Rallye Star!

	March 25, 2006 The first thing I noticed about Desert Storm was that it was really hot and we're a good three months away from real summer. How do people live out here? Despite the heat, my friend Shea Burns was in the co-driver's seat again and we were ready to tackle another rally. As we pushed our way through the long transit things only got worse. The road was rocky, rough and full of creekbeds. Filled with sand that hid hard clay curbs, the creekbeds were terrible. I put my foot down and jammed through the impossibly deep sand hoping by stupid luck to actually make it through the 300 yard wash. I hit a curb so hard that it had to have hurt something, although Anakin seemed no worse for wear. We got stuck about half way through and luckly the organizers had planned to have a big truck there to tow us out. But being the first car meant a considerable hike to the tow truck and a 15-minute wait. Shea works for the USDA taking care of watersheds by day and mountain biking by... day. With his nature boy background, he went out to find the truck as more cars got stuck behind us. I couldn't believe that we still hadn't got out to the first stage. The bumpy ride out of the creek had really killed my rallying vibe. Shea kept things lively by telling me about floodplains. Like how we shouldn't rally in them. The first stage seemed to start off well until the road fell down a steep bank that took us into a creek bed. I saw the remains of a spoiler in the center and slammed on the brakes to avoid a single caution rut that should have been a double caution at the least. The road grew rougher and I came to see why it was called Desert Storm. Ever see the movie Syriana? Remember at the end when George Clooney was chasing the Amir to warn him about an attack on his convoy and he's driving a Mitsubishi Pajero (Notice how all the cars in that movie are Mitsubishis? But no Evos. Only a rally girl would notice that!) through the median of the highway, over sand dunes and rocks, desert detritus flying everywhere his eyes wide and crazy? Yeah, that was the end of stage one. Another creekbed with whoop-de-doos and more sand than the beach, plus a nasty tree stump that came periously close as Anakin flew through the mire. I was pretty angry. This should have been graded and the notes should have been better. But they weren't. The second stage was better, but Anakin was having strange electrical problems and we weren't going very fast. This and the fact that we had to turn around and do those two stages again... and again was putting me in a foul mood. If Anakin wasn't running well, I decided that I would retire instead of going slow and taking a low start position at the Rim of the World Rally next month. Anakin did pull through and we kept at it, only to get a flat right before the turn around. Nevertheless, I drove on it for something like ten miles. The road was pretty straight and I didn't even know that I had a flat! I thought I had damaged my suspension. We lost less than thirty seconds and if it hadn't had problems on stage two, we would be in the running for a Group 5 trophy. But I was tired of this rally and we had problems so the order of the say was to have fun, laugh at the radiation and target practice signs that littered the side of the road as we drove through the military's desert land. Caution is the greater part of valor, and our care over dips and sand led to a reversal of fortune. Jeff Rados was in his truck and with his desert racing background decided to take the Syriana sand pit in full trophy truck fashion. He made the jump but landed away from the road and spent a great deal of time extricating his Ranger from the sand. Our other Group 5 competitors in a Dodge Omni rolled their car gently on its side making us the leader of our class. We rolled over the finish line with a sigh of relief. Somehow it just didn't feel like we'd won. But did win and we got a plaque. Leon drove Vegas, his darling Evo 6, to victory as well, winning the rally overall. It was really cool to share a victory with the guy who'd taught me everything I know about rallying! Back to Diary of a Driver.

March 25, 2006

The first thing I noticed about Desert Storm was that it was really hot and we're a good three months away from real summer. How do people live out here? Despite the heat, my friend Shea Burns was in the co-driver's seat again and we were ready to tackle another rally. As we pushed our way through the long transit things only got worse. The road was rocky, rough and full of creekbeds. Filled with sand that hid hard clay curbs, the creekbeds were terrible. I put my foot down and jammed through the impossibly deep sand hoping by stupid luck to actually make it through the 300 yard wash. I hit a curb so hard that it had to have hurt something, although Anakin seemed no worse for wear. We got stuck about half way through and luckly the organizers had planned to have a big truck there to tow us out. But being the first car meant a considerable hike to the tow truck and a 15-minute wait. Shea works for the USDA taking care of watersheds by day and mountain biking by... day. With his nature boy background, he went out to find the truck as more cars got stuck behind us. I couldn't believe that we still hadn't got out to the first stage. The bumpy ride out of the creek had really killed my rallying vibe. Shea kept things lively by telling me about floodplains. Like how we shouldn't rally in them.

The first stage seemed to start off well until the road fell down a steep bank that took us into a creek bed. I saw the remains of a spoiler in the center and slammed on the brakes to avoid a single caution rut that should have been a double caution at the least. The road grew rougher and I came to see why it was called Desert Storm. Ever see the movie Syriana? Remember at the end when George Clooney was chasing the Amir to warn him about an attack on his convoy and he's driving a Mitsubishi Pajero (Notice how all the cars in that movie are Mitsubishis? But no Evos. Only a rally girl would notice that!) through the median of the highway, over sand dunes and rocks, desert detritus flying everywhere his eyes wide and crazy? Yeah, that was the end of stage one. Another creekbed with whoop-de-doos and more sand than the beach, plus a nasty tree stump that came periously close as Anakin flew through the mire. I was pretty angry. This should have been graded and the notes should have been better.

But they weren't. The second stage was better, but Anakin was having strange electrical problems and we weren't going very fast. This and the fact that we had to turn around and do those two stages again... and again was putting me in a foul mood. If Anakin wasn't running well, I decided that I would retire instead of going slow and taking a low start position at the Rim of the World Rally next month. Anakin did pull through and we kept at it, only to get a flat right before the turn around. Nevertheless, I drove on it for something like ten miles. The road was pretty straight and I didn't even know that I had a flat! I thought I had damaged my suspension. We lost less than thirty seconds and if it hadn't had problems on stage two, we would be in the running for a Group 5 trophy. But I was tired of this rally and we had problems so the order of the say was to have fun, laugh at the radiation and target practice signs that littered the side of the road as we drove through the military's desert land.

Caution is the greater part of valor, and our care over dips and sand led to a reversal of fortune. Jeff Rados was in his truck and with his desert racing background decided to take the Syriana sand pit in full trophy truck fashion. He made the jump but landed away from the road and spent a great deal of time extricating his Ranger from the sand. Our other Group 5 competitors in a Dodge Omni rolled their car gently on its side making us the leader of our class. We rolled over the finish line with a sigh of relief. Somehow it just didn't feel like we'd won. But did win and we got a plaque. Leon drove Vegas, his darling Evo 6, to victory as well, winning the rally overall. It was really cool to share a victory with the guy who'd taught me everything I know about rallying!

Back to Diary of a Driver.