1st Regional Rally Complete

We'e just finished the first regional rally and we think we took 3rd 2 wheek drive and 2nd in G5.  These roads are fast!

Our top speed according to our rally computer was 108.  We were hoping for 110!

Dan gets to drive the remaining stages of the day, since the second regional rally begins today.

Looking forward to defending or improving our place in 2WD.

Olympus Recce Day

Today, Dan and I did the recce for the Olympus Rally. Recce is short for Reconnaissance- We drove each of the stages that we will run on, and checked our "notes" or directions for the stage. The stages for this rally are going to be very fast. We expect to exceed 100 mph on every stage. Roads are mostly gravel, and are very smooth and flowing. There's nothing to break the car as long as we stay on the road! The picture above is of our friend Ron's WRX. He kindly lent it to us to drive on the recce.

The weather has been cool and very windy. But so far, it has been dry. There's 30-40% chance of rain or snow in the next two days. We want it to stay dry!!

There is just one other car in our class, G5. That car is a 500+HP Volvo of John Lane. We can't beat Lane if he finishes. We will drive our normal race and see what happens. There is also a HUGE "side" prize fund put up by other two-wheel drive competitors. The winner among regional two-wheel drive competitors stands to win quite a lot. Check it out here: 2WD Prize Fund.

After the recce, we watched "Cowboy" Kenny Bartram warming up for a show that he did for the crowd. See video below.


Later, we were joined by friends Doug P, Joe, Sonya, and Ron. These folks will service for us this weekend and hopefully have a good time of there own!

I'm driving on Saturday, and Dan drives on Sunday. I'll try to send an update tomorrow of how we did for the day. You can also Check out the Rally-America updates and scoring here: Rally America Updates.

Olympus is coming!

The Olympus Rally is just around the corner. April 19-20. Doug and Dan will be there! Doug will be driving on day one, and Dan on day two.

This will be a Rally America National rally, so Rally America will be doing live updates. Check them out here:

Live Updates for Olympus

You can also catch results and photos from the Rally America page:

Rally America

For more event-specific information, check out the Olympus rally website:

Olympus Website

Also check this page for more info as the race gets closer, and for some nightly updates after the rally is over.

Doug

Lemons YouTube Video

Here's a nice Lemons video put together by another team. Our car also shows up in a lot of the footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSj_6SAzf5U

Day 2: 24 Hours of Lemons

Team Festivus finished the 24 Hours of Lemons! We finished 17th out of 71 entries, and 7th out of 20 in our class (The "Prayer of Winning" class, which appeared to be somewhat arbitrarily assigned). We completed 396 laps. The winning car completed 461 laps.

The running order for Sunday was:
Wade
Erik
Bryce
Jessica
Wyatt

Doug didn't drive on Sunday. I got two stints on Saturday, so we all drove the same amount.

Wade went out and showed us why he's a driving instructor at Thunderhill. He was turning some very fast laps, passing lots of cars. Unfortunately, the thermostat failed and the car overheated not long into his stint. He brought the car in, and Wyatt and Bryce fixed it in a hurry. Wade went back out and promptly punted a Porsche off the course... earning him a black flag to "cool off". In fact, Wade got punted into the Porsche by another car. Anyway, there was no real harm done.

Erik went out next, planning a short stint to try to avoid the nausea he'd experienced on Saturday. He ended up driving nearly a full hour, and was really picking up speed.

Bryce went out and turned some fast laps, but noted that the tires were wearing- especially the right front. This wasn't a real surprise since we'd been abusing these tires all weekend. At the end of his stint, we rotated them.


Jessica got in next. She was nervous because the pace had really picked up and she didn't want to be a moving chicane or hit anyone. She thought she'd be slow. In fact, she did just great! With a little more practice she'll be fast and much more confident. She showed off her fine driving skills after dropping a wheel into the dirt on turn 3... the car went off course at high speed. Jessica kept it from rolling and got back on course. She was greeted with a black flag for going off course, but only needed to endure a stern talking-to from the officials.

Wyatt drove the last stint and also earned the team's fastest lap time of the weekend.

The "People's Curse" award was given the a Mazda 626 that was leading the race from very early on. This car had obvious "real race car" underpinnings and no car could match it's speed. Unfortunately, the population of Curse voters noticed that the car was a little too fast and most likely worth far more than $500, so it was destroyed by an excavator in artistic style.

Here's some video of the destruction in progress:



Team Festivus was happy to finish in 17th out of 71. We acted as a good team all weekend, despite the fact that many of us didn't know each other. We stuck to our common goal of just finishing and having fun.


Offical Lemons Results (We are car #20):
http://www.mylaps.com/results/newResults.jsp?id=713849

An interesting site with lots of Lemons news...
http://jalopnik.com/tag/24-hours-of-lemons/

Day 1: 24 Hours of Lemons

Team Festivus made it through the first entire day of the 24 Hours of Lemons. Day one consisted of 8 hours of spirited driving. The weather started off cold and damp, which is exactly what we wanted, given that we have the only all-wheel drive car entered in the event.

Still, we started off conservatively. The goal for day one was to make sure that everyone got seat time.

The driving order ended up being (I think):
Doug
Wade
Jessica
Erik
Bryce
Wyatt
Doug (again)

After one hour, we were in 34th place, out of 71 entries. After three hours, we were in 17th place. We were NOT moving exceptionally fast and spent much of the first several hours letting cars pass us... so that the guys going fast early on could take each other out later. This strategy proved to be pretty effective.

At the end of the night, we held 20th place, but were nearly tied with 10 other cars. 1st thru 4th positions have a sizeable lap lead over the rest of the field. So, there's a tight battle going on.

The car leading the pack right now is a Mazda 626 that was originally prepared by Mazda for track racing. It's old a beat up now, but still has a screaming motor and good suspension. Close behind that is a MK I MR2.

Our car has been solid. No issues whatsover. Subaru's really are rock solid reliable. Although we are significantly down on power compared to most other cars, we can pass in places where other can't. The track has gotten muddy in places and we have really been able to take advantage of that. I had some great battles today with a 1970's Camaro. He'd scream by me on the front stretch, and then I'd dog him through the tighter stuff, eventually passing him. We repeated this dance 5-6 laps in a row.

The team is driving very well, and even the real newbies did a terrific job. Nobody hit anyone, got hit, went off the track, or got black flagged. There are a few light wheel/tire marks on the car, but nothing significant.

Not too much carnage today. One Datsun B210 rolled several times, and another Datsun rear-ended a stopped Neon. No injuries.

Looking forward to Day 2! I really think that if we maintain the same strategy that we'll move up in the standings. There are several cars that just seem to be pushing too hard to finish.

24 Hours of Lemons Preview

First ever blog entry...

On this Saturday, I'll be driving in the 24 Hours of Lemons race at Thunderhill raceway in Willows, CA. At least, I hope I'll get to drive. The concept behind the Lemons race is that teams bring old cars and try to make them last through the entire race, in this case about 18 hours of driving over two days. Our team has six drivers. I don't know yet if I'll be driving first or last. If I don't drive first, then there's no guarantee that I'll drive at all. Old cars aren't expected to be predictable!

I was recruited by Bryce Nash to join his Team Festivus. Bryce was a friend of a friend, and was pretty much willing to take anyone. I don't know anyone else on the team, which consists of Bryce's brother (Wyatt), Bryce's girlfriend (Jessica), Erik (husband of someone who works at the same company as Bryce), and Wade, a guy who has raced at Thunderhill before and who was found on a forum by Bryce.

Wade has some wheel-to-wheel experience. I have some rally experience. Bryce has done demolition derbies. Sounds like a perfect team for an endurance race on a road circuit!

But that's the beauty of the Lemons race. You have to apply to get in, and the organizers don't want the best racers in the world. They want guys who are going to show up and have fun, and get along with others.

The race has several awards, including the People's Choice, and the People's Curse. Win the People's Choice, and get a check for $1500. Win the People's Curse, and your car is destroyed on the spot.

Our car is a 1995 Subaru Impreza Wagon. It has 300,000 miles, and was bought for $300. The team stripped it of all interior pieces and extraneous glass. A simple roll bar was welded in, and a nice racing seat and harness were installed. The car is lightweight! Only weighs 2350 pounds.

A couple of back-country driving lights were installed on the hood (where they won't get crushed), and some new taillights were installed (where they won't get crushed).

I've included a couple pictures of the Team Festivus Heap.

We're looking forward to a fun race and I'll update the blog with our results.

Here's a link to the official 24 Hours of Lemons website.

http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/

What is Festivus?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivus