Jrally
Adventurer
Another memorable rally experience, again as the Course Closing Car/Fast
Sweep/999, in the Celica. Until February, I had never been up to Ridgecrest
Ca.. From Phoenix, it's a decent haul, just shy of 500 miles via the
southern route across I-10. My girlfriend and I decided it would make
the most sense, driving out and back without spending the night at my
usual Ca free lodging, mom's house. Instead, we just stopped in for lunch
on Friday and Sunday. It seems like a bit of a hassle, but the 20 minutes
each way from the highway to the house made for a much more relaxing trip.
The lunch break allowed me to relax for a while, rest and re-energize.
Friday night was the usual, signing in as a volunteer, hand shaking and
hugs with all my good race friends. We got the Celica unloaded and our bags
moved into the hotel room, nice place, Marriott Suites Hotel. By the time
things wound down enough to have dinner, it was already about 9pm. My
co-driver/ham radio operator for the race, GF and I headed out to find
something. We settled on close by, the BBQ joint that the banquette would
be at the following night. Good food, tasted like home cooking, hard to
take the Kansas City BBQ desire out, even after living in AZ for 13 years.
Saturday morning, we had to get up bright and early, for me, 6am, give us
enough time to eat breakfast and get my GF to her 7am meet up with her
stage captain. I didn't really have to do the same, but it only seemed fair
of me to get up and have breakfast with her for being such a volunteer trooper.
The transit out to the Parc Expose/service area was a 45 hike out into the
desert south west of town. What a temperature difference 45 miles made, it
must have been 20 degrees colder out there. In fact, in the middle of the
stages we would be surrounded by snow top mountains blowing down on us in
the valley, not fun for a desert guy, but easily forgotten with all the
activities going on.
When we finally pulled up to the start of the first stage, we already got
our first surprise, my old co-driver and his driver George standing
along the side of the start line, their car broke while taking off and
shifting into 2nd gear. The race was run on only two stage roads, 2 in 2 out,
service, then do it again. Thank God I had a co-driver, otherwise I would
have likely ended up broken in a ditch. Although the roads were wide and
mostly smooth, there were HUGE washed out ditches along the roads edges.
When the notes said stay wide, they meant it!! The washed out areas tended
to be in what should have been the faster, more logical lines. Great note
reading from Mr Moser for sure.
The turn around after the 2nd stage was one of the fastest I've ever seen,
less then 30 minutes from the time I pulled in to when the first car was
back racing. The last bit of stage 2, first bit of stage 3 made me wish I
had been in my Escort, racing instead of volunteering, loved the short
twisty tarmac sections. Our next surprise came at the end of stage 3, most
of the cars where still at the start of stage 4 when we got there, oh no...
There had been an accident on stage, causing a long time deley. The stage
was later cancelled and we led the rest of the cars off stage in a transit type
fashion, slower speeds to get to service.
After the organizers had a meeting with CHP (California Highway Patrol)
about the inncident, since we were holding the race on county roads,
the decision was to continue on with the race, but to move the start/finish
for Stage 5/8 up the hill about 2.5 miles. After all the delays, we ended up
only running about 1 hour behind for the afternoon, not bad.
For us, the second half of the stages got a little more boring, as it tend
to happen. Cars that aren't running well, but are still in the race don't
move very fast. We spent the next 4 stages tailing a Volvo with a broken
master cylinder bracket, top speed 40mph, only using his brakes to stop at
the end of each stage. We tried giving him a decent head start on us, but
we would still catch him in just a few miles. Oh well, at least we had a
few fast stages in the Celica. The last stage of the day made for a lot of
radio chatter, one VW flipped over crossing the finish line, balling the car
up into a pile of scrap. Another testament to how safe the cars are, the
cage worked perfectly and the two racers walked away shaken but unhurt.
That's a hard way to DNF a race, after the finish line. He would have
gotten 2nd place overall, if he could have made it to the final time
control, back in the service area.
As for the Celica, it ran perfectly all day, averaging about 45-50mph on
stage in the morning. The only disappointment for me was not getting to use
my new flashing green lights, apparently at this race, that wasn't my job,
but the medical sweeps job, two cars back. Oh well, better to have them and
not use them, then need them and not have them. Maybe next time around,
plus I had a good time building them, which is a big thing for me, staying
busy and building stuff.
The next morning we were packing up to leave by 8:30 and had a
light breakfast with friends in the hotel. Not a bad way for me to spend a
3 day weekend. A HUGE thanks to my girlfriend for being such a trooper out
there, it was rediculously cold and windy all day Saturday and she toughed it out.
-Jon
http://highdeserttrails.com/
http://highdeserttrails.com/gallery/hdt-2011/
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?sourceId
=533754321803&cm_mmc=Affilate_-_CJ_-_4177445_-_10667555
Sweep/999, in the Celica. Until February, I had never been up to Ridgecrest
Ca.. From Phoenix, it's a decent haul, just shy of 500 miles via the
southern route across I-10. My girlfriend and I decided it would make
the most sense, driving out and back without spending the night at my
usual Ca free lodging, mom's house. Instead, we just stopped in for lunch
on Friday and Sunday. It seems like a bit of a hassle, but the 20 minutes
each way from the highway to the house made for a much more relaxing trip.
The lunch break allowed me to relax for a while, rest and re-energize.
Friday night was the usual, signing in as a volunteer, hand shaking and
hugs with all my good race friends. We got the Celica unloaded and our bags
moved into the hotel room, nice place, Marriott Suites Hotel. By the time
things wound down enough to have dinner, it was already about 9pm. My
co-driver/ham radio operator for the race, GF and I headed out to find
something. We settled on close by, the BBQ joint that the banquette would
be at the following night. Good food, tasted like home cooking, hard to
take the Kansas City BBQ desire out, even after living in AZ for 13 years.
Saturday morning, we had to get up bright and early, for me, 6am, give us
enough time to eat breakfast and get my GF to her 7am meet up with her
stage captain. I didn't really have to do the same, but it only seemed fair
of me to get up and have breakfast with her for being such a volunteer trooper.
The transit out to the Parc Expose/service area was a 45 hike out into the
desert south west of town. What a temperature difference 45 miles made, it
must have been 20 degrees colder out there. In fact, in the middle of the
stages we would be surrounded by snow top mountains blowing down on us in
the valley, not fun for a desert guy, but easily forgotten with all the
activities going on.
When we finally pulled up to the start of the first stage, we already got
our first surprise, my old co-driver and his driver George standing
along the side of the start line, their car broke while taking off and
shifting into 2nd gear. The race was run on only two stage roads, 2 in 2 out,
service, then do it again. Thank God I had a co-driver, otherwise I would
have likely ended up broken in a ditch. Although the roads were wide and
mostly smooth, there were HUGE washed out ditches along the roads edges.
When the notes said stay wide, they meant it!! The washed out areas tended
to be in what should have been the faster, more logical lines. Great note
reading from Mr Moser for sure.
The turn around after the 2nd stage was one of the fastest I've ever seen,
less then 30 minutes from the time I pulled in to when the first car was
back racing. The last bit of stage 2, first bit of stage 3 made me wish I
had been in my Escort, racing instead of volunteering, loved the short
twisty tarmac sections. Our next surprise came at the end of stage 3, most
of the cars where still at the start of stage 4 when we got there, oh no...
There had been an accident on stage, causing a long time deley. The stage
was later cancelled and we led the rest of the cars off stage in a transit type
fashion, slower speeds to get to service.
After the organizers had a meeting with CHP (California Highway Patrol)
about the inncident, since we were holding the race on county roads,
the decision was to continue on with the race, but to move the start/finish
for Stage 5/8 up the hill about 2.5 miles. After all the delays, we ended up
only running about 1 hour behind for the afternoon, not bad.
For us, the second half of the stages got a little more boring, as it tend
to happen. Cars that aren't running well, but are still in the race don't
move very fast. We spent the next 4 stages tailing a Volvo with a broken
master cylinder bracket, top speed 40mph, only using his brakes to stop at
the end of each stage. We tried giving him a decent head start on us, but
we would still catch him in just a few miles. Oh well, at least we had a
few fast stages in the Celica. The last stage of the day made for a lot of
radio chatter, one VW flipped over crossing the finish line, balling the car
up into a pile of scrap. Another testament to how safe the cars are, the
cage worked perfectly and the two racers walked away shaken but unhurt.
That's a hard way to DNF a race, after the finish line. He would have
gotten 2nd place overall, if he could have made it to the final time
control, back in the service area.
As for the Celica, it ran perfectly all day, averaging about 45-50mph on
stage in the morning. The only disappointment for me was not getting to use
my new flashing green lights, apparently at this race, that wasn't my job,
but the medical sweeps job, two cars back. Oh well, better to have them and
not use them, then need them and not have them. Maybe next time around,
plus I had a good time building them, which is a big thing for me, staying
busy and building stuff.
The next morning we were packing up to leave by 8:30 and had a
light breakfast with friends in the hotel. Not a bad way for me to spend a
3 day weekend. A HUGE thanks to my girlfriend for being such a trooper out
there, it was rediculously cold and windy all day Saturday and she toughed it out.
-Jon
http://highdeserttrails.com/
http://highdeserttrails.com/gallery/hdt-2011/
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?sourceId
=533754321803&cm_mmc=Affilate_-_CJ_-_4177445_-_10667555
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