Nahwatzel was the stage everyone was talking about at Olympus. Nahwatzel this year was a 19 mile stage. It’s usually 22-25 miles long… This is twice as long as some of the longest stages we’ve ever done. We did the stage twice and each time I took a deep breath before we started and a deep sigh when we finished. It covers every type of surface that Washington has to offer. I picked this particular 7 minute segment in the middle of the stage as it shows all that Nahwatzel is famous for. First, the wide open dirt highway that takes a hairpin left onto some tight twisty sections. The narrow sections become faster as we’re hitting 70+MPH down the straights. These tighten into hairpins and the surface changes and becomes loose in a lot of areas. Nahwatzel also likes to eat cars. Pay particular attention to 04:00 in - as I missed a downshift and couldn’t stop the car in time.

Video of SS13 - Nahwatzel - 53.6MB WMV

It’s taken me a couple of weeks to decompress. We popped Ze’Neon off the tow dolly and parked it when we got home from Washington. I’ve only started it once after that, and still have a load of spares sloshing around the back of the Blazer. We have some time to do repairs and testing before Gorman Ridge in August. A little bit of a summer break before we continue the USRC season with Prescott and Laughlin.

Just before Olympus everything came together smoothly. A complete departure from the frantic last minute ‘oh crap we’re out of it’ Rim of the World in April. Struts were back on the car and tested. The subframe mounts got welded. The oil pressure sender failed in the parking lot and not on stage. Blazer packed up with the Neon on the tow dolly ready to go for the morning. We packed our clothes, got about 3 hours of sleep, and took off Wednesday morning at 4:00AM.
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