About a month ago, Christine surprised me with flight tickets to Leon, Mexico. “I wanted this to be a surprise – but I need your help.” I was impressed that she would even try to make it a complete surprise. “I’m pretty sure you’ll figure out what it’s for if I were to tell you to take March 10th through the 16th off and you need a passport.” “Rally Mexico.” I smiled back. “See – I knew it.” She said. This is hands down, the best surprise ever.

Rally Mexico is the newest addition to the WRC (World Rally Championship). It is the only WRC rally run in North America. Rally Mexico has been a part of a smaller series and has been run for many years. If this event goes well, “us lazy Americans” will have the ability to watch the best drivers in the world, first hand, every year.

We are finalizing the details. We have flights, hotel, rental, etc. booked. Since Christine shopped early we were able to get the cheap flights and the hotel booked well before they filled up. Now we just have to pack.

I decided to take my digital camera instead of the video camera. I’m a better photographer then videographer. Plus the overhead is smaller. I’ll be buying another 128MB stick and borrowing one from my brother. So I’ll be able to shoot well over 200 3.3MP shots. “Take a bajillion pictures!” James demanded. I shoot about 150 pictures during Maine Forest Pro Rally, so I’m using that as a guide.

Fear not – I will have a full update with pictures when we return. – Kris

We headed up early to the lake on Sunday. I’m glad we had the extra time. I was planning a fantastic camera rig that worked – but I was unable to get the camera powered up. The kinked CAT5 cable that was “candycane” hard, probably had something to do with it. Everything ran much smoother this weekend. We had around 60 people, plus a new FM transmitter rig that made communications much smoother. So much smoother that I pushed for a fifth run. This was a hell of a lot better then the 2 timed runs we got last week.

The course was the same as last week, although Stan widened it a bit. There was now a layer of crunchy snow on the sides of the track. I noticed the first group of times were a lot faster then last week. I pushed the Neon hard for a quick 1:03.6 first run.

Stan Sr. had plowed a new practice course that had a lot more grip then the one from last week. Both of them were open in the morning, but after numerous cars had gotten stuck, and a poor Audi had crunched up the front bumper on an icey hard snow bank, Sean closed the old course. This became “The Monster” practice course. I took a few quick laps around, and found my rhythm. I took this and applied it directly to my timed runs.

I got a quick start down the first straight, crossed over to the inside of the left hand long sweeper, and kept as close as I could to the snow banks. Into 3rd gear down to a jog right – then pitch the car hard at full speed into the left hand turn. I made short work of the final hairpin right and crossed the finish line. “That was quick!” I said to my passenger Brian. “You kicked it’s ass!” he replied. I pulled back into grid and called over to James who was working the starting line. “How fast was that?” “58.4 seconds!” Steve had called out over the FM that I had broken the 1 minute barrier. I was able to break it again with a 59.4 – but I was unable to better that time on my final 2 runs.

Who wants a snow cone? This was the snow found on the back of the Neon. I should bring some cherry flavoring next week!

With 100 entries I knew early Sunday morning that it was going to be a challenge. Around 10:20 stuff started going wrong. Worker radios died. Confusion about worker stations (as the wind knocked over some of the flags). Communication breakdown. We drudged on – Sean kept the practice open all day, save for the few cars (including me once) that got stuck.

I ran a 1:06 as my fastest time taking 1st in Modified. James ran an amazing 1:24 to take not only class G but the group FTD in his Honda Civic. Andrew was also quite fast with a 1:17 on his first run in class Z. I was pushing the Neon hard right out of the gate. Full throttle 3rd gear. Setting up the car for corners, and straight-lining as much as I could. I continue to practice my left foot braking technique.

Video is up:
“Groove Back” – BMWCCA Ice Race Teaser #2
Movie is 31MB – DIVX Encoded. Go to divx.com for the free encoder / player.

I spent about 6 hours Monday night trying to build the first ‘teaser’ video. My problem developed quickly. I was trying to make an epic 5 minute video with 40 minutes of footage. I put it down and got some sleep. Tuesday, in typical design / inspiration mode – I threw everything that I did so far away and started again. About an hour later I had what I was looking for. The video is mostly in-car. The sound, the grip, the experience of riding around with me while I give “fun runs” to Andrew and James. I hope you enjoy. I’m going to try to make each teaser video stand on it’s own this year. Special thanks to James Snow for hosting the vids!

“Mingus on Studs” – Boston BMWCCA Ice Race Teaser #1
Movie is 33MB – DIVX Encoded.
Go to divx.com for the free encoder / player.

It was cold out on the lake Sunday. Not the: “Hey – are you cold?” So much as the “Hey can you tell me if my nose turns black?” A tire swap in the summer takes me alone about 10 minutes. With help it took us about 25 minutes to swap tires. It was like working in space.

Once on the lake, I slowly rolled forward checking for clearance issues. We had a slight rubbing on the rear struts. The inside studs were buzzing against the edge of the spring perch. I expected a clearance issue in the front, but was surprised when one developed in the rear.

So, what’s it like to drive?! I started heading out across the lake. 1st gear had a lot of wheel spin. 2nd gear began to catch as I rapidly gained speed. In 3rd gear, I started into a number of slow sweeping turns. I accelerated turning right, lifted off the gas, and steered left. The car rotated quite predictably and I was back on the throttle in a long controlled drift. The best description I can come up with is; A really big, flat field, with 2″ of loose gravel on it. In a FWD car it’s hard to get moving at first – but once you have momentum, you can change your direction with ease. Stopping happens a bit faster with four wheels grabbing for traction vs. one wheel of acceleration.

Fastest time of the day @ 1:14. 1st place modified. I turned a 2 minute course into ice crunchy mayhem! “It sounds like a thousand ‘angry bees’!” Christine exclaimed as I buzzed by. In the car, the loud crunching sound was intoxicating. The sound was closely followed by a cloud of white snow & ice. Runs on the practice course got faster and faster with more confidence, and by the end of the day I was blowing the car sideways at 50+ MPH, with giddy screams coming from my passengers.

The tires worked awesome! Only a slight loss in pressure from the right rear tire, even after several runs. Four bottles of Slime, were used to ensure any leaks were sealed up quickly. I kept 30psi of air in the front tires, and 25psi in the rear tires. I will lower this the next time to get a bit more traction – now that I know the tires are sealed, and are not losing pressure.

Pictures! Click here!

Video… I should have a teaser up by the end of this week. Knowing me – I will go home tonight, and spend until 2AM editing. This will be the first in a series of “teaser” videos – leading up to the grand finale video of 2004.

Shouts out’ to the following: Christine, James, Seanmonkey, Igg, Johndog, Andrew & Sabrina, The Jackson’s (Stan Sr., Stan Jr., Steve, Sarah), Steve B. (my competition), The techs @ Town Fair Tire, Slime.com, and everyone else who helped make this possible. – Kris

Victory donuts after the last timed run!

It was a wise man who said: “Why kill it? – When you can overkill it.” With the absence of rally for the time being. I wanted to focus the team and get us thinking about something else. James and I had several discussions regarding what class I was going to run this year. I want to focus on getting more seat time in the Neon, so it’s going to be front wheel drive. “Snow tires?” I asked James with little excitement. Imagining the long plow into every corner followed by delicate (albeit useless) struggle to get the car pointed again. “Studded snows?” “Better – but you’ll be up against the Jackson’s.” James replied. The Jackson’s (who organize the event) have more seat time on that lake then I have in any car I’ve ever driven. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but I have a lovely collection of 2nd place Ice Racing trophies. “Screw tires?” A sudden flashback of ramming 100 sheetmetal screws into a Bridgstone RE-92 made my eyes roll back into my head. “Well – If we’re going to do it. It has to be done right.” Washers, lock-nuts, sizes, patterns, and tires danced in our heads.

The final combination came down to a set of old Yokohama slicks, 1/4X20 1″ bolts, washers, and Andrew came up with the suggestion for nylon lock-nuts. No need to get the Lok-tite out. A diagonal 3 pattern was chosen to utilize the blocks already in the tire. The 4th row of bolts would sit off-set in a straight line around the outside edge of the tire.
When the hardware arrived we quickly got down to drilling, threading, and tightening each bolt into the tires.

Christine threads bolts while James goes “berserker” drilling into each tire.

A few hours at a time. We took three days, about 12 hours of total time, to build them. 672 holes, bolts, lock-nuts. 1344 washers. 5 bloody knuckles. 3 Band-Aids. We hand tightened and checked every bolt along the way. The stud sticks up about 1/2″ with 1/4″ of exposed bolt at the end. Not too short. Not too tall.

Mounting will happen on Thursday. With the last week of bitter cold, we could be on the lake with them this weekend! They are reporting 9″ of good solid ice, growing each day. Please stay tuned for more pictures, video, and reports as we race this season.

Click HERE to see more ice tire pictures!

For those of you who are unaware: Rally is cancelled. The
sport that was growing fast in the last 2 years has slumped over and died
on it’s own small food supply.
Mitsubishi has pulled out. Subaru is about to. All the top sponsors have walked. No Speed Channel coverage. We’re back to basics.

“I’m going to tell you something that you’re not going to like. Probably
the world ain’t going to like it, but I’ll tell it to you just how it is.”
Here are the fundamental problems with the system:

Issues:
1. The SCCA.
They want the juicy apple, without caring for the tree, protecting it from
frost, or nurturing it for 3 years before it fruits. (I could go on for
about an hour on the SCCA – but I’ll leave this happy fruit analogy
instead.) It costs my circle track friends $100 a year to get a
licence, and $50 a WEEKEND to race. Why are there $75
rallycrosses?? Insurance? Safety? Or is someone taking too big of a bite out
of our apple?

2. Rally has NO
feeder series in this country. There is only a slim chance that the next
winner of the SCCA ProRally will be from the US. If no 20 year olds learn
to rally this year – what’s going to happen in 2013? Take a mass produced sub-sub-compact,
limit the displacement to 1600cc’s FWD sealed motor (sound familiar?), go racing this year
for $10K.

3. We all think that
closing a road, and setting up some timing equipment is some monumental
task that can’t be done without a government permit, cash bribes, and a
legal understanding of the red tape we’d have to go through. We are
generation X – we are lazy, and ignorant.

4. The marketing plan is poor. This is also under SCCA’s
control – but I don’t directly blame them. When was the last time
you saw a commercial for the Formula V series? The SCCA
is “good” at organizing, and officiating events. They are “bad” at marketing and
communications.

Solutions:
1. We need an organization that will market and sell rallies.

We need YOU, and your friends, and their friends to sit down and start talking.
“Hey… Why can’t we do a rally here?” You don’t have to re-invent the wheel.
Rally America –
Has done tons with timing and scoring. They are creating a market with
realtime results. American Rally Sport Group – Runs the Ramada Express
in AZ. Not only do they know what they are doing, they got
USAC to officiate
the event. target=”_blank”>Newfoundland International Motorsports LTD. – Has done
an awesome tarmac rally for the last 2 years known as Targa Newfoundland.
They market, insure, and officiate the event! They learned what they know
from a company called Octagon Marketing
– Who do all sorts of international events. This group would handle: public relations, sponsorship,
marketing, media coverage, volunteers, and the treasury. Doing all the pre
and post rally “leg work”. Being available at town
meetings before and after the event.

2. We need an organization that will officiate rallies.
An organization that will grow the sport. Create a fair and balanced set
of rules for classes. Why is my rule book 150+ pages long? Do we
need a 20 minute dissertaion on how an ORANGE tow hook should function?
Super Late Model is looking better and better with their
15 rules.
Handle the following: Start a feeder series,
insurance, workers, timing and scoring, spectator control,
safety, scrutineering, and road usage.

3. We need a way to pay for it.
Okay – Say your group starts a non-profit limited partnership to run a rally in NH.
We’ll call this; HappyRally™. You now own the rights to – HappyRally™, and you can proceed to sell it to sponsors as you formulate a marketing plan. Your logo goes on the website, the T-Shirts,
the hats, the banners. You don’t have to pay for them, as you will
licence a (preferably) local vendor to sell HappyRally™ Brand products. You are getting money from THREE sources:

[A] The sponsors who realize the potential event coverage. You are after all taking a town
of 3,000 people, and bringing in about 2,000 more. Plus potential TV and
news coverage.
[B] Spectators will have to pay $5 a stage and sign a waiver, in
order to get a wrist band (read: happy laywers), that will let them get bussed
into 3 or 4 possible spectator areas.
(1 or 2 of these areas will have a realtime score board, and local
vendors selling food, and drink)
[C] Team entry fees. $200 – $300 for the Club guys. $600 – $700
for the Pro’s.

Problems That Fix Themselves:
1. Sim Rally
The town figures out how much it will cost to re-grade the roads when your done with them.
I’m sure a fair settlement can be reached. Small business call up the Mayor, and let him / her know
how much profit they made selling regalia, and food services. Now the road work snow removal
budget looks a lot healthier then it did last year, and they can afford to keep Bill, the part
time guy, on for the season. Everybody likes Bill. WMUR runs a weekend piece on Townsville. Home
of HappyRally™, and a lot of people are looking forward to next year. I’m sure not everyone is happy,
but you did your best by compensating homeowners with special rally day parking, transportation,
and free passes for the family to catch other stages. Including the one they can watch from the front
porch.

2. Self police.
Now you have lots of information, and communication. Spectators are now 100 times more informed then they ever were.
Maps are a little more “comprehensive“.
People know where they should go, and what to do when they get there. Now instead of having 100 “yahoo’s” following
around 1 guy who knows where to go. You have 100 people yelling at the 1 yahoo going up the wrong way on a stage road.

This weekend the odometer hit 100,000. I say the odometer – because various parts of the car are older, and younger then the little black and white numbers. The engine has 70K on it now. I’ve been able to get a solid 10K of trouble free life out of a $500 investment. A complete engine overhaul is in the works for December. Head gasket, timing belt, water pump, clutch, etc. I think we’re going to take the motor out again. Now that I did it once – the second time should be more routine. (When I say routine – I’m hitting myself in the mouth with a spanner to get it out of the way now.)


The chassis has to have at least 120K on it. Lord only knows how long the speedometer was “intermittent”. But the cage holding the car together now – has a mere 10K on it. I did a thorough inspection – looking for cracks, tightening bolts, etc. It hasn’t had a real beating yet, but James and I took her out Saturday night to recce’ some dirt roads in the area. It’s always a good idea to go over the car, so I know what looks “correct” later. If any of you have ever flown small aircraft – this is the walkaround. I’m working on a checklist that we will go over in service, and before rally, or long trips.


Sunday: I went to one last autocross for the season. Pavement Games IV was held at the Old Orchard Beach High School parking lot. (That was a mouthful) I raced on slicks for the first time. I did 6 runs, but I can’t really tell you I got a feel for them. It was all about left foot braking. Cutting down the wheel spin, and rotating the car. When I would dig down on the brakes – the car would rotate fast (as in sideways) At the limits, the car felt as though I had lunch trays under the rear wheels. I dropped the rear pressures to 24 – no real effect… I’m really happy to say my FWD car rotates on a dime, and I had to countersteer. I was expecting some plow. I’m also fighting a head cold – so I was already a little off my game.




100,000 miles. Time for a new ‘lota stuff.

Sean is planning on attending Great North Woods in the end of October. He’s got a gigundo list of things to buy / fix / finish. He found out about a racing shop down in Marlboro, MA. that had Sparco suits in stock, plus they could order other
stuff he needed to finish the car.

Saturday morning Christine and I met Andrew, Sabrina, Sean, and John down off 495. The Race Depot is a cool shop. Greg helped me try on race suits – while Andrew bought an assortment of Nomex gear. Sean and Andrew had already
been fitted, and had their Sparco Sprint 5 suits ordered. Greg suggested that I sit in the suit to see if it pulled anywhere, and I asked if I could go sit in the Corbeau’s. I like the Sprint 5, but I also like the two tone Fashion 5.

Are you a race car driver or what?!

What else am I up to? Now that I have corporate sponsorship. In the next few months will start to ramp up the final pieces of the car. I took about 2 hours last week, and made a list of everything I needed to do
to the car. (I’ll be putting it on the site soon) We flushed the radiator again last weekend, and tightened some seat bolts on Saturday.

Sunday, Christine and I traveled up to Maine to see my parents, take in some sights, and rip up some pavement!
Cumberland Motor Club has an event at the Augusta Civic Center a couple times a year, and they always run a smooth event. This weekend was no exception.

Street Mod. Street Modified. I’m not sure what that term is supposed to mean. To the SCCA it means “catch all”. Say you slam a turbo charged B16 into your 1800Lb. Civic hatch. You trailer up your SAAB Viggen track car. How about a production rally car? Yes boys and girls – all in SM. I look at it this way – I can show up with gravel tires / suspension to a rallycross in the Neon (the P is for Production) and run in the “Stock 2WD” class. It’s going to be hella tough to win that class in an ordinary “Stock” car. Did I just say hella?

Video! Yes! We got some in car video of all 4 runs. I chose my fastest run (run 4) to post. I made a small mistake and slowed before the slalom, because I wasn’t listening to my navie. Christine had a great time riding
along, and I’m sure will be out there soon, tearing up the cones.
Click here to download cmc_augusta.wmv 6MB

So, how did I do? Well a 54.9 was a respectable time on the course. I fell in 4th (out of 7) in SM. Had I been able to run in GS – I would have won the class. I won’t complain about SM when I show up with coil-overs and slicks next time. Next time! muhaha. >:) Click here to see the results in PDF.