Alrighty here we go a few months late again, but this race still fresh in my mind.
First most obvious change was the new livery. Adorned with rolls and rolls of multicolored duct tape made up the new design. It came out much better than I expected. Finally getting rid of the multicolored panel legacy look. However, still true to the roots of dirt cheap racing.
Gorilla Off-Road also showed its face on the side of the car as they have supplied me with a new Hood Scoop Cold Air Intake to test out for 100AW and mudflaps that have actually made it through two rallies now! Before, mudflaps were a common item to replace for me as I seemed to lose a few every race. These things are solid.
The race started off great, with no major issues or anything leading up to the event that had me up all night. The car just needed a taillight and one of the struts taken care of by Barrett at AllWheelsDriven after Ojibwe. He was able to get the strut back to me and repaired with a few weeks to spare. Otherwise I just checked the fluids and loaded it up on the trailer. Since it was just a one day race with one small service I didn't load up my Ambulance with much, just enough things that could be fixed during a single service. Arrived in Perryville the night before, shot the **** with the rally crews and got a good night sleep after reviewing the route book and comparing it to videos of last year.
Started out third on the road behind Justin Pritchard and the Huebbe brothers. I ended up finishing third overall on every stage for the first set of stages in the morning. Having a solid second place in Open Light, and third overall. I was having a blast on these roads. Such great smooth free flowing roads that don't bite if you make a mistake. These are the kind of roads that are perfect to learn how to really push the car on. Especially compared to Ojibwe, where if you overcook a turn just a bit, the berms are going to bite back hard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMnyGWAsweo
On the start of the second leg something was just off, this was the stage I wrecked on last year, and didn't remember much of. I ended up losing 15 seconds to Surdyke, which put him 10 seconds behind me in the fight for third overall.... This was going to be another close one.... I saw him coming in on my minute and knew something was up. Demotte (his co-driver) refused to tell me what his times were since he knew they made up time on me and was playing a tricky psychological game.
I fought back on the next stage (SS6), and gained 2 more seconds over Surdyke, giving me a more comfortable 12 second gap. Padding the lead just a hair more on SS7 winning the stage a mere second over Surdyke. I got the jitters again on the last stage (a repeat of SS6) and Surdyke beat me on the stage again, gaining seconds on me. Though at the end of SS8, I had held off Surdyke with an 8.9 second lead after a solid 40 minutes of racing. I felt really good on that stage, though there were a few spots that I slowed down just a bit too much, killing some momentum. The GoPro on the towhook shows some good speed on the back straights though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqrt_mlWHsk
So we transited back to final control, feeling solid that we had secured third place overall, and second in Open Light. Only to find out at the awards ceremony that we had checked in early (math was done wrong) on the final time control, and a 10 second penalty was applied. This was justttt enough to give Surdyke a 1.9 second lead over us in the overall results. DAMN! So close.... Guess Surdyke (and Kaltak! He is terrified of you!) are just going to have a big duke in a month or so at the 100 Acre Wood!
So what is in store? Well, nothing really. I am very happy with how the car is setup right now. Will install a new clutch, as that is on its way out and I don't think it will last through 100AW. Will finish up duct taping the bumper, and do some more minor weight reduction. The car has just enough power, a good enough transmission, and a stout suspension that I know what really needs to be done is tighten the nut behind the wheel with some more seat time. Cannot wait!