The Wishbone Alley Gazette for the Internet
Rainier Auto Sports Club
August, 1996
Rally News
"Edge of the Rock" had 3 finishers, with Damitio/Trowbridge/Celica
winning. The Patterson's DNF'd in their 323. Our own Breazeales placed
in the top half.
The ORV Park Rallysprint had 18 entries, and a generally good turnout.
There was enough food for all, too. Ray Damitio debuted a 4WD Suzuki Swift.
Janice won, and also introduced her oldest son to the track- as part of
the Speedfreekz program. Kirk Simons not only finished, but won his class
on Saturday.
Don Gibson can't squeeze writing Night on Bald Mountain into his busy
schedule. Steve Roberts and Gregg Hightower are possible substitutes. (From
the ORCA Oracle) The date is October 5 (if it flies).
Evergreen State 1000 rally : The September 14-15 weekend has been mapped
out, 3000 miles covered and more to go. Moses Lake is a nice enough place
to start and finish a rally, it's just that any rally road is 40+ miles
away. Compared to previous dramatic views, the NE Corner doesn't top the
past rallys.
What it looks like is to make a headlong beeline for Metaline Falls. Gardner
Cave is worth the trip all by itself; the usual 45 minute tour may be cut
short (by special arrangement) so that we can get the rallyists into the
wondrous place. There's only room for about 35 "tourists" at
a time. Keep in mind that it's 200 yards from the Canadian border.
Students of geology will know that most of Washington is covered by
a 5000 foot mantle of basalt. The lava flows didn't get up here, so the
limestone cave is accessible.
Just 3 miles away is Seattle City Light's Boundary Dam. A dam is a dam,
but they hollowed out a mountain to build the powerhouse. While some rallyists
are in a natural cave, the rest can enjoy the powerhouse. Not sure how
this is going to work, but it's doable.
The rest of the rally has the usual collection of new roads. Can't go
very fast, so a rental car may work as well as your favorite "hot
wheels." No rough roads. Probably only 20% gravel.
Mis-managing the "dinner" has cost us about $50 each year.
That's the profit for the event. This year, the dinner is included in the
entry fee, and meal tickets will be issued along with the RI's.
You wanna know what's driving the rallymaster absolutely NUTS? There ain't
a place to pee along Saturday's route. At least not where needed. Not a
tree for miles. No corn fields. This may be a rugged rally....
A Tale of Two Rallys, By Cristy Breazeale
Jim and I attended two rallies out our area. Both were put on by
folks who haven't hosted a pro-Rally in the past: One was a CARS (Canadian
Association of RallySport) event in BC, the other an SCCA event in Nevada.
We entered the Canadian rally and worked the other one. Perhaps that influenced
my perception of the two rallies. Perhaps not.
Since our service van is tired and needs a heart transplant, there was
never a question of us competing in a rally over 200 miles away, especially
if we had to go over mountain passes to get there. In fact, Big Red even
has trouble getting up that hill from Olympia to Black Lake. What hill,
you say? Come service for us in November and you'll see "what hill"
indeed.
The Canadian rally, dubbed "Edge of the Rock" was put on by
Autosport Nanaimo and run on Macmillan-Bloedel forest roads of Vancouver
Island. The Host hotel wasn't really set up for trailer parking, but rigs
too long for their stalls just parked alongside the building. There was
a certain amount of confusion at registration and tech, perhaps a bit more
than I expected. But they pulled it together and everyone got off on time.
Several locals stopped in at the park expose' with questions about the
cars and rallying, and where to go to spectate.
The way the section times were put in the book was unusual, and very
nearly caught me out early in the day. After that I made notes in the route
book so I wouldn't make the same mistake again. They also used stickers
and separate timecards which we turned in at the end of each stage. I've
never used these before, but had no problem with them.
The roads were wide and had little gravel, unlike Weyerhaeuser and Simpson
roads. The stages were fast and fun and they changed them around enough
so that each stage was a little different. We ran them forward and backward,
turning down different side roads each time. The field was disappointingly
small. Only 6 cars entered: 3 from Canada, 3 from the US. I'm sure that
the Reno Rally being just 2 weeks away kept some US teams from competing,
and confusion over the ferries probably scared others away. But take it
from me: this was a quality event on fun roads, and the BC ferry is not
as expensive as it looks. Especially if your service van is under 7 foot
tall.
A big thank you to all who came out to work, and an extra pat on the
back for Simon and Karen Levear who came all the way form Oregon to lend
an experienced hand.
Glyn Trafford (RASC member) and Bart Vogelzang, both of Autosport Nanaimo,
have floated the idea of running another rally on the "rock"
(Vancouver Island) in October. They mentioned that it could be a warm-up
for teams planning to run the SCCA rally in November. I'd say whether or
not you plan to run in November, the Vancouver Island Rally is a "must".
By the way, any U.S. citizen who holds an SCCA License can enter a CARS
event without buying a Canadian License.
While we were in Canada, Sean Tennis talked Jim into going to Nevada for
the Reno Rally. He suggested flying, but we drove down in the "silver
Bullet." Hey, any excuse for a road trip is a good one. Jim called
John Forespring and offered to work the rally, but when we got no response,
we started making plans to spectate. Imagine that! Just going there to
watch a rally! We should have known better. We got into town just before
7PM Friday night and Mr. F. informed Jim that we were working the rally,
and were expected at a meeting in 10 minutes. Since I had been thinking
about a shower and a beer for the last few hours, I was slightly cranky...well...maybe
more than slightly...
Chaos and pandemonium best describe what I saw and heard that weekend.
Volunteers didn't show up, needed paperwork was impossible to track down,
dinner tickets were nowhere to be found, there weren't enough clocks, our
HAMs had no idea how to fill out their paperwork, cars died in the heat
and sweep took a shortcut and missed them; and in the middle of it al,
one selfish team fooled around at the start of our stage to give themselves
"dust minute" creating a major backup and unnecessary stress
for volunteers who will not be coming back again.
I heard on Sunday morning that there was a breakfast and award ceremony
(with no awards, as it turned out) at Ruby's. We got no address, no map,
no directions of any kind from the organizers and after wasting 45 minutes
driving around looking for it, we gave up and left, bringing back some
equipment we didn't know how to return.
Am I glad we went? Yes. I feel that we made a positive contribution and
helped show the locals how it's done. Would I go back? Not on your life!
Not as a worker or as a competitor. Why drive over 800 miles for hassles
like that when we have a fine, established rally schedule in our own neighborhood
and an emerging venue just a few hours north of here? See you in Canada,
eh?
Mountains to the Sea - by Cristy Breazeale
Russ Kraushaar was Rallymaster of this year's Cascade Auto Club's
"Mountains to the Sea" rally, thus ensuring a better rally than
last year's disjointed mess. A lot of familiar faces were there, including
several Lost Patrol rats. I got a big hug from Mike Richardson, who was
navigator in one of the BMW's, the team who became our "transit buddies"
in February after the other Saab dropped out. And, of course, there were
several novices, some of whom talked Jim into joining a "team"
with them.
Due to extensive damage from the winter storms, most of the route was
on main roads. But the scenery was nice, the side trips interesting, and
the rasta checkpoints fun. We made only one navigational error: at the
bottom of one page, right after a checkpoint at a speed change (?!) It
said "PAUSE 1 MINUTE." I wondered why, as there wasn't any traffic
there, but I put the minute into the Timewise, turned the page and discovered
the next instruction was less than .1 mile away. "Oh Jim, we should
have turned Right back there. Quick, turn around NOW." With the extra
minute in hand, we still had several seconds left by the time we got back
to where we were supposed to turn.
We had a lunch break on the summit of Mt. Hebo, after a fun road to
get up there. We passed a car on the way up, pulled off to the side with
the driver working on a front tire. Remembering two years ago when we won
a gen-you-wine glow-in-the-dark squid for pulling another competitor out
of a ditch, Jim wanted to stop and help. I told him "No way. We're
car #1, there's no rally traffic in front of us, get going, you're late!"
A few minutes later, the car passed us on the way to the top and it was
then that we recognized it as a worker car. He got to his position just
in time to clock us as we went by.
It was a cool day and the summit was in the clouds. I've heard the view
is great, but that day it was lost in the mist. But a lunch break it was,
and we all took advantage of it. One team spread out a blanket on the hood
of their car, and broke out the wicker picnic basket complete with potato
salad and other classics. Most of us just wandered about with sandwiches
and soda pop and visited with other competitors.
Then there was a stop at the Tillamook Air Museum- 20 minutes was not
enough. 40 would have been better. As it was, we had gotten hosed by some
tourists at the last checkpoint so we spent the time in the car discussing
whether to and how to make a "time declaration". Still being
a bit foggy on how to do it, I chose not to. I didn't want to hose us worse
by getting it wrong. It turned out that enough folks got hosed there, so
the checkpoint was tossed, making our discussion moot.
We stayed at the Oceanside Resort in Seaside, mere steps from the beach.
The day ended with barbecued hamburgers, our own olympics-style beach volleyball,
a keg of beer (Red Hook, of course), and the traditional campfire.
As for results, the eleven points of Steve Roberts and Hal Dittman secured
first place. Second overall with 21 points was (insert fanfare here) yours
truly: the Black Hole racing team of Jim and Cristy
Breazeale. Our best finish ever!
And the team results? Well, our rookie buddies were no help, so we didn't
place at all. In fact, I must confess I have no idea who did win the team
competition. Except it wasn't us.
It's-put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is-time. Marge Binks promised to schedule
a trip to the NW for the PRO Rally. As a member of the SCCA Board of Directors,
she isn't on the payroll, and her expenses aren't paid. So when she volunteered
to come to the PRO Rallys, she didn't volunteer
to spend her own money. Where is the money going to come from? The rallyists
who have an interest in
getting her "educated". (OK, I'll spell it you: US. NOW do you
get it?) Its only going to cost about $450 to buy plane tickets and a few
nights at a motel. Mike and Gretchen Jones are spearheading the fund-raising
project (206-823-8329).
Trivia
Vince still has the dead Civic. Now a black Cherokee graces
the driveway.
Kim Hawley's Audi also "died" on the night of the Friday Niter.
Gerald opened the hood the next day, and the hose out of the fuel injection
throttle body was loose. Since it wasn't measuring any air, it didn't give
the engine any gas. A 15 minute fix.
"Armor All tire foam Kills Kars on Contact": I sprayed some
on our '78 Mopar van. Two days later the motor dies. Sprayed some on the
Jackalope and it develops a miss and runs hot. I sprayed some on the Saab,
now its hard to start in the morning. The tires look good, though. Is this
an Urban Legend or part of an international conspiracy? Is it happening
in your garage? - submitted by Cristy Breazeale
Wayne Moddison and Kevin Barrows went up to Friday Harbor to get a 1945
9N Ford tractor for Wayne.
Nolte offered his old Tomewise 796 to John Nispel, and its sold. John
doesn't have it yet, needs to get the pickup installed.
