Rallye Star!

	June 5, 2005 It’s always cold and wet in Washington and as the birthplace of grunge and Starbucks, it’s no wonder. And today is no exception. Last night I met up with the crew for pizza with the participants of that days’ Dryad Quest Rally. Dry and dusty was the consensus on the stage conditions, but as we talked in the parking lot, clouds rolled in and a few raindrops fell as a reminder of the changeable conditions. I got to drive Anakin for the first time that evening. It was only a few blocks around the hotel, but I already liked the power steering and the way he handles. I’m not fighting him to make a turn. With Prince’s arthritic joints and lack of power steering, just getting into a parking space was a struggle. Not that I didn’t love that car. Anakin’s got some problems, however. There’s something funny going on with the brakes and as embarrassing as it is, I can’t reach the pedals! Oh the joys of being a female driver. I comfort myself with the knowledge that WRC Champ Seb Loeb is only 5’4”, exactly my height, so there has to be a car that fits me somewhere! I try not to worry about these problems. My job here is to gain points for the WSRC and to spend some quality time with my new car. Shitepoke is a pleasantly paced rally with two runs through an eight-mile and a twenty three-mile stage, with a service area less than a mile from the start and finish of each run and a service brake in between each stage. Almost as challenging is the fact that there are no stage notes (descriptive, highly detailed instructions for co-drivers to read) for this rally. We will be using a route book with only basic directions and cautions to guide us. Rebecca Greek, my rallying friend from Colorado will be reading the notes to me. We are good friends and after the odometer check, I can tell we’ll be a good team and that she’ll push me to perform. It will be our first rally with only a route book and I will have to rely mostly upon my budding road reading skills. I’m looking forward to it and hopefully will be able to harness the aggressiveness that I found at Rim of the World! It rained at the start. I gripped the wheel with my left hand, the handbrake with my right, gave Anakin a good 8,000 RPMs and LAUNCHED off of the start! I immediately noticed how differently Anakin handled than Prince. With the assistance of power steering, I could focus more on simply driving rather than fighting the car to turn. And did I need that extra focus for the slippery conditions! Anakin slid all over the wet and smooth river-bottom stones. I struggled to keep him on the road. I didn’t know his boundaries so I ended up over-steering a few corners. Our unfamiliarity with the terrain, the forestry roads and the route book led me to miss a few intersections, but I kept things together as best as I could. I quickly realized that aggressive driving would have to wait until I had figured the car out. Towards the end of the first stage, I caught the car in front of me- things weren’t going so bad after all!

June 5, 2005

It’s always cold and wet in Washington and as the birthplace of grunge and Starbucks, it’s no wonder. And today is no exception. Last night I met up with the crew for pizza with the participants of that days’ Dryad Quest Rally. Dry and dusty was the consensus on the stage conditions, but as we talked in the parking lot, clouds rolled in and a few raindrops fell as a reminder of the changeable conditions. I got to drive Anakin for the first time that evening. It was only a few blocks around the hotel, but I already liked the power steering and the way he handles. I’m not fighting him to make a turn. With Prince’s arthritic joints and lack of power steering, just getting into a parking space was a struggle. Not that I didn’t love that car. Anakin’s got some problems, however. There’s something funny going on with the brakes and as embarrassing as it is, I can’t reach the pedals! Oh the joys of being a female driver. I comfort myself with the knowledge that WRC Champ Seb Loeb is only 5’4”, exactly my height, so there has to be a car that fits me somewhere! I try not to worry about these problems. My job here is to gain points for the WSRC and to spend some quality time with my new car. Rockin' the official jacket.

Shitepoke is a pleasantly paced rally with two runs through an eight-mile and a twenty three-mile stage, with a service area less than a mile from the start and finish of each run and a service brake in between each stage. Almost as challenging is the fact that there are no stage notes (descriptive, highly detailed instructions for co-drivers to read) for this rally. We will be using a route book with only basic directions and cautions to guide us. Rebecca Greek, my rallying friend from Colorado will be reading the notes to me. We are good friends and after the odometer check, I can tell we’ll be a good team and that she’ll push me to perform. It will be our first rally with only a route book and I will have to rely mostly upon my budding road reading skills. I’m looking forward to it and hopefully will be able to harness the aggressiveness that I found at Rim of the World!

It rained at the start. I gripped the wheel with my left hand, the handbrake with my right, gave Anakin a good 8,000 RPMs and LAUNCHED off of the start! I immediately noticed how differently Anakin handled than Prince. With the assistance of power steering, I could focus more on simply driving rather than fighting the car to turn. And did I need that extra focus for the slippery conditions! Anakin slid all over the wet and smooth river-bottom stones. I struggled to keep him on the road. I didn’t know his boundaries so I ended up over-steering a few corners. Our unfamiliarity with the terrain, the forestry roads and the route book led me to miss a few intersections, but I kept things together as best as I could. I quickly realized that aggressive driving would have to wait until I had figured the car out. Towards the end of the first stage, I caught the car in front of me- things weren’t going so bad after all!

The end of this first stage was terribly embarrassing. With less than a third of a mile to go, Anakin lost a wiper blade arm. WHACK! It was a terrible sound! All I saw was a dark flailing object and then suddenly a scratching noise. It took me a second to realize what had just happened, but in that second I missed the red finish sign that warned competitors to slow down for the timing control. I was pretty scared, but became even more scared when I realized how fast we were heading towards the control workers! I hit the brakes and Anakin plowed through the gravel, narrowly missing the frightened workers. I was really embarrassed and I felt terrible for putting the workers at risk. I apologized profusely, but I still didn’t think it was enough. In retrospect, everyone thought it was funny, but I didn’t. This first run wasn’t pretty. I figured out that I only had the front brakes working and that the hand brake wasn’t working well enough. Neither problem was addressed in service and I was pretty angry that it wasn’t even looked at all.

Stage 2 was a repeat of stage one and I changed my plan of attack, using the gearbox to slow down instead of the brakes just like I used to do in the parking lot when I first learned how to drive. Rebecca and I were more comfortable with the route book and I had figured out how to read the thick forest terrain and felt more comfortable reading what I saw. I wasn’t nervous this time and I didn’t panic. I made fewer mistakes and we were faster. Coming back into service, we learned that some of our Group 5 competitors had retired. Now we only had to finish to nab second place points for the WSRC. I was glad to have some of the pressure taken off of my new car and me. I really liked Anakin, but he needed some more work and with the brake problems and rain, I didn’t feel comfortable pushing myself.

Yeah, we rock!

But simply finishing would be a test! The 23-mile Nawahtzel stage was at once fast, narrow, open and tight against thick forests… and did I mention 23 miles long!?! The stage started better than then others and I had a strong launch. About three miles in, however, I had another scare- a deer ran in front of me and straight down the road!!! Knowing that a similar critter encounter had led the likes of Seb Loeb and Markko Märtin to crash and roll, I slowed and kept things smooth and my eyes peeled! I pushed myself through the open sections where I could see the road far ahead of me, playing the gearbox and trying the hand brake when I felt adventurous. Then we headed into the new forest planted by the loggers, and the young trees closed in around Anakin like a tunnel. He charged on! Things were so tight that it felt like we were pushing 100 MPH! Coming out of the forest, I caught a small hatchback! Wow! I kept up the pace and blasted on with only a few miles to go- things had gone by so fast! We got to the end and instead of just finishing, I was moving ahead!

I stayed by myself for the last service, thinking about the road ahead of me. I decided that this last stage was just like a Super Special spectator stage- not a place where you could gain much ground, but certainly a place where you could lose it all. Caution would be the order of the day. Once again the 23 miles of Nawahtzel flew by. Anakin wasn’t strong yet, but he was steady. The only hitch this time was the brakes and an overly reflective dashboard. We crossed the flying finish and headed back to town, triumphant after taking second place points in Group 5!

Your exalted leader!

We ended the day with a rainy BBQ with our friends from up North. Rebecca and I nabbed valuable points for our assault on the Group 5 title in the WSRC. In overall points, we were now in second place to the turbo RX-7 that had won Group 5 today. I was very excited. In addition, Rebecca and I won third place in the Pacific Rally Group’s Novice Driver/Co-Driver category! (Though I have to admit that Rebecca is a total pro!) We got a little trophy and ate too much homemade cake. As we headed back to California, I was already thinking about all of the work we’d have to do to bring Anakin up to speed for the Treeline Rally in July. I’d have a lot of work to do as well. With a championship lead within grasp, I’d have to step up my driving and work on endurance and physical training for the hot summer rallies ahead.

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