed for this year, instead of running First View back up into Jerome, we ran Perkins Ville West. We only had to wait for 3 cars to get going before we headed out ourselves. I was pleasantly surprised to see Eric, standing on the side of the road, watching the race, along with his kool-aid covered daughter. Glad he could make it up to spectator. Again, we had a pretty good run out to the end, no more break downs, just two of the three cars left from earlier in the day. Gave Paula and I time to have some fun tossing the car around a few corners, checking the stage notes some more. Since I wasn't racing, I at least needed to get some quick paced driving in, to fill my race need for the weekend.
The race would eventually end back where it started the day before, at Tim's Subaru, back in Prescott. Just as we were making the last few miles towards town, it began raining once again, just to keep things interesting and to wash off the cars, the natural way. Another great race in the books: Champaign celebration at the finish line, dinner and awards back at the hotel, then another night of CRS after party behind the hotel, making margaritas in my gas powered blender, telling stories of the weekend and of races past, how could it get any better...
Jon Rood (Car# 999, this time around)
