Rallye Star!

	April 22, 2005 After a 15-hour drive through California, Leon, Aaron and I are finally in Oregon! I spent the whole trip nestled in the back seat studying driving diagrams Leon had drawn up for me, reading and taking some pretty righteous naps. It was a very fun and relaxing trip. We spent Thursday night in our very luxurious hotel and were now on our way to the Portland International Raceway. I made the trip through registration and bought my very first Rally America visual package, which was a handful of stickers for the rally car. I was really excited about this, not just for the stickers but also because I received, after many rallies ran with duct tape, a permanent number! I picked number 776 out of a long list. It just felt right and it fit Prince, who was born in 1976. I put the sticker on myself just as the wind was picking up. Why is it always windy when I have to put stickers on? Just as I was admiring Prince’s new numbers, my co-driver Amy arrived. I met her at the Cherokee Trails Rally where she was working a timing control. She really wanted to co-drive for me so she flew in all the way from Cary, North Carolina just for this rally. She was just as excited as I was and we immediately set about arranging the cockpit. Today’s stages would be a completely new challenge for me. There would be five short spectator stages run over the Portland International Raceway that crossed through tarmac, gravel and grass. I’ve never driven on tarmac before and Leon took me close to the track to explain how the grippy surface worked. I listened and took note of what lines to take. I started to built my runs on what I already knew, what Leon told me and what we saw a group of Vipers doing on the track. Tarmac and grass were new to me, so I decided to find a comfortable pace and just run with it. Today was a day where you could not gain very much but could certainly lose it all. Besides, today and Sunday were only seat time for me. My important day was Saturday where I would gain points for the Western States Rally Championship. We all watched the first few cars run. There were the big guys running the Rally America Series who had raced with Leon last year. This was my first ProRally and suddenly I felt like I had come quite a long way from where I started. The big treat of the night was watching the 1984 WRC Champion Stig Blomqvist tear up the short course. I met him last year at the Pike’s Peak International Hillclimb and he told me to practice with Leon but also to spent time driving alone. It was good advice and exactly what we had been doing recently in practice. Leon had to get me driving as fast as I did when he was in the car yelling at me when I was alone. It was a confidence problem and this time I vowed to push myself on the stages just as hard as Leon had during practice. I know I have the speed in me. Now I just have to get it out. Our first run was surprisingly fast. Amy was really good with the notes and we ended up right behind the car in front of us. Tarmac, it turned out was very similar to the surface of the dry lakebed where I practiced! Stage 2 was my favorite. It was both tarmac and gravel, a great warm-up stage that felt like practice in the parking lot. I was practicing braking deep and keeping my foot on the throttle. Things went so well that I caught the little green Datsun in front of me! I had kept my eyes on that car as it was close to Prince in age and power. I couldn’t believe that I had overtaken it! Stage 3 was Stage 1 again and I kept pushing myself. Stage 4 was Stage 2 again, too. As we lined up for the stage, the weather turned bad! The sky was dark and thunder pealed overhead. The wind was so strong it broke huge branches off of the popular trees and heaved them onto the track! It started to rain and a huge bolt of lightening hit a tree, breaking the top off and sending sparks everywhere! I focused on the road ahead and we zoomed around the tree branches going as fast as ever! At least the rain killed the dust! For Stage 5 we were first on the road. There was a long wait to start and as I sat there trying to figure out the track I quickly figured out why we were first- the track was complicated and everyone behind us was sure to learn from our mistakes. The slow cars were a sacrifice to the rally gods! By now it had rained enough to make the track so slippery that when I started, my wheels were spinning and I wasn’t going anywhere. The Datsun was ahead of me, but some babying of the throttle pulled us out and we had overtaken the car by the end of the straightaway. We then made a poorly marked right turn, got lost and then quickly found our way over a tarmac bridge. The bridge threw us out into some wet grass. We were going pretty quickly and when we hit the grass it was like ice! I was heading right and I needed to turn left, but there was no traction on the grass and I spun out. Poor Prince hit his butt on a chain link fence! I still kept Prince going like old people, slow and steady until he caught traction again. We finished the stage after being confused about directions and even the location of the stage’s end. We finally figured things out, but because of the stages’ problems and delays it was thrown out the next day. We ended up fourth in Group 5 out of eight cars. Amy retired early with her pace notes, while Aaron, Leon and I watched some more of the faster cars. In my mind I cleared out today’s frustrations and focused on what went right. I ran through good breaking, throttle and cornering moments and I visualized doing that tomorrow in the woods. Things felt right and I vowed to release the speed and skill I know I have inside me! Back to Diary of a Driver.

April 22, 2005

Heading up to Oregon.

After a 15-hour drive through California, Leon, Aaron and I are finally in Oregon! I spent the whole trip nestled in the back seat studying driving diagrams Leon had drawn up for me, reading and taking some pretty righteous naps. It was a very fun and relaxing trip. We spent Thursday night in our very luxurious hotel and were now on our way to the Portland International Raceway. I made the trip through registration and bought my very first Rally America visual package, which was a handful of stickers for the rally car. I was really excited about this, not just for the stickers but also because I received, after many rallies ran with duct tape, a permanent number! I picked number 776 out of a long list. It just felt right and it fit Prince, who was born in 1976. I put the sticker on myself just as the wind was picking up. Why is it always windy when I have to put stickers on? Just as I was admiring Prince’s new numbers, my co-driver Amy arrived. I met her at the Cherokee Trails Rally where she was working a timing control. She really wanted to co-drive for me so she flew in all the way from Cary, North Carolina just for this rally. She was just as excited as I was and we immediately set about arranging the cockpit.

Rain makes rainbows!

Today’s stages would be a completely new challenge for me. There would be five short spectator stages run over the Portland International Raceway that crossed through tarmac, gravel and grass. I’ve never driven on tarmac before and Leon took me close to the track to explain how the grippy surface worked. I listened and took note of what lines to take. I started to built my runs on what I already knew, what Leon told me and what we saw a group of Vipers doing on the track. Tarmac and grass were new to me, so I decided to find a comfortable pace and just run with it. Today was a day where you could not gain very much but could certainly lose it all. Besides, today and Sunday were only seat time for me. My important day was Saturday where I would gain points for the Western States Rally Championship.

We all watched the first few cars run. There were the big guys running the Rally America Series who had raced with Leon last year. This was my first ProRally and suddenly I felt like I had come quite a long way from where I started. The big treat of the night was watching the 1984 WRC Champion Stig Blomqvist tear up the short course. I met him last year at the Pike’s Peak International Hillclimb and he told me to practice with Leon but also to spent time driving alone. It was good advice and exactly what we had been doing recently in practice. Leon had to get me driving as fast as I did when he was in the car yelling at me when I was alone. It was a confidence problem and this time I vowed to push myself on the stages just as hard as Leon had during practice. I know I have the speed in me. Now I just have to get it out.

Last stage!

Our first run was surprisingly fast. Amy was really good with the notes and we ended up right behind the car in front of us. Tarmac, it turned out was very similar to the surface of the dry lakebed where I practiced! Stage 2 was my favorite. It was both tarmac and gravel, a great warm-up stage that felt like practice in the parking lot. I was practicing braking deep and keeping my foot on the throttle. Things went so well that I caught the little green Datsun in front of me! I had kept my eyes on that car as it was close to Prince in age and power. I couldn’t believe that I had overtaken it!

Stage 3 was Stage 1 again and I kept pushing myself. Stage 4 was Stage 2 again, too. As we lined up for the stage, the weather turned bad! The sky was dark and thunder pealed overhead. The wind was so strong it broke huge branches off of the popular trees and heaved them onto the track! It started to rain and a huge bolt of lightening hit a tree, breaking the top off and sending sparks everywhere! I focused on the road ahead and we zoomed around the tree branches going as fast as ever! At least the rain killed the dust!

Racing against the Datsun.

For Stage 5 we were first on the road. There was a long wait to start and as I sat there trying to figure out the track I quickly figured out why we were first- the track was complicated and everyone behind us was sure to learn from our mistakes. The slow cars were a sacrifice to the rally gods! By now it had rained enough to make the track so slippery that when I started, my wheels were spinning and I wasn’t going anywhere. The Datsun was ahead of me, but some babying of the throttle pulled us out and we had overtaken the car by the end of the straightaway. We then made a poorly marked right turn, got lost and then quickly found our way over a tarmac bridge. The bridge threw us out into some wet grass. We were going pretty quickly and when we hit the grass it was like ice! I was heading right and I needed to turn left, but there was no traction on the grass and I spun out. Poor Prince hit his butt on a chain link fence! I still kept Prince going like old people, slow and steady until he caught traction again. We finished the stage after being confused about directions and even the location of the stage’s end. We finally figured things out, but because of the stages’ problems and delays it was thrown out the next day.

We ended up fourth in Group 5 out of eight cars. Amy retired early with her pace notes, while Aaron, Leon and I watched some more of the faster cars. In my mind I cleared out today’s frustrations and focused on what went right. I ran through good breaking, throttle and cornering moments and I visualized doing that tomorrow in the woods. Things felt right and I vowed to release the speed and skill I know I have inside me!

Back to Diary of a Driver.