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The Wishbone Alley Gazette
February, 1998 Rainier Auto Sports Club
-------------Rally News
• The PRO-Rally workers party benefited from reasonable weather. It was
somewhat weird to chat with friends without the usual mud oozing through the
shoes and drizzle all about.
By coincidence, two awardees limped to receive their trophies : Mike/
Gretchen Jones and Gene Neilsen. The awards were well justified. Gene is a
shadow of his old self after spending time eating hospital food.
The drawings for "goodies" went on for hours. The RASC folk got their share
of the "loot".
•The Breazeales are contesting the Thunderbird rally in British Columbia, this
weekend, then LP.
•Subaru has arranged to have a "presence" with the Lost Patrol, February
20-28. From Satch, via the Internet:
"With less than a month before the final edition of the Rally of the Lost
Patrol, Class III---two wheel drive vehicles---has been discarded. Any last-
minute 2WD entries will be combined with their appropriate 4WD counterparts,
but the 2WD cars will be allowed a greater number of tire studs to help even
the traction advantage enjoyed by 4WD.
"The tentative starting order will be:
1. Gene Henderson/Russ Kraushaar: Class I: Subaru
2. Dan Coughnour/Greg Lester: Class I:
Subaru
3. Dave Jensen/John Kisela: Class I: Subaru
4. Todd Terp/Bob Wakehouse: Class II: TBA
5. Dennis Gunn/Kevin Poirier: Class II:
Audi Quattro
6. Steve Dinan/Tom Grimshaw: Class II:
BMW 325 iX
7. Greg Hightower/Nora Hightower: Class IV: Mitsubishi Galant VR4
8. Jim Breazeale/Cristy Breazeale: Class II:
Audi Quattro
9. Ron Clyborne/Michelle Andersen: Class IV:
Audi Quattro
10. Gary Webb/Fred Mapplebeck/ Bill Secrest: TBA
11. Garth Ankeny/Mike Richardson: Class II:
BMW 325 iX
12. Jeff Lynn/Jake Engstrom: Class IV:
Subaru Legacy"
Roy Ward has consented to drive Satch through the rally, in his Chevrolet
4-door Corsica. The sweep truck is Richard Crosier, and the worker co-
ordinator is Sharon Euster, both in the same Toyota pickup.
• John Nispel has asked
on Valentines'
Day weekend. Saturday's three stage roads will be in the NW corner of Capitol
Forest, around the Porter Creek area. Sunday will be at the east side of the
forest, with service probably at Mt. Molly campground. Gretchen and Mike
Jones have opted to be road guards until Mike gets better.
•The rally scene: Figuring out who's who is tough. It all revolves around
insuring the rally.
TSD: The Northwest Rally Council (NWRC) consists of ORCA (Olympic Rally and
Competition Association), barc, Torque Steerers, Chuckanut Sports Car Club,
RASC, and maybe the local Miata club. John Humphrey is chairman and Kelly
Smith handles the insurance. There used to be a Microsoft club, and the Boeing
club is strictly autocrossing.
The autocrossing scene is handled by the Western Washington Sports Car
Council (WWSCC), which has a few Corvette clubs, the MG and Triumph clubs,
and probably the Porsche club. There used to be Datsun and VW clubs, but I
don't know if they are around...I really don't keep track, but these things do
exist.
The PRO-Rally scene is all Northwest Region of SCCA (NWR), although the
SCCA's Reno and Oregon Regions may get in on the rallys held on "their" turf.
(Yes, the past Reno PRO-Rally events were sanctioned by NWR!).
RASC puts on Tour de Forest, by getting sanction from NWR. The other's are
put on by the NWR rally "group", which is the same people wearing different
hats depending on the topic of discussion.
The insurance comes from SCCA (Denver), according to requests from the
Divisional Chairman. (The B.C. Canadians had to "invent" an overseeing
organization to talk to CARS, Canada's sanctioning organization. CARS didn't
want to talk to the actual club people putting on the rally!)
The situation for TSD's in Oregon is too confusing. There's Cascade, MBCU,
Twisty Roads Group, and maybe another I don't know about.
Why am I going into this? Insurance. If you get involved in an "incident",
you get to know the insurance carrier much more than you want to. Or you may
find you and your l
d the January meeting, although many showed up at Coco's to
find it closed. Business was called to order on the following Thursday.
President Pete Shelton proposed growing the club in 1998. Various suggestions
were offered- getting new blood and recruiting unaligned enthusiasts.
Rod Chelgren volunteered
• Dues are due. $17 single, $20 family. Pay the treasurer or mail in the
money.
----------Trivia
•Some of the original RASC members are still around. They're old and cranky,
of course, and some may need help getting into their imitation-wood sided
station wagons. We ought to invite them out to Raindrop, if the rally can be
tamed-down for the oldsters. -MN
•Those horizontal cracks across windshields usually have something to do with
blasting hot air on the inside of the car while warming it up. (Save $300- use
"heater" rather than "defrost" unless you're driving ...)
•A Toyota Racing Development (TRD) outlet has opened in Burien. It's next to
the Burien Toyota dealership at 15025 1st South. Although a huge area is set
aside for radio control models, they do have rare Toyota parts. And PIAA
lights, including 180/200 watt H4 bulbs (in a vault, considering the price).
•Rubber Duck, the CB store in Renton, has closed. Owner couldn't find a buyer
and retired.
•If Curt Thompson has his way, he'll have about 8 checkpoint "trip lines"
available soon. Although the air pressure switches are a standard Edmunds
Scientific item, a "hold" circuit has to be added to keep each tire that
crosses the tube from generating more than one "pulse" per car. Clocks that
can be tripped are still a "rallyists' special" item.
AND- if you're running a TSD rally using such timers, check the Generals to
see if the timing is at the front bumper or at the tires. It's only a couple
of feet, but sometimes it's important.
------------Wanted / For Sale
*Aiwa Sound System, 1 year old. Roy Ward, 425-869-3836
* '68 Sprite. One project too many. Big Healey needs attention. $3000, Ed
Millman 206-361-7389
•Any leads on where to buy red tint
but now it can't be found. I called nearly evry supply house with
no luck.- Mark Nolte, 425-226-3155
-----------Lawmakers in session
(I asked if the legislature was out to "get us" this year):
OK Mark, here's a fraction of the news from Olympia:
SB 5556 creates the illegitimate autobody operations enforcement project.
Hmmmm. . . .
HB 1997 and SB 5469 require dealers to disclose a "branded" title to the
customer. Titles get branded when the car has been totalled by an insurance
company.
HB 1712 would let the dealer get just a little deeper into your pants pocket
by charging a fee for making a loan. SB 6399, the famous "Show your Finger"
bill, would allow all kinds of "enhancements" to driver's licenses, among them
digital images of your face and maybe your finger. The latter is a big bone
of contention.
SB 5466 exempts electric and hybrid vehicles from motor vehicle excise tax.
Indeed, your lawmakers are stepping all over each other to be the first to
give you a tax break on your MVET. Among the bills are HB 1147 & 2636 and SB
6112.
They also like the owners of really big motorhomes (some of whom make really
big campaign contributions).
HB 1146 lets them avoid the agony of licensing altogether by authorizing them
to buy additional "trip permits" for use when they want to trundle along
mountain roads.
SB 6038 takes a carrot and stick approach to the problem of beating the MVET
by licensing the car out of state. It uses a big stick on the cheater, and
tosses a carrot to the bounty hunter.
HB 1129 increases penalties for eluding a pursuing police vehicle. (If they
catch you. . . )
Washington is the only state in the nation that does not allow some single-
driver use of carpool lanes during non-rush hours. Our DOT has said they
think our drivers aren't smart enough to understand anything less than their
all-or-nothing approach. Several bills would change this: HB 2629 and SB
5855 & 6289.
HB 2427 allows impoundment of a vehicle driven by an insurance violator.
Numerous bills would impound a car d
8 and SB 5081 would take away the car of a person patronizing a
prostitute.
HB 1264 addresses a problem Gary Larson thumped squarely on the noggin with a
two-panel strip several years ago. #1 showed a bunch of typical Larsonesque
goofballs on a big boat and was labeled "Ship Of Fools." #2 showed an even
dumber looking bunch of teen-agers cruising in a jalopy. It was called
"Carload Of Idiots." Our Legislators have a good little bill to limit the
number of passengers a minor driver can carry! Who's on board now??
HB 1339 (and probably a few others) reheats that old chestnut of
the"provisional" driver's license for our younger citizens, and SB 5168 would
send a letter to the vehicle owner if a minor driver commits a violation
therein.
Motorcycles and their riders get their 15 seconds in the legislative Fame
Game. HB 2434 increases the maximum allowable handlebar height.I don't know
if it's into "apehanger" range, and it's silent on maximum width of handlebar
mustaches. HB 1242 and SB 5256 loosen the helmet strap just a bit, but only
for vintage cycles.
And speaking of old crocks, there are several bills that are friendly to
vintage and collector cars and their keepers. HB 2743 liberalizes the
definition and regulation of street rods, and 2744 protects the rights of
"automotive collectors," aside from dignifying us with a proper title. HB 2528
exempts vehicles less than 4 years old from emission testing, while HB 2745
exempts cars more than 30 years old; which pretty well defines my fleet. . . .
The thorny thicket of parking is addressed in SB 5613, which exempts
homeowners on or near college property from normal parking restrictions.
Watch out for HB 1181; it makes it harder to fight a radar ticket by allowing
courts to take automatic notice of its great reliability.
Ever wondered if a Tacoma cop, say, could give you a ticket for doing 75 if
he spies you on I-405 in Bellevue? Probably not, but HB 2713 would establish
procedures for "extraterritorial processing of citations." Keep an eye on it.
. .
ar the court
calendars, HB 2759 would reduce the traffic infraction penalty for a person
who doesn't contest it and pays up on time. "Just show me the money and go."
In the area of traffic enforcement, HB 1727 recognizes that running red
lights is a growing problem. Really.
Known as the Chevy Chase Act, SB 5302 makes sleeping-driver homicide a gross
misdemeanor. Remember Summer Vacation?
One of my favorites actually passed last year. Chapter 190, Laws of 1997,
allows garbage trucks to transport people and dogs on the outside of the
vehicle. You can look it up!.
There are all kinds of bills about studs. As in tires. They've given up on
outlawing studded tires because then only outlaws would have studs. The
current thinking is to lighten them up a bit, thereby doing less damage to the
road by the people who go click, click, clicking all over town from November
till April Fool's Day. Consider SB 5250 and HB 1311 & 2525. Do you miss
having to pay a recycling fee when you buy a new replacement tire? That
requirement expired a year or so ago, but HB 1151 would bring it back.
I could expound on this forever, as you well may know. But, enuffs zeenuff.
Your Faithful Scribe,
The American Pup
-----------------1998 RASC Calender
Call the NWRC Hotline at (425)277-4351) for latest info on Puget Sound TSD
events..
Saturday niters are the second Saturday of each month, Start is at the
Eastgate Park and Ride.
Feb 14 DooWop I Div PRO-Rally
Feb 15 DooWop II Div PRO-Rally
Feb 20>Feb 28 Satch Carlson's Rally of the Lost Patrol
Feb 28 Snow*Drift PRO-Rally
Mar 7 ORCA Rally School, Lynnwood, WA. (Probably at the library)
Mar 14 FRINiter by ORCA
Mar 14 DooWop III (60% national PRO-Rally)
Mar 15 Doo Wop IV(60% national PRO- Rally)
Mar 29 Flapdoodle by Chuckanut (Gimmick rally)
Apr 17-19 Wild West Nat'l PRO-Rally, Olympia, WA (Friday? , yep!)
Apr 26 Raindrop (RASC)
May 8 Rim of the World PRO-Rally
May 30 Oregon Trail, Div PRO-Rally
June 5-7 Susquehannock PRO-Rally
June 13 Edge o
TSD by ORCA
June 20 Reno Div-PRO
June 27-28 Summer Rally, Vanc. Island
July 11-12 Pemberton TSD, B.C.
Jul 18 Mountains to the East (Ore)(Levear)
Aug 1-2 ORV Rallysprints, Elma
Aug 1-2 Maine Forest PRO
Aug 8-9 Road Not Taken, OR
Aug 15 SatNiter by RASC
Aug 15 Rally at PIR (ORE)?
Aug 28-30 Ojibwe PRO-Rally
Aug29-Sept 5 Alcan 5000 Rally
by Jerry Hines
Sept 12-13 POR- Mich.
Sept 19-20 Evergreen State 1000 TSD
Sep 26 nothing (yet)
Oct 2-4 Prescott Forest PRO-Rally (AZ)
Oct 3 Nite on Bald Mtn (ORCA)
Oct 17-18 Totem Rally (TSD) , BC
Oct 23-25 Lake Superior PRO-Rally (MI)
Oct 30 Ghoul's Gambol (ORE, Saager)
Nov 7-8 Midnite Rally,Vanc. Isl
Nov 14-15 Pacific Forest Div-PRO
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