Rallye Star!

	August 20, 2004 Today I'm utterly exhausted from a week's worth of school, work and rally prep. I met Leon at PGI and we loaded up all of my stuff into his SUV, got Prince onto the trailer and hooked the trailer up to the SUV. Poor Bark had to stay in the warehouse. Now, my stressing about small details began to fade- what could I do about anything now? It was time to get into race mode. The only trouble that remained was getting my co-driver Rob a new headset that would be compatible with my new Pelator intercom that had replaced my unreliable Terraphone. We had to go down to Subè Sport to get it from our rally guru, Chad DiMarco. Chad met Prince for the first time and offered some advice on alignment so that we could get the best ride out of my new Michelin gravel tires. I was very happy to see Chad. Leon and I weren't exactly nervous (yet!?), but neither one of us knew what to expect of me, my car, Rob or the rally and Chad somehow made us feel better. The drive up the 5 freeway was long and I squeezed in a good nap. We arrived at the Gorman Flying J truck stop after noon and now one was there yet. If there's anything I hate, it's waiting. Especially when no one's there yet. Over lunch at the truck stop café, Leon shared with me his insights on first time events, water bars and silty corners. He also warned me of the one thing that I didn't want to think about at all-DNFing (short for 'Did Not Finish'). No, I insisted, I would finish this rally. No, Leon insisted, everyone has a 30% chance of DNFing, even me. I had to concede it was a possibility, but my number one goal was to finish the rally, even if I was last. As we were checking into our hotel, my co-driver arrived and we finally met. I was worried about whether or not we would get along. But my worries faded as Rob began joking around with Leon and his navigator, John. The afternoon was spent loading my 500 bags into the room (Hey I'm a girl, right?) and arranging my paperwork. There was also the 1 millionth viewing of the 2002 Gorman Ridge Rally tape and Leon's bumper cam footage. The tapes however made me think twice about the rally-I suddenly felt apprehensive and I wondered if I, as a driver, would make it through so many stages.

August 20, 2004

Today I'm utterly exhausted from a week's worth of school, work and rally prep. I met Leon at PGI and we loaded up all of my stuff into his SUV, got Prince onto the trailer and hooked the trailer up to the SUV. Poor Bark had to stay in the warehouse. Now, my stressing about small details began to fade- what could I do about anything now? It was time to get into race mode. The only trouble that remained was getting my co-driver Rob a new headset that would be compatible with my new Pelator intercom that had replaced my unreliable Terraphone. We had to go down to Subè Sport to get it from our rally guru, Chad DiMarco. Chad met Prince for the first time and offered some advice on alignment so that we could get the best ride out of my new Michelin gravel tires. I was very happy to see Chad. Leon and I weren't exactly nervous (yet!?), but neither one of us knew what to expect of me, my car, Rob or the rally and Chad somehow made us feel better.

Getting ready for a stylish service area.

Getting ready for a stylish service area.

The drive up the 5 freeway was long and I squeezed in a good nap. We arrived at the Gorman Flying J truck stop after noon and now one was there yet. If there's anything I hate, it's waiting. Especially when no one's there yet. Over lunch at the truck stop café, Leon shared with me his insights on first time events, water bars and silty corners. He also warned me of the one thing that I didn't want to think about at all-DNFing (short for 'Did Not Finish'). No, I insisted, I would finish this rally. No, Leon insisted, everyone has a 30% chance of DNFing, even me. I had to concede it was a possibility, but my number one goal was to finish the rally, even if I was last.

As we were checking into our hotel, my co-driver arrived and we finally met. I was worried about whether or not we would get along. But my worries faded as Rob began joking around with Leon and his navigator, John. The afternoon was spent loading my 500 bags into the room (Hey I'm a girl, right?) and arranging my paperwork. There was also the 1 millionth viewing of the 2002 Gorman Ridge Rally tape and Leon's bumper cam footage. The tapes however made me think twice about the rally-I suddenly felt apprehensive and I wondered if I, as a driver, would make it through so many stages.

Despite Leon's sudden mothering instincts and his desire for me to rest in the air-conditioning, I came out to drive Prince off of the trailer (In retrospect, probably the scariest moment of the rally). Prince was now ready for his new stickers! I was so excited to finally put my name on the car. It somehow made everything feel more real at a time when I still couldn't believe that I was actually here with less than 24 hours before my first rally. It was nice to know that people could now link me to my car, that I was a driver in my own right even though most people thought I was a co-driver.

Paper work at registration.

I finally got to test drive Prince when Big Tom arrived. One of my big worries was that I wouldn't be used to driving him after spending three weeks with Mr. Rogers, the practice car. The first thing that I noticed was the lack of power steering, which induced my favorite bad impersonation of Marcus Gronhölm's "Dis car, no power steering! I am going home!" I started to loosen up in the car and the confidence and calm that I had had at practice came back to me. The throttle was acting strange, but Big Tom had a new fuel filter that solved the problem. I took another drive. I now had complete confidence in my car, my co-driver and myself.

Registration opened and Rob and I signed in. It was so strange. I had done registration with Leon, but who ever thought that someone, let alone myself, would be registering for my team? We all had dinner at the truck stop afterwards and John and Leon spent a great deal of time going over everything from DNFing to handling yourself in the cockpit. I listened quietly. Today, I was more focused on my inner feelings than on what was going on around me. I was quiet, focused, reserved. I went back to my room after dinner and ended the night watching my Gorman videos.

I was very happy and so excited that I could barely sleep. Well, I'm not sure if I did sleep-it was my first rally and I kept playing everything out in my head! If things can't be perfect, I told myself as I slowly fell asleep, at least let them run smoothly.

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