Rally: Because GTX. Sweet lil thang you so perty-er.

"RallyDork" (pelijep)
11/19/2015 at 15:45 • Filed to: None

It was the 11 th stage, Day 2 of the 2015 Lake Superior Performance Rally. The stages were much rougher than Day 1 with large embedded rocks sticking out of the road, deep ruts on either side of the rocks, and even more of the large not-so-stuck rocks bouncing off the bottom of the car. You can tell what I was worried about.

(I reposted this from the AM)

The previous stage had “SAVE THE CAR”, written very neatly at the top of the page. The clutch had begun to slip the night before and our skid plate had been bent up, wrapping itself around the oil pan and transfer case meaning a well placed rock would probably smash either.

Within the first mile of the day we bottomed out and got to enjoy the sound of the driveshaft grinding it’s way through the plate. This had been a concern the whole rally but as our new and very encouraging team member pointed out, “well, it should be harder than the skid plate”, which turned out to be true. Well-done Dan.

To put it simply, we were in survival mode. Finding ourselves on the side of a stage with a rare and obliterated transfer case with a large expensive red puddle of Shockproof under it was not on my agenda and to finish BOTH days of a rally would be a nice way to end the year.

Photo: Pawel Nocon

The first day had been filled with some nice long, smooth, and fast stages that were an absolute blast. I was just starting to think that as long as I didn’t do anything stupid we’d be fine…

Going down a straight I felt a loss of power, I asked my lovely co-driver/navigator/girlfriend “How much further!?”, “last turn! GO!” she yelled.

We got one more push from the engine and very quietly rolled over the finish line.

After a lot of fiddling and with the help of an awesome volunteer – the same guy has popped out of the woods twice now - we were towed into service.

An hour and fifteen minutes later we were done for. The officials having waited every second as we tried to diagnose the stricken rally car had to call it.

That was the end of Day 2 for Just About Right Racing and the lil red Mazda 323 GTX.

My father who had been watching at service put it best when he said, “Well shit”.

Here’s an in car compilation. The first two are clips from Day 1. The last chunk is our last stage.

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It turns out that rally is kind of hard. Sometimes it can be brutal. Keeping a 27-year-old rally car going while learning on the fly doesn’t help either. Who would’ve thought that rally racing and an old obscure Mazda would’ve turned me into an optimist purely for my own mental stability.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! since I did the haul down to Arkansas to pick up the little red 323 GTX. The team has grown, the car has gone through some changes, but it’s all coming together. We’ve now entered 7 events (!) and we’ve had our ups and downs.

From running out of tires 5 miles from the end, rotten fuel lines (what’s that smell?), to a smoking battery due to a bad voltage regulator (what’s that smell?), or even just the good ole spun rod bearing ($*#@)… we’ve had our fair share of DNF’s. Good news is, we’re getting better, and we’ve learned a lot.

The car has come a long way. The turbo is back on, it has a new engine, and the wiring harness gives at least the impression of sanity. It no longer overheats. The interior has been cleaned up, and we have great local sponsors that provide support from tools, to a trailer, to tires, advice, and some gas money.

After a long night of work there’s usually a moment of pause, beer in hand, a shrug, and a Pesci-esque “It’s custom”.

Now that the turbo is back on (running a conservative 7 lbs) we’re thinking the car is somewhere in the 155hp -165hp range up from some unknown but low quantity in NA spec. We do have to run the restrictor so you can chop that off as well - you can definitely feel it, but my foot isn’t so finely calibrated as to give you a precise number. We were planning on a solid 1-2 weeks for shakedown but ran into issues and ended up with 2 runs up and down an orchard at 4:30am. This is not the way to do things, but sometimes you just have to roll with it.

It’s amazing what a little more power and torque will do to transform a car. When you accelerate you actually get the feeling of forward movement, it’s nice. When you slip up and go for a 60mph-sideways-bushwhacking-expedition in the dark of night you keep your foot down and it actually pulls you out! Torque... it’s your friend.

The car slides and you can adjust your trajectory with the gas pedal, or you can keep the gas mashed and use the brake to tidy up lines and sling yourself through a series of turns. It’s great. It makes cool whoosh-pshhht sounds too, which I can’t deny, makes me smile.

Rally is fun: it’s very very fun.

The car has started to come alive. You can really feel the car work its way through turns, feel the boost build as you rotate the car and use your left foot to control not only the direction you’re going in but the amount of whooshy go-go you’re about to be putting down. (Which admittedly for us isn’t that much but something’s better than nothing!)

With more and more experience and consistency the pace notes are flowing better from the other side of the car. Driving to notes is difficult and I know reading them is even harder. Combating motion sickness, bumps, drifts, tree branches a little too close for comfort all while giving a steady and accurate portrayal of the road all in the name of self preservation.

Our old intercom is finally on the way out, which is why it may seem a little tenuous in videos. I like to think that it still lets the more important things through as its last gasp effort to not be totally useless. Driving purely by where the co-driver puts the em-PHA-sis is exciting, but gets old only a couple puckers in.

The little Mazda has gone from a nasty, cracked out, no idea what’s going on, “where’s my boost bro”, slow but VERY loud rally car to a nice, small, poised, quiet, “I’m not crazy but I like to have a good time wink-wink”, little rally racer. A lot of good people in a small county in Northwestern Michigan have put time in on this car - it’s good to see it all coming together.

Photo: Ben Newburn

LSPR this year was great until it wasn’t. At first we thought it was a sensor somewhere that gave up the ghost but now it seems that the culprit is cracked solder joints on the ecu. A soldering iron, a little flux and we’re good to go. We knew it had to be something stupid so we move on.

Sno-Drift 2016 is coming up. Even though the car is apparently in one piece the work never stops. We’re going to need a new clutch, definitely a new skid-plate, and a new intercom. That’s a pretty short list which is a good thing. It takes a village to raise a child and that’s certainly true here. I cannot thank the team and anyone who has taken time to help, there are certainly quite a few.

The passion for rally from drivers and non-drivers a like is what keeps it alive. The community organizers, and stage workers make it happen as they’re standing in freezing rain for hours on end to make sure everyone is on time and safe. The organizers and workers are the life blood of rally. I can’t emphasize enough how much fun volunteering is - you should really just get out and do it.

It’s nice to have stage captains comment on how much better the car is looking from the last time they saw it - hopefully it’ll continue to improve. I mean, they’re only a few of us running these things anymore so somebody’s gotta do it... right? Because GTX.

Either way the name of the game is to Press on Regardless and that’s exactly what we’ll be doing next year.

For anyone who’s interested we’ll be putting up updates on the car, rallies, boondoggles, and other rallycar related adventures on the Facebook page.

www.facebook.com/jaracing

SHAMELESS PLUG:

I’d like to thank the Leelanau County Academy of Shade Tree Rally Advisors, friends and family, and our sponsors who with their help, make it possible.

MFD Classic Motors

Bahle Properties Inc.

Emerson Geophysical

Mr. Hoxies Garage

3-Mile Garage Fabrication

And a thanks to the awesome Photographers: !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Pawel Nocon, Tomasz Czupryna, Ben Newburn, and Comic Ozzie Autosport Photography

And more pics from the rally because why not?