Sno-Drift, 1st Rally America Round

Is anybody as excited as I am for the first rally of the North American season?!

Lots of fast, fast people entered (and a huge entry list, 70 entries hasn't been seen anywhere in quite some time)! I wish I was down there, but alas, I start my roadtrip out to Quebec this coming Tuesday evening for Perce Neige ;)

Who are you rooting for? For myself, it's Antoine (of course!), I'd like to cheer for Leo, but if you've ever saw Antoine drive in person, you'd realize he is literally the best in NA. Mr. Higgin's is close, but with the new Evo X the Rockstar team built, I can see victory in their grasp.

Oh, and live streaming over the course of the event, www.rallystream.tv or www.rally-america.com .

Teaser vid for this year: http://www.youtube.com/user/RallyAmericaSeries?ob=0

The first rally of the North American season was the LSPR. We drove 24 hours straight through to get there from Dallas. Next event for us is 100AW.

Adam, are you competing in Maniwaki? I'll look for your car at the service. If your volunteering or spectating and you see a guy in an Aussie cowboy hat, come up and say hi. Not sure what they're going to have me do, I'm thinking time control but my French is non-existent.

modernbeat wrote: The first rally of the North American season was the LSPR. We drove 24 hours straight through to get there from Dallas. Next event for us is 100AW.

Uh, looks to me like LSPR ran in October as a regional. I guess I should have said "of this year"? I guess there might have been a regional or test day somewhere, but really I was referring to the nationals either way.

Jeff wrote: Adam, are you competing in Maniwaki? I'll look for your car at the service. If your volunteering or spectating and you see a guy in an Aussie cowboy hat, come up and say hi. Not sure what they're going to have me do, I'm thinking time control but my French is non-existent.

Yes, I'll be co-driving in a new open class car... can't spoil the surprise quite yet

I think you should have said the beginning of the 2012 National Series. The LSPR was the first points events of the 2012 Central Region points race.

Your phrase "I guess there might have been a regional or test day somewhere," is pretty disrespectful and makes me think you haven't been following rally very long. The LSPR really is one of the toughest events on the Rally America calender. It's also the event that decides the overall champion of all the regional champions. And until X-Games caused RA to shorten their National schedule, it was also a National event. And it's also the evolution of the Press On Regardless Rally, the oldest performance rally in the US.

modernbeat wrote: Your phrase "I guess there might have been a regional or test day somewhere," is pretty disrespectful and makes me think you haven't been following rally very long.

I am quite familiar with LSPR thanks. To expect someone to realize a season (and not only a season, but a regional one at that, that isn't even in the same country, and that gets ZERO coverage of virtually any sort as the regional championships in RA tend to get pushed by the wayside) starts in the opposite year is, well, ridiculous. Sorry for my narrow mindedness and that it hurt your feelings insert rolleyes emoticon here

As a national event, LSPR was important to me. As a regional, not so much. You could ask me to name all of the regionals in Ontario or Quebec, and I'd probably still miss one or two. Without looking, can you name all of the events (and which one comes first) in the WCRC without looking it up? Maybe you can, but assuming you're from the eastern side of the states, unlikely.

Thank you for ruining a perfectly good thread so you could correct the smallest of small mistakes. It is appreciated.

See? Who needs political threads, we can argue over anything!

I need to get to this event some year. I know Adrian Thompson is up there crewing this weekend, hopefully he'll come back with one of his usual exhaustive reports.

Tom_Spangler wrote: I need to get to this event some year. I know Adrian Thompson is up there crewing this weekend, hopefully he'll come back with one of his usual exhaustive reports.

I may be forgetting, but does he usually post here? I'd love to read it if you can copy pasta from wherever he normally posts

A number of people I know will be attending, but this year was difficult for me to plan to attend with a son who just turned 3 and a wife in school full time to attend to. Perhaps next year, he will be able to do a dad/son trip more easily, as he's just potty trained and the long car haul from Grand Rapids and cold weather would be a bit of a challenge this year.

I made it up to LSPR sans family at the end of '11 and had a blast.

HiTempguy wrote:

Tom_Spangler wrote: I need to get to this event some year. I know Adrian Thompson is up there crewing this weekend, hopefully he'll come back with one of his usual exhaustive reports.

I may be forgetting, but does he usually post here? I'd love to read it if you can copy pasta from wherever he normally posts

Yes, he posts here.

OK, so I'm three weeks late in posting, but here's my story from this years event.

2012 was the 36th running of the Sno*Drift Rally in and around Atlanta Michigan, it was also the 10th anniversary of my attending and far more interestingly both by transition from pure spectator to participant of sorts and the return to the sport of Steve Nowicki. Who’s Steve Nowicki you ask? Well he’s three times American Production rally champion (well he was 20 years ago) and in some circles he’s name is uttered with the same hushed awe as Buffem and Woodener. Who Buffem and Woodener you ask? Well you either know or you’re a normal well-adjusted human with a social life and people don’t avoid you at parties as you start to wax lyrical over the history of North American rally drivers.

For the past ten years I’ve gone up to spectate either with Dan, another friend Alan or both. Initially we went up for the Saturday stages and followed the recommended spectator guide, later we caught Friday night as well and eventually started plotting rout maps in advance. Over the last couple of years this has exploded with me spending hours of what otherwise would have been productive time plotting stage maps, times, routs in and out of out of very unofficial spectating spots. I have a full binder with large and small scale maps with every piece of ‘essential’ information I could ever need for the rally. Also cheesy fake name/number panels for the car etc. Generally acting like a frustrated co driver, just without the needed overdeveloped endocrine system that generates sufficient natural Prozac and Xanax to make me able to sit next to a half crazed driver at 100+mph on sheet ice five feet from a hundred year old tree that could shorten a car (and my life) in less than the blink of an eye.

This year was to be the biggie, even without supporting Steve as part of his service crew. Dan and I had decided to take Friday off, travel up Thursday night and catch the whole rally from start to finish instead of arriving around the second Friday service. Discovering we could be part of a real team was just the icing on the cake. That pesky thing called work kept getting in the way so my rout book wasn’t as neat as usual, but come 6:30pm on Thursday we were in his R32 Golf and heading north through a depressing lack of snow, to meet the team.

The Team:

Steve Nowicki: Three time Production rally champion, Driver, sponsor, boss, wannabe rally god.

Jim Brandt: Co Driver who’s first ever rally was as Co-Driver on the 1974 P.O.R. then a part of what would become the WRC. Imagine starting out on a WRC event today!

Kevin Egere: Crew Chief whose long and distinguished motorsports resume consisted of him being the first to answer Steve’s call for a Chief.

Bill Gottschalk: Family owns the hose we stayed at (many many thanks again), Lawyer who knows more lawyer jokes than the rest of the team put together.

Jared Rundel: One of those arty types who went to CCS, owner of ‘The Big Black Dirty Ho’ an Ex-DNR Chebby Tahoe that ferried up to 6 people everywhere and anywhere, many thanks.

Dan Christie: Another of those CCS Arty types, creator of the team logo and very handy with a squeegee!

The car: A 1980 Plymouth Arrow pretending to be a Misterbitchy Lancer. When I first saw pictures of the car I thought ‘Cool, he’s gone for a retro paint scheme” It turns out I was wrong. Steve bought the car from Washington. The car had blown a head gasket in 1991 and been pushed into a barn. The owner started to strip it with the intention of building a rally car based on what Steve had run previously! The owner then had health issues, lost interest and the car sat until 2004ish when Steve went searching for a ‘new’ Arrow. He tracked this one down, bought it from the owner who was only too happy to know it was going to be built and rallied and he’s been working on it slowly for the last few years. This was the cars first ever rally. Poor thing.

We arrived last around 10:00pm, most of the team having got there Wednesday night to get the car through scruitineering which went pretty much without a hitch. Steve and Jim headed off for an early night; the rest of us grabbed some beer and headed to the garage to sticker up the car. Now that sounds easy, and for the Engineers it would have been a case of put the stickers on drink more beer and head to bed. The trouble is those creative arty types to whom sticker placement and layout is a religious experience. Some of us where cleaning the crud off the car from the days driving, some were drying it, some polishing areas, drying areas, prepping areas, laying out placement, changing placement etc. etc. All this was taking place in an un heated, non-insulated garage with an ambient temperature rapidly heading towards 20deg F. Apparently stickers don’t like the cold and don’t like cold metal either. To counter act this we had a propane heater and some high power halogen lights to help warm things up. Now a propane heater in an enclosed space makes a lot of fumes so pretty soon we were all high as kites, add in the Dark Horse Brewery Scotch ale at 9.75% and it’s a miracle we got anything done. I busied myself laying out stickers, Jared busied himself with pointing out the error of my artistic judgment and re-layed out the stickers to within a midges knacker (small insects testicle for the non Brits, a highly accurate unit of measure) Kevin did crew chiefly things and told us what to do, while Dan and Bill actually applied some stickers (Bill’s a wiz with the spritzer). By only 1:00 am we were finished and staggered into the house (it was slippery outside honest) to clear our heads with more beer before bed.

Late night stickering!. From left to Right ’Chief’ Kevin, Bill and Dan

The driver, Co driver, house owner and Crew Chief had claimed the beds and bedrooms so the rest of us got the front room, Dan and Jared nabbed the couches so I was elected to sleep on the floor, thanks guys. At 3:00am I was woken up by the duet of snoring from the other two, I never heard myself snore so I must be innocent in that regard, and had what I thought was the beginnings of a massive hang over, it turned out to be the after effects of the heater fumes and I was fine come morning. After a leisurely start we headed out to the garage to do a few last minuet prep items. I tided up some wiring, Jared went through the light fitting/removal process with Steve, Dan trimmed the windshield header to the right height for visibility, we checked spares etc.
Engine bay – prior to me tidying up the wiring.

Then it was of down to Atlanta to sign in as crew, then catch up with the car at Lewiston for the start. We set up our service area which consisted of a Tarp held down by four jack stands with the service truck complete with tools and spares next to is. So what do you do with several hours kill before things get rolling, check out the local scenery? Have lunch? Not if you’ve got those pesky artists with you. Out with the water and wash the car so it’s pretty, did I mention it was still well below freezing? It is the Sno*Drift rally remember. At precisely 12:45 the cars move to ‘Parc Expose’ which means all the cars are lined up and, well, you know, park in an exposed way so the fans can look at them! Now you wouldn’t think that moving the car 500’ from the service area to ‘Parc Expose’ was a big deal, but it turned out that three cars were late, the result? Friday night they each got a $100 fine from the organizers before they could continue on Saturday morning. Needless to say thanks to the expert guidance of Kevin and spot on time keeping of Jim we beat the odds and got there on time. It was then more waiting until the start which gave you time to walk around, say high to other teams and talk tactics until the drivers meeting at 14:00 and the official first car out at 14:21.
Me talking tactics with the driver and Co driver of car 24 (My wife says they’re silicone on the left)

Now right around the time the first car is leaving, our intrepid driver starts to get ready and can’t find the intercom. He sends me running (yes literally, not a pretty site) back to the service truck to look for it. Where I can’t find it. So I run back. By the time I get back I meet up with Bill who tells me it’s in the glove box right where the driver told him to put it. Great, now let’s get it fitted. Steve’s sends me running back to the truck to get tie wraps to secure it to the cage, which I do and dutifully run back, just in time to find Dan’s feet and arse hanging out the back of the car as he tie wraps the intercom to the roll cage using the tie wraps the Kevin conveniently had placed in the emergency tool bag. The upshot of these little jaunts to and from the truck is I managed to get back from the event still merely officially fat rather than the feared obese that could have occurred.

Dan’s rear end hanging out the back of the car’s rear end. Proof that arty types can do work other than apply stickers on race cars.

So, crisis averted our intrepid duo set off to the first stage. We wait. Well, not really as Dan, Jared and I hop into the Big Black Dirty Ho and head for SS#3 Hardwood to a point that I’ve picked out. Three of Kevin’s fiends from work had turned up in a Subaru STi to see their first rally and we tell them to follow us. Once off the main roads it rapidly becomes apparent that the wannabe rally STi can’t hack the conditions so they abandon their car and pile into the BBDH with us. Once we reach the stage there are only 2-4 other cars there, a couple were worker cars and all had come in via the stage before it was closed, only the BBDH made it in! After watching the super human skill of the top few cars and drivers things settled down a bit until Duplessis, A.C.P. and Burmeister started coming through in the top 2WD cars to prove you don’t need AWD to travel at warp speed on ice. On this stage, and every other we watched, it became clear that Steve still has it as a driver and is being held back by the current state of the car. He was carrying as much speed into and through the corner as any of the top 2WD cars and much more than those seeded around him (both 2 and 4WD), his problem was on the exit. RWD, little weight in the rear and an open diff mean 1WD and little forward motion in the conditions. He was impressive though and every time we saw him he was a crowd favorite, although no one knew what the car was. After the stage we all pile back in the BBDH and head back to service and wait. I was supposed to be on re-fueling duty, but as there was a gas station on the rout back to service they’d stopped and done it already. Service was a blur. Car pulls in, straight onto the ramps; jack, up in the air and jack stands. Wheels off, check everything and clean ice out of wheels. Remove light covers, quick overall check. A tiny amount of oil was weeping around the fuel pump (yes it’s mechanical!!!) and collecting on the intake manifold. That’s gets thoroughly cleaned and becomes one of the first checks for the rest of the event. The throttle wasn’t closing all the way so an adjustment to the return spring was made. Clean the windows etc. get the wheels back on, drop it on the ground and off they go. 30 minutes really isn’t a long time when it comes down to it.

After heading to the spectator area for the next leg we didn’t make it back in time for service, so we just help pack up then go and find some dinner. Dinner was great, but we found out just how bad amateur karaoke can be. At dinner we met up with Curt Egerer (Kevin’s brother) and Tim Maskus. They’ve stayed with us in past years and have run the medical sweep for years. Tim used to rally an Ur Quattro and Curt has had several of them in the past. In the past they’ve run Tim’s Ur Quattro in authentic Group #4 colors which has worked well. This year they were running the Rally Wabbit, an ex-race Rabbit GTi modified with rally suspension an extra seat etc. The med sweep cars usually run alternate stages, one running SS#1, 3, 5 etc. and the other sunning 2, 4, 6 etc. This allows things to continue if they’re needed. For some reason there was only one car this year so they had to sun every stage. Then they had a torrent of issues. The GPS locator failed, they had a dash fire then to top it all, even with snow tires they were having massive traction issues getting up some of the hills after 67 rally cars had polished the already smooth ice to a perfect mirror finish. By the time we saw caught up with them things were tense; I think the divorce attorneys are deciding who doesn’t get custody of the Wabbit!

The Rally ‘Wabbit med sweep last fall on LSPR.

We still beat the car home and had managed some beer and were in bed before they made it. Long day for those guys. Saturday the alarm goes off at 6:45 am and we’re out in the garage cleaning and checking the car over and removing the light bar for safety so it can leave by 8:00. We head of for breakfast and to get the service area set up which has now moved to the high school in Atlanta. Dan and I catch a stage before heading to service. This time there’s no gas station on the prescribed rout so I’m on gas duty with Jarred. The refueling takes place in a defined spot. The cars pull in and the crews come forward with our 5 gallon gas cans, funnel and mandatory fire extinguisher. After freezing our nads of waiting all goes smoothly then Steve and Jim pull out and head to check in.

SS#14 Decheau-Mills Saturday morning.

At service things are a little more frantic. Steve hit a snow bank at one point and the alignment is slightly off. He tells us we need to check the tracking after the car is on the ramps. I want it back on flat ground to do the before measurement. I then make the classic mistake of listening to the driver! ‘We don’t have time for any of the berkeleying road race exact bullE36 M3, close enough will do’ Inevitably doing the before up on ramps and the after on the ground leads too wildly different measurements so we are up and down several times. It’s determined that something must be bent though as we have difficulty getting it right with the measurement changing out of proportion to the adjustment. In the end we got it ‘’close enough’. While myself and Bill were working on that Jared was refitting the light bar and connecting it up. This time the car pulled out with seconds to spare. The final service was a similar situation but we only had 20 mins not 30 as previously. Gas and adjust tracking which we got much closer this time. Unfortunately I couldn’t head over to Hillman for the finish as I had a family emergency I needed to head down state for. So immediately after the last Service Dan and I helped pack up the truck and headed home. Steve eventually finished 32nd overall and 5th in Group 2. While he was a little disappointed, I think the rest of the team believe he did an outstanding job given the power (lack thereof) and open diff of the car. All in all it was an outstanding weekend and I’m just sorry that I had to leave bore the end.

The End!

Here's another picture from Friday nights service. It almost looks like we konw what we're doing!

Some more random pics I wish my parents had been this cool!

I love this cut away look