Jrally
Adventurer
This past weekend I towed my expedition Celica out to Lebec Ca., for the Gorman Ridge Rally. This rally is held exclusively inside a state OHV park, Frasier Park. What follows is the write-up I did from my weekend and links to videos (about 20 seconds each) we took from inside the car.
Gorman Ridge Rally 2010
I had to have surgery last month, otherwise I would have been running in this race (money and healing made this choice for me). So, rather then miss out on the fun, I decided to drag my off road Celica along with me, hang out with good friends and run the recce (pre-run) along with the competitors. I was trying to get my would have been co-driver, old co-driver and good friend Piers to run it with me, but he was too busy with work to make it up in time fro the recce. I had also contacted a friend who hasn't rallied in a while to come along with me, spend time out, maybe get him remotivated about the sport. Shea, who lives down in Tucson was more than happy to come along with me and fill the passenger seat in the Celica for recce. The only problem all weekend with the Celica had to happen while we were near the front of the pack and only on our 2nd pass of the first stage. After hitting a series of small bumps, the coil wire fell off the distributor. You would think this would be easy to spot, wrong... Every wire and hose under the hood looks the same and are going every which way. Needless to say, we got to wave everyone by as we sat on the side of the trail. It took us about 15 or 20 minutes to find the problem, once we did, it fired right up. Time to prep the car like I prep the rally car, zip tie the wires to the cap.
This year Gorman introduced two new stages to the event, still inside the off road park as usual, since we had all the Southern California forestry permits denied/cancelled back in the spring of '07. The first one, Badger, is just a short cut version of the classic Northboundry stage, cut out about 1/2 mile and the sand bit that's out in the middle of a field, at a 90 degree left hand turn. A lot of 2wd cars have gotten stuck here in the past, going in the uphill direction. The other new stage, I had seen before while volunteering for the X-Games Rally back in '06. It's a fun horseshoe shaped stage, start and finish are only 50 yard apart. The most interesting feature is a very steep little hill, climb in one direction, drop off in the other. (most stages are run in both directions) One unfortunate team did forget to slow down for the decent, even though it was noted as a double caution. They jumped their Subaru most of the way down the hill, popping all 4 tires and bending a couple of control arms in the process. In true rally spirit, their crew got the car fixed, borrowed a couple of spare tires and a control arm from another team and headed back out...
It was great seeing everyone and as usual Gorman delivered its share of fun. This is always one of my favorite race of the year, along with Prescott Rally in Oct.. It use to be the tri-tip BBQ, but they don't have that anymore, now it's the free beer after the race from Karl Strauss and the big after parties. I never minded the rough roads, adds to the challenge. Like they usually say, the roads are the smoothest we've ever seen them, it was true once again, they were smooth, for Gorman roads...
The adventure didn't end with the race or party this year, it continued to the drive home. 10 or 15 minutes into the trip, we got stuck in a traffic jamb on I-5 south, took us over 1-1/2 hours to go 2 miles. In the high winds, a semi had flipped over in the middle of the highway, right where road construction had it necked down from 4 lanes to 2 lanes. It wasn't so bad, as a lot of our friends from the race were stuck too. We got out of the cars and had a chance to chat more before heading on our way. It turned our 8 hour drive home into 9-1/2, oh well, it's always something...
-Jon
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOVOszLqxNc"]YouTube- BadgerHairPin.AVI[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7Uv7BgVmUs"]YouTube- MaxieClimb.AVI[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5qL7pidjVI"]YouTube- PowerlineWht3.AVI[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60C549oLJ8g"]YouTube- PowerlineWht1.AVI[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhj-6GRuFj8"]YouTube- Maxie2.AVI[/ame]
Gorman Ridge Rally 2010
I had to have surgery last month, otherwise I would have been running in this race (money and healing made this choice for me). So, rather then miss out on the fun, I decided to drag my off road Celica along with me, hang out with good friends and run the recce (pre-run) along with the competitors. I was trying to get my would have been co-driver, old co-driver and good friend Piers to run it with me, but he was too busy with work to make it up in time fro the recce. I had also contacted a friend who hasn't rallied in a while to come along with me, spend time out, maybe get him remotivated about the sport. Shea, who lives down in Tucson was more than happy to come along with me and fill the passenger seat in the Celica for recce. The only problem all weekend with the Celica had to happen while we were near the front of the pack and only on our 2nd pass of the first stage. After hitting a series of small bumps, the coil wire fell off the distributor. You would think this would be easy to spot, wrong... Every wire and hose under the hood looks the same and are going every which way. Needless to say, we got to wave everyone by as we sat on the side of the trail. It took us about 15 or 20 minutes to find the problem, once we did, it fired right up. Time to prep the car like I prep the rally car, zip tie the wires to the cap.
This year Gorman introduced two new stages to the event, still inside the off road park as usual, since we had all the Southern California forestry permits denied/cancelled back in the spring of '07. The first one, Badger, is just a short cut version of the classic Northboundry stage, cut out about 1/2 mile and the sand bit that's out in the middle of a field, at a 90 degree left hand turn. A lot of 2wd cars have gotten stuck here in the past, going in the uphill direction. The other new stage, I had seen before while volunteering for the X-Games Rally back in '06. It's a fun horseshoe shaped stage, start and finish are only 50 yard apart. The most interesting feature is a very steep little hill, climb in one direction, drop off in the other. (most stages are run in both directions) One unfortunate team did forget to slow down for the decent, even though it was noted as a double caution. They jumped their Subaru most of the way down the hill, popping all 4 tires and bending a couple of control arms in the process. In true rally spirit, their crew got the car fixed, borrowed a couple of spare tires and a control arm from another team and headed back out...
It was great seeing everyone and as usual Gorman delivered its share of fun. This is always one of my favorite race of the year, along with Prescott Rally in Oct.. It use to be the tri-tip BBQ, but they don't have that anymore, now it's the free beer after the race from Karl Strauss and the big after parties. I never minded the rough roads, adds to the challenge. Like they usually say, the roads are the smoothest we've ever seen them, it was true once again, they were smooth, for Gorman roads...
The adventure didn't end with the race or party this year, it continued to the drive home. 10 or 15 minutes into the trip, we got stuck in a traffic jamb on I-5 south, took us over 1-1/2 hours to go 2 miles. In the high winds, a semi had flipped over in the middle of the highway, right where road construction had it necked down from 4 lanes to 2 lanes. It wasn't so bad, as a lot of our friends from the race were stuck too. We got out of the cars and had a chance to chat more before heading on our way. It turned our 8 hour drive home into 9-1/2, oh well, it's always something...
-Jon
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOVOszLqxNc"]YouTube- BadgerHairPin.AVI[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7Uv7BgVmUs"]YouTube- MaxieClimb.AVI[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5qL7pidjVI"]YouTube- PowerlineWht3.AVI[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60C549oLJ8g"]YouTube- PowerlineWht1.AVI[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhj-6GRuFj8"]YouTube- Maxie2.AVI[/ame]
