409industries

Fourth of July weekend was cool, hope you had a great one too. While normal folks catch up on yard work, I had a chance to focus on a few smaller projects on the rally car that I have been putting off for quite some time. There are still a thousand "micro-projects" that need to be finished, but at least now its 1000 minus 3. In between hanging out at the pool and drinking lots of American beer, this is what i got done.

Hood pins - hell yeah. No race car is complete without hood pins. I even learned how to use a pop-rivet gun. That thing may be used again in the near future. Super handy device that guy. The front grill, headlights, and corners have to be pulled out for proper fitment of the pins. I saw that a guy on RS25 pulled the rubber hood stops out and used the holes for the pins. This was a VERY clever idea, i did the same. Once fitted, the studs of the hood pins needed to be trimmed down so that the headlights could fit back in.



Super cool trick is to cut the OEM bumers down, and then drill out the center so that they fit over the hood pin studs. This provides a cushy platform for the hood to rest on.


There is something strangely satisfying about drilling [more] holes in your rally car. Its nerve racking a bit because you have to get it right the first time.


This is before i got the headlights back in.




The pop rivet gun is pretty easy to use, but with this style of hoodpin, you have to bend the "tracks" back so that the head of the gun can fit in to do the last rivet. Once everything is in place, some chanel-locks are good to bend everything back into place.


I picked up some stock endlinks from a guy local for like $40. PGT rules say that stock endlinks must be retained, but you can use any aftermarket bar you want. I sold the endlinks that were on there and put the stockers back on with my RalliTEK rear swaybar. BORING i know, but rules are rules...







Finally, i ordered up some "blank" black vinyl with my last batch of DI goods from redline rally. The purpose of this was to make my own 100% opaque windshield banner. I've been paying very close attention to some of the national level rally cars (Ken Block's comes to mind) and I saw how ridiculously large their front windshield banners are to block sunlight. Mine is pretty modest as it only comes down 10" from the top of the windshield, but its still covers quite a bit of the window. Next time ill be sure to get the vinyl masked... i had to do it myself. woops! It turned out WAY better than i expected. This started as an over sized rectangle of black vinyl. I affixed it to the window (using the water trick) and just cut it down to size. Only a couple of bubbles here and there which i was able to get out OK. I think a DirtyImpreza.com windshield banner is going to look fricking epic on top of this.





Lots and lots of small projects in the works. Keep coming back to check on the PRRS... I may be down on cash, but ill keep working on this car as much as possible! ;-)

409industries

Money is tight, but there's lots to be done on the car. I figured i'd try to knock down the extremely long list of odds and ends stuff that needs to be done while I save up for my seats. First on the list was to (re)install my wiring for the Soltek Fuego lights. Since i had already done this on the other shell, and removed everything i had a pretty good idea of how everything was going to come together. Personally, i hate wiring as electricty and I don't really get along to well, but i've learned quite a bit from doing this the second time around. I have a better understanding of how relays work in conjunction with the ***-backwards reverse grounds on Subarus. Part of the wiring will have to be redone again when the battery is relocated to the trunk, but its only a small section of the entire system.

When you don't have a garage, you have to make do with what you got. Dining room table = workbench.


Had to figure out a decent place to mount the hot 12v constant fuses. The OEM horn mount seemed fine as the lines had space so go around the existing battery, and still could be connected to on both sides.


These are he hot leads (currently disconnected from the battery) waiting to be plugged into the relays once the relay holder is in a good location. The white wires will be the signal wires back from the toggles inside to activate the relays.


Soltek's weather proof connectors are super easy to assemble.


Back inside the car, i decided to splice into the high-beams wire under the steering column. This is because per NASA rules:

The correct wire to splice into is yellow with a thin blue stripe. It terminates in the connector on the driver's side of the steering column.


This green wire then runs down behind the center console where it is split into 3 wires that will activate 3 relays.



Wiring back to the front of the car from the relays to the actual HID's is cleaned up.


Connectors will hangout in front of the grill for easy connect / disconnect from the lights


Relays hooked up. There will be one relay controlling 2 lights, for a total of 3 relays.


I actually hot glued the wires in place on the plastic holder that guides the disconnects onto the relay prongs. This should keep them from rattling out and disconnecting. The plastic holders (not pictured here, but on the underside of the relay block) is ziptied in place for extra strength.


The block is mounted way back on the firewall, and behind one of the shock towers to hopefully keep it dry and relatively cool.


No access to fancy metal for me, so i rigged up a Plexiglass panel switch. Easy for me to work on with basic hand tools, and a dremel.


I actually messed the first one up and made a second version, this one pictured here. Lots of fitting, cutting and trimming but it came out pretty nice. It has a sturdy feel because it was pretty thick plastic. I painted the backside of the panel black so it won't get scratched from either the driver or co-driver.


Wired up the first 3 toggles, each one controls a pair of lights. Shrink wrapped everything all nice. The other two toggles will be used for something else, possibly custom interior lighting and a co-driver map light.


Panel screwed into position, i simply used some longer screws and nylon spacers on the OEM holes behind the dash to get it flush with the cool fake CF bezel.


Plenty of space left below these five toggles for an electrical cutoff, horn, and whatever else might need to be mounted. Lights work great so far, i can't wait to get out on some dirt roads at night to try them out. I have the entire wiring diagram that I went off still so if anyone is interested in that i can scan it and make it available. All the fuses, fuse holder, relay block, and relays were purchased at rallylights.com

409industries

More odds and ends getting done on the car. Nothing too exciting but since I like to take pictures of everything, here it goes!

Autometer Pro Shiftlight. Yeah they are a bit ricer, but i've always been a fan of shift lights. Not having to keep a close eye on the tach has always been a big plus whether it be racing in autocross, rallycross, or eventually on stage where taking your eyes off the road for a second is sketchy. This guy will just give me a quick heads up before i bounce off the rev-limiter. I still need to get the right RPM pill, as this one is from another car and is way past the redline of the RS. So this was the install.

Extend the wires to reach the ECU, a good ground, and a power source.


Drill holes on the top of the steering column cover to mount the light and allow the wires to pass through.


Mounted.


Tap into the RPM signal wire off the ECU.


Good spot for a ground (behind where the stereo usually is)


There's lots of potential power sources to use, i took the easy route and used an add a fuse on the radio spot (since i don't have a radio). :-(


Done!


As you can see, the position of the shift light does not block my view of water temp, or the tach... only partially on the lower end of the speedometer.

silverbullet415

iTrader: (12)

looks good keep it up

cracker1252

awesome. subscribed!

409industries

Before you read this. Please let me tell you that no matter how easy you think putting in racing seats is going to be, it's not going to be easy. Nothing about these seats was easy to do, from acquiring the right hardware, to getting everything aligned and installed. If you want to rally though, you gotta have em so just try to smile when everything goes annoyingly wrong over and over again.

I picked up these seats from a Cobra distributor in Southern California. The labels on the side of the seats might throw you off a bit. The Cobra Imola S was replaced with the Imola Pro, so the sticker says one thing, but the embroidery on the seat says another.


They are actually very light, and probably the most affordable Kevlar seat out there. Spent a pretty penny on the seats and the sexy aluminum side brackets (unfortunately they do not export the cheaper steel side brackets out the UK) and set out to source the remaining hardware. I found a guy in San Diego that had a passenger side sparco seat bracket, swooped on that quick... used saves a lot of money. The driver's side one on the other hand was much harder to acquire. Sparco ran out right as geekmonster was going to hookabrothaup and they didnt arrive the following week with their next shipment. I poked around for a while on the big Subaru forums, but was getting bought out from underneath, and dealing with people who didn't have Paypal accounts, etc. Not rad. So i bought one from a store i won't name at this time because I am currently working on getting a refund from them.

So when you buy a Sparco DRIVER side seat base for a 01 RS / 02 WRX this is what they send you.


Are you f!@$%ing kidding me? A Wedge Engineering base, for a Buick Skyhawk / Chevy Cavalier... and its a passenger side? Seriously retarded. I didn't get a Wedge unit because they decided to not return my emails about getting a quote for one. Their loss. Needless to say i was furious because this shop's distributor's shipping sucked too (i couldn't change the delivery options so FedEx would only let me pick it up at the damn warehouse of theirs). geekmonster came though in a pinch again and was able to pull off getting one from me super last minute. I met up with him, and jetted over to Jackson Rally that same night. Seriously, thanks so much Chris you rock!

Rolled up to JR, car smoking like crazy... ripped another CV boot somehow that's another fix for another day. After the usual bribing of Kyle with pizza of his choice and multiple containers of Dr. Pepper we got to work. Pulled the old Impreza L seat out. It found its way to the dumpster later that night.... finally!




If its one thing Kyle hates, it's installing seats and I now know why. Nothing matches up. The seat manufacturer makes side mounts for their seats that don't really fit (we turned one set of them around backwards) then the bottoms of the side rails don't match up with the Sparco seat bases, and then these don't really line up with the OEM holes in the car all that well. So, how do you fix a problem like this? We'll you have to have to have a guy that knows how to make anything work with metal... and a lot of patience.

One of the many test fittings of the smaller driver side Imola. We got the distance for my short *** legs pretty good, i can still push the clutch to the floor, that's kind of important.


The Imola GT is the wider version of the Imola and is the co-driver seat. This thing BARELY fits in an RS. Its probably the biggest seat that will fit in a caged GC


Clamping things down and marking holes that need to be drilled to attach the side rails. (It would be too easy to make them just match...WTF!)


The Sparco bases are pretty weaksauce, they need additional gusseting to make em strong!






So we ended up finishing around 3am, but that is how most of my install projects work out. The seat feels GREAT i must say. I took the liberty of driving Ortega Highway on the way home and was amazed at how much more connected i felt to the car (all that padding on the stock seats is like a dead zone for feeling what the car is doing under your ***). Even though the Imolas have very low sidewalls, the still hold me in place very well, and the shoulder support is awesome. To all the haters that were claiming the harness bar was way too high, it actually worked out perfect, just as we knew it would. Here's the finished install.






Thanks goes out to Kyle at Jackson Rally again for the millionth time that he has gone above and beyond for the project RS. It would not be where it is today without his tireless efforts. Now i can finally get on to a bunch of other smaller projects now that i know exactly where the seats are going to be staying. Sparco 6pt harnesses are not in yet because i need some additional hardware to adapt them to the harness bar. Ill be running my Schroth Profi 2's in the meantime. More updates to come...

409industries

Its been a while since i've hit up this thread. This doesn't mean that nothing has been going on with the RS. To be honest, all of the crazy working on the car has slowed down a bit to focus on a few other things going on, and DI in general. One good thing though is that I have actually been driving the car a lot more, and taking it to events (including meets, photo shoots, etc). Generally using the car as its second main purpose in life... to expose the general public to what rally and DirtyImprezas are all about!

After we got the seats in, i was able to try them out up at the first ever California City rally cross. Tore a CV boot on the up there, so it was a stinky mess all over the place with burning grease on the exhaust headers. I did my best to ghetto fix things with a mess of duct tape and zip ties.



Despite the constant smoke / smell... what a blast, i mean the car was a ton of fun out there (I still need to figure out how to keep her from understeering like a pig) but it was great fun getting some seat time up there. This venue has so much potential because its very large and close to gas stations, food, ice, and well... even a bar Looking forward to racing here again in 2010. It'll be up to our friend Rally OBXT to see if this is going to happen. I really hope it does, its a great time out there and a huge lot!





Going to try to get this thread up to date over the next couple of weeks so stay tuned for more pics!

409industries

Finally it was time to deal with that busted inner CV on my passenger side axle. I decided to tackle it on my own because taking axles out is usually a piece of cake. Well, it is when you don't completely smash the axle nut into the axle groove that its pinched in. As i tried to un-pinch it, it got smashed in and there was quite a bit of material preventing the nut from backing off. Figured i had nothing to lose because i had a spare axle and nut. I started drilling it out. That didn't work and it was totally screwed after that, i even managed to drill into the axle quite a bit! Good thing was though, the nut was going anywhere so the axle was still securely on the car. I headed out to Jackson Rally shortly after to see if Kyle could help me with me with my new predicament.

Turns out he has a specially modified chisel tool that he uses only for "axle nut un-pinching". I now have one of these, however it didn't do us any good with the condition that the nut was in now. After about 45 minutes of grinding with a special narrow grinding bit, enough material was removed so that the damn thing could be snapped off.



With the nut off, the axle could finally come out.



THIS is exactly why CV boots are not made out of duct tape.



The "replacement" axles that i got had different outside rings (the teeth were different for the ABS sensors i think?) but with some slight modification the passenger side one fit just fine and i was on my way again without smokey axle grease flavored cabin air. I think ill be buying new axles from now on to get fresh stretchy CV boots to avoid tearing. With the gravel coilovers, i'm getting much more droop and i think it just over stresses the brittle old CV's and they break. Its not worth saving the extra couple bucks... i'll be getting new ones from now on.

409industries

The RS went to two separate events recently, coincidentally they were both at the same location! Forman Performance had their grand opening shindig so i though this would be a good opportunity to take the rally car down there and show it off a bit. It definitely got some good attention, and there were a few people that were interested in its construction, etc. So it was nice to talk to some people that were curious about what rally is all about. The event was way fun too, a DJ was playing music the whole time, and the street tacos were super good and spicy. Can't ever complain about that! Car was actually washed sometime before this event, it looks weird semi-clean.





We wish Forman Performance good luck with the new shop. If you have any questions for them, post up in their vendor forum here: http://www.dirtyimpreza.com/forums/f...play.php?f=140

Several weeks later, i got word about the NASIOC SCIC 3rd annual photoshoot at the same shop. I headed down there with Bug-I Newk and mousemanthormx in their cars to get some DI representation along side all of the "hellaflush" garage queens. Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of nice cars there but i made sure to not wash the RS after our fun out in the desert the week before. The vibe at these meets is so different than that of a rally event. Take Parc Expose for example, you could talk to anyone about their car and 99% of the time they are going to be more than happy to answer any questions you might have. Smiling faces everywhere. At this street meet, there were really only a few people that looked or even acted like they wanted to socialize with someone that might not know, nothing but hard looks all the time. Reminds me of lame trendy socal bars. I did meet some cool people (you know who you are) but overall, i pretty much just hung out with the guys we rolled up with. Regardless, every car there got a "DirtyImpreza.com - Dirt is for Racing, Tarmac is for getting there" sticker left on their car, or on their driver's seat if the window was open! Kickass. :lick:


Yes, that is a Buick Grand National to the left of the RS :headbang:


Yes, we all know that car shows are somewhat boring, but its good exposure for the site, and also for my generous sponsors. Gotta be out there working it with the local clubs and meet goers! I'll have another update coming shortly. Made it back out to Jackson Rally for some minor fab work...

409industries

More fun out at Jackson Rally! Minor stuff, but sh*t that needs to get done...



As much as i didn't want to deal with seats anymore, it had to be finished. Nothing too bad though. I've had these Sparco 6 point harnesses sitting around for a long time. If i'm going to get any use out of them before they expire, i figured they best get put in the car soon. The only spot that really needs and custom work is the two crotch strap mounts under the seats. Since we kept in the stock beam under the seats that runs along of the front of the seat from the transmission tunnel to the door sill, we had a good study piece to weld onto. The factory shape of the beam had some big holes that needed to be plated over, the paint was removed and prepped for the welding.



Kyle sizing the plates.



Welding those bad boys in.





Here's the completed passenger side plate and anchor rings.



Here you can see both of them installed.



Installing the harnesses was pretty easy, Schroth Racing has some great videos on YouTube that show how to properly wrap belts over harness bars, etc. (http://www.youtube.com/user/hmsmotorsport), however the biggest PITA was adjusting the crotch straps to the right length in the car. This is especially hard to do because i had to guess how long they needed to be, put them through the seat, have Kyle hold the seat up while they are clipped in, bolt the seat down, sit in the seat, and then do it all over again to adjust as necessary! Getting the camlocks to release the crotch strap to invert the bracket was fun to figure out too. My iPhone definitely helped with this part, finding YouTube videos was key! Anyway, they are in and i am now even more looking forward to trailering this car. 6 point harnesses are good for racing, but sure to suck for driving to and from events.



Trunk Tiedown mounts:
I had my spare tire fly up and hit the inside of my trunk and slam down into the spare tire well upside down once when i was out in the desert. Time to get some proper mounting points to secure things in place. Kyle welded this one up front, pretty epic welding as the underbody coating likes to catch on fire near the gas tank. I got to hang out down there and blow out the flames as they appeared. See... that's teamwork right there.



The rear two (towards the back of the trunk) are simply drilled and secured in place with washers and a locknut. The tiedowns will be arranged in a triangle formation.



Its a good setup and i am stoked to be able to rip around knowing i don't have to unload everything before i can get sideways. Next on the list is to get some tool bags that can be secured on top of the spare.

Got some more goodies in the mail since this visit to the shop, we're going to get some electronic stuff put in the car soon! Subscribe to this thread to get the next update!

409industries

Over the weekend i set aside some time to really focus on getting things hooked up that we'll need rallying. Nothing too difficult, just a lot of stupid things that just need to get done. First off was finally getting the co-driver harnesses installed and tidy up the slack in the car. I had to guesstimate the size for my co-driver, so hopefully these fit as adjusting the crotch straps is a pain in the ***.





Before i could get the next batch of electrical items taken care of, i needed to get some 12V constant wired up in the car. I picked up this nifty fuse block online, and wired it to the battery. Wiring in the engine bay was run tidily across the firewall strut braces. The fuse block was mounted in close proximity to the center console, and has 6 terminals that can be connected to any devices that need to have constant power which use standard automotive fuses. There are several devices that i know will need this, including the Terratrip, maplight, horn, and interior lights. The nice thing is that i know i'll have extra terminals for anything later on that might need to be connected up and its easily accessible





I needed to get a horn working. Rather than deal with trying to hookup the lame horn piece on my removable steering wheel, i installed a push button toggle on the toggle panel. This is easily in reach of the co-driver if i need to have him honk at someone while im busy driving, etc. Anyway, i decided that it would be fun to have some of those annoyingly high pitched airhorns in the rally car. I had a set on one of my first cars back in high school and figured it would be a laugh to hear them again. For some reason the dumb horn trumpets came in red, so i painted them black before putting them in.

I found a good place to mount the air compressor, on this OEM bracket. I drilled a hole in it, and mounted it up. It looks really clean here, almost as if it came with the car.


I decided to do this the long way (the right way) and took the front fender off so that i could put some lock nuts on the back of the bolts that secure the horns inside the engine bay. Mad amounts of jumping and slamming this car around shouldn't dislodge the mount points. If anything the plastic horns will break off before the bolts come loose.



Here is the whole setup. Its loud as hell. This will be fun honking at spectators, etc!

409industries

One of the bigger electronic tasks I was avoiding was the rally computer. I'm not too good with wiring and all that so this was a bit intimidating as i have heard some horror stories about people splicing ECU wires incorrectly and frying components... (leave the magic smoke inside the box!). I picked up a used Terratrip 202+ for a good price.



After quick chat with Barret at All Wheels Driven i jotted down some notes about what to look out for. He pointed me in the right direction like usual and suggested picking up the Terratrip DSI (Dual Signal Interface) box, so that instead of using a regular magnetic probe for the odometer we could splice into the computer's ECU to get the information the rally computer needs that way. The wire you need to connect to (in a 2001 RS) is on the B135 harness #24 - Vehicle Speed Signal (its green with a small yellow stripe) which is located right off the ECU mounted on the floor by the co-drivers feet. This can be tapped using a simple radio shack style crimp splice.





A good way to check that you've spliced into the correct wire is to first jack up your car and put it on jack stands (or use a lift if you are cooler than I am and have access to one). Once this is done you can run the motor and put the car in gear to get all tires moving.



Next hookup a voltmeter, or even a cheap test light to the spliced wire into B135 #24. As the wheels rotate, the test light will blink on and off. If you rev the motor and make the wheels turn faster, the light will blink faster as a result of this. If you have a constant volt reading (or constant test light) then you are probably on the wrong wire. It should pulse a very low voltage off and on (between 0 and 5v) while in motion.



Here is the DSI box all wired up (to provide power, ground, and pulse information to the Terratrip). This part was a little bit confusing, but not too bad. I found this great diagram over at Susquehanna Motorsports (rallylights.com):



Basically, here's how it all breaks down:

-Pin 1 is your constant power from the battery, which is also spliced into the power of the Terratrip. When you buy your rally computer you have to get the 12 pin molex adapter to make all this work ($5.00 at Sube Sports)
- Pin 3 runs from this terminal in the DSI box to pin 2 (I believe Probe 1 input on the Terratrip, it has a diagram on the back of the rally computer for reference)
- Pin 4 is the pulse wire that is spliced into the ECU of the Subaru (B135 harness #24)
- Pin 6 is the ground for both the Terratrip and also the DSI box.



There is a quick calibration process that is done on the DSI box (by adjusting a small screw) that is supposed to get everything to work properly. Once this is done, you can see that the rally computer is counting the pulses coming from the ECU. The complete instructions for calibrating everything is online. I have still yet to verify if everything is working properly but will soon. Hey look, the back lit display works too! It got dark before i completely finished.



I don't have a mount built yet for the rally computer, so for now it is disconnected and the wires have been taped up as ill be doing a rallycross this weekend. The DSI box has been mounted in the glove box bezel, pictured here on the right side. A Jackson Rally computer mount is definitely planned for the near future.

409industries

The most easy of the installs was the Peltor FMT110 Intercom. I decided to stick with the 9V battery powered setup and not go with the 12V hard wired option just for simplicities sake. "Installing" it was super easy, basically zip tying it into place and you're done! The intercom was orientated down so that i can reach the volume control and the RCA output is easily accessible for the video camera that will be riding along in the near future. It will be really cool to hear our on-board communications on video.





Next up, the Hella map light! These are available at Safe Drives. Check them out by clicking here.

This was actually tied into a toggle on the center console, even though there is an on-off switch on the actual map light. This is very easy to install, as all you'll need is 12V power and a ground.

12volt constant from the center console toggle. This was cleaned up and ziptied to the sill bar along with the factory wiring that is already there.




Now, mounting it was a bit of work, but not too bad. I opted to drill into the B-pillar and use some metal tap screws to secure it in place. Not pictured was the screw i used slightly below the base of the map light to ground the light.


There it is... in all its glory! All lit up and ready for night stages! The light also came with a red filter which is cool for when you co-driver wants to feel like he's / she's reading pace notes on a submarine.

409industries

Starting to focus on getting my safety gear in order.



If you saw the pictures from the rallycross (Glen Helen I - 2010) you saw me running a full face Peltor helmet. I bought this used off eBay and actually got a smokin' deal on it. Before the event, i started not liking the idea of having a full face, but once i tried it it wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be. I still think open face would have been nice, but ill make do for now. I got the HANS posts, which need to be installed. Had a chance to use the built in intercom finally... that was way fun.



Got hooked up with some DC Pro Spec 2.0 shoes. Wore them around the house for a bit to break them in. They are actually really really cool to drive in. Walking... not so much, but the soles are very thin and you have very good pedal feel with them. Its easy to over tighten the velcro band on the top, so if you do get a pair of these don't crank them down to hard. It makes it awkward to pivot your foot forward and backward if the strap is too tight. I like driving in these.



Next on the list is a proper driving suit. :thumbsup:

409industries

So after the endless prep, here is how Prescott went in a nutshell.

If you want a really nice recap of the whole event both right before and right after, check out the rally.gearboxmagazine.com interview:

Before the rally: http://rally.gearboxmagazine.com/201...aaron-ekinaka/
After the rally: http://rally.gearboxmagazine.com/201...kinaka-part-2/

No matter how hard I planned to avoid it, the last few days before the rally were a thrash fest to get the car even that much more ready for the stages of Prescott. There were a couple of nights up till 3am tying up random odds and ends (both by Kyle at the shop, and me and Albert working on things in the driveway). Working on mostly random tech related stuff.

Of course there has to be last minute drama. The night before we’re going to load the car up, i’ve got one of the front struts apart to swap out the bent insert that I bent the crap out of at Cal City. I inspected the new part and realized that it was not the right size (too short!). A quick call to Barrett at All Wheels Driven and he reassured me that i’ll have a brand new insert the next day (over-nighted first AM delivery to the Econolodge) in Prescott! I had faith... he’s never let me down before. Zack pulled his front struts off his GD to have as spares just in case this damaged one decided to let go.

We loaded the car up on a rented trailer and my buddy Dustin pulled the car to Arizona from southern California. It was an easy drive... he’s got a huge brand new F-350 Super Duty. Heated leather seats, satellite radio, and navi? Hell yeah. We rolled into town around 9:30, and meet up with everyone from Jackson Rally in the main service lot behind the Prescottonian. I end up tinkering with the car until pretty late, just buttoning down the last few things i could think of and was capable of doing.

The next day, Albert and I set off to do recce in his fiance’s car. Recce was early... but went really well. While we’re out doing this Zack, Kyle, and the rest of the crew took apart the rally car in anticipation of the replacement insert arriving. It did, and I got a picture text message from my wife showing Zack having it in his hands! I am instantly relieved to know we’ll have 4 gravel coilovers to run in the afternoon! They got everything installed no problem.



Recce finished up, we get back to grab everything and head over to Parc Expose at Tim’s Subaru a few miles away. Here we handled registration, tech, new drivers meeting, etc. After that, the plan was hangout and watch the lightning and rain for a while and just wait around. We were seeded dead last in position 22. sweet. Exhaustion starts to set in and i’m not feeling well. It was really bad. Too much wrenching on the car and not enough rest left me feeling like i had the flu. I was pretty pissed to feel that way since i’d worked so hard to get there, but I wasn’t going to give up... even if it meant puking on stage we were going to race. It was awesome hanging out with everyone before the race. Here’s Keith looking cool and composed before leaving the first MTC



Eventually it was time for Albert and I to suit up to make the first transit. It started raining again too. Got to admit I was nervous about the possibility of running stages i’d only seen once (with big exposures), at speed, in the dark, and in the rain. Here we head out of the first time control to transit to stage 1.



Racing that night was awesome. The first stage was pretty much at dusk so I was able to get a feel for things without relying 100% on the lights just yet. I jumped the start on stage 1 by a full minute... whoops! It was totally my bad, i saw the lights counting down on the clock and just went, we got a nice penalty for that. By the time Albert and I got into a groove it was pitch black with the exception of lightning off in the distance. I pushed as much as i felt comfortable with and our times were just fine, not fast, but not crawling slow either. It was really sketchy though because dust was a major problem in the dark. Many of the teams were switching from high to low beams to deal with visibility in the dust. I didn’t think to really do this... i just slowed down when i needed to, all the while praying that there weren't cows in the road! Right before ending the last stage before service I noticed a lot of smoke / steam coming out from the scoop. We had a problem with the power steering, but trudged along to service to have it checked out there. Crew did an amazing job of just tightening down the line that came loose and getting everything back together in no time flat. We were good to go for the last two stages.

I just focused on clean lines, and keeping it on the road for the last two stages of the night. The final stage was the one with the big exposures, so we played it pretty safe through there. Couple of the tighter turns caught me off guard a bit. Albert did great on the notes, there was only one time that i can remember where i snapped at him a bit, but i later apologized about it. It was all in the moment when adrenaline is pumping and you’re pretty amped up! He’s a good sport about those things. We finished up day one moving the right way up the leader board (not hard to do when you start at the bottom) and got some much needed rest for day 2. I was really looking forward to the day stages.

Day 2, we were refreshed and ready to battle! The goals were the same, keep the car on the road, have fun, and learn as much as we could. Speed would come as our confidence built. We were having a blast... it was warm, but not too hot out thank god. I can really see that i’m going to need a cool suit because i don’t do well in the hot weather.





We ran the two longest stages of the rally and had a complete blast. These were great for really getting in to a rhythm, and trying out techniques and lines on every corner to see what works best. It was pretty intense driving that hard for an extended period of time, so much fun. We came in for service and looked over the car real quick, there was nothing to note wrong with it. I opted to keep the same tires on since I was comfortable with them and they were still brand spankin’ new. Not a lot of tire spin going on in this car... she’s such a wuss! My folks came out to the race to hangout all weekend, here’s my mom rockin’ the DI shirt. KevinWelker came by to see how things were going, hes on my right. He’s always full of good advice and has been around since the very beginning of my talks about stage rallying.



We drove hard through the last two stages. Witty Tom in the daylight was amazing. There are so many back to back technical turns on the south end of that stage, it was a total blast to drive. We posted a pretty good time there. The last stage of the day was First View... and all uphill. The RS tops out in 4th gear going up those long straights, so it was totally pinned for sometimes 30 seconds at a time! I was super bummed to drive by Welker and Burke literally 4 miles from the finish on the side of the road, their motor let go. We finished, and made the long twisty transit back to the final time control. Albert and I were so stoked the whole ride back... exhausted but super stoked. Took a whole bunch of pictures with the family, here’s Juliet and I... she wanted full race gear on for photos, but i didn’t put the HANS back on.



Zack asked what I wanted to drink when we came in (before we left final service) the first thing i thought of was to have whatever home brew he had brought. The beers he makes are always insane! Turns out it was transported in a growler that Satan himself gave to him. Man, that was great beer!



We ended up taking 1st in CRS-GT and USRC Production AWD so we had the privilege of taking part in the champagne ceremony. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t think Albert was really prepared for any of this, he needs to brush up on his bottle opening skills! I made sure to give him a good dousing... and right in the eye too. Sorry man. :-)



Couldn’t have done it without my crew. They were awesome all weekend. Not to mention all the help I got on the car long before we even entered the rally. A huge thanks goes out to everyone that made this possible. I can’t thank them enough! We just wanted to finish without destroying the car, i never would have expected to do so well. We even got kicked down $50 from Moore Sport Inc. (MSI) at the awards ceremony for being “Most Improved Driver”. Totally unexpected, but that got us all a nice waffle breakfast :-)



We ended up partying into the night, right there in the parking lot. Rain came and scared all the pansies away, at one point I grabbed El Blendero to save it from getting completely drenched. People that stuck around were rewarded with an amazing lightning storm to watch and good stories being told by all the more experienced drivers. It was beyond awesome.

The thing everyone asks now is “whats the next event”? I have no idea. Definitely nothing until after the new year, my rally budget has been long since depleted. I’d like to do a medium sized USRC event (maybe Desert Storm?) but if money is too tight, probably something like High Desert Trails. Maybe Prescott again next year. We will have to see! Of course, i’ll be doing local rallycross events too.

The car could use some additional work, just to make things that much better. The bumper release clips are already lying around, just need to be installed. Under body protection is a must, along with some legit fender liners. I will continue to stockpile spares as well! Ill be sure to keep everyone posted for sure.