Olympus 2014

We could probably use a hand on the #945 Merkur, as I have to switch from service crew to co-driving as of last night..

Shoot Jay, I wish I had known you were peddling good coffee. Everything around there was terrible!

Olympus recap, blue Volvo 240 piloted by Arnaud and limped along by me.
For our first rally we had the one main goal of to finish without any major offs or destroying the car. We did accomplish that. But we were plagued by some electrical issues with the fuel pump relay. Ran one stage with no power and not being able to go over 2500rpm. Missed two stages as we went back to service to scab something together.

Did three more stages and had a great time. On Nahwatzel the top shock eye broke off and then the shock proceeded to rub on the tire. We thought the burning smell was some underbody protection that may have come loose and was burning on the exhaust. We had to stop when the shock jammed itself through the tire. Also the spring got ripped out of the perch. Fixed it on the side of the stage and limped back home.

Ran the second day with no left rear shock and the spring held on with zap straps. Finally found our groove and got cooking on Nahwatzel about 25% through. Made it through all the stages and had a great time. Who needs shocks anyways!?

No big drama all weekend, awesome! Lots of stories, some carnage but dang what a bunch of smiles. Al Kuhn left early and had some swag coming, shame, shame.

Nice to see all the rally friends and Keith too! Grant needs to make it up again some day tho.

Bigger and better next year, more new roads, and money for a dinner.

We were under the impression there was not party at all!

Any way to get that prize to Al? Maybe he can sell it and get a new gas tank and rear skid plate!

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-don
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We'll get it to Al somehow. We didn't have the budget for dinner this year. It was about $5k for a sandwich bar at the casino and considerably more for a real dinner. We be in better shape next year with the National and the sponsorship we can get because of it..or we'll hire a taco truck.

Taco truck FTW!

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Jay Woodward
Snohomish, WA
'90 Mazdog Frankenprotege
Chronologically, 46...

I love taco trucks!

Taco truck would be GREAT!

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Robert.

"You are way too normal to be on Rally Anarchy." Eddie Fiorelli.

That was the most fun I've had at a rally in a long time.

In fact, we had so much fun, we've made the very bad decision to go to the Idaho Rally. Ok, part of that decision was made because Seana looked at the entry list (after telling herself not to) and saw how many german and swedish cars were on the entry list.

It was a fantastic event that I can only wish we'd gotten to complete, but I totally blew the apex of a 90 left, cutting it far too tight and finding a hidden stump. Yes I am feeling quite stoopid. Despite this, we'll be back, probably in the same car. I thought at first the damage was terminal but now it's starting to look more hopeful. Will know more later today when I remove what's left of the skidplate. The gearlube dripping down onto it has me worried though...
One thing we learned, the Giant Bus beats the living crap outta the Trashed White Van when it comes to service rigs. It and the coffee machine are now mandatory rally requirements from here on out.

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Jay Woodward
Snohomish, WA
'90 Mazdog Frankenprotege
Chronologically, 46...

Taco Truck wins!!!!
We had a great time out there untill my little mistake toward the end of stage 8. I got my first roll in, so I got that out of the way. Now lets hope I learned something from it. Jenne Medcroft co-drove for me and she did a great job, I'm looking forward to working with her again. I got to use an intercom for the first time (Peltor) and I gotta say that that makes a world of a difference. Rather than the yelling that kind of puts off a stressful vibe and slightly unclear it felt really mellow and I could concentrate more on the driving.
Watching the video of our roll, 2 mistakes were pointed out to me. 1, Need both hands on wheel, 2, I forgot to turn off the ignition. I'll do better in the future.

I was impressed by how smooth the event ran. This was the first rally that I did not have to walk my time card into the controls! Thanks! I was listening in on the radio and I didn't hear any drama. Those guys make it look so easy! I like the new time cards. Declaring an in time to service kind of blew my mind in a good way. The only thing that I would have changed was two minute windows for the night running of Nahwatzel. Thank you to the organizers and volunteers!

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Robert.

"You are way too normal to be on Rally Anarchy." Eddie Fiorelli.

Olympus is over, I wish it wasn't as it was one of the best week-end of my life.

I would like to thank some of the people that made it happened…

Thank you to all the volunteers, organizers and the fans who helped with the event...

To all the people involved in the building of the car, thank you, I could not have made it without you…

The John's, JVAB (wish you could come to some events to meet your customers), Mr Lane (hope you can join the Circus again as we need more Volvos), Dave Clark (glad I did not have to check the strength of your cage, although the skids plates survives the beating of the rocks), Herr Gobright (always here for advise, to save the day and to make sure you make home safely), The other Robert The "Culbertson" (my Co-pilot for a day who also spent countless hours helping me built the blue brick), the Team at Group 2 Motorsports (Chris & Ben, thank you…) the Service Man, Cody (lot of work to take care of few cars and driving family members around), the Clarks Senior & Junior who opened their circle to new comers, to all the family members who came along for the craziness of Olympus Rally…

To all competitors, either you made it on 4 wheels, on the roof (yes, Chris you gonna fixe that baby and maybe turned it into a rear wheel drive...) or DNF for multiple reasons, thank you for being part of it…

Hope to see soon at the next event...

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Arno

"Sideways get you there Faster"

Make it quick and simple. Everything felt great and we were going at a quick clip. Motor done blew up, what a waste of brand new oil and coolant fill. New motor on it's way from Texas, hope to see you all in Idaho albeit with a few less HPs. Also, not enough can be said with the way Garth was driving the Saab. He beat us on the first few stages and was chasing us down the rest, and that thing came by like a bullet when we were on the side of the road. Congrats to him.

It was heart breaking when Adam told me that. Black top in the mail or ??? Did you hole the block or just lose a bearing?