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The Wishbone Alley Gazette
July, 1998 Rainier Auto Sports Club
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Rally News---------
• Coast to Coast- by Mark Nolte
I look forward to going to Vancouver Island every year, perhaps the result of
surviving the previous VIGOR rallys. Maybe the Islanders thought that event
had a bad reputation, so this year’s rally was called Coast to Coast. The
speeds were manageable, and the undercarriage of my car is intact- other than
that, its pretty much the same.
With two teams delayed on the ferry, the Nanaimo Sports Car Club delayed the
start of the rally. With only 8 entries, that made sense. There was also a
problem getting the rallymaster ready.
True to form, the rally would run on Canadian time, roughly 6 seconds off
WWV. The driver’s meeting announced the car "0" start time for each TSD.
Seeing CAST’s and Pauses in the ODO Transit had navigator Ed Storer somewhat
concerned up until that point. He pointed out that they are beginning to save
trees, not mileaging every "event" of the road. Our favorite will always be
the year they used three RI’s to get over every bridge- measured to the
thousandth!
The rally quickly became a grueling test of staying on time. Not that the
speeds were hair raising; that turned out to be easy ("Are you sure we’re in
Canada?"). It was going to be a battle of precision and zero’s. Much tougher.
So the rally meandered through the forests for a whole day. The roads looked
familiar, but then, they looked like the roads a hundred miles north, too. Or
maybe out of Shelton.
There were nicely planned stops, where navigators talk about…whatever those
guys discuss. Drivers talk about tire grip, and apparently navigators do,
too. Seems that this rally had a pavement factor and a gravel factor. If
you’re unfamiliar with this concept lemme explain: the rallymaster lays out
the odometer check, so that we can match his mileages. A Canadian tradition
is to do the odo check at high speed on a paved road, then run the timed
sections on slow gravel roads. The mileages don’t match. Ed mastered this
and would change the factor when we went from Transit to TSD. I’m much easier
to get along with when the mileage’s match.
Someday, all the entrants will finish a Canadian rally. Not this time.
Although the RI format had a field for Tulips, it was vacant, wasted space.
(The restaurant owner where the rallyists had dinner is a papermaker by day.
I’m beginning to understand how this works…) I went through the RI’s and drew
little arrows in this available space.
So when a left turn came up, at the beginning of a free zone, it was
surprising to see a car coming at us at waaaay over rally speed. Perhaps the
"miss" was because the RI’s noted the beginning of the free zone by "shading"
the area. This concealed the critical "L". Two more cars passed us, so it
wasn’t an isolated mistake.
One of those guys overcooked a corner and ended up in the trees. They got it
back to town in time for beer.
When all was said and done, we had to run and catch the ferry, including time
to watch one leave while we held our place in line. The results are still a
closely guarded secret, although I assume that John Fouse/Dennis Wende figured
things out quicker than we did, and won the computer class.
•ORCA’s Somm’re Solstice had 7 entrants, 8 legs (all scored).
•Nothing from Edge of the Rock stage rally.
•Terry Simons is managing the food catering at the Solo National, July 18-19,
at Boeing Kent. (the date is wrong in the June WAG). She needs a few more
volunteers.
•About 8 trophies have been located to recycle for the August 15 Saturday
Niter. Need 12+ more. Bring ‘em to the meeting. Still working on recycling the
several hundred dash plaques the club owns.
Publicity is tough, but at least the tape Gregg Hightower made in January has
the date correct.
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Trivia-------------
•The NW Historic races at SIR had almost enough RASC folks around for a club
meeting. Vince Plancich tended to Ed Millman’s Cortina. The Jone’s,
Breazeales’, and Rod Chelgren were wandering around. Jay Kingsley was Chief
of Flagging, and conned Nolte into corner work.
Nolte ended up on communications. The racer’s have honed this to a much finer
degree than we do at the PRO-Rallys. For one thing, the Chief of
Communications was Sue Lingbloom. She treated the communicators like 5th
graders- and it worked!
As far as the racers, it was a tossup whether the cars or the celebrities
were more interesting, although the cars were easier to see.
---------For Sale------------------
•For Sale: Mazda 12A header, plus RX3 parts. Price dropping- getting tired of
looking at this stuff! Pete Shelton (206)365-4173
•100 watt siren driver/amplifier. You'd need an adequate speaker...but never
be ignored Roy Ward, 425-869-3836
•DISH™ antenna & receiver. Won't get "Speedvision", replaced it with a DSS
system. $50 $40 $30 Mark Nolte 425-226-3155
•1977 Dodge Colt, (RWD), 2.6 ltr, Posi, disc brakes, dual carbs, full cage,
Hella 3000's & 500's, AlfaPro. Rally ready, $2000 OBO, Bonnie, (503)692-1314
•Two Nomex racing suits, LG & XLG), 1 layer, Blk/wht/red- $75 each. Proban
Racing suit (XXL), 1 layer, Red- $40. Bell SR-Pro Helmet, SA-90 $100. Bonnie,
(503)692-1314 or e-mail: rainbonnet@w...
•Volvo, babied for 200,000+ miles. Lots of goodies. Rod Chelgren
•1988 Honda Goldwing, 1500cc, fresh tires & brakes, 73,000 mi., excellent
condition. Need room for the new one. John Nispel (360)357-3207
•1986 Plymouth Turismo 2.2 Turbo Auto Trans,( custom built, new, extremely
heavy duty), new shocks, new struts, new progressive rate springs all four
corners, new BIG front rotors and calipers, new mags with new 185-14 Hakkas
(the 6-plys) new paint. Dark metallic blue, white stripes ; LeBaron front
seats $3250,(They're moving soon!) ), Jim and Cristy Breazeale (206) 935-8312
(Seattle)
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Wanted------------
•Setting up a rally car: need "rally" seats, big lights, and a rally computer.
Brian Langford 360-671-6103 (Bellingham)
•Driver wanted: "I am a TSD navigator wanting to become active in Northwest
rallying. I am conversant with most forms of navigation including computer,
Curta, TSD wheels, etc." Jim Nash (425) 821-1109 (evenings) or e-mail:
(jnash@n... (Jim is ex-St. Louis, now working in the NW- ed.)
-------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, except August, Start
is at the Eastgate Park and Ride.
For most B.C. events, see Dennis' Wendes' Web page at:
http://www3.bc.sympatico.ca/dwende
July 11-12 "Gold Digger"; All nighter. Registration is at Boston Pizza in
Whistler BC at 11 p.m. Martin Wilson , RM, (504)683-6517
July 18 Mountains to the East (Ore)(Levear)
July 18-19 SCCA Solo 2, Boeing Kent
Aug 1-2 ORV Rallysprints, Elma
Aug 1-2 Maine Forest PRO
Aug 8-9 Road Not Taken, OR (SCCA sanctioned)
Aug 15 "The Recycled SatNiter" by RASC, Mark Nolte-RM 425-226-3155
Aug 16 Rally at PIR (OR)
Aug 28-30 Ojibwe PRO-Rally
Aug29-Sept 5 Alcan 5000 Rally jhines@e...
http://www.eskimo.com/~jhines/
Sept 12-13 POR- Mich.
Sept 19-20 Evergreen State 1000 or
Sept 26-27 Evergreen State 1000 (conflicts with other activities forces
the move)
Oct 2-4 Prescott Forest PRO-Rally (AZ)
Oct 3 "Night on Bald Mountain" touring TSD by ORCA. Sunset 'til midnite
or so. Gregg Hightower, RM, 425-226-4936. Mostly gravel
Oct 17-18 "Totem Rally" (TSD) , BC
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Rainier Auto Sports Club will meet this coming Monday, July 13, 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:
Wide ranging topics: ORV Rallysprints. NW Historics Races. Also final
assignments for the Solo "feast". Jerry might have something to sell and a
little about the Alcan. With so many folks involved in the Historic Races,
we have to either move ES1000 out a week (and antagonize the rallyists who
don’t want it too close to NOBM), or possibly cancel for lack of workers.
Minutes from the last meeting may be interesting, too.
--------1998 Board Members: President: Pete Shelton- 206-365-4173; Vice-
President: Jay Kingsley-206-243-9102 Secretary: Rod Chelgren- 206-523-9330;
Treasurer: Terry Simons- 425-806-1741 Membership: Mike Jones- 425-823-8329,
Member at large: Cristy Breazeale, 206- 935-8312.
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The Wishbone Alley Gazette is published for the members and friends of Rainier
Auto Sports Club. Subscription price is $10 per year. The editor is Mark
Nolte, ph. 425-226-3155. Contributions and paid/unpaid ad eagerly received at
2108 NE 12Th. St., Renton, WA 98056 WAG FAX Line: 425-226-1469. E-Mail:
RALLYMASTR@a... ###########
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