What a weekend! I think this has got to be one of the most fun rally weekends I have had in a long time. With all of the trouble we had getting to this event I was not sure if we were ever going to make it to the end. By the time the clock on the first stage counted down to zero and we took off racing everything was good.
The first days stages started north of Aberdeen, WA in Tahoula along the beach. This is a beautiful area much like most of the North West. The weather was great. Tom and Kosta even got sun burns which they were very happy about. The stages were in good shape, but drag races.
Very long high speed straights that led into a chicane or a slight
corner to slow us down before the next long straight. We got a little too close to a section of bushes and shrubbery, that broke the co-drivers mirror, unlatched the hood pin on Terry's side and some of it even managed to make its way into the car thru the roof vent. You can imagine that a loose hood, flopping around @ 100 mph is a bit unnerving, but we pressed-on ! We were underpowered compared to some of the top competitors and it showed. We lost 10-15 seconds per stage.
At the end of the day Dave Mirra, Pat Moro and I were in a tight battle for second place with Piotr Wiktorczyk leading us in first place. The second day of racing was going to be interesting with more challenging stages and less drag racing.
Day two sent us south to the Oyster Capital of the World, South Bend, WA. Again this was a beautiful area with beautiful weather. South Bend is a small town on the coast, perfect for hosting this leg of the Rally. There was a vendor in the service area that offered oyster shooters. Tempting, but I resisted haha. Tom and Kosta did partake in a few shooters and I am told they were very good. Puke… I don’t like sea food; I worked on a fishing boat when I was in high school.The battle was on! Mirra took off and started putting time on Pat and myself from the first stage. Pat and I battled trading stage times all day long. Then we came to the infamous Brooklyn stage.
On the way in we got a flat right rear early in the stage, but I wasn’t going to stop and change it. We drove most of the stage on the rim with a huge cliff on the right side of the car. That had to be the scariest stage ever. I have never been so happy to be at the end.We lost 17 seconds to Pat on that stage. He was flying and he now had a lead on me by a few seconds. Time to fight back; two stages left. On the return of Brooklyn we were on a mission. Dave Mirra went wide and damaged his car. We found him still trying to drive the car out in a spectator area. Here is the result:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6_40TKE51E
Pretty sweet huh? Anyway Pat got held by Dave still trying to drive out and we got our lead back by a few seconds. Last stage Pat was going to go all out, so we went all out and we beat him by 6 seconds.
Yeah! Second place in class and 6th overall. Check out some more details at http://www.Rally-America.com/Pretty sweet huh? Anyway Pat got held by Dave still trying to drive out and we got our lead back by a few seconds. Last stage Pat was going to go all out, so we went all out and we beat him by 6 seconds.
Awesome weekend. I can’t wait until Oregon Trail. I won’t have to wait long; we land in Portland May 14th!
