Final Scores

Scores are now final.

Eric and Steve parlayed their day one score of 6 to a total of 8 and first overall. Glenn Wallace and R. Dale Kraushaar put up a good fight, zeroing the second day and taking their 14 points to second overall. Marvin and I finished day 1 with a total of 22 but a 2 on the second day was enough to ensure 3rd overall, two points clear of R.J. Carroll and Michelle Mah who were the highest Canadian finishers. The third Team D car of Greg and Bill came in with a very respectable 36(?), especially considering their relative newness to the sport.

Martin Chung and Christ Monasch took first Calculator (and possbly the BC TSD championship). William McRae and Dave Harms took first Historic, Steve Perrett and Kathryn Hanson finished first in paper class (securing PCC for a second time), and Rob and Lucille Anderson finished first in Novice.

Thanks to Rallymaster Richard Lynch for the great event. Stay tuned for stories from the other Team D participants. Ask about the deer and the logging truck.

Premature end to leg 2 on day 2.

"Tree!"

About 53k (of 92) into leg 2 regularity one, a fallen tree stopped the rally. There was no way to clear the tree and not enough time to transit to the last regularity so the rest of the rally was cancelled. The participant cars formed a line and followed Paul out of the regularity, to 70 mile house and back to Cache creek.

Now we eagerly await scoring.

A dirty rally car

...is a happy rally car.

Day 2 leg 1

Leg 1 started out with gravel and ice and ended with snow and ice. During the first regularity, we think after the last checkpoint, we lost sensor 1. Marvin quickly switched over to the backup and started tweaking the factor and we got back on time but it was a nice wakeup call.

Regularity 2 was punctuated by a small tree that fell between cars 2 and 3. Eric and steve were unaffected (conspiracy theories are flying ) but cars 3 through 6 were delayed as the tree was moved. We got back on time but the cars ahead of us were not so lucky.

End of day 1

Lots of ice on leg 3. All of Team D made it through in one piece. No scores yet. Dinner is done. Sleep soon.

Leg 2

Here's where it all goes wrong for car 6. Leg 2 regularity 1 goes fine but not so much regularity 2. Starting with an oncoming truck (we oull over to avoid being squished) right before a checkpoint, then continuing with a missed (by 100 meters) left turn at a checkpoint and continusing with calculation oddities. Not that we are sitting at the back of the pack, mind you, but at this point the win is firmly beyond our grasp.

Leg 1

At the driver's meeting, the rally organizer promissed gravel, mud, snow, and ice. So far we've seen all four.

Leg one was one 87K regularity. We took approximately 75 of that getting our factor right.

Snow is thin but prevalent with patches of ice and mud.

Next up is leg 2 which consists of two 70+ regularities.

BC Bound

Today was transit to Cache Creek day and all is well with the world.

We started at approx. 1pm at Steve's house (after a quick photo shoot) and proceeded north.

Going east from I-5 at the Mount Baker Highway, we made our way to the Sumas crossing. Aside from being a more direct route to Canadian Route 1, it also tends to be a less populated crossing. In fact, when we passed through (after stopping at the Duty Free for some important rations) we only had one car in front of us.



We are now sitting in the hotel room wasting time in the best way we know. Tomorrow will find us out on the gravel/snow/slush. Fantastic.

Totem Start Order and My Garage

The provisional start order for Totem 2006 has been posted at the Totem Website. TeamD is sitting pretty. Eric and Steve are second on the road, behind last year's BC TSD Champion RJ Carroll and codriver Michelle Mah. Marvin and I are 6th on the road, sandwiched between two very competitive teams (Gary Webb and John Kisela in front and Glenn Wallace and R. Dale Kraushaar in back). Greg and Navigator-To-Be-Named-Later are two places behind us in 8th.

My preference on most rallys is 5th on the road. Up front and I feel the heat of leading the pack (plus if there's snow, you are clearing the road and there aren't too many, if any, tracks to follow). Too far back and the possibility of getting stuck behind someone increases, not to mention the chance of an angry local who has been buzzed by an earlier car and wants to take his/her frustration out on someone.

It's been raining pretty hard up here in the Pacific Northwest the last week. Maybe you've heard about it? For someone like me who's 93 year old house comes with a tiny detached garage full of yard implements, finding a dry place to work on the car is a challenge. This week I have had to fit the harness bar and the rally computer mount back into the car and I was hard pressed to find a location that would allow me enough room to pull this off without filling the interior of the car with water.

Then it struck me. I had a perfect place at my disposal. The parking garage at my office is dry and what it lacks in good lighting it makes up for in room to spread out.

I took yesterday's lunch break down in P5. I mounted the bar, installed the camera mount (I am going to record some (if not all) of the rally for posterity), and swapped the normal glove box out for the computer mount. Once Marvin drops off the computer and radio tonight, I can test the sensors to make sure that I am getting pulses [A good thing to do at least a few hours before heading out on a 5-6 hour drive to the rally location, if only to give yourself some more time to fret and worry about the sensor that you really don't want to try to fix since it's almost 11pm and it's raining outside and really, didn't you want to run in paper class anyway? After all, there's only two people in that class so you are guaranteed at least six PCC points.] and the car will be just about ready for our trip north to BC.

Totem 2006 Preparations

This Friday, three erstwhile Team D cars head up north to Canada to take on the Totem Rally challenge. This two day rally in British Columbia will take us from Cache Creek to Williams Lake and back and should cover 850KM of gravel, mud, snow, and pavement.

Totem is the final rally of the Pacific Coast challenge and is the first rally of the Pacific Northwest winter season. It plays younger brother to Thunderbird in February. It usually features some early season snow and slush but unlike Thunderbird, it hasn't built up enough snow on the side of the road to act as bumpers so going off-road is a bit more treacherous.

As such, I have put "winter shoes" on the Subaru WRX. The studded Nokian Hakkapellita 2s I have been running for the past three years will see yet another season. I had discussed the idea of restudding them with my local Discount Tire but they were against the idea. My suggestion of using roofing nails pounded in from inside the tire didn't go over very well either.

Over the last week I have been looking for the snowbank magnet that seems to be mounted somewhere in the front bumper of the WRX but have had no luck finding it. I am hoping that it fell out over the summer. After leading Thunderbird 2006 all day one and late into day two leat year, that pesky magnet pulled us off the road and out of competition, leaving us stuck in a snowbank waving gallantly at the rest of the field as we waited for sweep to pull us out and back on to the road.

During Totem, I will attempt some live blogging. I have configured my Blackberry Pearl to upload photos and text to this site. As we drive in and out of cell coverage, any queued missives from the road will wing their way down and onto the site for all to enjoy.

To before heading north:

Reinstall the harness bar (removed to make room for infant car seat)
Reinstall the timewise mount and timewise (removed after every rally)
Wire up and test the HAM radio
Make sure all the first aid and safety equiment is in the car
Dig out the shovel and planks just in case the magnet did not shake loose
Buy some warm boots

Currently there are 24 entries for Totem 2006 which is about average. Marvin and I, as well as Eric and Steve in the IX and New Team D members Greg and Person X in their Audi 90, will be competing in Unlimited Class which is the most populous class and currently has 10 teams. The other seven Unlimited cars are great competitors and if history is any indication, this will be another hard-fought rally. Check back over the weekend to see how we do.