carl

Ziptie Rally started off the 2010 rally season in Atlanta, MI for Sno*drift. Last year we (myself Carl Siegler as driver and Dave Goodman as co-driver) competed in an Open Light car (n/a powered STI) - this year we moved to Open Class and this would be our first rally with the new engine set-up.

The majority of our usual service crew could not attend so we ended up pulling in two new members. Our veteran on the team was Matt Alexander (Chux) and he served as our crew chief. Joining him were Martin Asao (dynapar) and Anthony Israelson (Izzy) - neither of them had attended a rally up to this point.

Due to IIRA racing which took up 2 full weekends prior to the event we had to scramble to finish some last minute prep before we left. We set-up the car for this event by having Graham Evans change the settings on our Group N rear diff, taking off the front sway bar, putting a 13mm rear sway on and mounting up our tires. We had two primary sets for this race - General Altimax Arctics in case of heavy snow and Blizzak Revo 1's with tractionizing for ice.

Wed night Martin came over to help pack the service truck. We found that the tire rack could use a bit of extra gusseting in case there was a lot of wind so I welded a few bars onto it. (these pictures were taken by Martin)


Dave, Martin, and I left my house in minneapolis at 1am and headed for duluth where the rest of our crew lived. Once we met up with them we drove across the top of Wisconsin and up into the UP of Michigan. At this time we entered white out conditions which would prevail off and on for the rest of the trip to Atlanta, MI.




We finally got some sun as we approached the mackinac bridge


Once we got into Atlanta we immediately registered and teched the car. After that we went to a shop that Graham Evans rents to do some last minute work on the car (applying stickers lol). Graham not only supports our team but also helps out Mason Moyle and Dillon Van Way's teams.

We traveled to our motel which was in Fairview (about 25 miles south of Atlanta) and found a really awesome bar to have dinner at. Mason jar cups ftw! After that it was lights out as we had a busy day coming up.

Friday we rose early and set off for the practice stage. The guys took the service truck directly there while Dave and I went to do our odo check. We got to the make-shift service spot and adjusted the camber and swapped wheels.


After that we went and got some lunch and headed into Lewiston for the start of the race. We got in early and picked a service spot near SRT USA. The car didn't need anything so we just hung out until parc expose started.


After parc expose Dave and I got into the car and headed to MTC to transit to our first stage of the sno regional rally.


We found the roads to be pure ice - there was no traction to be found at all (especially seeded behind 40 some cars that would just polish the ground ahead of us). It was worse than just driving on a frozen lake. It was more like driving on a buttered and oiled frozen lake. The cars are not allowed to be run on studded tires so everyone was just sliding around.


We didn't have any major incidents on the 1st 4 stages aside from doing a sweet 360 and banging a few banks. We brought the car back into service pretty much the same as when we left which made the guys happy. Here is our friday service set-up


We left service to go to our re-grouping control. In the control Dave noticed our tires were low (We forgot to air them up after our HIDs stopped working and we had to scramble to get them fixed). We arranged to have our crew meet us on the transit with the compressor so we could fill them up. Luckily the transit time included a fuel depot which we didn't need so we had plenty of time.

The night stages were just as slippery but we kept driving cautiously and returned the car undamaged.


Saturday morning we were in Atlanta for parc expose before 8am.


Then we were off to MTC and on to the stages for the drift regional rally

The stages were just as icy as friday's but Dave and I kept her under control and on the road. Back into service in Atlanta with not much for the guys to do other than clear a check engine light.


We left service and went to the super special stage which was really a lot of hurry up and wait. We ran that, didn't break the car and continued on to 3 more stages.









We got the car stuck pretty bad once but luckily spectators were there to push us out. Amazingly there was no real damage done and we went to our final saturday service. At service the crew put our lights on and off we went to re-grouping control.



re-grouping control is pretty boring - you sit there parked with all the other cars for a very long time until your minute comes up to leave.


We went out and attacked 3 more stages but our bov was starting to hold open (atmospheric, with the restrictor on the turbo there's not an easy way to recirculate). The car would sometimes die so I had to drive very carefully. But we finished with no problem and made our way to Hillman for the final time control and for awards.

We were pretty much dead by then


Ziptie Rally won a Hawk Brake Contingency prize so now I can order new pads which the car desperately needs before 100AW. We also got to stand on the podium for our saturday performance. We took 3rd place in Open Class for the regional event. We took 4th in class Friday.

(they didn't have the proper number of trophies so we didn't get one lol - they have to mail them to us later)

All in all this was a very fun weekend. I drove a conservative race and saved the car which was very challenging given the conditions. We saw a lot of carnage back in service from people wanging trees, banks, rocks, stumps, etc.

A big thanks to Dave for co-driving with me. Dave absolutely killed it in the right seat - he did a tremendous job not only reading the notes but helping me keep the proper speed in the car to prevent bad things from happening. It pays to have a co-driver who is also a good driver so he has a feel for what the car is doing! Also thanks to Chux, Izzy and Martin for crewing - I'm happy I didn't have to give you guys any real work to do! You guys were professional in the service area and everything went smoothly, nice job! And finally, thanks to all the organizers, volunteers, spectators, and competitors for making this an awesome event - huge turnout and very well run!

here is a video showing some highlights from the event. The spin happened when I had to much speed for the corner after getting confused on which road to take since they both went right around the building.