Mayhem Racing covers both ends of the results in one weekend. Ojibwe was a rally of extremes for the Mayhem Racing team. We went from winning the Paul Bunyan’s Ride rally overall to being “dead f-in’ last but finished” in the 10,000 Lakes rally. Our event started with replacing a front rotor and rear caliper after some testing shenanigans at Brainerd International Raceway a week before. After the brakes were up to snuff, we were ready. Stage one at the speedway was fun. I really like this venue for the super special. I also kept true to my word that I would not jump the car big. It flies fine but it lands like the Queen Mary. The second stage gave me the biggest grin of the rally. Matthew Johnson had rolled and was out of the event. He and his co-driver, Jeremy Wimpey, were one corner upstream of the car to give ample warning with the OK sign. Matthew made the mistake of mooning me too early. I had plenty of road and time for payback. I pitched the car left then right and got into the foot deep gravel slop on the outside of the corner. I stomped the throttle while in the sweet spot of third gear and sent a WALL of gravel toward Matthew and Jeremy. Matthew told me later that he saw me go off line and knew what he was in for. I must have been quite the sight with Matthew trying to run up the berm with his suit at his knees.. I should maybe apologize to Matthew but he did freely offer the target to me and ought to know I don’t pass up an opportunity like that. Stages 3 and 4 went without major incident and we made it to the Akely service. At service we had nothing out of the ordinary to do so I set about telling the gravel spray story to anyone that would listen. Then we found out we were leading the regional overall. Nobody was more surprised than I was. Off to the last set of stages. I am very worried at this point that we can make it on fuel. The Mustang is sort of thirsty in that department. We drive a steady pace and have no major issues. On the last stage, the low fuel pressure light flashes a couple times so I know we are getting low. We pull into the final MTC with the fuel gauge under the E but we made it in and took the OA win. Saturday morning comes and we are ready after washing the car. The first three stages are without incident. The forth stage brings a flashing fuel pressure gauge with a third of a tank left. Soon the light is on solid and we are not getting fuel to the carb. We limp to the spectator point and that’s where the car finally stops. We get out and quickly diagnose no fuel in the carb (really, I hadn’t noticed). Two photographers offer to go get us some fuel and they are back quickly. Rob and I get in and buckle up while they pour in the fuel. We finished the 4th stage and got to service. After doing some diagnosis, the crew dropped the fuel tank and found the fuel pick-up tube had broken loose from the flange. We clamped the tubes to bind them in place as best we could. Since we had already lost 26 minutes on stage 4, Rob and I decided we were going to drive the rest of the rally with the primary goal of saving fuel and finishing. We ran the rest in 4th and 5th gear never opening the secondaries in the carb. It’s a good thing as the fuel light began to flash again on the last stage. We made it to the final service and ultimately the final MTC to finish last but still take 2nd place G5 points. Rob and I would like to thank all the organizers and workers for a great rally. We also want to thank our crew of Alyssa, Amanda, Kevin, Kyle, Mary, Megan and Ryan. In addition, thanks to Dave and Sam from the crew of Kendall/Friberg. They helped us greatly after Cary and Scott had dropped out with a similar but more complete fuel system failure. See you all at LSPR!
Yikes, sounds like a fun time. I still git a kick out of seeing that mustang tearing it up out there.
If you guys have never had the opportunity to see Mark race you're truly missing out. Every stage I worked, I had two spots that I'd watch from. One for everyone else, and one behind cover for Mark.
Congrats Mark! Glad to see you having fun with the 2WD stuff again, albeit RWD. What happened to Dennis this round? I hope to make it to LSPR again this year for my 9th year in a row (LSPR was the first US rally I went to). I don't have an excuse as my folks have a summer home on the lake west of town.
Thanks for all the comments. Dennis had a fuel pick up problem also. The suction line in his fuel cell was collapsing and no fuel was getting to the pump under power.
