Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally (STPR). Our first multi-day rally, and one of the major ARA national events with all the top drivers and teams there (Higgins, Pastrana, etc).
We drove up and spent all day Thursday (~10 hours) driving the stages at 25mph in Steve's 4Runner. A long, boring day and about halfway through everything started looking like we had seen it 10 times already. STPR's stages have some cool features but for the most part are very similar to each other other than the first two Waste Management stages (rough and twisty) and the last one Mine Hole (very fast, 24 miles long, and flowing).
Our start position for the rally was 33rd, right behind the very quick 318ti that Adam Noyes and Kelsey Stone drive. The rally started on the WM stages, whcih we've run at the Winter Rally twice so we know it a bit. But this time it was mostly dry, faster, and extremely rough. We actually put up some decent times here (compared to other cars that beat us badly on the higher-speed stages), once again proving that my driving and car are better suited to tight/technical stuff more than high-speed stuff. No surprise there.
After the WM stages was the spectator stages, the Super Special, at the fairgrounds. There are basically a pair of head-to-head rallycrosses. On the first day they let us pick "grudge match" opponents so we and Dan Downey (in his 325i) matched up. As the start was in a deep grassy area, we switched to our Maxsport mud/grass tires on the rear to offset Dan's power advantage. As expected they hooked up well and both runs we beat Dan off the start line. I drove very aggressively and on one run we beat Dan and Kevin handily and on the other run it was a lot closer. So, a bit of bragging rights in front of the crowd - but not really, as you'll see later.
Finished Day 1 with no damage at all other than some dents in the rear exhaust pipe from the big rocks on WM stages. Day 2 was a much longer day, with about 12 total stages. These stages moved to mostly smooth, high-speed logging roads that almost all had a wall of rocks on one side and a sheer drop 100' down into rivers on the other side. Also full of "no cut" turns and trees right on the edges of the road. Basically no room for error, and I took it pretty easy - intending to finish the event rather than push it too hard and make a big mistake at our first STPR. As the day went on we chugged along with no major mistakes, not setting any records but we were basically faster than cars we were seeded ahead of (for the most part) and slower than cars seeded ahead of us. So we ran about as everyone expected to. Again no damage to the car, though we saw a number of other cars badly damaged, and Noyes/Stone blew a hole in their M42 engine which was sad to see (they had won the first regional rally).
There was another super special that evening, and in the dark we got matched up against Percy Lopez in his STi. His codriver bet Jim money on the result, which made me laugh (300hp AWD vs. 140hp RWD). But what the hell, we had finished the rally so I went full-out on the super special, throwing the car against berms and ruts harder than I've ever done before. And somehow....we beat them. And by a decent margin no less. So that was a fun way to finish a successful event.
We had a great time seeing a lot of the "rally family" out there, went out for drinks 3 out of the 4 nights at the local watering holes, and met a lot of new people. While Black River last year was a laid-back event in a small town, STPR is really quite the motorsports "festival" of sorts, with thousands of fans out watching, the national teams there (Subaru with their huge tow rigs and giant pit setups). Our crew (Stephen Nichols, Amanda Pemberton, Mike Seitz, and Justin Roth) did a great job - and assisted Downey and Kevin as well, who didn't ahve a crew with them for this event.
STPR is two separate regional rallies. For the first (Sherwood Forest Rally) we finished in 23rd place out of 31 regional-level cars that started. Dan Downey and Kevin Brolin drove their e30 to a Production 2WD class win (13th overall) - very impressive - and also went huge over the spectator jump.
For the second rally (Finger Lakes Rally) we finished 14th out of 27 regional-level cars that actually ran it (many cars that had wrecked or broken the first day didn't start the 2nd rally). Soemthing to be said for not crashing or breaking. Downy once again cleaned up with an 11th place performance and winnning his class again. e30 power!
Also a shout out to our friends Adam Kimmet and Adam Moore (winning the NA Open 4WD class both days), Jon Kramer and Jason Smith right behind them, and Paul Ferreira and Ozgur Simsek winning the Open 4WD regional on Day 2, among others.
Also, if You'd like to watch vids of any of this (super special or full stages) here is our team video page!
Last weekend, we had a 2-day rallycross locally (two separate events). Day 1 I switched fromt he M3 rear springs to soem stock IX springs in order to do some testing. The car was sloppy early as I learned the softer rear end and I lost a bit of time and couldn't quite catch up, finishing 3rd in a 12-car class just over a second out of first. Decent showing, as DC Mod RWD class is getting super-competitive with any of about 8 drivers able to win any given event.
Second day I was the first car on course, and disaster - missed a gate near the beginning as the pointer cones could not be seen in the tall grass and I missed the gate entirely. Dammit. Down 12 seconds after one run. Previous event winner Stephen Nichols did the same thing at the same gate the next run. So for the rest of the day he and I drove all-out trying to play catch up. By the end of the day both of use had clawed back from the bottom (11th/12th) to 4th and 5th position. But knowing that this would be a "drop" event for me and not wanting to get "slop points" that would bump my start position up for future events, on my last run I crossed the start line, stopped, watied 20 seconds, and then drove the course (intentionally). This bumped me down to 8th place and lowered my total season points, meaning the next event I'll start 5th in class rather than 1st or 2nd. This is important, especialy when there is tall grass on course and/or the water truck is used to reduce dust. We'll see how this strategty works out.
So....that's about it for that. Haven't done much to the car other than some suspension changes (will talk about those next week), and the East Coast Championships is coming up in 3-4 weeks, hosted here , so taht will be fun.
I'll fill this post back in with more pics when I get a chance!
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