Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally 2008
Friday, June 6, 2008
Since the rally covers two days (Friday and Saturday) recce runs all day Thursday and we must be in Wellsboro on Wednesday evening. Marcel Cisacai from Staunton, VA and Ryan Scott from Columbus, OH did a fantastic job of crewing for us at the event. Thanks also to Eric Hansen who also volunteered to crew but seeing that Marcel and Ryan had it under control decided to go help elsewhere.
Recce was a single-pass, parade type process that took much of the day on Thursday. Thanks to Ryan for the loan of his GTI for the recce. When we reached the Waste Management (WM) stages, the recce parade leader warned us that it would be rough and we elected to leave the GTI at the entrance and ride with Fintan Sealy and Carrie Wilburn in an SUV through the stage and back out again. It was rough even for the SUV!
We stayed at the same place as last year. A "lodge" (really a modern house basement converted into a two bedroom apartment) that also provided garage space only a few miles from the main activities at the Tioga County Fairgrounds. Marcel spoiled us with cooked breakfast every morning and even dinner on Friday night!
In-car video from each stage is linked in the story below and indicated: 
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That ended Friday and we were able to take the car back to the lodge overnight. Fintan Sealy's WRX needed some overnight work and we were able to loan his crew (Andrew Smith and Steve Kurey) the use of our garage. We ended up feeding them too with Marcel's fabulous pork steaks and mashed potatoes.
Saturday starts with a Parc Exposé around the Green in Wellsboro and Kieran and I have fun giving away stickers, posters and autographs - we feel like rock stars!
Aseph Run was cancelled due to Travis Pastrani wrecking his car and blocking the road. I believe that Alex, his co-driver required medical attention but is OK. Here is a clip as we transited past Travis' car 
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Stage 5 is Deadman 
, a fast and fun 8.81 mile stage. We're really cooking, probably one of our best runs as we make up time on the car one minute ahead of us on the stage. Unfortunately we forgot to connect the intercom to the audio-in of the camera so there is no in-car audio on these stages.
A brief 15 minute service at Germania where Marcel and Ryan tighten the wheels and give us some more fuel and water and we're off again.
Bear 
is stage 7 and the longest at 12.89 miles. Kieran and I are working well together and we're on our game and the car is behaving well.
Stage 8 is Lebo 
at 10.2 miles and dusty at times as the sun dries the gravel roads some of which are only one car wide. Under the tree canopy the surface is just right. Another fast and clean stage for us.
Back to Germania for the long service which is cut back to 64 minutes to try and bring the rally back on schedule.
Randall 
, stage 10 is the reverse of Bear and is 12.81 miles long. About 4 miles in I see a deer crossing left to right ahead of us but our loud car must have spooked it because it turned back in panic and ran into our front right fender and throws Kieran off his notes. We think the deer is stunned but OK since the car behind us later reports not seeing it. The car has a dented fender but it should be easily fixable.
Stage 11, Mine Hole 
, shortened to about 5 miles is the last of the fast forest roads which we complete quickly and with little drama although the car has a tendency to stall at idle.
Another brief service at Germania and we're able to swap tires and mount the lights for our final run through the rough Waste Management stage.
The final full stage, Waste Management III 
, is even more brutal than before and several times we stall the car or go off and Scott Willburn catches us and passes. I think we break or lose a rear strut mount on this stage. We're slow but still finish and glad it's over.
It's all over and we've finished yet another rally continuing to astonish ourselves with our record. Many thanks to Marcel and Ryan for being such a great crew.
