Oregon Trail Pro Rally 2004

Oregon Trail 2004! This event started off on the wrong foot for sure, as the previous rally (the Doo Wop's) we rolled the car. This gave me 5 weeks to skin off the old roof, repair the roll cage, repair and replace the bent body panels, prep the car for painting and paint the car. Phwew. Well we did managed to get all the roll-over repairs completed in time, but I wasn't able to pick the car up from the painter's until wednesday evening. This gave me basically 36 hrs to completely duplicate all the basic prep work that had taken Ken and I the better part of 6 weeks to do the first time around. Stuff like mud flaps, interior prep (door panels, seats & harnesses, extinguishers, first aid kit, spill kit, tools, jack, toe-strap, yada yada), as well as re-install all the rear glass, put new decals on the car, set up the camera, I can't even remember everything we did. There was a lot to do! This is where I worship the ground Glen walks upon, because without his help I would never have finished in time. 48 sleepless hours later we had completed registration and after doing some last minute things (like setting suspension stuff back up and mouting the rally wheels and tires on the car) we decided to head on down to Portland International Raceway to watch the Pro Rally entrant's super-special stages (which are basically shorter, highly visible exhibition stages that fans can easily view). I was excited to be racing again, but a little stressed out about all the various newness that was happening to me for this rally. First, it was my first experience with Jason co-driving, second, it was my first experience with stage notes, and lastly, I had a much smaller crew than normal. Thankfully that changed as my Dad and Matt in his first rally service experience were able to make it, so with 3 guys to crew for me I felt a lot better. Day 1 started with a parc expose session at the hillsboro stadium, and then the transit out to Vernonia (lovingly referred to as "Vernowhere"). Vernonia is in a beautiful part of Oregon, somehwere in a line between Portland and Astoria. The weather was promising, the car was ready, and I was excited to be racing. Everything was going well and our stage times were a little slow but gaining speed steadily, when we killed our Day 1 finish by losing our routebook at the start of a stage. Because we were running notes we didn't notice the loss until the finish, and we were forced to wait for the sweep vehicle to bring the book back to us. This nearly time-barred (being more than 30 minutes late to the next check-in) us, and we incurred a 7:36 penalty. Ow. 7 1/2 minutes (as anyone can tell you) is basically a life time in a rally. There was no way for us to make it up. Thus day 1 ended in mediocrity. On the bright side, I was very comfortable with notes by the end of the day, and Jason was quickly proving his skills as a co-driver. Day 2, being a whole new club rally (we're not scored on the whole weekend like the pro-rally entrants are) allowed us to focus on performing well and building on our day 1's experiences. We got started well, and on the whole the weekend had been pretty flawless so far. We ran fast as consistant all day Sunday. One interesting moment on Sunday was the first major instruction of SS3 (later repeated as SS6) was an uphill acute corner, with basically no room for turning the car. We basically three-pointed the turn both days, with the second time around going all the way over the road into the ditch, with our rear wheels hanging in the air! Funny stuff! All in all, it was a successful rally, as I became acclimated to stage notes, the car was flawless, and we didn't crash! The weekend's successes allowed me to better my speed factor from a .72 (after Wild West last year) to a .78. The down-sides became obvious after we attempted to wash the car for the first time. The paint job (which was still a little tacky at the start of stage 1) was effectively ruined, as the dust became part of the paint. So until I decide to paint again, the car almost has a matte finish to it, as the dust/paint combination effectivly destroys any gloss. Despite some attempts to repair it, I don't think it'll happen without some wet sanding and another trip to the paint booth. Results for Oregon Trail 2004: Oregon Trail Club Rally, 30th overall, 10th in G2. Trail's End Club Rally, 15th overall, 5th in G2.