Jrally
Adventurer
Gorman Ridge Rally 2013
Once again, I signed up to run Course Closing (999) duties, following the last rally car at a good pace. I seem to have fallen into a great/fun job for both myself and Carlos (the adventure Celica). Along with me, I have a HAM radio operator in the car, to call into either the stage crew or Net Control, as needed. So, I called up a child hood friend, Lance, and long time HAM operator/enthusiast. He was very excited about the chance to come out from Kansas City, spend some time out west and help out, along with getting to see what rallying is all about.
Lance made it into Phoenix a day early, which gave me the opportunity to get his help to finish up a few little projects on the car before we headed out: fix the driving lights, fix the intercom, and mount the hand set to the new HAM radio. With things all buttoned up, we got packed up and left for Gorman Thursday night. As most every trip to California goes, it includes an overnight visit to my mom's place. Always great to stop by, make sure everything is going well and have a hardy breakfast in the morning. Friday mornings final road trip section to Gorman was pretty uneventful. I decided to take a route I haven't done in a long time, I-10 to 210 to I-5 north. I forgot how nice and easy the 210 can be, long, but a smooth, low traffic highway, compared to I-10. Why haven't I taken it in a while, because I usually go through LA to see friends before the race, or I'm in a hurry and cut up through Lancaster.
Once we got up to the hotel, 1:30 or so, I was sort of wondering why there weren't more teams parked around the dirt lot. I guess not that many teams wanted to or could afford the time to run recce. Well, no point in just sitting around while there are amazing roads to explore just a few miles away. We unloaded the Celica, jumped in and headed down to Hungry Valley State OHV Park to see if we could find the recce caravan. It didn't take long to find people wondering around the stage roads, looking like they didn't really belong on the park roads. Why you ask? Rally people don't recce in their race cars or on motorcycles, but in rental cars or trucks full of tools and spares. Certainly not your usual testosterone built off-roading machines. We drive regular cars down gravel and sandy roads without worrying about getting stuck or doing some kind of damage to the paint.
As for me, in the Celica, well, I certainly am not afraid to take it through the paces of off roading or rallying. The roads looked great once again this year and with a few small changes that made certain sections even more fun than in the past. Along the way, we even found some first time competitors who looked like they could use a little direction on where to find the head of the Powerline stage. Easy enough for me to find, and the team seemed happy to have someone show them, rather than having to spend the time second guessing whether or not they where going the right direction.
Eventually, I had enough driving for the day, it had been a long week and I knew how long the next day would be. Back at the hotel, more teams had been trickling in and it gave me a chance to catch up with friend and relax a bit. Eventually, a group of us, the sponsor of the race this year, DirtyRacingProducts (Chuck Wilson and Jackson Rally family), headed into Frazier Park for dinner at the local pizza and beer joint. This was the first time, since coming out to this race that I have headed into town. What a surprise, nice, quiet little town full of friendly folks. It might just be a nice place to have a relaxing vacation at some point, a jumping off area for more adventure maybe.
Saturday morning started out like most races, not too early, time for a good breakfast, time to organize the days supplies, etc.. Eventually, off we went, headed back to the OHV park to wait for all the cars to get onto or through stage 1. Once the last car started down the stage, it would be pretty non-stop until the service breaks. Stage 2 saw a couple of events, the first being Tony Chavez stopped, under/past banner tape about 2/3 into the stage, but even with a snapped off spindle, the drama of it seemed pretty low, matter of fact. "We'll go look for the wheel once all the sweep guys go by!!" Our first bit of big excitement came about 300 to 500 yards from the end of the stage. It wouldn't be a great story from me, if there wasn't at least one animal to talk about. A full grown deer (doe) darted across the road, maybe 30 or 40 yards in front of us, coming from the middle of the stage, which is horseshoe shaped, heading up the hill side to the north. Good thing she had decided to lay low while the rally cars where around. I've hit a deer while racing, Laughlin '05, certainly makes for interesting stories that night, but ones you could do without.
Stage 3 started like the rest, on time and running smooth, until we got word that Car 227 was stuck on a berm a few turns from the end of the stage, but not holding the rest up. Well, we'll see what we can do to help when we get there. Coming down the hill, near by, I could see the car stuck and in a very sketchy situation. The car had one wheel over the lip, dangling, 2 wheel deep in the berm and one wheel still on the road. The most interesting part, Michel Hoche-Mong, driver, still sitting in the car, holding the brake pedal. I can't imagine what thoughts were running through his head, dangling over the edge of a ravine. I stuck around for as long as I needed to, to get the heavy sweep and EMT truck set up to help him get unstuck. At some point, I had to get a move on it, to get to the next stage and keep the race moving on time. I hear within 10 minutes or so, they got him loose and back on the road.
The rest of the "morning" stages turned out to be very trouble free, easy going for everyone, 9 in all. The 7th and 9th stage have to be my favorite part of the morning stages, NorthBoundry. This is where I get to stretch the suspension out a bit by jumping the car in a series of 3 downhill kicker jumps and 2 more jumps down in a flat field, about 100 yards apart. Love those jumps...
Dinner break was very welcomed, after what had been a good number of stages already, with 3 long stages to come. The Boy Scout troop that supports us, while at the same time making money for themselves to get to their annual camp, made another great hamburger dinner, that hit the spot. I got a chance to catch up with a few friends, hear from a few competitors, relax a bit and call home. Then, all of a sudden, the fire alarms are going off in the hotel, while I'm on the phone. It was a bit crazy, a leaking bathroom from the second floor started dripping through the hallway ceiling, through a smoke detector, which quickly set it off. I believe it took the fire department about 1-1/2 hours to declare the hotel fire free and ready for people to go back in. At least a few of the competitors had left their suits and equipment inside, so I'm sure they were getting nervous about getting to the evening stages.
The evening stages were all held on just one road/section this year. It's actually two roads, Powerline and Wheatfield (insert Stewie's voice from the Wheat Thins commercial now). The naming of the stages tells the competitors which direction it's run, stage 10 and 11 were Powerline-Wheatfield, stage 12 was Wheatfield-Powerline. There was some confusion for stage 10, people showing up late on an incredibly tight uphill road to the head of the stage. After that, Heavy Sweep and I decided, it was easier to stop way before the head of the stage, make sure ALL the competitors had gotten by before proceeding down to follow them. The only real stage incident was a damaged Eclipse that went TOO big on large jumps in the middle of Wheatfield. They made it to the end of the stage, but weren't going anywhere afterwards, front wheel bent back into the firewall makes it hard to drive and steer. Stage 12 had to have been the quickest turn around stage ever, I would say 15 minutes from the time our Sweep crew came through, the first car was back on stage, headed in the opposite direction.
As we all got back in line, the next "issue" arose. The last car in line, a new team, in a newly built rally car had no night lighting and one headlight burnt out. I had a talk with them and if for some reason the other headlight went out, they would put on their flasher, to let me know. Then I could pull up close behind them, left of center, them slightly right of center, so they could see to get to the end of the stage. Not a bad plan to just get to the end. About 5 minutes later, I remembered I had brought along my rechargeable 100W flashlight. So, I loaned that to them, incase they needed it or wanted to use it sort of like a Police car spot light. And finally, about 8-10 cars from finishing up the race, the second car from the end runs out of gas! So, they frantically start asking around if anyone had brought extra, or had a means to get them some gas. Before we could think enough to run to the gas station about 3 miles away, who would have spare gas, in a gas can, one of the park ranger who stayed after work to come spectate and enjoy the rally up close. He was more than happy to lend a hand with 3 or 4 gallons of gas.
Everyone finished the last stage, without any issues. It was such an oddity to have a Gorman where only 2 cars didn't complete all the stages, usually there is a 40-50% attrition rate, due to the typically rougher roads. Why do I think things were different this year? Two things, the roads were in great shape and about 1/3 of the field were beginner, first time rallyists. As a first timer, your primary goal is usually getting to the end of the race, next time you'll start worrying about pushing harder. Like the mantra for the Gorman race goes, Our winners become legends...
http://gormanridgerally.com/
Once again, I signed up to run Course Closing (999) duties, following the last rally car at a good pace. I seem to have fallen into a great/fun job for both myself and Carlos (the adventure Celica). Along with me, I have a HAM radio operator in the car, to call into either the stage crew or Net Control, as needed. So, I called up a child hood friend, Lance, and long time HAM operator/enthusiast. He was very excited about the chance to come out from Kansas City, spend some time out west and help out, along with getting to see what rallying is all about.
Lance made it into Phoenix a day early, which gave me the opportunity to get his help to finish up a few little projects on the car before we headed out: fix the driving lights, fix the intercom, and mount the hand set to the new HAM radio. With things all buttoned up, we got packed up and left for Gorman Thursday night. As most every trip to California goes, it includes an overnight visit to my mom's place. Always great to stop by, make sure everything is going well and have a hardy breakfast in the morning. Friday mornings final road trip section to Gorman was pretty uneventful. I decided to take a route I haven't done in a long time, I-10 to 210 to I-5 north. I forgot how nice and easy the 210 can be, long, but a smooth, low traffic highway, compared to I-10. Why haven't I taken it in a while, because I usually go through LA to see friends before the race, or I'm in a hurry and cut up through Lancaster.
Once we got up to the hotel, 1:30 or so, I was sort of wondering why there weren't more teams parked around the dirt lot. I guess not that many teams wanted to or could afford the time to run recce. Well, no point in just sitting around while there are amazing roads to explore just a few miles away. We unloaded the Celica, jumped in and headed down to Hungry Valley State OHV Park to see if we could find the recce caravan. It didn't take long to find people wondering around the stage roads, looking like they didn't really belong on the park roads. Why you ask? Rally people don't recce in their race cars or on motorcycles, but in rental cars or trucks full of tools and spares. Certainly not your usual testosterone built off-roading machines. We drive regular cars down gravel and sandy roads without worrying about getting stuck or doing some kind of damage to the paint.
As for me, in the Celica, well, I certainly am not afraid to take it through the paces of off roading or rallying. The roads looked great once again this year and with a few small changes that made certain sections even more fun than in the past. Along the way, we even found some first time competitors who looked like they could use a little direction on where to find the head of the Powerline stage. Easy enough for me to find, and the team seemed happy to have someone show them, rather than having to spend the time second guessing whether or not they where going the right direction.
Eventually, I had enough driving for the day, it had been a long week and I knew how long the next day would be. Back at the hotel, more teams had been trickling in and it gave me a chance to catch up with friend and relax a bit. Eventually, a group of us, the sponsor of the race this year, DirtyRacingProducts (Chuck Wilson and Jackson Rally family), headed into Frazier Park for dinner at the local pizza and beer joint. This was the first time, since coming out to this race that I have headed into town. What a surprise, nice, quiet little town full of friendly folks. It might just be a nice place to have a relaxing vacation at some point, a jumping off area for more adventure maybe.
Saturday morning started out like most races, not too early, time for a good breakfast, time to organize the days supplies, etc.. Eventually, off we went, headed back to the OHV park to wait for all the cars to get onto or through stage 1. Once the last car started down the stage, it would be pretty non-stop until the service breaks. Stage 2 saw a couple of events, the first being Tony Chavez stopped, under/past banner tape about 2/3 into the stage, but even with a snapped off spindle, the drama of it seemed pretty low, matter of fact. "We'll go look for the wheel once all the sweep guys go by!!" Our first bit of big excitement came about 300 to 500 yards from the end of the stage. It wouldn't be a great story from me, if there wasn't at least one animal to talk about. A full grown deer (doe) darted across the road, maybe 30 or 40 yards in front of us, coming from the middle of the stage, which is horseshoe shaped, heading up the hill side to the north. Good thing she had decided to lay low while the rally cars where around. I've hit a deer while racing, Laughlin '05, certainly makes for interesting stories that night, but ones you could do without.
Stage 3 started like the rest, on time and running smooth, until we got word that Car 227 was stuck on a berm a few turns from the end of the stage, but not holding the rest up. Well, we'll see what we can do to help when we get there. Coming down the hill, near by, I could see the car stuck and in a very sketchy situation. The car had one wheel over the lip, dangling, 2 wheel deep in the berm and one wheel still on the road. The most interesting part, Michel Hoche-Mong, driver, still sitting in the car, holding the brake pedal. I can't imagine what thoughts were running through his head, dangling over the edge of a ravine. I stuck around for as long as I needed to, to get the heavy sweep and EMT truck set up to help him get unstuck. At some point, I had to get a move on it, to get to the next stage and keep the race moving on time. I hear within 10 minutes or so, they got him loose and back on the road.
The rest of the "morning" stages turned out to be very trouble free, easy going for everyone, 9 in all. The 7th and 9th stage have to be my favorite part of the morning stages, NorthBoundry. This is where I get to stretch the suspension out a bit by jumping the car in a series of 3 downhill kicker jumps and 2 more jumps down in a flat field, about 100 yards apart. Love those jumps...
Dinner break was very welcomed, after what had been a good number of stages already, with 3 long stages to come. The Boy Scout troop that supports us, while at the same time making money for themselves to get to their annual camp, made another great hamburger dinner, that hit the spot. I got a chance to catch up with a few friends, hear from a few competitors, relax a bit and call home. Then, all of a sudden, the fire alarms are going off in the hotel, while I'm on the phone. It was a bit crazy, a leaking bathroom from the second floor started dripping through the hallway ceiling, through a smoke detector, which quickly set it off. I believe it took the fire department about 1-1/2 hours to declare the hotel fire free and ready for people to go back in. At least a few of the competitors had left their suits and equipment inside, so I'm sure they were getting nervous about getting to the evening stages.
The evening stages were all held on just one road/section this year. It's actually two roads, Powerline and Wheatfield (insert Stewie's voice from the Wheat Thins commercial now). The naming of the stages tells the competitors which direction it's run, stage 10 and 11 were Powerline-Wheatfield, stage 12 was Wheatfield-Powerline. There was some confusion for stage 10, people showing up late on an incredibly tight uphill road to the head of the stage. After that, Heavy Sweep and I decided, it was easier to stop way before the head of the stage, make sure ALL the competitors had gotten by before proceeding down to follow them. The only real stage incident was a damaged Eclipse that went TOO big on large jumps in the middle of Wheatfield. They made it to the end of the stage, but weren't going anywhere afterwards, front wheel bent back into the firewall makes it hard to drive and steer. Stage 12 had to have been the quickest turn around stage ever, I would say 15 minutes from the time our Sweep crew came through, the first car was back on stage, headed in the opposite direction.
As we all got back in line, the next "issue" arose. The last car in line, a new team, in a newly built rally car had no night lighting and one headlight burnt out. I had a talk with them and if for some reason the other headlight went out, they would put on their flasher, to let me know. Then I could pull up close behind them, left of center, them slightly right of center, so they could see to get to the end of the stage. Not a bad plan to just get to the end. About 5 minutes later, I remembered I had brought along my rechargeable 100W flashlight. So, I loaned that to them, incase they needed it or wanted to use it sort of like a Police car spot light. And finally, about 8-10 cars from finishing up the race, the second car from the end runs out of gas! So, they frantically start asking around if anyone had brought extra, or had a means to get them some gas. Before we could think enough to run to the gas station about 3 miles away, who would have spare gas, in a gas can, one of the park ranger who stayed after work to come spectate and enjoy the rally up close. He was more than happy to lend a hand with 3 or 4 gallons of gas.
Everyone finished the last stage, without any issues. It was such an oddity to have a Gorman where only 2 cars didn't complete all the stages, usually there is a 40-50% attrition rate, due to the typically rougher roads. Why do I think things were different this year? Two things, the roads were in great shape and about 1/3 of the field were beginner, first time rallyists. As a first timer, your primary goal is usually getting to the end of the race, next time you'll start worrying about pushing harder. Like the mantra for the Gorman race goes, Our winners become legends...
http://gormanridgerally.com/
