I was going to post thumbnails until I found out that imageshack's zip upload credits are for each picture and not each zip file, so you all get to deal with a bunch of pictures.
I left at 5pm Friday, so instead of taking the 5 to the 14 and sitting in traffic, I took the 2 to Angeles Crest Highway and had a drive that was a bit more fun.
I took that way back today too.
So, anyway, I got to my hotel a bit after 6, checked in, and went over to the fairgrounds. Then I went into the volunteer registration thing to check in, sign a waiver, and get my goody bag and pass. Included in the bag were a t-shirt and cool Subaru hat, and then when I asked what else they had, I got another hat and some mechanix gloves.
Then on the way to the pavilion place with vendors in it I saw this, which I thought was pretty neat.
Inside the thing there were a bunch of vendors and tuners and whatnot, and ESX had their drag car out. It was pretty cool.
I checked out the special stage for a bit, then went to the hotel to take my stuff out of the car. I watched TV for a bit, then went back over to the fairgrounds, ran into the guys rallying a legacy, ate some chili, and we all went back to the hotel and drank some drinks at the bar. Scott finally showed up at like 2am after being out working on a foggy stage. After a few hours of sleep I was woken up by Chris (rally370). My phone hasn't quite been the same since I had it a bit too close to the hot tub, so my alarm didn't go off. I grabbed my stuff and was out the door by 5:20 to go work the first two stages of the day.
Chris and his codriver Martin were both working, and since we were on the same team I rode up with them. Their car is in pieces in Chris's garage so they weren't rallying. We also got to be the first people on the stage, and it was quite the ride. We broke the cooler, and more tragically, some beers, going over some jumps and got water all over the roof of his Xterra. After fixing that with a strap we got up to the top and setup.
The first two stages are Del Sur N&S. The cars go down to where we were, and turn around and run the stage backwards, so we were the finish and then the start of the next stage. I filled out time cards on the finish and then did the log for the start.
Here's the first car approaching the finish:
I didn't take any pictures after that because I was busy the whole time. Cars were only spaced 1 min apart so they were coming in pretty consistently.
Chris and Martin were organizing the cars at the turn around so things didn't turn into a big traffic jam.
Chris is that guy in the middle talking to Ken Block and Travis Pastrana.
Here's Travis at the start:
Filling out the log is pretty easy, so I had more time to take pictures stuff.
Here is Ken Block, the lineup of cars, and the Carl, the course captain:
Things got a little dusty after that:
An EVO starting:
This 510 was so beat up:
Car 354, a 91 turbo legacy:
These girls are hot. At the last super special Saturday they were all over the place and ended up crashing on the last stage.
Our friendly CRO and gravel girl.
Car 666 and Carl. It got pulled over Friday night because of led valve stem caps or some shit.
Old GL, course closing, and the sweeps. The closer kept up to that last car pretty easily. Chris and Martin asked if they could also sweep, and since they were my ride, I went along with them.
Toward the end we came up on car 354, which had hit a berm and a rock and trashed their control arm, tie rod, and endlink.
Looks kind of familiar, actually...
After a couple of yanks with a chain, the arm was bent back enough for the car to drive.
Then we finished the sweep, and also did sweep for the next stage. Sweep entails picking up all the banners and hazard warning posts, as well and helping/towing out any stranded drivers. And also driving very fast on the stages. It was nice out.
After miraculously not crashing, we headed back to the fairgrounds, ate burgers, drank some beers, and watched the super special. By we, I mean myself, Chris, Martin, Rob and Matt (drivers of 354), and Scott.
SVTT:
Service area:
Last year there was autocross. This year was just drifting. They had a whole fleet of tofu delivery cars:
Special Stage action:
They both went huge on the jump side by side and it was awesome.
So did these guys:
Someone convinced the organizers to stage this thing where a lifted truck drives around the course being "chased" by a Police expidition.
All was well until the truck stopped and was rear ended by the cop.
Nothing to see here folks, move along:
Haha stupid assholes:
We wandered around some more and drank beers waiting for the cars to come back. Then they did and we had our free dinner and checked out the Winner's Circle.
Next came the post-rally party in the service area. Two guys were just walking around with tequila making people take shots. Then we headed back to the hotel and drank more. I got drink tickets with my room so that was pretty awesome. Then we crashed some birthday party, then I went to sleep after being up for 22 hours straight. I'll let Chris elaborate on the birthday party.
I also set up a gallery with all the rest of the pictures here:
http://www.jamalb.net/gallery/main.php
They are available in 1024x960 format here:
http://www.jamalb.net/pictures/rim06/
Bonus picture of the Palmdale road cut:
The San Andreas fault is about 100 yards from here, so the forces do interesting things to the rock layers.
