Amy here, checking in from the rally in Missouri this weekend. Fun time yesterday, Thursday. I weedled my way in to "helping" by running reconnaisance with me in my car. A lot of fun. Got to drive on every stage with some teams in their non-rally cars, many of them in rental cars. For much of the day Mike (LegacyPGT) was running in front of me or behind me on the road. I'm excited to see him run his newly prepared car. The water crossings were a hoot. Every time the caravan of cars would stop at a start or a finish it looked like a fire drill with 1/2 of the guys running in to the woods. to pee! I have to say I have never seen so many guys peeing in the woods in all my life! I think maybe they were marking their rally territories or something. They're running short of people who have worked finish or start controls so I've been 'promoted' to Control Captain for Saturday. Heaven help them! I'm doing the start time control so hopefully less of a chance to mess things up. Today I work with an experienced person and absorb as much knowledge as I can. Well, got to go for now. I'll check in again if I can.
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: Hilarious! Sounds like you guys are having a blast and I know you're taking a bunch of pics to share with us when you get back! Can't wait to see them! Tell Mike "good luck" for us!
Mike finished 11 overall and 8 in open class. Considering there were about 10 cars that were capable of winning overall in this field, Mike did great. He drove a very smart and clean rally. After last year's car totalling wreck, Mike was driving for a finish. (official tease mode on) However, Mike did get beat by a couple fat old guys in a 2WD car with 1960s technology. (tease mode off) We would have been 10th overall in the national. We were the fastest 2WD car overall. As it was, we won both regional events and the 2006 Regional Rally Championship Cup for Group 5. Mark Utecht
Thats awesome! that mustang is something fierce! i am looking forward to seeing more pictures of both you and mike racing.
I dunno about during the recce, but I personally find I pretty much need to pee afer I finish every stage that's driven briskly (not competition speed for me yet, but advance cars don't always dawdle along). I think it's a combination of the adrenaline and the vibration. Plus I get dehydrated easily which causes nasty things to happen to me (really low potassium levels being the most imediate issue), so I tend to be drinking water pretty much continuously.
Watching Mark at the start of Stage 8 was great. It was an uphill start so he roosted mud all the way up the hill. When Ken Block pulled up to ATC and I took his time card and I said, "Nice day for a drive." and he smiled and responded with a, "Yeah!" It was pouring rain. His co-driver, Alex, responded, "It's raining." I was standing next to their car in full rain gear with soaking wet feet and looked at him like he'd lost his mind. I kind of noticed it was raining.... I think maybe something got lost in translation.
There's some pics on subaru's site. I saw one of Mike's car in there, it looks awesome. http://rally.subaru.com/acrewood2007_gallery.html
"Cars entered the water at various speeds - Michael Wray & John Nordlie decided to almost jump in" w00t!
I don't think English is Alessandro's first language, and the irony may in fact, have been lost in the translation. He's one of the top co-drivers in the US though, that's for sure. Guys like Travis and Ken are fast because they have three things. Money, talent, and talented co-drivers. A bad co-driver can really handicap an otherwise great driver. Won't name any names, but they're out there. Mike and John on the other hand seem to be a really good team and I'm expecting great things from them.
More rally stories... Hung out with the Franenjetta boys Thursday night before they went to tech inspection. Don't know why these boys don't do car repairs at some other time than an hour before tech inspection. The car wasn't running right in the mid range so they tried a couple different fixes and one of them worked, don't know which. The alternator hold down was broken so they rigged it. They also put a new fuel filter in, the one in the car looked like the original one and I think the car is a '92. With both repairs done they fired her up and it ran great. Thinking it might be good to check the new fuel filter, I went to the trunk with the flashlight and shined it on the banjo fitting on the end of the fuel filter. I found a fine mist of gas spraying from the end fitting. I'm thinking that's a bad thing and start hollering for them to turn it off! Boothee comes around back of car with cigarette in his mouth to see why I'm yelling to turn the car off, before Miles shuts her down. These boys may be the end of me, literally.
Friday... I worked finish of stage 3 and start of stage 4. My control captain for the day was driving an STI. As he lead us worker bees into the woods I was following behind him at a comfortable pace and we promptly lost half of our group, I heard later that some were dropped before we even entered the woods when they followed a t.v. truck to the spectator point by mistake. Guess comfortable pace for a Subaru isn't the same speed as some other cars. Someday I'm going to get a the computer/printer at the flying finish to work, but not today. Ended up "marking" finish times off the radio calls of the guy sitting at the finish line. To top it off, the printer pooped out after one car so we weren't able to get a back up record. Trust me, the times were right though. Finish captain ran back up on the Time Wise Clock to confirm times. They turned the cars around at service between 3 and 4 and it seemed that Ken Block was back to start Stage 4 hardly before the last car had finished Stage 3. Having not done ATC before, where teams hand me their time cards and I check them in and then add 3 minutes to get their "ideal" start time. I was a bit flustered when my Start Captain took the other two workers to the actual start line and left me to fend for myself. Thank heavens the Steward from Tennessee came along before too long and helped me check cars in. I would've been more lost with out him and left that night seriously doubting I could handle being the Start Captain the next day. I got a pep talk from the same Steward that night at the Holiday Inn and he convinced me I can do it.
Saturday it poured rain all morning and I was lucky enough to have a finish captain that knew what he was doing. We got the start of stage 8 set up with an hour to spare before the first car was due. The wind conspired to blow the yellow sign marking the start of the ATC away two times. Second time was after the cars had started so all I could do is apologize for it being missing at this point. Most teams were understanding or saw it in the ditch where it ended up. Had farm truck, complete with dog, pull in at one point before green light. Farmer stating he needed to go feed his cows. I related to him we should be done in about 30 minutes and he could follow green light in but would the race would be turning around in a couple hours to run it reverse. After green light, we loaded up, then transited through stage 8 to swap ends with the finish crews to become start for stage 14. All set up for 14, I sent my crew to town for potty and food break and I stayed to keep an eye on the equipment. The start clock sure would look nice on someone's wall, like mine, so I figured I better keep an eye on it. Photographers showed up just before zero car was to leave the start, so I sent them back down the road to park outside the control. They promptly parked in front of the yellow control sign, at least I think it was them. Again, I apologize for no one being able to see where the control starts. Someday I'll get it right. One hectic moment as the first 5 cars were: rally car, rally car, rally car, farmer in truck, rally car. I encouraged him to turn around and exit the way he came in and he wanted to argue how someone should tell him the road was closed (it had been repeatedly posted the previous week but I've heard the signs disappeared) or have someone should be up the road stopping people before they got to my point. I apologized for being short with him but pointed out the race cars in front and behind him and asked him politely to leave, he did. By the time another Steward came along in a ford focus I'd had it with non-event cars entering the control and was ready to jump on his hood and given him a tongue lashing before I recognized him and waved him to an out of the way parking spot. Stage 14 in the bag, picked up our equipment again and transited again through the stage to make sure all the marshals made it out o.k. Did I mention of fun that is? Came upon some local kids in a truck and an eclipse that wouldn't start. Made sure they had a tow strap before wishing em luck. Tried not to rub it in by launching when I left. I made it to Salem in time to see the ceremonial finish. When Ken finished, I noticed his wife standing behind us, I recognized her from the Stunt Junkies show. Cool... I stayed to applaud every car that finished, even the last guy deserves applause for making it there. It was great to see the Zedril brothers finish their 2nd rally in their Mitsu Lancer. The co-driver uses a wheelchair and I get a kick out of seeing a caged rally car with a wheelchair sticker next to his name. That simply rocks! After ceremonial finish and subsequent champagne showers, off to the banquet. Yay!
White Knuckle Photography has some great pics from 100AW. Check out the gallery or search by Mike's car number, 23, to see photos of just his car. http://www.whiteknucklephotography.com/ Here is my favorite picture of Mike, Friday on Stage 3 (i think its 3) See more at http://www.maxpowered.com/images/VR6...oods-Salem_Mo/
