Rallye Star!

	July 19, 2004 Today is the first day of my rallying career and it dawns appropriately. Clear, bright and already 89° at 10:00 am. It's pleasant in my tank top and capris and I do a quick recce on foot of the gravel parking lot where I'll be driving around today, but when I unload my Nomex undies and my suit, my arms begin sweating under their weight. For the very first time I'm putting on my driving suit, shoes, gloves and helmet. I take my time and zip up my collar in front of the bathroom mirror getting butterflies like a bride and thinking all the while, "I can't believe this is happening to me." My car is waiting for me outside under a tree and Leon just finished watering down the dust and creating several muddy corners, ensuring that my first day behind the wheel will incorporate the best of the WRC's Cyprus and Great Britain rallies. I'm excited and scared at the same time. It's not everyday that you get lessons from the closest thing to a Colin McRae or a Carlos Sainz America will ever see. I have a bit of performance anxiety, heightened by the fact that my car, Prince Charming, is a rear wheel drive beast and I've spent my life getting used to the understeer in my little white Jetta, a great and much loved Volkswagen, who's best left terrorizing the street. I feel like I have to learn how to drive all over again. Leon snaps some 'first day of school' pictures and tells me not to worry, this is school. Learn. In the car I forget about everything and focus on what I have to do- if I spend time worrying about my own abilities, I'm not going to be able to go all out and I will miss important details. Assignment #1: In three turns or less, figure out how to do doughnuts around a cone. I've never done a doughnut before, but 10,000 drifter videos can't be wrong- hit the gas and crank it. I remember that I don't need the hand brake. I start off and I'm doing it and I can't believe it! I remember to lock the wheel then ease it up and without thinking, I'm getting the hang of opposite lock steering. Wow. Cool. Assignment #2: Laps around Cyprus and GB- figure out how to get in and out of the dusty and muddy corners, staying close to the cones. It's a NA$CAR track, rally style. I like the Cyprus corner because I can make my car slide by jerking the wheel. I'm not getting around GB very well at all. I go long. I loose momentum. I get stuck in the mud. I'm frustrated and that frustration makes me miss the Cyprus corner the next time I go around! Leon calls me aside. I've spent 20 minutes in the car and it's time for a break. He works training like a real rally-20-30 minutes in the car (approximately what a stage would be) and 5-10 minute breaks (what transit breaks are like). I drink two bottles of water. My Nomex underwear is sopping wet. The adrenaline is still masking my fatigue. Leon makes me drink some Gatorade, a must when it's too hot to eat and you need electrolytes. Back outside it's gotten warmer. I don't complain- it's to be expected but I wonder if I can and even question my ability to survive a 10-15 stage rally in these conditions. I don't tell Leon. He has an indomitable faith in me, which impels me to stop questioning myself. There is a rally in August. I will finish that rally.

Leon watered down the parking lot for me.

July 19, 2004

Today is the first day of my rallying career and it dawns appropriately. Clear, bright and already 89° at 10:00 am. It's pleasant in my tank top and capris and I do a quick recce on foot of the gravel parking lot where I'll be driving around today, but when I unload my Nomex undies and my suit, my arms begin sweating under their weight. For the very first time I'm putting on my driving suit, shoes, gloves and helmet. I take my time and zip up my collar in front of the bathroom mirror getting butterflies like a bride and thinking all the while, "I can't believe this is happening to me."

My car is waiting for me outside under a tree and Leon just finished watering down the dust and creating several muddy corners, ensuring that my first day behind the wheel will incorporate the best of the WRC's Cyprus and Great Britain rallies. I'm excited and scared at the same time. It's not everyday that you get lessons from the closest thing to a Colin McRae or a Carlos Sainz America will ever see. I have a bit of performance anxiety, heightened by the fact that my car, Prince Charming, is a rear wheel drive beast and I've spent my life getting used to the understeer in my little white Jetta, a great and much loved Volkswagen, who's best left terrorizing the street. I feel like I have to learn how to drive all over again.

Leon snaps some 'first day of school' pictures and tells me not to worry, this is school. Learn. In the car I forget about everything and focus on what I have to do- if I spend time worrying about my own abilities, I'm not going to be able to go all out and I will miss important details. Assignment #1: In three turns or less, figure out how to do doughnuts Hey at least I look fast.

around a cone. I've never done a doughnut before, but 10,000 drifter videos can't be wrong- hit the gas and crank it. I remember that I don't need the hand brake. I start off and I'm doing it and I can't believe it! I remember to lock the wheel then ease it up and without thinking, I'm getting the hang of opposite lock steering. Wow. Cool. Assignment #2: Laps around Cyprus and GB- figure out how to get in and out of the dusty and muddy corners, staying close to the cones. It's a NA$CAR track, rally style. I like the Cyprus corner because I can make my car slide by jerking the wheel. I'm not getting around GB very well at all. I go long. I loose momentum. I get stuck in the mud. I'm frustrated and that frustration makes me miss the Cyprus corner the next time I go around!

Leon calls me aside. I've spent 20 minutes in the car and it's time for a break. He works training like a real rally-20-30 minutes in the car (approximately what a stage would be) and 5-10 minute breaks (what transit breaks are like). I drink two bottles of water. My Nomex underwear is sopping wet. The adrenaline is still masking my fatigue. Leon makes me drink some Gatorade, a must when it's too hot to eat and you need electrolytes. Back outside it's gotten warmer. I don't complain- it's to be expected but I wonder if I can and even question my ability to survive a 10-15 stage rally in these conditions. I don't tell Leon. He has an indomitable faith in me, which impels me to stop questioning myself. There is a rally in August. I will finish that rally.

Assignment #3: The Barn. I hear Nicky Grist's voice narrating the rally in my head, "The Barn stage features several fast open corners that quickly throw the drivers into a tight, narrow and treacherous passage behind the Barn. If a driver miscalculates a corner he will most certainly hit either a concrete wall, concrete outcroppings or the Barn itself. This stage has ended rallies for drivers like Marcus Grönholm and Sébastian Loeb before. It remains to be seen whether the drivers today can finish this difficult stage." I remember the barn from the rally cross I did in May- you have to just go slow and drive, not race it. Part of rallying, and one of the hardest parts, is knowing when to slow down and Barn crashing good fun!

just drive. I take the Barn in first gear. I get going in second and even third gear for the big corners, but suddenly I'm at the Barn and I'm going too fast. I turn too late. Leon is on the opposite side of the Barn. He hears a crash and sees me coming through the barn! I had hit the apex too soon and too fast and my rear wheels were sending me on a crash course towards the corner of the Barn. Wood flew everywhere! I slowed down as a huge cloud of dust rained down on my windshield and little bits of wood fell from the sky. It could have come out of a Dukes of Hazard episode. It scared me, but I knew there was a corner ahead and my car was still running, so it took that corner quite well before stopping the car and assessing the damage. I was laughing and so was Leon, to my surprise. Prince Charming was okay, having only a black eye (dented headlight and bent hood) and some scratches.

Over lunch we discussed why I crashed and I what I could have done to prevent it before things got ugly again and when I knew things were getting ugly, what I can do to get myself out of there. I realize now that rallying is 5% perfect corners and 95% knowing what to do when you don't hit that perfect corner. Damage control. I know what I did wrong and how to avoid it in the future. Assignment #4: The Barn and the Derricks stage- in which the Barn is joined with the equally treacherous Abandoned Oil Derricks- DNF's tell no tales! I assign first gear to the Barn and Derricks, and focus on that darn muddy corner, the drift corner and the sharp hairpin. Each time I go around I pick one thing to experiment or to get down. It's the only way to learn- it's true that rally car drivers process more information than fighter pilots, so you really have to pick your battles and focus.

There was frustration, but Leon was there by my side sending me off in new directions to keep me from getting exasperated and distracted. He tells me I will get those corners soon. He lets me experiment and I take things in different directions, work on my shifting, take corners over again. After spending nearly 40 minutes in the car, he takes over the driver's seat and suddenly I feel like an incompetent rookie! How does he slide around those corners so close and come out in the right direction? How does he know just when to start the Scandinavian flick? To use the hand brake or the gears? How does he control the car so well when it is just sliding around? Just when I thought I was figuring things out… Nevertheless, I am not disheartened and I look forward to tomorrow's drive. His words of encouragement give me hope and again, I find myself quite amazed to be where I am, driving a rally car… my rally car.

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