Olympus Review

for anyone else who wants to see them now and not wait, my page is open to the public and I shared her album and I also shared with the org page

https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=nf#!/12xalt

^hopefully that works :dunno:

Ah Olympus, it ended up being a blast for me. Didn't think I would make it. Drove car for the first time at 2pm Friday, threw it in the trailer and tore north for registration/tech. Met Ryan my co-driver (for the first time ever) and thankfully he is very organized. Passed tech, and we both jumped in the car and I drove it to The Ridge, with laptop in my lap, trying to get some tuning done on the car. I am sure Ryan was wondering what he signed up for.

Took a while to get any sort of rhythm. This is only my second event, pretty much changed all the important aspects of the car, the car was way too low (stock front struts), and a new to me co-driver so we took it easy. Tried to stay out of the ruts on stage 1 to save the bottom of the car, wasn't sure how long the struts would last, etc. Stages 2-4 progressively got quicker and was having a blast.

The track stage ended up sucking, because I had never seen the track (missed recce to finish car) and once I touched a road course my brain switched out of rally mode I think so I wasn't in tune with the co-driver. I was just trying to drive what I saw. And my lights were pointing at the tree tops. Awesome! All I really remember is seeing some gravel here and there and staying sort of between the edges of the pavement, most of the time.

Night stages were a learning experience, that aside from the horrific dust were getting better and more fun for me. If it wasn't for the late hour, I was actually looking forward to the second loop through. Well that and I wasn't looking forward to the dust again.

Sunday another pass through Nahwatzel had me smiling. Two corners in, something broke and the car became 1wd. Did the best I could to keep it pointed the right way and put some power down to accelerate. We finished, but lost 3min over our previous time through there. Was worried about the car behind me but never saw them (including later at the ridge). Was still probably one of the more fun stages I ran this weekend, even handicapped and bleeding time.

Thanks to everyone involved with putting the event on, the volunteers working the course and to all the great people involved in rally. Awesome weekend!!

Sean, I have said it elsewhere but damn man your car is sweet. I love that body style and yours is super clean. Derik's car is clean and damn fast as well. I really enjoyed getting to look at a lot of the cars out there.

Till Mt Hood!

---

John Reed
John Reed Racing
www.johnreedracing.com
johnreedracing@gmail.com

Really sorry about that Adam, I was seriously scared while driving on stage all weekend. I had zero faith in myself at any speed higher than 40mph, and basically stood on the brakes into every corner, even the 6's. Don't know what to do other than continue on at a reduced pace till the mojo comes back. Kind of heartbreaking actually. I thought time would heal, but that image of sliding into a tree still haunts me.

Sean, you'll be fine, just gotta get some rain going on and commit to those 6's a few times to make you realize you can do eet! I need to do the same! More drive time!

---

-Tom
DemonRallyTeam | Fine Tuning | CTS Turbo & RP Turbos | RalleyTuned | JRM | Meister Autowerks
Spitfire EFI | Product Apparel | JVAB Imports | NLS | AP Tuning | USRT

Add us on Facebook | Next Event: 2013 Olympus Rally June 22-23 Olympia, WA

It's good to hear everyone else's stories.

We had a great rally.

Despite trying to throw the car into a ditch on the first stage, we set a decent time. Then back to service to fix fender liner and torn CV boot from the minor off. On the next two stages, Dan and I really worked well together- He kept encouraging me to go faster! Nahwatzel started off great, but we soon saw heavy dust from the wounded car in front of us. Lost a bunch of time - They moved over as soon as they saw us. I think we lost about 40 seconds. Took second place in the Regional by 37 seconds to Will Hudson. Back at service, we found another torn CV boot and a broken wheel from a huge rock we hit in the dust on Nahwatzel. Luckily, it still held air. Dang near ran out of gas on the way back to service.

Ridge Special went pretty well despite snapping a rear axle on the launch. I was really surprised at how well the car handled with 3-wheel drive. Would love to get some more time on this track... maybe a future crapcan race.

Luckily, we brought plenty of spare axles.

The next two night stages were a nightmare for us. Heavy, heavy dust. We drove conservatively and were just slow. Were actually happy for the volunteers that the last two stages were canceled, and ready for some sleep.

Last Nahwatzel, we had a goal of 21 minutes flat, which would have been 53 seconds faster than the first running. Felt really confident at the start, and this only increased as the stage went on. Dan was spot-on with all the notes and I think I pushed as hard as ever. We ended up with a 20:55. Not enough to catch Will Hudson, and not enough to beat Derik Nelson, either. Nice work, Derik! We were surprised to see all the carnage that the "hole" caused when we got back. I talked to at least 10 drivers who had one or more flats (or much worse) from that spot. We must have gotten lucky as I only lifted a little on the way through and we didn't have any issues.

We definitely picked up pace this weekend, though the car is still much more capable than the driver. Need more seat time! Will post some video soon.

Doug
Cobb Tuning
TSS Fab
PIAA
Chase Race

Whoa, I'm the guy in George's Civic - really not aiming to be an ass I swear. Tom I'm sorry I really didn't see you flag us, or register what was going on for you right after the stage finish. Honestly my history is one of stopping to help and tug people on stage. I'm sorry.
And Adam, don't judge me so hard!! We were behind Sean on the 1st 3 short 6-mile stages and he clearly wasn't pushing as we took well over a minute on him on each, so we wanted to move ahead before the 20-miler. Is that so bad?? Believe me I know I'm not gods gift to rally driving. I'm just out there trying to drum up some nerve and speed like everyone else, and do George's sweet car some justice.

Anyway ... I really enjoyed the variety of smooth roads, just bummed we couldn't get more miles this time. It was awesome to see Derik do so well first time out in the M3. What a sweet cage and those beautiful welds! And amazing drive first time, he is only going to get faster in it. Me, I need to get braver if any chance of keeping up in G2.

Quote
acrane
Also - Anders asked me 'why didn't they just go to 2:30 windows' - it blew my mind.

Ha!

It's interesting, isn't it, how we all have these ideas that seems fundamental, like bedrock, unshakable. Until we see someone else do it differently, and then our mind gets blown.

My most recent experience with this was the NORRA Mexican 1000. "What? You're going to run a 175 mile long stage with a total of eight people?" Yeah, that blew my mind. That was just in the middle of about half a dozen blown minds I had down there... can't wait to go back.

I often try to sit back and reflect "Ok, what are the things that we think are set in stone... but really aren't?" For instance... I've thought about running bikes on 20 second intervals. Also thought about starting two bikes at a time. (For them, it's a 6 lane wide road, after all.)

The world, my friends, is our oyster.

Anders

---

Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.

Quote
12xalt
for anyone else who wants to see them now and not wait, my page is open to the public and I shared her album and I also shared with the org page

https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=nf#!/12xalt

^hopefully that works :dunno:

very nice. thanks!

Quote
Racinkid13

Quote
12xalt
for anyone else who wants to see them now and not wait, my page is open to the public and I shared her album and I also shared with the org page

https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=nf#!/12xalt

^hopefully that works :dunno:

very nice. thanks!

and now I know who sent me a friend request hahahahahahaha

WooHoo, what a painful rally. Gonna make it short. Lost my Co-driver. Got a new Co-Driver, thanks Jeff Tanavan, you did a great job, and thanks Adam Vokes for lending him to me. Beginning of rally felt good, car is finally the tuned and reliable monster it needs to be, was going a little slow getting in sync with new co-driver, but put in an ok time. Nahwatzel took my first wheel and got me stuck behind two Subarus, too much dust and not enough confidence for me to get up on them to pass. Ridge looked awesome, I even threw another set of tires on my car cause I wanted to spin every corner for the fans, Adam came in and told me he was running out of gas, which is not a good sign, cause his car uses less than mine. Gas light came on while lining up, and car started to lurch by the end of the straight. What a waste. Night stages were super cool, but the dust was ridiculous, so it turned into more of a cruise than anything. Second run at Nahwatzel was fun, but I broke another wheel, held up the Subarus, sorry guys =(. And then broke another wheel a mile from the finish, drove that off the stage, and luckily had packed two spares, so was able to change the tire and transit. I guess real rally wheels are in my future. See you at Hood!

My favorite scene at Oly was all Ken Block's Ford Racing Limeys hanging out under the hood of Medcrofts car. I would have snapped a picture, but they looked like they might have gone all soccer riot on me.


Thanks to Mr. Heymagic for coming out for "emergency scrutineering" duty.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/2012 10:01PM by alkun.

Olympus was a heart breaker for Chris and myself to say the least. stage 1 started off well, set a top 10 national time,



3rd in 2wd behind Orders and a second of acp, witch we were really happy about as the stage was no where close to clean. on the way back to service we notice we picked up a flat, no big deal, pull in to service, jack the car up, and watch all the oil come pouring out. Cracked pan ugh dnf. MWRT was nice enough to weld it up for us, put it back on and were ready for the night stages....just had to sit around and wait for 10 hours.

Fast forward, on to stage 5, set the 14th fastest time. We feel warmed up, ready to get out in the woods. 2.7 miles in this happened.

Why'd the sump crack?

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

hit a big rock, that dented the skid plate and pushed into the pan. The plan was to build a new skid plate before pfr but....