Why JVL preaches

I fear the wrath of JVL, as this story reads, I break 4 of his cardinal rules.

I apologize for the rambling, A.D.D., snippet like writing.


Please be gentle! Haha. Rally on!








Car #50 Ojibwe Rally Report – Al Dantes, Jr and Jennifer Majszak From the Driver’s Seat!
First off, I’ll start at the end. Haha. I would like to thank Jennifer for codriving for me. Ian, Broc, and Chris for fixing the car and getting me and the car out of the woods! The RKT team and Subaroots for EVERYTHING! They were 100% behind me and did anything and everything I needed help with. The spectator marshalls for tools, help, troubleshooting, and an extra set of eyes. Piotr Fetela, his codriver, and team! Kali Marker for WRENCHING on my car, laying in the dirt while I was gone to novice school! She also drove the car through Tech! Awesome. My family and friends who encouraged me to follow my dream for the past 17 years of rallying regionally. Mostly I’ll blame Elwood! Haha.
NUMBER ONE! I would like to thank my wife. She’s not very happy with me, but I know she’s happy I’m home, and SHE IS THE GREATEST.
Now since I’m posting this on two forums and Facebook, A LOT of you people have no idea who these people are. If you don’t care, stop reading. Seriously. The next few pages are going to be the ramblings of a mad man. I wrote down (I hope) all of my memories from my FIRST rally.
Now, you are thinking “but I know you rallied previously. 2007 Mini LSPR.” Well that rally was a Coefficient 1, practically in my backyard, held on private property, and very layed back. I had rented Paul Koll’s GTI. I rode with my cousin, Brandon. I had also raced dirt track stock cars the week before, for the very first time, and barrel rolled down the back stretch 3 and a half times in a Saturn. Tied the track record on my first try. I know, not funny. Well anyways, we drove at a decent but slow pace, didn’t gel off the tulips and one pass recce. Spun twice, (didn’t know the car had a bent rear beam to begin with), and quite frankly it was so small of an event (13 entries with 2 short stages), I don’t feel it as my first event.
THE YEARS LEADING UP TO THE RALLY
I had a rough time after the last LSPR. I have been a volunteer for this rally for over 16 years. Thanks go to my Uncle Bob and Aunt Boopie. They dragged me out into the woods at the age of 16, as a marshall. First rally car at speed plus Menge Creek stage. I was hooked. When I was in college, Michigan Tech, I marshaled solo. Sitting in the cold woods of Kenton till 2 in the morning by myself. LOVING LIFE! Eventually, their son Brandon, became the youngest stage captain at LSPR. I believe he was well under 25 when he started. I was his right hand man and we had the art of cat herding and marshall coordination and layout down to an art. A few years ago, he moved away, missed an LSPR, and hasn’t been back. Jim Bertagnoli called me, and begged me to fill-in as stage captain. He didn’t have to ask twice. I’ve been doing it for the past few years and dragging new blood and friends in to the woods with me. I also have one of my daughters well trained in the art of controls.
2009, I called up Spencer Prusi at Fox Marquette and told him I was coming to buy a car. I even told him which car. I was trading in an Audi A4 I had bought 2 years previous, that had been a nightmare for me. (motor rebuild, new turbo, new clutch, thermostats, waterpump, and an Audi 3rd party). Not fun. I brought my wife along, and immediately she picked out a different car. She wanted black, I insisted on white. Yup, we bought the black one. This was October, we used it for Captaining that year. We also took it to Duluth Christmas shopping. We dropped the women off at the Mall, and my brother Elwood and I headed to Solon Springs, WI to participate in Dave Cizma’s TSD Rally. Epic good fun. Interesting when you have a ralliest working for the county, designing and making his own roads.
Well to quit rambling, this spring, this Subaru, magically turned into a 2010 Dodge Grand Caravan. Our two daily drivers were a Hemi Durango and a minivan. The Hemi was sucking a lot of gas, and I told the wife I found a great mileage Subaru for $4,000. Reluctantly and not happily, she gave me the money. This car was in Vermont. Yes, it was caged. Minutes before finalizing plans to go get it, my brother Elwood said “Well what about that VW in Appleton?” I HATE VW’S and Audis. Because I can. He kept talking, and talking, and finally I contacted Mr. Merbach. We haggled for a couple days and finally after throwing some more of my merch in on the deal, I rolled out of Appleton with a turn key car minus any spares, rims, or tires. The only spare he gave me was a fuel pump. The wife found out my new work car was a rally car, and she was NOT HAPPY. This was in March 2012.
I immediately went to work making the car mine. Hours of gently removing sun baked decals. SAD side story, the hour I scraped off the Max Attack decals (getting new ones of course), Mr. Burmeister posted the suspension and probable demise of the Max Attack 2 wheel drive Championship Series. I painted portions of the car white, waited a day, taped it off, painted grey, and everything looked good. The final day, with everything taped off, I sprayed the black. And the black came out for crap! I hate it. I ordered a cheap Ebay precut tint and did that as well. After the paint was done, and some time before, I was putting miles on the car. Learning, feeling, adjusting. The car came with 20 way adjustable Hotbits. And were they. Tim Smigowski sold me a Peltor intercom and headset and came along for a short low speed test ride. OH did I mention I was entered for Magnum Opus Rally in Newberry, MI. in April?
Soon after posting pictures of the car on Facebook, my good friend Matt Solka messaged me, and asked if I would consider him for the position of codriver. I layed out the details for him and we agreed it would be a blast.
Everything came together like clockwork. Tony Wood from Kansas shipped me his HANS to borrow and use for the event. Matt had 2 of his crew members psyched up and ready to rally. EVERYTHING WAS READY! 3 days before the event, I was testing near my house and catastrophe. The timing belt jumped. The valves got in a fight with pistons and neither of them won. We were out. The only solace I took in it, was at least it didn’t happen on the first mile of the rally. My favorite quoted text I received. “What? IMPOSSIBLE, if so you are the most unlucky guy on earth.” Glad to meet ya!
Everyone bailed. I woke 4 am morning of the rally, drove to Newberry, and assisted the Chief of Controls with his duties. We floated from stage to stage plugging holes. At one stage, I even worked the stage start with Carl Seidel! Amazing fast event, but I heard and guarantee the roads will be much twistier and epic next year!
The car sat. I HAD a rally car, and it was just sitting in my brother’s garage. I had retired mud racing, after winning at all the tracks in the UP, and the truck breaking and still holding the all time Stock class record in ET and Total time for the Upper Peninsula Mud Drag Association. The truck holds the record. My wife was the driver!! So I guess she’s officially the record holder!
So I began a part-out sale. Lots of interested parties, all tire kickers. I know you never get half the money back you invested, but I’m not selling you a race motor for $500 with tranny. NO MONEY! I have 5 daughters, 2 very active in extracurriculars, figure skating and basketball. Work 60 hours a week, and no time for anything. If I’m not working or sleeping, I’m trying to be a good dad. My wife is wonder woman!
I put the stock car up for sale. I am the founding member of TOWER CITY RACE TEAM. We formed after the first mud drag we ever did in 2003. Through the years, we have grown to a 4 car team of dirt track Pure Stock drivers, our large family, friends, and fans. 3 brothers. Myself, Elwood, and Scott. My crew chief and chief motivator, Jesse Collins, held out for a year and the bug was too much, he bought a car as well, and is my major competition and #1 wrench. We have epic battles, fun, and bs at the track. We have also participated in off road derby, snowmobile racing, and rally.
THE WIFE SAID ABSOLUTELY NOT! She loves the camaraderie of the racing. She thoroughly enjoys spectating, arguing with friends, and cheering on the cars. She’s even been in a play fight, rolling in the grass with a fellow racer’s girlfriend after a close race, where I chased the leader down from the back row, and passed him near the end. If the boss says No, the answer is NO. I was not allowed to leave stock cars.

So no extra cash, and no time, rally was not looking good. The year in stock cars has gone well. A few wins here and there. 3rd in points after exploding axles and almost melting motors. The last race of the year is this Saturday.

The rally bug was still itching at me. I missed Nemadji…watched the calendar click by and Ojibwe was coming up….I was most definitely doing LSPR, but that’s my home rally….. I HAD TO DO OJIBWE. I spoke with the wife, let her know I wasn’t going to give away all my mud truck parts, and she gave me permission to fix the car. Engine search began. I sourced a motor out of Minneapolis off car-part.com 170-210 compression across all 6 cylinders, less than 100,000 miles, and good runner. The price was right and the shipping was only 150. I had it in L’Anse a few days later. Ojibwe was coming fast. My entry was in, and paid. Car was not running. My brother Scott gave me a hand and 2 days later we had the old out and the new bolted in. THEN THE FUN BEGAN. I was on my own. Hater of Volkswagen. Alone in the garage, I battled with the car for a week straight. No Bentley manual, I came out victorious. My car is a 95 Jetta, and the motor I purchased was a 98. OBD1 vs OBD2. 5 or 6 times I had the top off the motor. I had the car running the 1st time with the wrong intake, exhaust, throttle body, and engine harness. Upon learning my blunder, I tore it down the next day and changed everything. All buttoned up, I started it up, and sprayed fuel all over the garage. Leaking injectors. Tore down again the next day, put on new orings, reassemble, perfect! Nope, one small leaking injector. Tear down again the next day, buy orings again, dipped them in lube this time, reassemble, and nope, didn’t clip the injector harness out of the way, pinched. Diassemble, clip in, and reassemble. Last bolt stripped the hex in the head. Crap, hope I got it right!! Fire it up, GOLDEN!!!!!!!! We have a rally car!
This is now 7:21 pm, Wednesday. Rally week.
Matt, informs me he won’t be able to make the rally. He is aTORC short course racer, and melted his buggy motor. World Championships the following week. New motors cost money, and I totally respect his decision, and that was in our agreement in March. Rally would not jeopardize or degrade his race team and season.

LET’S GO RALLY!!!!!!!!
I immediately double post on Specialstage looking for a codriver. No responses. I can see I’m getting views, but no responses. Ding. I get a PM. Sweet, open it up, damn, its from the organizer. He’s concerned about my situation. Nothing. I see Colin Vickman and Ian Seppanen posting a link on Facebook. Sweet. Thanks for the help. Ding. I get a strange friend request. What the heck is a Hoxie? Ok. Ding. Another message. Oh. Jennifer Majszak is going to the rally and would love to codrive. Sweet. Oh crap, what’s the wife gonna think? I call the wife. “Umm darling? Umm, you know how I don’t have a codriver, and Matt can’t? Umm, I was approached by a veteran codriver and I was making sure with you first if SHE can codrive for me?” No objections, but no love for rally, I sign her up! I have a codriver! Crap, Matt was supposed to bring his own belts. No belts, no time to ship, no auxiliary lights, no HANS for her, no HANS for me. Not looking good. Mr. Israelson, Izzy, and Tim Smigowski come through in the clutch@! BIG TIME. I borrow Tim’s HANS for me, Jennifer uses Izzy’s, in the end we also borrowed 6 pt Hans belts, an entire 4 Hella setup, and extinguisher from Izzy. #858 ZipTie Rally. I cannot sing this man’s praises loud enough. We had some awesome talks this weekend.
So Thursday comes I call my teammate Jesse, and ask to use his trailer (he has the best on the team). He comes thru! He’s ecstatic I have the car fixed. He volunteered to fix it the week previous, but I was busy playing with my babies and sleeping.
Rally Weekend I planned on vacation Friday and Monday, but our shop is very busy, and I know my family needs the hours as well. So I worked Thursday night thru Friday morning and left the shop at 7 am. Boogied to Baraga, loaded the garage and all the spare parts I could salvage off the old motor. Oh crap, Skidplate! Leaning against the wall. Threw that in and almost left. Skidplate Bolts! Grab those too, and the fuel pump sitting next to them. Packed a coil, wires, fuel pump, cam sensor, crank sensor, etc. in a box, and off to BP I went to meet Mr. Smigowski with the HANS. We talked rally for a bit in the parking lot, he gave me some tips, and off I went back to the shop. Loaded the car on trailer, took a picture, and hit the road. 8 hours to Detroit Lakes.
I take no pride in what I did, but I did it, and it was the only way it could be done. I woke up for work at 4:30 pm on Thursday, worked all night, and hit the road at 10:30am. Drove 8 hours and rolled out of the seat to meet Mr. Gallup from Summers Rotary Racing. We spoke, I unloaded the car, and started through my checklist. Security came by and let us know we had to evacuate the parking area (it was not Holiday Inn property). We obliged, but too many people had followed me in and I believe it was a couple hours before they had emptied the lot. (Property owner was NOT a fan of people parking on her grass, she had supposedly called tow trucks minutes after I arrived.) I never seen one.
I then took the car across the way to get gas, and then found the nearest manual car wash. Came back and met my codriver for the first time!
Jennifer Majszak is a tiny little lady with an infectious smile. She instantly wanted to help with whatever she could. Shortly thereafter we went to register. Izzy was at the door waiting for us. (As he was providing half the rally equipment!) Poor Jen was embarrassed as she did not realize who I was talking to, until a few minutes after the fact. Bad driver.
Registration went smoothly, I spoke with Mr Tony Wood for the first time since LSPR, years back, when we were volunteers together. He a HAM, myself a captain.
Back to the car, to install belts, and check everything before Tech. RUN, RUN, RUN. Rally Team Kaltak and Subaroots came running to help. I can’t remember what all we did (no sleep), but eventually, we were the last car in tech. Mr. McGinn and crew checked the whole car out and we left with a decent list of items to fix before we were allowed to run. Nothing too serious, but still. We could get up early run to various stores, source the items, and install well before Novice School!
Darkness came, and I planned on sleeping in my rig (save money), the team insisted otherwise. They did not know me, and I hadn’t passed my interview to take their friend racing. Off to the lounge to talk. Chris Gordon, Kali Marker, Jenn, Sam and Rachelle Kaltak and their crew were all waiting. Stories turned in to stories, pictures were shared, etc. In the end they had all revealed their tactics. I was googled, facebook stalked, referenced, etc. well before the first message was sent my way. They knew I could be trusted to be a safe and competent driver.
Eventually, I went out the front to have a smoke, and met up with JB and Al from Rally America, much laughs and assumptions were made and they wouldn’t tell me any of their “secret plans”. I let them go, and I returned to the Lounge. The team was gone. Nope. They had moved out to the patio. Izzy showed up and the stories got louder, funnier, etc. Random passers by (non rally traffic) got my ear and I spent way too much time talking about stock cars, mud trucks, and Toyotas. I hate Toyotas. Haha.
We left the building, agreed NO ONE was driving, and they offered me a deluxe room in a 3 room tent….just down the road. Hours later, maybe some getting lost, climbing trees to look around, and swinging on a swing set. We made it to the campsite. Next time, we find a driver! I crawled in to my bed and found no pillow, no blankie, NO PROBLEM!! I was asleep instantly. Everyone woke up late (big surprise), and we scurried back to fix the tech issues. Mud flaps sourced at O’reilly’s, Window marker for names, etc. We get back to the car and I have 5 minutes till school. Crap. Kali shoves me out of the way says give me the bolts, the impact, and the skid plate. “I got this”, she says. I insist, you are not getting all greasy laying under my car! She calls me bad names, and I run off to school. Slide in the building on my minute, and voila. Door is locked and all the other competitors are waiting in the hall way. After much gnashing of teeth we find the back door is open, and Mr. Niday was waiting for us. An hour and a half later, I am released, but TECH is closed. I step out the building and Jenn is running across the parking lot. WHERE IS THE LOG BOOK AND TECH SHEET! “Ummm, glove compartment!” I reply and run to Tech where my car is waiting FULLY ASSEMBLED! The girls did it themselves and drove the car in with 30 seconds to spare. They were very concerned. In the end, we were found to be compliant and we were CLEARED TO RALLY!!!!!!
One hour till Expose, I finish the rear mud flap install, switch the tires front to back, and drill 4 holes in my hood to mount Izzy’s rack. No time, and no crew, I ask the RTK (Kaltak) team if they can haul a couple tires and the lights to service. No Problemo. They rock!
EXPOSE
Time is up, and we pull in to Parc Expose at the last minute. Find a spot and park the car. Wow, I had never felt such a calm come over me. There was nothing else I could do. All I HAD TO DO WAS DRIVE. I can do that!
I’m walking around, and I notice something I hadn’t earlier. #906 car. Open Lite Eclipse. Hmm, baldish street tires and rims, and I see they are still trying to get thru Tech. I then notice the driver, and realize it’s probably all my fault.
Maybe 3 years ago, I was at LSPR registration bs’ing with Mr. Bertagnoli, when a solo Michigan Tech student walked up and asked “is there anything I can do? I don’t have a woods car, but I’d like to help.” I smiled and said I need another control worker, and you can ride with me! He worked the controls for Beacon Hill and Herman. I had never seen the kid before or since, and here he is in his first race! Outstanding, but after seeing his issues, and that I was scheduled to start behind him, I politely asked the Steward for a change. It was approved, without incident, and I moved up the start order.
I consumed mass quantities of Powerade, water, and some coffee, and before long it was our minute. We headed out on the long transit to the stages. I went slow (we were warned about Observation Controls, radar guns to the layman.) Everyone stacked up behind me, and I’m sure they are glad now. I seen the movement instantly when the gun came from behind the tree. O CONTROL! Stop, pull over, sign in, and on our way!

FIRST STAGE!
The long transit felt like 10 minutes as I watched Jenny adjust the calibration on the rally computer. We pulled up to the first stage and we had 15 minutes. Got out, stretched the legs, and grabbed the borrowed safety gear. I slid the HANS on my head and pushed down. PANIC!!! I have a Hans stuck on my head. The carbon is sprung, and its crushing my temples and ears. I push harder. Codriver sees what the stupid driver is doing, and starts laughing. NOTE, you slide a Hans on your neck, not over your head….I didn’t see it in the manual. What a moron. I barely got it off.
I also had never clipped in a HANS before. That took me a while, as well as making sure I had the belts on the unit properly. OK, ready. Nope back doors open, codriver’s window down, and we can’t reach any of them. Johan, #906, comes running and helps us out.
I was starting behind the beautiful 1973 Corolla from Canada. BEAUTIFUL car! I knew a month in advance, the 1st stage was supposed to be the fastest of the rally, and I let Jen and crew know the day before, I was NOT going to go balls out on the 1st stage with a fresh car, crew, etc, and I did not. OH, I did not mention, but I bet you assumed, we were using a route book only, no notes!!
I don’t remember a single feature of the 1st stage, other than it had a lot of Triangle Plants everywhere. It seemed like 6 or 7 cars off. Unbelievable. 7 miles later, it was over and we pulled in to the control. We had made at least 30 seconds on the car in front of us! Woot. I know Jenn has codriven with some very fast drivers, so I quickly apologized for my slow pace, and promised I would get more comfortable and faster. She quickly retorted, and said “Dude, WTF, you killed that stage!” Serious? Didn’t feel fast to me. I felt great. Car ran PERFECTLY. I looked down, and noticed we had ran the stage, literally, with the hand brake 2 clicks on. That would explain the twitchiness. I knew a VR6 was nose heavy, but.

Transit to 2nd stage past Fuel Depot. Our gas gauge finally had moved off full, and was at 7/8th of a tank. God bless “stock” cars. I don’t even remember if I splurged for midgrade. Haha.

Stage 2
We ride a short trip to the next stage, and no white Corolla. Weird. Now we have a Red Mustang in front of us. Mr. Miller. I knew he would be kicking up dust! I did not know his car was not happy. I was smart, with years of working controls, and stayed way back.
We get up for our start, and I’m smiling, calm, and relaxed. Driving is the easy part! Very twisty start I remember, with a monster jump in the middle. We take off like bandits, flying thru the stage.
We pass Ian Seppanen and Chris Gordon (Jenn’s codriven and close friends with both) standing, dancing, and jumping around like monkeys next to their crashed car. Crap. We pass more Triangle Plants and their owners.
3 miles in, we catch heavy dust, we hit shade, and I notice a red mustang hiding in the dust. Crap. “How long is this stage?” 5 more miles. Crap. OK, I’m going to stay close on him, and if we hit a shady spot, maybe he’ll see me and move over. Nope, dust the whole way. Pretty cool, spectator video of us chasing the Mustang stupidly close thru the dust. Obviously, I didn’t even check this stage time.

Stage 3.
We ask politely if we may switch positions with the Millers and they oblige. We check in the control, and it’s empty. No cars. We go over the hill and see a car take the start. I ALMOST went to down to the start line. I waited (minimum 3 minutes between checkin and start), and went down on our minute and took the start. I was enjoying the clear road, we were gellin, and STOMPING it! The stage flowed well, left, right, left, right. 4 miles in car shuts off. What? Nothing, dump clutch, run thru gears, nothing. I think battery terminal. We stop, Jenn runs up the road with triangle and OK sign. I start digging. Nope, everything works, but the car won’t start. Won’t even fart. Fuses! Grab my phone for a backlight, they all check out. But fusebox is crooked. Did fusebox shift and a plug fall out? I start digging. Nothing’s working. Med Sweep pulls up, assesses our situation, and says no problem guys, this stage has been red-crossed! What? Jenn panics. Red Cross means there is an immediate medical emergency and the ambulance is needed ASAP. She grabs her cell. No service. Sends a text to her teammates. Will it get out? I keep trying to fix the car. Heavy Sweep drives by. She screams, she got a text back from Kaltaks, they are fine, but before she could text back that we were fine, her phone died.
I keep digging. 20 minutes later Steve Gingras in 000 pulls up, hollers at me for stealing his car number (there are only one of each number 1 to 999 for each rally car in the US), he assesses we are timebarred, and takes our time card away. We are done. He understands where we are at and offers to pull us to the spectator point. Sweet! More brains!
We quickly arrive at the spectator point to see #906 finishing some repairs and ready to head down the road. We trade spots and he’s gone. The Fetela team is there. They stuffed their beautiful car in to a rock. Jenn and I explain our situation to everyone who gathered around the car, and EVERYONE digs in. Still no luck.
Finally, I pull the connector off the fuel pump, tap it to a jump wire, on frame and we have spark. Crap. We have power, but no pump. We are done.

Just then the Fetela service crew shows up, from the spectator route, and offers to take Jenn back to Service to get my pump. Game back on! If we can get it back running, we can run the night stages.

Myself, and a spectator marshall get the fuel pump out and test. Yup. It’s buzzing, but not spinning. I then try to figure out the time, and when to expect Jenn back. Crap. Fuel Pump is in Detroit Lakes. 60 miles from service. And she doesn’t have a car, only a ride to Service.

I resign myself to spectating. I enjoyed talking with them all. Everyone had questions, and I talked for hours. There were a group of “well to do” senior citizens who LOVED the rally. They were local landowners who said they sat on their camp porches and listened to the rally for years, but this was the first year they spectated. Finally, I’m wiped. I go sit in car, close my eyes, and I’m out.
I don’t know how long I was sleeping but I wake up to a marshall asking if he can open my trunk to clear the fumes out of the car. I hop out and The FINNISH Fury Rally Team is standing there! Sweet! They did not know we were there. Dumb luck, that is where they went to spectate.

I explain to Ian, Broc, and Chris my situation. They agree when the fuel pump gets there, I’m golden. It’s dark now, and getting cold. No Jenn.

Stage 10 starts. We spectate the first 10, I see lights coming up the spectator trail, sweet she’s back! Nope, Polish team retrieving their car. I speak to Piotr, and we are both very concerned. He says she should have been back a long time ago. OH NO! I panic.

Less than 10 minutes later she pulls up with Kali’s yellow WRX. Sweet! I grab the pump, plug it in, turn the key, nothing. Absolutely nothing. I grab the old pump. Plug it in, nothing. No buzzing, nothing. I rethink what did I do after we verified the old pump was buzzing earlier in the day? The only thing I could recall was putting the fusebox back in to it’s mount. I can’t remember.

Ian and Brock dive in. Broc (Ian’s crew chief) runs to their truck and retrieves his multimeter. Tests everything. We lay manual power across both pumps with jump wires, nothing. Wow. Then they turned into supermen! They grabbed their extra Nissan pump (which Ian says he JUST pulled out of a car the day previous), but did not confirm it was good. We lay manual power on it, it works! Sweet, now just a lot of wire, etc. Straight constant power, some tee’s, fittings, and hoses they had the pump in and ready!

Stage closing comes through, and Jan Zedril comes down to check on us. He hollers, “Who’s the driver of this beast!” I am flattered. He tells me in his thick French Canadian accent, “When you come through, balls out, POWER!!!, awesome car!” Made my weekend. For those unfamiliar with rally, Jan is one of THE fastest 2wd rally drivers in North America.
The boys give me the ok, hook up the connections, pump is running, car starts, and I’m ready to leave. I holler, I don’t know where I’m going! All the while I thought my codriver dropped off the pump and left. Chris Gordon jumps in and rides the long trip back to Detroit Lakes, we follow Ian and his service truck/ trailer with his bent up car on it.
I leave a stop sign, and hit 4,000 rpm and Chris giggles. I say what? And he’s like, what’s in this thing? VR6 I say. OH! I never knew. Thought it was a 2.0. He’s in love with the sound of the 6 cylinder. We have a great talk on the way back, compare notes on how awesome raising good kids is, teenagers, etc. He tells me to write down my notes from the weekend, so I don’t forget everything. So it’s his fault for this huge rambling note.

Back to the hotel, put it on the trailer, and button things up. Broc and Ian take their pump back out of my car, and they head to the banquet. It’s after midnight. I stay out, charge my phone to get enough charge to text the wife, and let her know everything is good. I thought I heard something and checked Ian’s truck. There’s my codriver! Snoozing, comatose. I wake her up, let her know where we’re at, the car’s on the trailer, and the world is saved! We put our suits away, and off to the banquet.
I check the results, and they have some random dude listed as my codriver, I grab a marker and try to change. JB and crew let me know instantly NO! Oops, they fix it. And I am happy. Grab some food and sit down. Some folks walk up and say “White boy! You can drive!” What? “You are a great driver!” What? Ok. I eat and go outside. I speak with some volunteers and they enjoy the convo. One asks me aren’t you upset you didn’t finish? I give him the speech. “Dude, I’ve had such a weekend, I ‘ve met the BEST group of people in the world. If I could throw all that away, and trade it for a finish today? NEVER!!!!!!”
I let some members of the team know my feelings, and against their demands, I grab another sip of water and head to my rig to sleep. Walk up, low tire on tow rig. Unlock door, and the battery is dead. Great. Grab a wrench and take battery out of Durango, battery out of rally car, exchange. Voila. Take tools out of rig, put in rally car, same with tires. Hear the Kaltak’s conversing by their trailer. Walk over, get my tires and Izzy’s lights. Come back. Crawl in the righ and text Izzy. I have all his stuff! Off to sleep. Wake up to Izzy banging on the window 9am. He’s happy to see me. He knew I was out in the woods late and didn’t know when we came in. I hand over all his goods, and down the road he goes.

I drive to gas station 2 miles away air up tire, gas up, and hit the road. Make it an hour away, and my phone rings. OH NO! What did I forget? Chris Gordon. “We have one of your sockets”. Anything else? Nope. No biggy, thanks for calling. Later guy.


Lessons learned: I you want to be serious about rally, get to bed early! Don’t walk around the hotel parking lots non stop. Don’t walk across town in the middle of the night. Sit, rest. Have a plan, preferably a movement plan and schedule of activities for you and your crew. Have a crew. Bring every tool you own. Buy spares of everything! Have your car ready!

If you want to have the time of your life at a rally? Come find us! Haha. Wouldn’t change a second, and miss everyone already. Rally on!

---

Owner, Driver, Head Mechanic, and Janitor at Tower City Race Team, headquartered near L'Anse. Michigan.
Driver / CoDriver in Rally America, NASARallySport, ARA, AMS, UPMDA, Champ Off Road

https://www.facebook.com/TowerCityRaceTeam/
https://www.instagram.com/towercityraceteam/

---

Owner, Driver, Head Mechanic, and Janitor at Tower City Race Team, headquartered near L'Anse. Michigan.
Driver / CoDriver in Rally America, NASARallySport, ARA, AMS, UPMDA, Champ Off Road

https://www.facebook.com/TowerCityRaceTeam/
https://www.instagram.com/towercityraceteam/

That was entertaining, thanks for sharing. The only thing that vw makes that could be better sounding than the vr6 is the vr5. Both are great motors. Makes me more excited than ever to get on stage. Gotta get through the hillclimb this weekend and then back to the rally car!