This stage is called Summit Loop. First it’s quick, then it has some rough tricky sections in the middle and keeps getting faster. I was pushing so hard through the finish that it took me a few seconds to get the car back under the limit. You want fast in the woods video? – Here you go!

Video of SS4 – Summit Loop – 64.1MB WMV

A note about videos: I find it funny that other sites still resist posting a 60 – 80MB video of stages. If you’re stuck with dialup, you won’t really be able to enjoy an 8MB video, let alone an 80. Another thing I see is people shrink the video down to 320×240 and lower it’s quality to save space. On a 10 minute stage that only knocks maybe 15-20% off the total size and in my opinion makes the whole video look like crap. I have lots of bandwidth on my server and it costs less then $100 a year. I also have uploaded all the videos to Google Video for your enjoyment. Please enjoy and share these with your friends! If you have any comments – let us know!

Update: More!
Video of SS5 – Maxwell Loop – 46MB WMV

Let’s start with all the awesome pictures the crew took. These are from Erik, Matt, and Christine’s camera we keep in the Neon. 2006 Olympus Rally Pictures from rallynotes.com.

For video – I was able to snag the ORV park stage (with the jump) SS3. I overlayed video from the crew. There is a lot more to come, I just have to get through it.

Video of SS3 – ORV Park – 8.6MB WMV

Sunday: We did it! Today we settled in for some long stages and took the USRC stock class win! The crew kept the car together and Christine and I kept the Neon on the road. This is our fourth finish and we did well on these roads which moved my speed factor up. (no more starting in the back) The in-car looks awesome with the trees going by at 70. We’ll have lots of pictures and video soon! We’re on our way back to So-Cal tomorrow.

Saturday: We got the rougher stages out of the way in the morning. It took its toll on the right front subframe and we started to notice it was moving under braking. The Kosmides crew lent us a hand and a welder. You know it’s a good time in service when welding becomes your only option. We set some fast stage times and ran a clean / smooth first day. I’m trying to make sense of the online scores. Our USRC competition – Kris & Ed Dahl went out with rear suspension problems. I hope they can restart tomorrow. We’re in second place in production amidst a whole pack of Tabor cars. Long day – need sleep…

Friday: It was a long day of recce. Christine will be burning the midnight oil writing her notes for tomorrow. At first she was going to mark up the stage notes prepared by Pat Richard but his notes are just not what we’re accustomed to. She opted to re-write the whole book and notate it exactly how we want it. The crew is here and the car is ready to go.

Thursday: We arrived at 4:30 to the Red Lion Hotel in Olympia, Washington. The last 30 miles seemed to take forever! I was mentally done with driving once we were out of Portland. Christine did drive a litte bit yesterday and today which let me nap and recharge. The press stage was fun and was a good ‘warm up’ for what to expect here. We’ll be out all tomorrow doing recce.

Photographer Jim Culp captured us at the press stage – check out his other photos here.

Today we knocked out 684 miles on our way up to Olympus. We’re getting better then expected gas mileage and making good time. We should arrive tommorow in time for the press stage. Our only 2 crew members convinced friends to come along last minute and we’ll have lots of help in service.

I’m not sure if we’ll get another update up during the rally – so keep an eye on the scores as they come in at: Olympus Rally Results.

We’re in great shape for the Olympus Rally in Washington this weekend. The front end has been welded back on. *hehe No, seriously, the sub-frame broke all the robot welds and was hanging on by the automotive equivalent of a paper clip. The front skis (as we call them) were warped and bent and also needed to be replaced.

Harry’s buddies Todd and Mike told me that they were up to the task of rebuilding the front skidplate mounts (seen on the right zapping some steel together), but not able to weld the front subframe bits. I went to another local shop and had the work done. I’m still having some issues with one of the control arm bolts as the nut is welded INSIDE the unibody and is starting to break free of its mounting point. I’m not entirely sure how to go about fixing that one, but it’s strong and safe for now as I managed to thread it and get it tight one last time.

Crisis averted #381: The car was leaking oil pretty good after Rim of the World and Harry and I both had a good look at it and determined that it was coming out the oil sender plumbing. Yesterday I reached up and felt that it was actually a little loose. I twisted it to see how loose it was and it sheared off in my hand. Easy as that and I’m holding the dummy light sensor, the Autometer sender and the brass T. Oil shooting out the back of the motor = bad. This brings me to my next point…

Ground School: When you learn to fly aircraft (I flew a little after High School, maybe 20 hours. It got too expensive.) one of the first things you learn is how to do a ‘walkaround inspection.’ You don’t just hop in the Cessna, crank the prop, and go! You spend 30 minutes looking over the craft. Really looking! Is that grease coming out of the rudder? Are the tries worn too much? Is that a crack in the engine cover? Can I move the flaps without any resistance? Fuel status, oil status, instrumentation check, etc. You do this because any sort of failure in the air is a problem. A big problem. A rallycar should be treated the same. Are the lugs tight? Do I have fuel? Is the suspension making noise? Is that a new rattle? Are the hood pins in? Are they in? The pins are IN right?? Oil pressure, engine status, rally computer, etc. We use a check list that I created for our first rally and it works pretty well. Pre-Flight Checklist.xls Some of the information is Dodge Neon specific, but good to have on hand, like capacities and torque settings. Let me know if you use it!

There was a huge sigh of relief from Christine and I when we primed the fuel pump a couple times and turned the engine over. She returned to life with no sign of other damage to the engine. After taking the skidplates off and the fuel pump out, it looks as if the following happened: Big fresh dent in the gas tank. Fresh crack in the plastic fittings inside the pump housing. The 10 gallon tank is now a 9 gallon tank. The in-tank pump housing got a good knock and came loose. So, Saturday night at Rim, we effectively ran out of gas.

Good to know as we’re prepping for Olympus and the heat is on. We need some cosmetic pieces, and fresh skidplate material. The re-engineered struts need to be on the car by next weekend. Tires good, engine good, driver crazy. I’ve been told that the roads in Washington are a lot like Maine. This means hard packed, tough on tires, roads with ‘rock-a-dillos’ popping up to claim car parts. It will be weird to see trees again…

Video of SS2 – Mt. Gleason mostly tarmac – 51MB WMV
Video Compilation – Friday and Saturday stages including the Super Special – 45MB WMV

Friday morning I learned never to load a car on a trailer yourself. I overshot the tow dolly, jacked the car up and off the trailer, and proceeded to do it again. I could only stand there and laugh at myself. The skidplates protected the car from damage and after some loose strap drama – we learned how to use our new tow dolly. A weekend of lessons had begun.

We pushed the car into tech and was out in time to test the super special jump before it closed up at 5:00. I hit it at like 45MPH and nosed the car pretty hard. I tried again at a reasonable 30MPH and found it to be a little more of a controlled landing. It’s tough to jump a car with 70% of the weight over the front wheels.

We start with a confident win at the super special. The first three stages set the tone for the rally. They are rough and tight with lots of instructions. Christine gets lost a couple of times, but we’re still moving right along. Then we get into the fog on SS3 and a panic sets in. Christine keeps looking up to see where we are and all she sees is nothing. I’m still moving at a good pace and relying heavily on the notes. She knows there’s a hairpin left coming up but is worried that we haven’t gotten to it yet. I settle off the throttle a bit and assure her that we’ll find it together. When we get back on the notes I provide verbal feedback of every turn to substitute what Christine can’t see in the fog.
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