No mistakes, no punctures, no problems. Okay, well there was that pesky water truck. I’ll be updating with pictures, video, and stories from the Rim of the World Rally Challenge later this weekend. Stay tuned!
Live tracking – Leaving early for Rim
Last night I got the rally car up from the shop and parked close. I had time to build my Byonics TinyTrak3 APRS tracker (see this post) and got it setup and firing location packets. This weekend will be a demo beta test of the system. So if you want to help me test it – Keep an eye on us and post a comment if you use it.
We’re leaving early tomorrow morning around 6:00AM-PST and heading up to Lancaster towing the Neon with the tracker active. So, the early birds in the East Coast can watch our boring tow out there. 
Saturday afternoon we’ll keep it running and you can watch us drive around the fairgrounds from 12:00PM-PST to 10:00PM-PST. Sunday we’ll be racing in the fairgrounds from 9:00AM-PST to 4:00PM-PST. The GPS signal looks accurate enough that I’ll bet you can tell when we’re in service and when we’re screwing around in the autocross lot. 
Look for the course and speed at the top of the page.
Watch for the live scores on rallydata.com – Rim of the World Rally Challenge Results
USRC ROOKIES TO ATTACK RIM OF THE WORLD RALLY CHALLENGE
The forest roads may be off limits this year, but that’s not going to stop the Rim of the World organizers from putting on a great show in less then a week. The center of the action will be the Lancaster Fairgrounds for a unique format called ‘Rally Challenge.’ This event, which is part rally super special, part rallycross, all with a spectacular Rim of the World flavor, looks to be quite a show. Spectators will get to watch the action all day up close from the grandstands along with tons of other activities from an autocross to a car show. For more information on the event held this Saturday April 28th, go to http://rimoftheworldrally.com.
The team is pumped up to show off its skills. Just like the super stage at Laughlin last year, the competition is going to be fast and close. The Dodge Rally Neon is in great shape for an attack on the USRC Stock classes. “We excel at the super specials, usually with the fastest production car times. It’s a pumped up rallycross – and that’s what we do when we’re not running stage rallies,” said Driver Kristopher Marciniak. The team recently finished 2nd overall in a CRS rallycross at Glen Helen organized by formularallyx.com.
The team is going to benefit from their outstanding performance last year. Not just through experience, but financially as well. “For Rim, I’m really excited about the USRC Rookie of the Year Scholarship, which was so generously retro-acted for the 2006 season. This scholarship has made the 2007 USRC season, which was going to be hard to budget with our upcoming wedding, a lot easier to participate in,” exclaimed Co-Driver Christine Wittish. For more details on the URSC check out their website at: http://www.unitedstatesrallychampionship.com
We hope to see you at Rim!
Strut Pop. Second Overall at Glen Helen II
Earlier last week I replaced the rear struts and checked for any other Desert Storm Rally damage. The right rear strut was fully compressed with the strut piston jammed all the way to the bump stop. 
This makes taking the spring off very difficult to say the least. I managed to hammer a spring compressor on and grab at least 2 coils on each side. Even with the compressor maxed out, the top hat was still mashed on there pretty good. I took a shop census of what I should do about it and the final vote was “take it outside – stand on it – and torque off the nut… It’s going to kick!” Safety goggles and gloves would at least be a good idea here – maybe a face shield. As another safety item to mention: Never, never, NEVER take a top hat off a strut without a spring compressor. Spring goes flying – you eat it… At least with the compressor grabbing 2 coils the spring would only kick about 1-2″ with 200+ Lbs of force. I work the top bolt off slowly and psych myself out a couple times. Then I finally go full force and air gun the top bolt off. CLANG! The strut disassembles itself in a 6 foot radius of parts. The spring remained 80% compressed and it still had enough force to scatter 20 pounds of parts in every direction. Be careful in the shop fellas! 
Saturday was overcast drizzle all the way out to Glen Helen. We arrived and were excited to see our sister team – Way Too Fast Racing – setting up for their first rallycross with the Neon.
The course was a little confusing at first and I gave Mike Malsed (the organizer) some crap about it. 
Once I took a long look at how they setup the “crossover / wall” to reverse the course I was still anxious about having more then 1 car run at the same time. With a regular course – if communications goes to hell – you don’t have a dangerous crossover situation. With a crossover course – if you tell the starter “hold the start” and he hears “go ahead and start” – you have the potential for cars to go into each other. Matchbox racing style.
The fairly tight layout was great and had a great flow to it in both directions. It turned out to be one of Mike’s best designs. Probably because it was a rallycross where the FWD cars can shine. 
The rally 2WD group had the top times of the day. 1st overall was Mark Anton in his uncatchable 250HP Sentra SE-R Vspec. 2nd was myself in the 130HP overweight Rally Neon. Third was Bill Holmes, 12 seconds back in his monster open class desert truck. The Way Too Fast kids improved on their times all day while dealing with a burning power steering reservoir. Read more about that here. We had a great time and it was a good shakedown for Rim of the World – in two weeks!
The Ham Plan – APRS for rally cars
We finally got our call signs: KI6IUC (Kris) and KI6IUE (Christine). It took longer then I expected and other radio folks were telling us that it should be like 5 days not 15 days. Nothing to do but wait for it. Now that we have them – let’s have some fun.
APRS – Automatic Position Reporting System, is used to transmit the exact location of an object (vehicle) over amateur radio frequencies. A data packet (see: packet radio) can contain a number of additional items, such as direction, speed, altitude, temperature, etc. Short text messages can also be attached. These messages are transmitted on 144.390MHz and re-transmitted by local repeaters called digipeaters.
The rally car has a ham radio, a TNC (Terminal Node Connector), and a GPS receiver. A TNC is a little data device that talks to the GPS and sends its information out over the ham radio. Every few minutes the TNC gets the position from the GPS receiver and transmits it over the airwaves with the ham radio. The TNC we’re looking at is the Byonics TinyTrak3.
Service has a scanner and a laptop. The audio from the scanner is hooked to the laptop sound card. The software, AGW Packet Engine + AGW Tracker, receives the data and converts it to a little icon on a map.
Key features: Service knows where we are at all times. There is a ham radio in the car for emergencies. The crew doesn’t have to be ham licensed. Our parents can watch the rally live on findU.com. I’m planning to have a toggle switch on the dash board that can send one of two messages out of the TNC:
1. Rally On!
2. Come get us at this location.
There won’t be much use for it at Rim of the World – as we’ll be 300 yards away in the stadium , but I may have it setup to demo and test. The first full scale test will be in Prescott later this year. I would like to thank Anders Green (Lina Racing / Sandblast Rally) for suggesting the idea for use in rally cars and I encourage you drivers and co-drivers out there to spend the week of study time and pick up your amateur radio license.
Class dismissed – KI6IUC clear and monitoring.
Desert Storm recap.
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.
Continue reading
RALLYNOTES.COM TEAM FINISH DESERT STORM FRIDAY, SPECTATE ON SATURDAY
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.
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR SCHOLARSHIP FOR 2007 USRC SEASON
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.
Video from the Desert Storm rally
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
From the hotel in Blythe…
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.