We headed out early on Thursday morning to arrive in time for the VIP / press stage. We warned Denise that we may be a little late getting out there, but we would do our best. As we pulled into Blythe, Christine received a call confirming that we were indeed on our way.

A quick stop at the tent to sign waivers and grab wrist bands and we headed down the road to Quartzsite. When we arrived I was a little surprised that we were only 1 of 2 teams there. A number of people were there taking pictures and waititng for rides. I know how tough it is to make it to one of these - extra day out of work, etc - but I would like to see more rally cars attend. I couldn’t really turn anyone away, and I’m glad to say that Jon Rea in the Datsun and I didn’t have to. Bill Malik arrived a little later with the Volvo to hand out a bunch of rides as well. There is nothing quite like a ride in a rally car to get people hooked on this sport.

On our way back to Blythe the sky opened up. We helped Doug get the sides of his awning set up and parked inside the tent as first for tech. It was a little late getting started, so I took the opportunity to re-clamp some stuff and convert to the stright pipe. Tech inspector arrived and we passed with flying colors.
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Last weekend in Blythe, CA. the Desert Storm rally swept into town. It was accompanied by a vicious rain storm that didn’t seem to faze the organizers or the twenty plus teams running the event. The weekend was full of surprises much like the rain. Some large boulders, fresh puddles, and deep washes were found around the fast corners of the stages. Taking it easy on Friday the team finished 8th overall. Saturday, however, a jump taken too hard gave the team their first mechanical DNF (did not finish) with the Dodge Rally Neon.

“It was a bummer – but we drove the car out and over to spectate the Harquahalla stage before being picked up by the crew. We could have done some heroics in service, but I knew we needed at least an hour to repair the rear suspension - tough to do in 20 minutes, so we decided to ‘call it’ right after the stage,” remarked Driver Kristopher Marciniak. As a consolation prize, the team scored a second place in CRS P-Stock on Friday, earning valuable points for this year’s championship.

The lightweight crew consisted of Judd Barber as Team Manager, Brian Driggs and Vanessa DuLaney as Co-Crew Chiefs, and Jake Caler lending a hand on the mechanical work. “The time and effort that the crew puts forward is always appreciated and unexpected. Having all the little stuff taken care of is so important, but often goes unrecognized. The crew did great this weekend,” said Co-Driver Christine Wittish.

The Dodge Rally Neon will be repaired and strengthened for its next outing: The Rim of the World Rally Challenge in April.

Author: USRC Media
The United States Rally Championship Board of Directors and it’s organizers have announced the “Rookie of the Year Scholarship” for the 2007 United States Rally Championship season.

The requirements for the Rookie of the Year scholarship program are listed in the USRC GRR’s and state the following. “The title will be awarded to the rookie driver and co-driver who have placed highest either in the AWD USRC Championship standings or in the 2WD Championship standings.”

Michael Taylor, President of the United States Rally Championship, Inc. stated, “This program will offer a 25% discount off of entry fees on all USRC events for the following year awarded to the chosen Rookie of the Year for 2007. We hope this program will help our competitors with their costs.”

The 2007 United States Rally Championship Rookie of the Year will be announced at the final event of the season, the Laughlin International Rally.

Board member Ivan Orisek added “The Board and Organizers also agreed to offer this discount to our 2006 Rookie of the Year team for the 2007 events.” Congratulations Kris Marciniak and Christine Wittish.

Reply: What can we say but WOW! We are planning to run as many USRC events as possible this year. Christine and I would like to once again thank the USRC for their support.

I’m busy working on the press release and the story of how we folded the rear strut tubes. We had a great finish on Friday and broke the car on Saturday after 4 stages. We’ll have lots more to come!

Here is the finish of Saturday. A little stage called Sore Finger. There are 18 jumps at the end that make this a wild stage finish. Enjoy!

Desert Storm - Sore Finger - SS7 56.1MB WMV
Low-res preview

Added: A musical video entitled ‘Defiance’.
Desert Storm - Defiance - 35.2MB WMV
Low-res preview

Desert Storm Current Results

We had a pretty good day today. A couple of rough stages and a couple of new favorites. We took it easy today to ensure a strong Saturday showing. We finished second in class and 8th overall today! Car is clean and ready for a long day tomorrow! Great video and more to come.

I figured out why the rally car was all over the road. The front left wheel bearing was toast and the front right control arm was bent and had a good crack in the top of it. This damage was apparently left over from Laughlin. This has me kicking myself for not going over the car 100% afterwards. It took me most of the weekend, but the front end is back together and tracking straight. On the first alignment ‘test drive’ I noticed that there was still a heavy vibration from the front left. I popped it off and threw it onto the wheel balancer. Not only was it 3.5oz off - the rim was warped. Wobbling side to side more then 1/2″ on the balancer… Time to remount that tire.

The next big project was the dash wiring. It was about time for me to add a reverse light switch - since the switch on the tranny only cuts out when in tech, and Christine has been asking for her map light to be moved to the B pillar. This along with our new ham radio rig would require me to spend about 4 hours dealing with wiring.

Last Thursday night Christine and I drove over to Newport Beach and took the Amateur Radio Exam for our Technician Class ham licenses. It was a pretty busy event with about 20+ people taking tests. After filling out all the forms we got handed our tests and got started.

It was a little harder then expected. Maybe it was the mixed up answers or the fact that the pressure was on. I got socked with two questions on the 6 meter band. The first was something like - “Identify the 6 meter band frequency.” and the second was - “Which of these frequencies could you use to transmit if you wanted to use 6 meter.” I had spaced what the range was and if I got it wrong, I would get 2 wrong and dip into my passing safely margin.

I remembered that the longer the distance the lower the frequency (also another test question) and I used that to narrow down the answer to “50 - 54Mhz”. I was 80% sure - but still in a daze when I handed over my test for grading. Christine had also reported that it was a lot harder then expected and asked me a couple of the questions after she handed her test in. She had guessed correctly on what a grid locater was and what to transmit to a call of CQ. I checked on my 6 meter question and was relieved to find I was in the clear. Then someone said out loud - “Oh, didn’t she fail?” With only 3 women in the room, the odds were high that it could have been Christine.

We both passed! We’re still waiting for our call signs, but they should be in the FCC database soon. I had been watching ebay for a deal on a used rig, and decided to stop by the local Ham Radio Outlet. For what I would payed + shipping and $20 extra on a used 2100H - I picked up a brand new Icom 2200H. So far it’s real easy to use and program.

We’re all ready to head out on Thursday morning. We’re ready to have some fun at the Desert Storm rally! Watch for the pictures and video to follow.

Last weekend I did a little testing and I have a laundry list of items to take care of. I can’t seem to get my alignment into any sort of ‘non tire grinding’ mode. I’m going to break down the front end this weekend and see if I can’t get her into shape. As is - the car is twitchy as hell even on gravel and that’s no good.

Christine and I are taking the HAM Radio License test tomorrow and after three weeks of staring at the question pool it should be a no brainer. I’ll have more nerdy details soon and I’ll explain why HAM + APRS + rally car = FUN. I promise not to talk about wave propigation and tropospheric ducting.

March 23rd - 24th is the Desert Storm Rally located in Blythe, CA. (which I apparently incorrectly pronounce Blythe rhyming with “live” and not rhyming with “life”) This is reported as a smooth rally and it will be our first of the season. It’s a smaller Rally America club rally and we’re excited to check it out. A good start to our limited season this year.

We are a little short on crew, so if you can be available for us on Friday - and I realize how short notice this is - we need a hand. Hit up the volunteer page.

I do have a number of items to update: planned events for 2007, ham radio project, press release after Desert Storm, other updates, etc. Another to-do list is upon us…

Great shot by Doug Shakes at this years Ridgecrest rallycross.

Christine and I once again helped out as much as we could for this years CRS Rally School. I covered the very basics of car prep and Christine helped out the new co-drivers. We also flew the RumbleSoft Racing regalia for the first time on Ze’Neon.

I had a chance to do some instruction and some of the guys are thinking about putting together a rallycross school. A place to really practice and get the harder techniques down. Left foot braking, throttle steering, choosing lines, etc. Maybe with a small outdoor class session. Watch for more on that.

The competition is always sharp at the Ridgecrest rallycross and this year was no exception. A more open and fast course left us a little under powered by the G5 rally cars out there We took home 5th in class right behind Jack Szanto in his SRT-4. We’re excited to see his huge driving improvement.

We had a great time and it’s always worth driving up there to give a hand to this great event. If you didn’t get up there this year - make sure you check it out in 2008!