2021 100 Acre Wood Rally
- unamusedrallysport
- May 4, 2021
- 4 min read
Well better late than never for the 100aw rally recap. The area received lots of rain leading up to the event leaving many of the roads washed out and the many creek crossings to be very high. During recce, we were nervous about the road conditions more so than our ability to work together on stage. The water crossings were high and killed a few other teams recce vehicles. Some were so deep that they came over the Tundra's (Recce Ricardo) hood! This was our second event writing our own notes from scratch instead of starting with Jemba notes. This is, by far, our preferred method and allows us to go flat out with greater confidence. We didn't win recce but finished in time for some dinner and tv. Sleep would have been nice before the first race day but the person in the room above us literally paced back and forth the entire night from 9pm to 6am in what had to be large steel-toed boots.
We had done some new modifications to the car (like always it seems), but admittedly neglected some general maintenance that we typically do before a race so we were hoping that nothing would go wrong. This event was our second while observing new COVID protocols, which are actually very good and seem to keep the show moving along much better. The 6 Saturday stages were the faster and more open stages. From the start, we were putting down decent times. Things just clicked for us. We thought we slowed down for it but hit the cattle guard jump at 80+mph, which made for a bit of a rough landing but the pictures were worth it since this event may have been the last running of this stage in a while.
On the transit back to service after the first loop we were just zoning out until we came to a stop sign. Upon leaving the stop, the engine began revving very high and was barely moving. We carefully limped the car back to service. In the check in line, we hoped out for a quick inspection. Broken axle! Quickly made a call to our impromptu service crew of Micah Nickelson and Tyler
Ptacek to search for one. By the time we got to our service spot, the news wasn't good. No one had an rear axles. Of course this would happen when there are a record low number of RSs and Impreza wagons at the rally and no spectators. A quick call to Misha Avrushenko who mentioned that another competitor had at least one from memory. I ran over to Chuck's spot to check. We found one and only one after some measuring. I sprinted back with it and let the crew get to work replacing it. Thanks also to Pete Schaefer who hopped in to help! We were able to get the car back together and out with only 2min to spare!
The next loop of stages were fairly uneventful. Evidently the Ecotech crew was not expecting us to come around the second time due to the axle mishap, so when they saw us bang the rev limiter around the turn they were at, they erupted. We did not go for the jump this time around knowing that there was only one spare rear axle in Salem and it was on our car. Breaking another would likely mean the end of our rally. We pushed in spots and things generally felt good but we weren't expecting the news at the end of the day. We found out we were sitting first in our class AND first regionally. Couldn't believe it.
Day 2 consisted of the rougher stages like Loop Southern and Scotia. The first stage of the day consisted of a lot of fresh loose gravel. We were moving through the first part of the stage until a tight right snuck up on us after a series of flat out turns. We slid straight off through the apex sideways and through the grass. We were just waiting for the hidden stump or log to give us a
rude awakening but we got super lucky! A tug of the handbrake and we were back to facing the right way. We tip-toed through the water crossings and rough parts of Loop Southern. It was a killer, leaving anywhere from 5-9 cars dead on it with each of the 3 passings. We knew it we could make it through this stage all 3 times, that we could finish and hopefully get an in class podium. We frequently checked times as we were having a great battle with a Chuck. The other regional cars were also figuring out the roads and pushing harder which was shaping into a great regional battle. We were trying to play the smart game by leveraging our lead so we didn't have to push as hard through the rest of the day, but by doing so, our lead was quickly diminishing. On the transit to the last loop of stages for the event, Rachel said "do whatever you have to do". Hammer down! We flew through Loop Southern and lopped off nearly 30sec from our previous times. Hopefully this would be enough.
When we got to the finish, we couldn't believe where we placed. 1st in class, first regionally, and 14th overall out of more than 90 cars! Not bad for a heavy car that is powered by an engine that was assembled in a rush out of literally whatever parts were laying around (LSPR 2017). The best part was yet to come... An unsanctioned champagne spray for regional overall! We loved celebrating with Al Dantes Jr. and Steven Olona, but we really missed spectators for this year to celebrate with us...
Congrats to everyone that finished! We are working on, yes, even more changes over the summer. A new engine, hydraulic clutch, some more aero, and even more suspension changes so stay tuned as we share that content.
We couldn't have done it without Chuck, Micah, Tyler, Pete, and Misha. Thank you to all of the volunteers and rally officials for hosting a great event. And of course, thanks to our sponsors: EcoTECH Import Auto Service J-Spec Auto Sports Inc. Diode Dynamics Dyno Pro Technologies Mishimoto Automotive
Photo credits: Ben Newburn, Jim Shawn Harter, and Matthew Thomas Jones Photography
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