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Road Trip USA! III

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Road Trip USA THREE!It’s time once again for road trip USA. Similar to RTUSA-II we’ll be driving the Dodge Neon Rally Car across the country from Maine to California. Only this time we’ll have as much equipment as possible to make the journey safer and go by faster. We stopped by AAA and got our trip-tic + maps + tour books. For ham stuff, I’m planning APRS tracking and we’ll have the 2 Meter 60W mobile ICOM, my FT-60 hand-held and a GPS receiver (that hopefully we can get to display APRS data). Instead of GPS on the laptop (we’ll take that as a backup) we’ll have a smaller stand alone unit. I’m going to try to log some mobile contacts and will be polling received APRS data for local repeaters and frequencies. As usual the rally car will be KI6IUC-9 and can be tracked here or on APRS.fi. For tunes, we’ll have some AC powered PC speakers zip-tied to the dash board, hooked up to a new XM Radio receiver.

For the route we’re going to attempt an I-40 crossing. Sure, it’s safer to travel on the I-10, but I just hate that drive across Texas. “Hey, we made it to Texas!” (next day) “I guess we’ll stop in Midland… Texas…” (next day) “Why are we still in Texas?!” The pan-handle is the length of NJ, so it’s as much TX as I want to see this year. We’ll be swinging up to Maine to visit my parents the weekend after Christmas. Skip back to NJ for a night or two, pack the car and then head out. Stopping first in Baltimore to see friends. We have planned to do some travel on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We’re hoping for Nashville or Memphis for New Years Eve, which either way should be fun. A stop in Phoenix to see friends, then a final push for Southern California. Five days maybe. Here’s what the route looks like in Google Maps. 3,315 miles :) We’ll try to chew off 700-800 miles a day, which would not be a grueling pace were it not in a car setup for stage rally.

We’ll be blogging from the road as much as possible this time. Hotels now routinely have free wifi, and we’re war-driving professionals should it come to that. Look for posts tagged with the new RTUSA-III logo. I also make a new category called “Road Trip“.

Our Honda Fit plates finally arrive.

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We RallyZe Neon
As some of you know we picked up a blue 2008 Honda Fit a couple months ago. (Fit-fit pics) It took all 14 of the estimated 12 weeks to get the plates from the DMV. The plate was originally intended as just a statement, but it looks like we can make it a sentence. It will look somewhat dorky-cool when parked together. Now the Blazer feels especially left out. :p Sorry Chevy – maybe if you tried a little harder, got 30 MPG, were super fun to drive around town, chibi cute, and blue. Then, just maybe… :D

2008 Season Finale Video + wrap-up

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Rallynotes.com 2008 USRC CRS Season Finale Rally VideoWe had an awesome time rallying this year. From the rough bumps and jumps of Gorman Ridge to the twisty woods of International Rally New York. The goal was to run 5 events, win the regional championship, and win the national championship. What a ride! We invite you to enjoy our 2008 Season Finale Video, and read our end of season wrap up.

Prescott Rally: We had a really strong showing again at Prescott this year. Every time we run the event we step up our game. First year it was handling the speed – “Yep – that’s 100MPH Kris… Get over it.” In 2006 it was absolutely trusting my co-driver at speed (and in life). :) In 2007 it was the realization that we stay focused and relaxed for 22 miles, setting ‘an out of nowhere’ seventh fastest on the long stage. This year it was an absolute commitment to stay flat out, foot to the floor. The car can literally not go any faster as I had it pinned for 5 miles of First View. Be Smooth. Don’t Lift.

As events go, it is our well documented favorite, and we had a great time again this year. We had some more of our close rally friends attend (probably after hearing us talk endlessly about the event): Eddie & Erik were out in Eddie’s G2 Golf and I was looking forward to trading some times, they unfortunately had some brake pad failure on day two. Luckily they were able to settle the car into a spin to slow it down before a tight right hand turn. Dick & Marie came down from Idaho and set 2nd in Production AWD and 12th overall – even after having some problems on Saturday. We would like to thank Brian & Vanessa, as they make this rally a commitment every year.
Continue reading →

VICTORY IN NEW YORK

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Victory for the Marciniaks at International Rally New YorkThe battle that went all the way across the United States to the 2008 International Rally New York is over. Tied for USRC points with Hampton Bridwell and Josh Katinger going into the rally, the Rallynotes Team completed a mission that started over two thousand miles away in Southern California. To keep pace with their rivals in a more powerful SVT Ford Focus, the team in the Dodge Rally Neon would have to be at their best.

After four very fast stages on Friday morning, just two seconds separated the top two Production 2WD teams. This meant the pace would continue on to the rougher and muddier stages of the day. A mistake on stage five by the Ford Focus team caused them to slide sideways off the road, getting stuck and losing over two minutes. The Rallynotes Team would capitalize on this error and continue to run fast and clean stages. On stage seven the team had their only mistake of the weekend, overshooting a left turn causing them to lose roughly ten seconds of the gap.

On Saturday morning the Rallynotes Team lead was down to just over one minute. The strategy for the day was to keep the pressure on and attack at 100%. The road for the stages was a long uphill section followed by a short downhill run in one direction and a short uphill section followed by a long downhill the other way. “I was surprised we were just as fast on the downhill. The Focus could only make up time on the uphill stages and we were both driving at an incredible pace.” explains Driver Kristopher Marciniak. “I watched the gap become 1:14 and then 58 seconds. The SVT Focus really pulls going uphill, it was going to be close. Fast and perfect are not two things that come easy at a rally.”

With two stages and the super special left to go. Hampton and Josh slid off a right hand turn and rolled the Focus with no harm to themselves. The USRC Production 2WD champions would be Kristopher and Christine Marciniak in their Dodge Neon for the third year in a row. Because of the ridiculous pace set by both teams, the Rallynotes Team won 2WD overall in the rally and 7th overall for the event – by far their best showing.

“We want to wish the best of luck to Hampton and Josh, without their competition we wouldn’t have won in 2WD overall.” said Kris. Congratulations go out to 2nd place Dan Brosnan & Shane McCann (Nissan Sentra) and 3rd place, father-son team of Simon and Kieran Wright (Ford Focus) who celebrated along with Kris and Christine Marciniak at the two wheel drive champagne ceremony at the conclusion of the rally. As Co-Driver Christine Marciniak mentioned at the awards ceremony – “We want to thank all the East Coast teams for embracing us – even though this is no longer our home area, it is where we grew up, so that was just awesome. We also want to thank all our friends and family who came out just to cheer us on!”

Congratulations to the overall winner of International Rally New York 2008 Seamus and Joseph Burke. Congratulations to USRC winners Brian Scott and John Dillon (Open 4WD), Jimmy & Melissa Keeney (Production 4WD), and Bruce Davis & Jimmy Brandt (Open 2WD). The USRC is a great national championship that gave us the ability to come across the country and defend our title. Truly supporting EVERY class, the United States Rally Championship is really an affordable and realistic championship series for rally in North America!

The team would like to thank the following people for without whom this win would not have been possible: Nathan Snitko, Matt Malloy, Craig Symonds, and Tyson Derby – for coming out as volunteer crew members; Joyce and Don Wittish – for their financial support and enthusiasm; and also Korey Marciniak, Ian Bowers, Andrew Hobgood, Sabrina Vollers, and Bill and Valerie Foskey – for coming out to cheer us on in our debut East Coast event. “We would like to thank all the organizers, volunteers, and workers for all the rallies this year. Without dedicated people, we could not go out there and have this much fun. See you next year!” – Kris & Christine

We are the 2008 USRC Production 2WD Class Champions!

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Pete Kunics picture of Rallynotes.com team Marciniak

The battle that went all the way across the US to the International Rally New York is over. Our competition, pushing to make up a 58 second gap from Friday, rolled on stage 20 with 2 stages and the super special left to go. Hampton and Josh are okay and we talked with them after. We had a blast trading times with them all weekend, they are great competitors, and we wish them the best of luck.

Because of the ridiculously fast pace that was set by both teams: We took 1st in overall 2WD, 1st in Production, and 3rd in the USRC 2WD. We’ll have lots more to post and lots of hardware to bring back to the West Coast.

Kristopher and Christine Marciniak USRC Production 2WD Champions
2006 – 2007 – 2008 :D

International Rally New York – Here we go!

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International Rally New York Important Links:
International Rally New York 2008 Website
This will be your one stop for information, scores, updates, etc.
Rallynotes.com APRS Rally Car Tracking
Watch live as we run the stages! Keep up with the action.
APRS Tracking at International Rally New York
Watch sweep, volunteers, and radio communications vehicles around Callicoon, NY. (as well as rally cars)

Schedule:
NJ to NY on Wednesday from 12PM to 5PM EST
Reconnaissance on Thursday from 8AM to 4PM EST
Rally Friday from 8AM to 10PM EST (East of Callicoon in Wawarsing, NY)
Rally Saturday from 7AM to 6PM EST (North of Callicoon in Walton, NY)

We will have behind the scenes footage. We will have lots of pictures and video. We are pumped to show the East Coast how we race out in the South West. We are excited to see all of our old rally friends and show them how we party in the California Rally Series. Wish us luck – and the 3 other teams from the West Coast – Brian Scott and John Dillon in Open 4WD, Jimmy and Melissa Keeney in Prod 4WD, Mitch Williams and Alix Hakala in Open 4WD. International Rally New York – Here we go!

UPDATE: Check out the comments – we have internet access and have been posting.

Overview map + APRS maps for Rally New York

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APRS Maps for Rally New York 2008
A surveyor, cartographer, or map maker – I am not. I am, however, pretty handy with Photoshop, aprs.fi, and Google Maps. When I got the 3 course maps for Rally New York, I had some trouble correlating their locations. I also needed to make a downloadable (local) APRS map for the team. So I got to work (a 22″ screen helps) on some maps. The first one shows where the locations of the 3 course maps provided by Rally New York are. A handy overview for crews or spectators. The APRS maps get a little interesting. There are 2 included in the zip file. The first one is about 800K and is just the Google Map area overview. Great for a quick tactical view and slow laptops. The second map with the _extra extension is at a higher resolution 1.53MB and includes the 3 course maps layered on top, giving you stage info, radio locations, etc. The lineup is not perfect due to inconsistencies in the way these maps were made, but it’s close enough. The maps have been tested with AGWTracker and should work with other APRS mapping programs that take the associative .inf files. Enjoy!

2008 Rally New York Overview Map .jpg
Download this and it’s ready to print 8X10. The 3 maps that it refers to are located here: RNY2008 Course Maps

2008 Rally New York APRS + extra .zip
Includes a low and high res version and the coordinates in .inf files.

Ze’Neon has landed!

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Christine’s Dad just called and reported that there was a rally car in his driveway. – w00t!
In an almost unbelievable coincidence, I got this report from Michael Taylor (President of the USRC) via email earlier today:

Kris,
Have you shipped the Rally Neon back to New York yet?
I was passing through Amarillo, Texas last Saturday and could’ve sworn I saw it on a transport truck.

Michael Taylor

:eek: Don’t think about the odds of that.
I can’t confirm it 100%, but if the truck left Southern California on Thursday and arrived in NJ today – it was probably in Texas on Saturday.
Good stuff. It’s all coming together now!