“Rally Tales” – January 2012
“Rally Tales” is back!
Rally Tales is now a monthly feature to be posted on the last Saturday of the month. While the blog is geared towards RallyCross and Road Rally; ‘Rally Tales’ can be about/from any form of rally.
Question/Topic for 25 February 2012:
I recently made a blog posting about my “Bucket List” rally, the Alcan 5000. Do you have a “Bucket List” Rally/ies? What are they? And when do you think you’ll get a chance to do it?
Submit your ‘Rally Tales’ here.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
This month’s question/topic:
What have you been doing in the off-season to prepare for the coming Rally season? (Please include the types of rally in which you participate)
It looks like Jamie “Subie Gal” Thomas, is preparing to go rallying this season. The video wasn’t really submitted, but I thought it was a really cool time-lapse video that was on topic. Video by Miller Event Studio.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Name: Clarence Westberg
Rallying Since: 1970
Types of Rally: All
Regions and/or clubs: Land of Lakes, Alfa, Mini, MG
Cars You Rally: 58 MGA, 2009 MINI Cooper S
What off-season, winter is our busiest rally season. I was Rally-master for Yucatan Safari National in December, Just ran two rallies in NE Minnesota last weekend. Feb 11th I’m putting on a regional then off the Houghton, Michigan for a regional Feb 25th. The winter season ends March 10 with the Lucas Flamethrower in Red Wing, MN. Two weeks later the summer season begins.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Name: Jeremy Keck
Rallying Since: 1997
Types of Rally: Rallycross
Regions and/or clubs: CNY SCCA ….Wellsboro, PA STPR
Cars You Rally: 03 Pontiac Grand AM
2 get ready for the upcoming rally season I have been driving the back roads around the Wellsboro, PA area… the same roads I’ve driven since I was 14 and my dad was teaching me 2 drive…. the scenic views and tight slippy roads make it all that much more fun 2 drive… I’ve also volunteered to help with the waste management winter rally held February 11 in Antrim… I’ve grown up watching rally and love driving the roads around this area… Drive hard my friends!
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Name: Paul Eklund, Primitive Racing
Rallying Since: 1983 Worked Pro Rally
Types of Rally: Stage, TSD, Vintage, Adventure
Regions and/or clubs: Oregon, NORPAC, and Rally America
Cars You Rally: 2004 Alcan Forester XT, 2008 STi (stage) ’72 Fiat Spyder
No “off” season this year, put a new forged turbo motor into the gold Alcan Forester to be able to hit ~128mph on the ice river… Now prepping taller suspension for the record snow, and building a tubular bull bar w/winch. Also re-shelling good old ‘ol Yeller rallycar into a wide-body GC Impreza (’97) It met a nasty end this summer…
Lightbar on 2004 Alcan Forester
Paul Takes top time at Alcan Ice Race in black Forester 2004
Oregon Trail Rally at Night
North Nevada Rally off
Old Yeller Recovery edge of road
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Name: Dave Haworth
Rallying Since: 2007
Types of Rally: Rallycross and Road Rally
Regions and/or clubs: Oregon Rally Group, Oregon Region SCCA
Cars You Rally: 2011 Ford Fiesta
Throughout last years RallyCross season, I was making changes to the Ford Fiesta to prepare it for RallyCross in the Stock FWD Class. We have added a skid plate from Primitive Racing, 4 pt. Schroth Belts and we are running on Hankook i*Pike tire (which have fabulous grip). I did well in class last year finishing 2nd in the points. The car is good for RallyCross, what I need to do this year is improve my driving. I have spent a lot of time reviewing what I did last year mentally and on video. There are definitely things I need to improve on in my driving style. In short, some things in need to work on are: 1) sometimes I have too much steering input and/or I am too aggressive 2) better gear choices for different corners (I think I would be better running in a higher gear more) 3) monitoring wheel slip better and a bunch of other little things.
I saved nearly 20 lbs in weight in the car, by getting it off my ass. I’ve been working on loosing weight. Now I just need to workout a bit more, mainly so I can RallyCross for many more years to come.
As far as Road Rally goes; I’d really like to do more gravel and winter rallies this year. I have added a bit more under-body protection to the car, but would like to do a bit more. The big improvement in the off-season was the addition of a newly fabricated light bar for the Fiesta from Primitive Racing and the addition of 2 Hella driving lights and a set of PIAA fogs. You can see more about that and other additions I have done on my personal website: http://brickinitrallyteam.wordpress.com/
