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Welcome to CK Rally!
February 28th, 2007 -- Wild West '06, Doowop's '07
First and foremost -- We are the 2006 G2 Northwest region champions!!! Ian and I both won the G2 class for co-driver and driver, repectively. Ian also did one event in California which qualified him for the Western states Rally championship, where he won the G2 class as well!
Links to the results:
2006 Pacific Northwest Group 2 Drivers
2006 Pacific Northwest Group 2 Co-drivers
2006 Western States Rally Championship Results
Let's see... the last update was after Mt. Hood, so we've entered two rallies since then. First, the final event of 2006 was the Wild West Rally, which was rescheduled from September to December, due to the dry conditions this year in September. The Land owner was concerned about fires, which forced the rally organizers to reschedule. December turned out to be just as bad, as the extremely wet conditions this year softened the roads to unacceptable levels, also prompting us to find a new venue or reschedule again. Ultimately it was decided that the rally would continue with Saturday's stages taking place at the ORV Park (which was already part of the rally route as a super-special stage on Saturday). Sunday we went to Pacific Raceways for some tarmac time attack style stages.
Saturday we finished 4th of the 5 G2 cars. The ORV park was super muddy and we made a mistake on our second run that saw us stalled and high centered on a mud bank. That cost us quite a bit of time and we never really managed to bounce back from that in the five runs of the very short stage. Sunday we raced on the track, but the muddy stages of the ORV park had caused something to go wrong with the engine and we were significantly down on power. We limped through the day and managed to take a (last place in class) finish, ensuring that we scored enough points to win the 2006 G2 class honors! Thankfully it was the last rally planned for that engine, so we didn't even really have to worry about repairs!
The event was pretty different for a rally, but we still had a good time despite some car troubles. The organizers did great job with no real time to sort out a VERY short notice loss of roads. We look forward to running the regular Shelton roads again for the Olympus rally coming up in May.
After that the car entered overhaul mode for the winter break. The new 16 valve engine and all the fixin's was installed over the winter break. Despite the time frame, it was still a pretty last minute job finishing the rally car in time for the first event of 2007, which we managed to do, with pretty encouraging results. The old motor made 99HP at the wheels (when it was running good!), with 105Ft/Lbs of torque at the wheels. The new motor (on the same dyno) made 131HP at the wheels, with 125Ft/Lbs of torque at the wheels. I have to say a big thanks to Ian for the last minute assistance and moral support during the final days of fine-tuning and troubleshooting our new motor issues.
So... the new motor was ready, and so were we! We headed out to Aberdeen for the start of the 2007 Doowop Rallies. This event brings out the best because of its great roads, reasonable entry fee, established history, and superb organization. At the start of the event there were 11 (WOW!) G2 cars entered. We were looking forward to competing with some of the best drivers in 2wd in the northwest. With more power than ever before at our disposal, a good result was the hope.
Alas, fate did not favor us. The car had run great during all testing and tuning prior to the event. About 10 seconds into the first stage we were experiencing power cutouts under load (which of course, all racing is heavily loading the engine so that was definately not working out). We found a safe spot to park and watch all the cars go by so we didn't hold anyone up with a broken car. After limping out of the stage and getting back to service, we tackled the problem. Unfortunately we were unable to solve the problem during service so we withdrew from the rally at that point. We headed back to Aberdeen and started working on the problem. Diagnosis led us to a fuel issue, so we checked our fuel system for leaks or kinked hoses and changed the fuel filter. The weather wasn't so kind to us, so the bulk of the work being performed was with Ian and I on our backs under the car in the pouring rain in the hotel's parking lot.
After a fun fun bit of work, we had dinner and then took the car out for a test drive. Everything seemed back to normal and we beat on the car pretty hard for the next 30 minutes. Lots of wide open throttle and plenty of driving to ensure the car was fully warmed up. We were excited that the problem seemed solved and we chalked it up to a clogged fuel filter and went to bed. Sunday we started the second day of the rally, but to our dismay, on the transit leg over to the first stage the car started misbehaving again. Talk about frustration!
We decided rather than hold everyone up we'd withdraw again and go volunteer to work on one of the day's later stages. We (Ian, myself and the service crew of Jasper and Colin) ended up splitting up to work a road martial position and the flying finish / start control at the West end of Brooklyn. We had a pretty good time with it, but it's not as much fun as racing. Still it was good to see all the other teams out there and get a chance to talk with them at the start control.
Chris has attended Doowop's 5 years in a row now, 2003 as a worker and 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 as a competitor. In all these attempts, the car has never finished the rally. Ian has never completed more than the one competitive stage that we limped through on Saturday. If we have a curse for an event, this is it! So, the solution to the car's problem is now in the works and we'll be back for Oregon Trail (this time with a working car!). So until then...
Other page updates:
- The Cars page is updated to reflect the new motor!
- The Crew page is updated with a new layout!
- Yet another archived front page!: Archive 8
email Chris
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