RASC Snowflake

Rainier Auto Sports Club  

The Wishbone Alley Gazette

March, 1997

 Rainier Auto Sports Club

 -------Rally News

 *Raindrop scheduled for April 27. Start/Finish not selected yet. * Doo Wop I/II (Feb. 22/23): The RASC folk showed up to lend support, many with magazines to read while being road guards. When a Stage Captain didn't appear, the troops magically transformed from spare bodies into able workers! The sudden awesome responsibility naturally went to the person with the clipboard, so Mike Jones became de facto Stage Captain. By drafting bodies we got a crew together. Bonnie Hertz stopped by to spectate and was appointed to a grand location. Dave LaTourette and Larry Carroll brought their cameras- but ended up holding the start watch. Ed Millman and Sean Tennis had a "moment" when their Saab 99 hooked the bank and flipped. It'll probably be rebuilt. There were some really "green" crews out here. A new Impreza had us all hoping, but it was dog-stock. A Quattro 5000 had a cage, but looked suspiciously like a grocery-getter. Somebody had to be herded out of ATC to get to that start line... Pete Shelton was shocked at the number of cars with power windows ("At least 20 pounds...") * The Friday Niter Returns: March 14, Registration 7PM, FCO 7:31. The Eastgate Park and Ride, since Puget Power's parking lot may be blocked by a new building. Call the hot line at 277-4351 (Renton) for schedule. There will be Saturday Niters this summer! *The Olympus story got sidetracked for more than a month when John Nagel took ill and things came to a halt. He has BIG plans for July 4th weekend in 1998- He couldn't get 1997 together in time. Watch this space for developing plans; keep that weekend open, through to July 6. *After T-Bird, there was a flurry of activity as 1) Gary Webb and two others left mid-way to journey North on a recon of the Lost Patrol. 2) Satch announced to Peter that he wasn't going North, 3) Peter decided to catch up with Gary & co. to head North anyway, 4) The Breazeales went on to Juneau, via Haines. Somewhere in all this scurrying around, Richard Crosier and Sharon Euster went North to recon the LP route, but they avoided the T-Bird. Now if that sounds confusing, consider that the recon group decided that Peter didn't really need to take the Quattro, and they'd come back for it after seeing the "Arctic Circle". That seen, they headed back home, but decided to take the westerly route (Cassiar Hwy.). Once at Prince George, they had to take a side trip to get to the Quattro back. Only 600 miles. * If RASC wanted to put on a stage rally, the biggest hurdle would be securing insurance. We can't just call up SCCA in Denver and set the deal up. It has to go through the SCCA Region. The British Columbians had a similar situation, except that there wasn't a "region". So they formed one, called "Rally Pacific Motorsports". The organization answers to C.A.R.S., not CASC. You'll be hearing more about RPM in the future, as things evolve. For one thing, RPM has both individual members, and member clubs. (More confusion to follow....) *The Calgary folks are going to do a Shell 4000 retro again, on the May 8-11 week. This is only in sprit, as its 2000 miles, and cars in primary category must be manufactured before 12/68. The alternate category is for car manufactured between 1/69>12/74. No electronic gizmos for measuring or navigation. Entry closes March 15, 1997 ------Club News RASC has a new P.O. Box, same Post Office: box 123. Box 53 is history. Trivia *Erratta: Last month I tried to describe two fire extinguisher ratings (ABC vs. BC) along with the virtues of avoiding Ammonium bi-carbonate. The ratings have nothing to do with the actual retardant! *John VanLandingham is back in Seattle. *Vince wants to barrow a trailer on April 1, something about moving a friends Alfa:742-3558 ------For Sale *Arrow parts, take 'em all $1500, Mike Jones 206-823-8329 (AND if you get Bob Chandler's stash of parts for another $500, you could have one tough FireArrow!) (206)823-8329 -------RASC Enthusiasts Calendar NWRC Hotline: (206) 277-4351 Mar 15/16 Doo Wop III&IV April 11/12 Wild West April 19/20 Heart of Darkness TSD, B. C. May 3/4 Rim of the World(California) May 3-TSD Rally school by ORCA, Bellevue Library. Class from 10AM 'til lunch, then a practice rally in the afternoon. May 10/11 Edge of the Rock May 17/18 Bighorn (Calgary) May 18-"Tour de Barc", Sunday-afternoon trap TSD by barc. June 7 Oregon Trail June 21/22 VIGOR, Vancouver Island, B.C. July 3/6 Olympus July 19/20 Jag/MG TSD, Vancouver, B.C. July 26/27 ORV Rallysprints Aug. 2/3 Coast-to-Coast, Vancouver Island Aug. ? Mountains to the Sea, Oregon Aug. 16/17 Road Not Taken, Oregon Aug. 16/17 Vedder Bench (B.C.) Sept. 13/15 POR, Michigan Sept. 20/21 NOR'WESTER by RASC -------2 Weeks, 2 Rallies By Cristy Breazeale This year's Thunderbird Rally started in Cache Creek, BC on Saturday, Feb. 8. We decided to drive up on Friday, early enough to enjoy the scenery. We were starting our vacation, were eager to go. Peter Linde, AKA Sgt. Sideways, popped out of his room as soon as we drove up. He was on vacation, too, and he wasn't going to miss a minute of it. We waited for Gary Webb and his entourage which we passed on the way up, then we took over a local restaurant for dinner. Literally. Saturday was clear and sunny. As it had been warm for several days, the stages were less than terrifying. 26 teams started, and only one stuffed the first day: Dean Kokko/Rod Kraushaar in a 323 GTX (aren't those things 4WD?). We later found out that we had a "moment" at the same turn as Nispel/Storer, however they actually did kiss the bank whereas we got away with it. The last section of the day was a fun luge run not eve wide enough to get sideways in. We overnighted in Williams Lake, filling in the already-crowded edges of the pub & lounge, telling our stories and excuses. (By the way, we have over 18,000 miles on our Hakkas and they still grip just fine.) The first indication of the adventure awaiting us the next morning was the admonition in the route book to "Beware of brake fade!" No lie!! The first two timed sections on Sunday were, at least in places, the most terrifying part of the rally. There was one moment we were mere inches from a bank, heading straight for it. And this was no snowbank: I was looking at a sheer wall of dirt and rocks. Somehow Jim coaxed the Saab into cooperating and we all survived without injury. Later in the day, we came across Nispel/Storer high-centered on a berm at the edge of the road. They were helped by the sweep crew eager to see a real rally car, and showed up in time for the next section. The last test was the ice race on Barnes Lake. The organizers set a target speed of 80 kph, and each team was scored on how close it came to the target time. This was the make-or-break for some teams. Webb/Kisela in Unlimited class were leading at the end of Day 1, but from William's Lake they proceeded North following an agenda planned for their sponsors and media; leaving Linde /Carlson and Fouse /Wende to fight it out Sunday for the overall and class win. Rainier's own Peter Linde took it with 30 points to Fouse's 31. Other class winners were Richards /Reid in "Ruby", the Toyota Starlet, Calculator Class, at 49 points, Wilson/Rapson in their Historical Class Porsche 911S, with 95 points, and Novices Lindsay/Leiski in a VW Jetta with 177 points. Congratulations to all the class winners and a hearty slap on the back to the overall winner, Peter. Good Job, eh? We didn't stick around for the results. We were kicking off a 2 week, 6,000 mile trip and we had a lot of miles (kilometers?) to go to catch our ferry on Wednesday morning. We visited Juneau and did that tourist thang for a couple of days, then pulled into Anchorage late on the day the Fur Rendezvous started. How's that for timing? Ever try to find a meal downtown on Valentine's Day AND the opening of "The Rondy"? Don't. After visiting friends and family in Alaska, and looking at how we could make a living up there, we started home. We enjoyed the chance to take our time and go to museums, look at the trinkets and just lay around if we wanted to. The hotel clerk was quite surprised that we were more interested in the Daytona 500 than in the "Fur Rondy". We visited Liard Hot Springs on our way south, the day after we rented a room with a Jacuzzi in Watson Lake. Those soaks were very welcome after the many miles we'd put in, and the sleepless night (a few days earlier) freezing to near death on the solarium deck of the Alaska Ferry. (The 2 hours we spent napping in the car waiting for customs to open was the only real sleep we got that night.) We arrived home on Thursday, Feb. 20th, just 2 days before the Doo Wop I & II. The van had new driveline, but still needed a carb; and the rally car hadn't even been touched. We were pretty disappointed and I figured we wouldn't make it to the rallies. But Joe, Jim, and Dave stuck with it and the whole circus was ready to go by Saturday AM. Registration and tech were at PDE and we got to run in the Capital Forest this weekend. Those roads are so nice, I wish we could run them more often. But perhaps I am nostalgic for the first roads we rallied on? Who knows. The weekend was set up with looping stages followed by a trip through service after almost every stage. After being admonished about noise and irritable neighbors on the Porter Creek road, most competitors chose not to go to service when it involved driving on that road. This was the subject of much discussion among organizers and others. An unusually large field of 30 cars entered the first local PRO-Rally of the year. We finished 15th O/A on Saturday, then our service crew made more work for themselves (and more stress for us!) by trying to change to an electronic ignition Saturday night. (They had to change it back on I-5 on Sunday morning on the way to PDE.) We dealt with a bad rear spindle, a stressed-out throttle cable, and a terminal ping all day Sunday to finish next-to-last; amazed to be finishing at all! Saturday's finish was Shrenk/Walden first, Kosimedes/Noyes second, and Damitio/Trowbridge were third. Sunday had Damitio/Trowbridge first, followed by Kosimedes/Noyes, then Hartmann/Knestis. Fourth overall both days was Tim Paterson, with Joel Wright co-driving. Glyn Trafford/Bart Vogelzang debuted their 323 GTX, and looked very professional in suits that matched the car. They finished without damage. Won't be long before we're watching our mirrors for those two! Well done, lads. -------------------------------------------------- Rainier Auto Sports Club will meet this coming Monday, March 10, at 7:30 PM at CoCo's in Bellevue, ( 520 112th Ave., between the "NE 8" and "NE 4th" Exits of 405 on the west side of the Hwy.) We have a meeting room set aside in the back. Monthly meetings are the second Monday of each month. Past Members, visitors, and spectators are welcomed. *Agenda: Vince touched the Honda: he robbed the H4 headlights out of it (newsworthy!). Raindrop looms, and enthusiasm needs to be generated. Publicity needs to be out by next week. Horror stories from the Pro Rally ranks. DJ may make his annual visit, Ed Millman may have pictures. The Simons have probably sold their house. If asked, the story of the P.O. Box will be glossed over. Gretchen is recruiting workers for the PRO-rallys, call her at 823-8329 to volunteer before she calls and twists your arm. Or Fax Nolte.Or just show up. The NWRC phone works pretty good, too. Corrections to the Roster will be accepted, in writing. Just like Canadian Time Decs. *1997 Board Members: President: Mike Jones 823-8329, Vice-President: Joel Wright, 244-6253 , Secretary: Terry Simons, 854-0382, Treasurer: Cristy Breazeale, 935-8312. Board Members:Kirk Simons, 854-0382 & Jerry Hines, 823-6343 ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Wishbone Alley Gazette is published for the members and friends of Rainier Auto Sports Club. The editor is Mark Nolte, ph. 226-3155. Contributions and paid/unpaid ads eagerly received at 2108 NE 12Th. St., Renton, Wa 98056 WAG FAX Line: 226-1469. E-Mail: rallymastr@aol.com

 

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