Now with GoPro co-driver audio! So nice to get to hear Christine do what she does best while I concentrate 100% on driving. You’ll notice I had to say very little on this stage – just a corner confirmation here and there. This is how you know when a driver and co-driver are on it! – Kris
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Rally Idaho – Plans and Preparation
We’re excited to get back into rally competition and kick off our 2013 season with Rally Idaho. We ran it in 2008, and I helped crew for another team in 2010. It was on the USRC calendar back in the day, and now we’re really excited to see it as part of the NASA National Rally Championship (NNRC). It’s a 2 day event that takes place Northeast of Boise.
Besides this little sidetrack, the 2GN is in great shape, and a lot of my time has been spent prepping and packing the Blazer. Following the mantra: “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it.” Everything is considered for weight and use. Nested labeled containers inside bins make sure no air space is wasted. I even plastic wrapped spare parts and placed them throughout the truck instead of taking a huge mostly empty container of odd shaped parts. I managed to fit 5 tires into the rally car and I made sure that the gas tank was pretty much empty.
A new set of brake pads and a new air filter was desperately needed on the 15 year old truck. I managed to track down a pesky wiring problem to a fuse I didn’t know existed. For the (possibly hundreds) of people that mentioned it over the years: “Yes! My left trailer light blinker now works!” I just assumed that it would be on the same circuit – who knew Chevy had separate trailer fuses from the factory?! *after 6 years… 😀
In order to instantly qualify for the NNRC we’re going to need to be on the podium in 2WD. Our competition looks pretty strong right now, and I’m not really sure what will happen. We’ve got a fresh new set of tires, experience on the roads, and a strong desire to contest the championship at Prescott this year.
We’re on our way to Idaho!
We will have pics and updates as we go.
APRS Rally car tracking will be up and running.
@rallynotes will be tweeting to #usrally
Scores will be here on rallydata.com
This is not a Press Release
Preface: I spend a lot of time thinking about marketing and the image of Rally in the US. If this interests you – keep reading!
Not too long ago – Everything you read, watched, and listened to was output by a handful of media companies. Your only way to “make the news” was to put out a release that was crafted and polished with your message. You needed to catch the editors attention, draw them in for a short story, sprinkle in sponsors, and tell them where they could get more. Writing press was a good way for a low budget team to be just like a high budget team. On paper they look the same: Cute story, couple of photographs, shout out to a brand, see you next time.
Who reads these anymore? They certainly aren’t actually printed, and my carefully honed list of websites who publish press – publish everything. Once you start publishing everything you get a fire hose of information that no one really wants to read. Plus your message gets diluted down to practically nothing: “Sport you’ve never heard of has guy racing for points by Ovaltine.” How do I craft a message about Rally to everyone? Be boring and as vague as possible. 😉
Now what do we do? Well, some of the bigger teams, events, and companies have just moved their prepackaged press message over to Social Media. They post 60 times a day, every post has no real depth, and they are fire-hosing Twitter and Facebook along with every RSS feed tagged #rally #usrally. They ignore the “Social” in social media. Just shouting from mountain tops to no one in particular. After a few rallies they stop paying their PR person, get burned out, and the updates just stop or the fans tune out.
Rally Idaho Prep – We need crew! June 8-9th
The last time the rallynotes.com team was up in Idaho was 2008. We coordinated the trip with the North Nevada Rally by heading North after the June event to leave the truck and rally car at Dick Rockrohr’s compound in Boise. Shortly after that event, Dick assumed a role as the organizer of the Idaho Rally International and enjoyed success as a rally where the Southwestern, Northwestern, and Colorado rally competitors come together to battle it out. I crewed for a team (Erik & Amy) in 2010 so I’m still pretty familiar with the awesome roads and this fantastic event.
Rallynotes @ the 2008 Idaho Rally – Photo by Kenneth J. Gill
Rally HQ this year is the Best Western in Boise City, Idaho. The event is about 6 hours from Portland, 5 from Salt Lake City, and we’d never expect anyone to come up from Northern California. If you’re really interested in helping us out and seeing a rally up close, we’ll pay for food and lodging for the weekend. The racing is on Saturday June 8th and Sunday June 9th, so you could arrive late Friday night. The rally ends around 4PM on Sunday and you could conceivably make this event without taking time off from work. Plan: Figure out which of your friends cars gets the best mileage, pile in, and have a crazy rally weekend! Sign up to Volunteer for Rallynotes here!
As far as our preparation goes, we need some new 15″ rally tires, the Blazer needs some TLC, and a very careful packing job needs to be accomplished for our 14 hour trip North. The HotBits were back on the car for HDT 00 duty and had a good shakedown with no issues thanks to the Feal Suspension rebuild.
Rally Idaho officially kicks of our 2013 rally season!
A little too ambitious: Switch Panel Redo
This project started out simple enough: Change out the unlabeled panel switches and finish all the little wiring for the 2GN. I ordered new toggles and dual color (red and green) LED’s. After mapping it out I had 3 more switches on there, less room for labels, and less room for fuses. A day of carefully planning out the layout – oh it’s midnight, guess I should go to bed. Two more days go by and I haven’t even touched the dashboard.
I remember the clutch disable, the fan override, and the radio connections. I remember that I left the rear speakers in the car for the ham radio. I print out harness diagram for the high beam enable. I manually pin out the harness for the windshield washer motor. I drill the new panel and figure out how to label everything and put it to rest for another day.
Today, just as I’m about to close up the dash I discover that the green LED’s need switched power. As constant power will eventually drain the battery. I can grab switched power from the radio harness, that leads me to the another hour of wiring needed for the speakers I forgot about. I’m about to close up again and I discover that the circuit that controls the washer motor also runs the wipers and I lay waste to an LED as way too much power feeds back into the circuit. A relay and some emergency in-car soldering gets it working again. I triple check everything and button it up at 9PM. Rally car switch panel redo – completely underestimated. 😉
Peltor FMT120 to Kenwood Ham Radio
The information for this adapter was floating around the internet, but it was vague and didn’t have any radio specifics. Plus I was unsure about PTT operation. The pin configuration was listed two different ways, so I created and confirmed the pin-out diagram below with my TM-V71A. If you have a different radio or want to connect other audio or cellular devices to your Peltor intercom (FMT120 or FMT200), it should be easy to re-configure. I covered connecting a GoPro Hero3 up to the Peltor in a previous post. Added note: PTT operation on 90% of radios involves grounding the PTT pin.
Cheap as can be: Order the $7 TA5FL female 5-pin connector. Lop off the end of a CAT5 or 6 patch cable. Cut up a 3.5mm stereo cable. Solder! Heat-shrink! Enjoy.
Going super fancy? You can add a separate illuminated PTT switch closer to the radio like I did, but don’t worry, the expensive PTT switch for the Peltor will still work as well (or in conjunction). Or just source an MP-101 and a normally open momentary switch for $5.
Buy it instead of building it: Something on this page from ruggedradios.com might work for you. I’m moderately sure that the wiring for the TA5FL is the same. No ham radio license yet? You could always just connect to your cell phone.
The 2013 California Rally Series – Rally School
If you are at all interested in rally driving. If you want to know what it takes to be the next National Champion. If you want to learn the details – everything from time cards to stage notes. You need to sign up for the CRS Rally School and Rally Cross – Saturday & Sunday, February 16 & 17, 20013 in Ridgecrest, CA. Hands down – the best money spent Rally School in the country! Drivers will get a detailed classroom course on car handling and then will practice with instructors. Co-Drivers cover notes & navigation in the classroom and then head out to practice with current and past co-driving champions. Rally-X drivers will get all the details on classes, car prep, and improving their technique.
We’ll be out there with the NEW rallynotes.com Dodge Neon! – Kris
October 21st – Glen Helen Rallycross video
Here’s three runs – three different angles – from the Glen Helen Rallycross on October 21st 2012. I think this video best demonstrates that it’s more important to get into an area with traction, then take the true “racing line”. Hopping from dry patch to dry patch may not be a straight line, but it’s faster then losing time in the mud. – Kris
NEW CAR COMPETITIVE RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX
Finally sporting the rallynotes.com silver and red paint scheme. The team unveiled the new livery at the Prescott Rally last weekend. This is the second car that Kristopher Marciniak has built from scratch and it marks a huge milestone in its development. “We tested the car for one day at North Nevada. New suspension, new everything. It was successful and the time was right to finish the car with a great paint job from Danny’s Auto in Long Beach,” said Kris. Vinyl and stripes from Streetwise Motorsports pull it all together and the lightweight hood from Seibon Carbon not only adds to the performance, but completes the “angry rally car” look. Kris adds; “I love it! This is the rally car that I imagined more then a year ago. It took a lot of work, but it came together great!”
On Friday evening; driver Kristopher Marciniak and Co-Driver (navigator) Christine Marciniak had just settled into a rhythm, when the dust settled in on stage 3. Christine recalls: “It’s never been this bad… I was very worried we were going to go off the road in a big way.” Visibility on the first night stage dropped to zero several times and driving lights became useless in the thick dust. Kris describes it: “We were flying along over a cattle guard and I was setting the car up for a left four (a fairly tight turn at speed) and a wall of dust just moved in. I had to come to a stop and find the edge of the road out my side window before continuing.” Dust was an issue for everyone and after the night was over it was a bit of a surprise to see the team in 1st CRS-2 and 1st in Open 2WD. “It felt like scoring spun a big wheel on Friday stage 3 and handed out random times. We got lucky and I think the fast section of Witty Tom was clear for us, but not for others,” adds Kris. See the video highlights at https://rallynotes.com/2012/10/2012-prescott-rally-highlights/
When they returned to the hotel on Friday night a tire change was performed and the service crew of Brian Driggs and Dan Green discovered a leaking strut. Doug Nagy of Streetwise Motorsports was consulted and late night strut repairs began. A call to Odi from FEAL Suspension gave the team clear repair directions. The leaking O-Ring was replaced and fluid was injected back into the assembly with some makeshift tools including a baby ear and nose cleaner. There is no more resourceful group of people then at a stage rally service park on a Friday night in Prescott.
Saturday morning sitting in 1st with a somewhat repaired rear strut, driver Kristopher Marciniak made the decision to go for it. The team of Eddie Fiorelli and Tom Smith (in 2nd) had been faster on every stage but special stage three. Michel Hoche-Mong trying to avoid a huge rock had crashed on SS2 Friday night. Michel, the clear favorite, was now unable to start day two and the podium was up for grabs. Fiorelli turned up the pace at the same time and beat the Marciniaks on SS5 & 6 in the morning. Now the lead was down to a handful of seconds and rallynotes pushed and won Stages 7, 8, and 9. Going into the final stage 10 with only a 5 second lead, both teams charged down the 20.1 mile Firstville stage. Kris describes: “A lot can happen on a 20 mile stage. We were going 90MPH in places I’ve never gone over 70. We got loose in the middle of the stage and clipped a rock, and I though – that’s it… but it was okay and we pushed all the way to the end.” The final time for Marciniak was 20:35, and Fiorelli had set an amazing 20:20 in his 2.0L VW Golf. Thus taking the lead and winning by a scant 10 seconds. “The competition of the California Rally Series is like no other series. We had a fantastic time pushing the new car hard, and doing great at our first big rally since 2008!” said Kris. The rallynotes team captured 2nd in 2WD at the 2012 Prescott Rally!
What’s next for the rallynotes.com team? Engine upgrades and a full 2013 season! The Marciniaks will be taking the next few months to continue the Dodge Rally Neon 2GN SRT-4 development. Be sure to watch the progress and updates on https://rallynotes.com and more frequent updates at https://rallynotes.com/tumblelog . We’d like to send thanks out to 2GN.org, Neons.org, and gearboxmagazine.com for their support!
See you on the stages!
2012 Prescott Rally Highlights
Into the sunset, and then into the night – the team is slowed by dust and poor visibility. The next morning brings speed on Witty Tom and First View. Watch in-car from rally driver Kristopher Marciniak and co-driver Christine Marciniak