The Wishbone Alley Gazette
October, 2001
Club
News
Billy McHales, 4065 Factoria Blvd.
SE (425)746-1138 Its in the SE corner of Factoria Mall, at the
edge of the parking lot. Best access is to get onto Coal Creek Parkway (south of I-90) then
left at the Newport Way traffic signal. Left
into the parking lots of the Mall, when you see it.
Tested by Mike and Gretchen Jones. Seating
is in booths (!).
Rally
News
- Wild West Pro-Rally. Sept
7-8
-by Mark Nolte
Lovely
day for a rally. Nearly 60 teams started
on Friday night, by time they got to our stage on Saturday, we only had to face
50 cars. One of the casualties was the
Sorem Subaru RX, with an engine problem.
The
nice weather begat dust, which begat two-minute spacing. The rally ran on schedule (when workers
rebelled against the SCCA timing system, the FISA system was retained). One Stage was "scrubbed". The story
goes that the ORV Park Ranger insisted on an ambulance being present for the
short stages there. When the ambulance left, that Stage was run as a Transit.
The ambulance returned, and the second ORV Stage was run at speed.
RASC
was handed the old "Stillwater Glen" stage, with two loops cut
out. Starting off of Highland
Road, Steve Richards manned the
logs, while Carol Lewellen and Sue Calvert passed the paperwork back and forth.
Both had to compare the single right-hand-drive EVO to the Olympus,
when you never knew which side of the cars the co-driver was on until the
window was rolled down- to reveal the steering wheel!
Debbie
Sjodin likes being Starter. Even when
Lucas Hines and a friend were stationed to "help" her, she insisted
on counting each car down, and then getting showered with gravel. She relented
a few times, and Lucas has the dusty shirt to prove it. Otherwise, he got to
see the neat cars. The frontrunners
didn't reveal their secrets without some hard looking.
Road
Marshals: I didn't hear any stories about happenings at the crossroads. Duane
and Evan Lewellen starved when Mom was drafted to be at ATC (not?). The Jones
were almost within yelling distance, at a vital intersection.
Roy
Ward had Sherri and his radio for company, and chatted with Kirk Simons who was
further down the road. Whereas Rod
Chelgren pleaded and begged for a good corner, and was rewarded with the acute
right at the end of a long straight. He brought his British-spec Escort, which
people noticed (once he got out of the woods).
Paul and Peggy Appel had a huge crowd at the
Spectator Corner. Pictures flooded the Web the next day, and Paul isn't in any
of them. Darin Hansen also was assigned to that corner. So I had folks from
Beaverton and Wenatchee
dealing with the, uh, interesting crowd.
Jack
Helm used to a fixture at the Flying Finish. Vince ran into him somewhere, and
got Jack back on the worker list. Of course, things have changed- the NW Region
supposed retired the land lines in favor of FRS radios, and we have clocks that
freeze the time. Jack brought 3 kids, much bigger than the last time I saw
them.
Tom
Palidar volunteered to manage the STOP control.
His usual group begged out, so only a newbie, Greg, came down from
Lynnwood with him. One of the guys from
the Subaru Impreza club, Adrian, volunteered to work the rally, and ended up
with Tom. We made arrangements for Adrian to drive his WRX through the closed
Stage, with Greg along to …wish he were driving.
Somewhat shorthanded (the expected volunteers
from the Olympia area didn't appear), some Subaru mechanics and friends
startled Tom by announcing they were going to go into the now-closed
Stage. Since someone had already gone in
to hang some sort of banners, Tom had to quiz the blokes to discover that they
didn't really have any authorization to go into the stage- he let them walk in.
The
Stages went as expected. We did a "radio sweep" in thew 15 minutes
between runs; otherwise we would have to hold things up while the EMT was
off-station.
I
sent everyone off to see the ORV Park, and cleaned that Stage (The Jones didn't
take the offer and helped clean arrows, stakes, and a few other odds'n'ends
from the road.)
One
poor little Subaru tackled a rock the size of two tires, DNF'ing at that point.
The HAMs had supposedly gotten word to their support crew. We looked at the broken car for a few
minutes; the Stage now deserted and quiet.
The guys were pretty bummed. The car's right front suspension was not
healthy.
You know that advertisement where guys are
marooned on a deserted island, in a deep funk with no prospects? Then a foxy
chick appears with a cooler full of cold beer? Well, that was the look I got
when I pulled out my cellular phone and asked if they wanted to call
anyone.
They got their support crew turned around and
on the way. Then the car got jacked up, and using some muscle and odd parts,
got the suspension back in place. They drove very carefully to pavement (one
lurch and they'd have to do it all over again).
Within 15 minutes, the trailer appeared and they were…gone.
- Pacific Forest Rally, 9/16/01
Eleven starters, 6 finishers.
- Friday
Niter September 14 "Don't Go There"
-by Rallymaster Eric Horst
I was naïve and thought I was too old to
be drafted. It was February I was
minding my own business and enjoying the simplicity of life when I was swept up
and plopped down right smack in Rallymaster bootcamp. Truth was, I didn’t argue much. What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger,
right?
This was my first event as Rallymaster
and I had a good time putting it together.
It was a risky proposition but I wanted to do something different from
the usual routes way out East. I’d had
in mind for some time to do a semi-urban route, a route that was challenging to
craft and challenging to run. I had
already scoped out Tukwila and the gentle residential roads through Allentown
and areas south of Boeing Field and I couldn’t get those out of my head. They were the seed. The rest just grew naturally and fell into my
lap in one drive on a very late Wednesday night. I didn’t know then it was the first drive of
twelve.
Of course I knew this route wouldn’t
please everybody and I knew it was perilous as a first-time rallymaster but in
the end I was personally very pleased with the route. My first two reviewers agreed: “They’ll hate
you…but it’s cool.” Thus it was sealed,
route chosen and the rest was as simple as a little typing.
There were 29 brave souls on Friday the
14th and the fear was no doubt with them as they sat in stopped
traffic on South I-405 for the odometer check and then headed North toward
downtown Renton. But all was well, and
part of my plan. Most of them had faith
and followed my plan but some made up their own. There was, unfortunately, a hard-to-read sign
or two; and a missing MBCU, which escaped the checkout. (I also had to drag a ROAD CLOSED sign back
into a freshly opened street to avoid another MBCU error.) These tiny errors lead to some frustration
especially since people don’t ever see off course markers. There were also three Novice class cars that
got lost enough in the first leg to go home and a tiny calculation error in Leg
4. These were all disappointing as I
tried to be very careful and it made the finish stressful for me. I was, however, heartened that nearly every
car saw every checkpoint and made it to the finish. I console myself that some rallies don’t end
that well.
On the positive side I was very happy
that my traps worked out. Many veterans
were caught by my odometer section trap, only seven cars got my ONTO trap to
stay on course and I was pleased to torture everybody with miles of CAST 25
sign counting. I was also completely
overjoyed to be told it was the most precisely measured course seen in a long
time. Back in February would I have
guessed that pleasures come from such things?
I need to thank Gretchen, Mike, Kirk,
Terry, Mark, and Steve for coming out to work.
Gretchen and Mike also made fabulous trophies. I'm grateful for the assistance of Greg
Hightower who double checked my route and subtleties of instructions, worked
the Route Control, and worked "crowd control" at the finish. It was a generous contribution from a
non-RASC member. Finally, everybody has
done such a fine job of post-event rallymaster fluffing-up that merely three
weeks later I’ve already gone daft and started thinking about routes for next
year. Lord, help my marriage.
September
Minutes - by Pete Shelton
- Treasurers report: approx. $1323.00 with
most/all bills paid
- Wild West Pro Rally: 67 cars started
Friday, 49 on Saturday with some 49 finishers at the end of the event. Lots of factory team support banners, workers
t-shirts and high quality cars made an excellent event. …lots of neat stories.
- New Meeting Place/ Restaurant: again a
popular topic after current establishment double books meeting room, slow
service and a requirement of one joint check hurts popularity…only savior is
good beer selection. The club voted to
try Billy McHales at Factoria.
- Friday Niter: Eric went over last minute
touches. Some recent changes after
previous weeks pre- runs. Kirk commented
on good new roads. Four crews needed. Gretchen to do registration
- Elections soon: nomination committee
(Mark Nolte and Terry Simons)-same rules as previous years. Board members chosen from non-present members
(especially un-paid). Soooo pay up those membership dues and attend the next
meetings.
- T-Shirts for Sale: It was brought up
that RASC still has some shirts for sale and that we need to bring them to our
events.
- Upcoming Events: were discussed
including Armageddon, Bald Mtn. And Mountains to the Sea.
- Meeting adjourned… all present: Mike,
Gretchen, Kirk, Daniel, Pete, Ed, Joel, Eric, Rod, Bryon
Trivia
- From Mike Jones: "Well, unemployed as of last Friday
afternoon. Looking (?) for a suitable job.
(The company) was caught in the Hi-Tech crunch, like lots of others."
- A quick trip to Yellowstone
revealed something interesting: Montana's speed limit on freeways is 75, and
all the cars with Montana plates were obeying it.
FOR SALE
- 1992 Audi S4 Quattro Red/Blk leather, 90k miles, Hoppen/MTM Stage
2+ engine enhancement, RS2 manifold (290+ hp), CD changer, all else stock. $14,900.
Call Steve at (425) 337-0232 or email smrdcatman@juno.com for pics and details.
- Ed Millman got a '97 Taurus, wants to sell the '91 white Taurus
wagon. 150K mi. $2000 (206) 361-7389
- Mike Jones still has the collection of parts in his garage that
could make somebody a dandy Fire Arrow. Make an offer. (425) 823-8329
- 2000 Isuzu Rodeo LS. White,
4WD, Automatic, power windows & locks, keyless entry, receiver hitch,
12-disc CD changer, other extras. Has
19,500 miles, with 60,000 mile factory
warranty. Just finished Alcan 2002
course survey and ran great! $16,900
(want to sell it quickly so it's darned cheap!). Call Jerry at 206-227-6343. Colleen wants a
convertible. The pearl white (with white
17" wheels and new tires) '89
Corvette is offered at $9900 '94 white Plymouth
Grand Voyager LE, AWD, 3.8 motor, new transmission, seats 7, dual A/C, custom
wheels, 140K miles. $5900. Call Jerry or Colleen at (206) 227-6343 or
(425) 823-6343.
- Two (2) Checkpoint
Timing lights. These are "Pat Biggar Special" timing line tubes with
the "delay" module so you don't get 4 flashes for 4 tires. I
purchased them thinking RASC would upgrade timing techniques. I'll keep one. $80 each
- Subaru Impreza Wheels
and tires: 15" rims don't fit over WRX brakes. Hakka H1 studs on 4 (gold) American Racing
wheels. $650 Four 15" Legacy
wheels. No tires. Just one weekend of TSD on them. Make offer. mnolte@qwest.net
- '94
Suburban for sale. New rear differential, alternator, tires, A/C compressor,
updated wheels, pw, ps, pdl, rear ac, 3rd seat, recent brakes. Well
kept truck and tow vehicle. $12,500 Contact Pete Shelton @206-783-5681
RASC Calendar
Call the NWRC Hotline (206) 256-9627 for latest info on Puget
Sound TSD events.
- 10/12 –
Friday Niter by ORCA, Bellevue, WA
- 10/21 -
Armegeddon TSD by Chuckanut. Start in Bellingham, noonish, 4-5 hours.
Might have some gravel, but Healey, Miata, Mitsubishi "OK".
- 10/27 – Ghoul’s Gambol (TSD)
- 10/28 - Litter Clean-up (MP
99-101)
- 11/ 24-25 – Totem TSD (B.C.)
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