International Rally New York 2008

Friday, October 31, 2008

International Rally New York (10/31/08 - 11/1/08) was our last rally of the 2008 season and quite eventful. First we must extend our sincere gratitude to Robert Cella for his extreme generosity. He approached the rally organizers and offered to sponsor the entry fees of four teams in their first or second year of competition. We were one of the lucky teams to be selected. It certainly made a difference as we had additional expenses for this rally having broken our front suspension at Black River Stages.

IRNY started for us on Wednesday as we drove to Staunton, VA to pick up the rally car from Marcel who had been keeping it (and preparing it) since BRS a few weeks before. Then we towed up to Callicoon, NY to hook up with Kerry Feng and Chris Kilby who were to be our crew for the event.

Thursday morning sees Kieran and I off in Kerry's Land Rover to conduct recce of the stages. We managed to cover all the stages but often only with one pass due to the tight schedule and long transits. One of the new stages around Walton was snowbound and closed with fallen trees. We're fortunate to have the Land Rover as some other cars get stuck. On the top of the stage there is much snow and ice which is some cause for concern but it ultimately gets plowed and salted in time for the competition on Saturday.

Meanwhile Kerry and Chris are preparing the rally car and getting it cleared through scrutineering. They're also doing final adjustments to the new Hotbits suspension which arrived only a few days before. We meet up around 4:00PM at the shakedown stage and swap cars. We've managed to give Kerry's Land Rover a puncture so they go off to get that repaired as Kieran and I take a couple of runs through the shakedown stage. Parc Exposé and the ceremonial start is at Villa Roma and the cars go into Parc Fermé there overnight. To keep costs down we're staying at a small hotel in Callicoon but they've screwed up the booking and we don't get the right rooms. Chris and Kerry have a single bed (but will use an airbed). Kieran and I have a single bed but there's a pull-out sofa. Kieran's fighting a cold so I get the sofa.

In-car video from each stage is linked in the story below and indicated:

. We are using QuickTime which can be downloaded from here if you need it.

Up early on Friday to get the car and do some last minute adjustments before we head out for a long transit (49 miles) to the leg 1 stages around Warwarsing and Narrowsburg. The crew take the Explorer and Land Rover to Narrowsburg to establish our service area.

Stage 1 is Rogues Harbor

(4.45 Miles) and one that we've run before so it is a little familiar. The road is as fun as we remember it and we feel very good about our performance. Kieran and I clicked into rally mode very quickly and had a good run

Lundy

(4.35 miles), stage 2, is the reverse of Rogues Harbor. These stages are quite smooth and flowing.

Stage 3 and Stage 4 are repeats for Rogues Harbor

and Lundy

and we make steady improvements in our times. It's not unusual to pass disabled or wrecked cars on stage but

about half through Lundy (about 4 minutes into the video) we come across McCormick's Evo off the stage and balanced, nose down, at a bridge.

We've entered this rally with Hampton Bridwell and Josh Katinger in our sights since they are hard on our heels in the point standings for the Rally New York Championship which we won in 2007 and are defending in 2008. We must finish ahead of or close behind them to remain in first place in the championship.

There's another long (47 mile) transit to Stage 5, Crystal Lake

(6.19 miles). This stage and those that follow for the rest of the day are brutally rough in places and will be a true test of the new suspension (and my

driving skills). About 4 miles into the stage, in a narrow, loose and rough section, the car loses grip and we get in a 180° spinout on the right side of the stage. It's an "Oh, Shit!" moment and I have no opportunity to correct the error and our rally seems certain to end right there. The trees finally stop rushing at us and the car comes to a stop up on a snow/mud bank between the trees. I've no idea how we managed to miss them! Luckily I'm able to drive off and get turned around before the next car catches us, but we've lost valuable time on the unexpected maneuver. In later analysis of the in-car video I see the car bounce a bit just as it needs the grip to secure the turn which explains the sudden spin. I need to do a bit more tuning on the strut settings.

We go for our first service of the day at Narrowsburg and get 20 minutes to identify and resolve any issues that may have come from our short excursion. No apparent problems and we're out on time and then on to the short Davis Lake North

(2.06 miles) Stage 6. Besides being as rough as we remember from last year we get through unscathed. There's an interesting section as we approach the lake shore and the road nearly dips into the water.

Lake Nianque North

(6.23 miles) is Stage 7 and is the reverse of Crystal Lake. It's no smoother from the other direction and the car gets pounded again and again. It's a good thing that we get to return to service again.

Back out to repeat Davis Lake North

for Stage 8 and Lake Nianque North

for Stage 9. Then another service at Narrowsburg where we mount the light pod.

Back to again to Davis Lake North

for Stage 10 and Lake Nianque North

for Stage 11 and the car is suffering and making fresh noises from the rear. We return for the final Narrowsburg service but, with only 12 minutes to spare, we find that our left rear strut (a DMS) has failed and disconnected at the lower mount point. It's seriously bent and now leaking and useless. We have no time (and no spare) so elect to remove it entirely leaving only the rear spring on that side.

Back out to the same brutal stage to run Stage 12: Crystal Lake

again. Surprisingly the car isn't too unstable without the left rear strut. There are a few times where I can feel the wheel oscillating and not providing proper lateral grip.

We make it through and transit back to Villa Roma for the 45 minute service before Parce Fermé. Chris and Kerry have managed to borrow a stock SVT strut from Hampton's crew and, with some creative use of extra washers and nuts, they get it mounted. Kerry and I also get creative with a BFH and try to pound the skid plate back into shape - I've hit a few rocks and it's riding up against the exhaust header. As I drive the car the short distance to Parc Fermé the newly mounted strut comes unseated so that's at the top of our list for the short 10 minute service the next day.

By the time we're done the Villa Roma is pretty much the only place to eat and we manage to get a table ahead of the crowd. Still it's a long wait made longer as I have to send my burger back to be recooked. Finally get to bed with another early start on Saturday.

We manage to get the strut installed properly and we have another long transit (43 miles) to the first stage. Except for the Super Special Stages all the stages are run back and forth across the snowed-in stage at recce.

Rainbow 1

(4.55 miles) is the first stage (Stage 13) and the road looks very different from when we recce'd two days previously. There is no snow on the road but plenty alongside in the higher elevations. It was impossible to see the racing line during recce so the first pass through is not as fast as it might have been.

We loop around to repeat the stage for Rainbow 2

, Stage 14. The steep, twisty uphill is a long hard slog for the car while the downhill is fast and mostly sweeping.

We turn around to run it in reverse as Stage 15, Town Line 1

(4.61 miles). The steep downhill is quite scary as I try to find the right balance between braking and accelerating. There's a lot more momentum to dissipate.

We loop around to run Town Line 2

(Stage 16) again and we almost match our first time through, shaving less than a second off our time. It's just as scary as the first time.

We head into Walton for the Walton Super Special

Stage 17 (0.38 miles). It's a very simple, open course and I let Kieran take the helm. This is his debut stage driving the rally car in rally competition and he turns in a respectable time and we both have fun. I find out how bad I am at co-driving.

The Walton service is immediately following the super special stage and our crew replace the borrowed strut with a Monroe purchased from a nearby auto parts store so that we can return Hampton's spare if he needs it. He's already running on one OEM strut from a DMS failure the day before.

The afternoon stages begins with another run through the Walton Super Special

Stage 18 and this time I take the wheel and manage to beat Kieran's time by only 0.6 of a second!

Stage 19 is Rainbow 3

. We receive words of encouragement from Marcel and Constantine Mantopoulos and head out onto the stage. We managed to shave more time off our run - these are great stages!

Rainbow 4, Stage 20 is the final repeat of the stage in this direction. About half way up the steep climb we come across Hampton and Josh. They've rolled and are out of the rally. They are OK though and we press on feeling bad for their situation. We lose some time getting past their disabled Focus.

We turn around one more time to run stage 21, Town Line 3

. We're getting better at handling the fast downhill. Now I know why they don't compete downhill as well as uphill on Hill Climb competitions. It's downright dangerous!

We transit around for the last full stage of the day: Stage 22, Town Line 4

and I manage not to screw it up.

Finally back to Walton for one more run on the Walton Super Special

Stage 23 and once again Kieran gets to drive. He would have been faster than me if he hadn't fudged the launch.

So we're done. Not sure where we stand - there were a few people that were faster than us so we don't have high expectations. We're happy to have finished another rally with minimal issues. Waiting for the ceremonial finish we're approached by one of the rally officials who wants to inspect the car.

What's this? He does his duty and wanders off and we're beginning to wonder.

Yes! It's confirmed, we've actually finished the entire rally in 3rd place 2WD! Woo Hoo! We're waived up to the podium for the official finish replete with the requisite Champagne spray

. What a great way to finish the season. Unfortunately we didn't accrue enough points to hold onto our 1st place position in the 2008 2WD New York Rally Championship and slip to 2nd place. We loan our trailer to Hampton's crew so they can get their broken Focus back to Villa Roma and Kerry drives our rally car back.

What a great weekend! Many, many thanks to Kerry and Chris for crewing, to Marcel Ciascai for prepping the car so well and especially to Robert Cella for sponsoring our entry. We'll be giving the Focus some TLC over the winter and plan on competing in Sandblast 2009. See you there.

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