Things didn't go too smoothly! 
Hit a rock -- tried to keep going on the resulting flat, with the result illustrated in picture.

Just to finish was a good result. More complete coverage to come --

The Tire Rack SCCA Solo Tour -- Round 10
www.scca.com/event
July 23-24 Packwood, WA

Emerging from a long autocross hiatus, two-time National Champion  and ProRally National Champion Paul Eklund will be driving an A-stock Honda S2000 owned by local hotshoe Andy Howe.

"I only have a dozen or so runs in the Honda, but it seems like a great handling car if I can slow down my inputs and not drive it sideways like a rallycar.  I think I can do OK if I just take it easy," says Eklund. 

3-Run Results: Second place -- Not bad for driving an unfamiliar  car and being somewhat rusty!  Eklund's been running a 2004 Subaru STi in Performance Rally for the past years. He has also started a small Rally Driving School on the west coast as well as selling performance rally  parts through his on-line business, Primitive Enterprises, Inc.

The 2005 No Alibi brisk gravel TSD lived up to its reputation of a great rally on beautiful roads and the toughest of competition.  30 cars participated, 50% of them being a Subaru of some type.  The rally ran from Ellensburg, Washington to Lewiston, Idaho and back.

Here were the checkpoint scores for the Primitive Team of Paul Eklund and Kala Rounds competing in the Unlimited Class driving a white, 2.5TS Wagon sponsored by Cooper Tire:

Day one: 1 early; zero (means perfectly on time); zero; 2 late; 1 late; 2 late; 2 late; 2 late; zero; 2 late; 3 late; zero; zero; zero; 1 late; 1 late; 1 late; 1 late; 1 late; 1 late; 7 late; 1 late; 6 early; zero; 1 late; 2 early; 2 late; 1 early; 1 late; 1 late;   Day 2: 2 late; 1 late; 2 late; 2 late; 1 late; 2 late; 1 late; 1 late; 3 early; 1 late; zero; zero; zero; 1 late; 2 late; 1 late; 1 late; 1 late; 1 late; 2 late; 1 late; zero; zero

That adds up to 68 points (that's 68 seconds off of perect time)  over 56 checkpoints over 600 miles of stages over 2 days of running...  Not bad, but only good enough for 8th place.  First place was the sage Satch Carlson with squidboy Russ Kraushaar navigating and a smoking 31 points total.  Second place was Peter and Timothy Ryce down from British Columbia with a 42.  The Primitive Team struggled with a missed computation for a while (netting that 7 late and 6 early) but otherwise was very consistent, just not quite on the correct time.

We obviously have a bit of an issue with our odometer calcs or computer driving us to arrive at each checkpoint just a hair late (just one second).  Once we get that worked out, we will have mostly Zeros and a few Earlies and a great score!!!

The following links are of general interest:

Here is a typical view:

Satellite Views of the course:

GPS Elevation Maps of the route:

Photos taken at a checkpoint:
http://www.somepants.com/photos/rally/noalibi2005/Page1.html

General Photos:
 

Dryad Quest Rally
Shitepoke Rally
SCCA Website
June4-5, 2005, Shelton, WA

Primitive's STi Running In Top Ten,
this time, at the finish!

5th Overall & 3rd Overall for the day.

DRYAD QUEST June 4
Primitive Racing decided to run hard and run fast on the opening stages of the Dryad Quest Rally.  The team knew they would need to take every advantage to get and/or stay ahead of tough competition like Carl Jardevall (EVO), Hintz's (WRX), Cavett (Impreza), Havas (EVO), and Wright (Paul's old Impreza), Thomas (WRX), Patterson (EVO).

"The car was performing well with the new turbo and a little less boost, since we broke it at Rim," said driver Eklund, "and the tuning from PDX Tuning was giving us good solid power, despite the 34mm restrictor which is required."  But coming into the spectator area near the finish, Eklund misjudged a corner and began to turn down the wrong road.  Recognizing his mistake, he tried to tighten the turn to get back onto the main road and slid wide, wedging the Primitive Racing Sti in a small ditch just off the road.  Although damage was kept to a dent in the driver's door and a crumpled fender rubbing the tire, the team was soundly stuck.

Co-Driver Jeff Price leapt from the car and tried to help push the car back, motioning for spectators to come help, but the car would move about a foot and get high centered on the berm.  Jeff moved to the side of the car to push and in one explosive drop of the clutch the 4 wheels began to claw their way back out of the ditch.  This left Price without anything to push against, and on the steep hillside he slipped and fell against the straining car, his feet coming ever so close to the spininng front tire.  Spectators gasped, but he popped up moments later and ran to get into the rally car.   Competitors Hintz and Hintz flew by at this moment, showering the car with rocks and dust, declaring that the team had lost over a minute getting un stuck.  They followed the thick dust the last 1/2 mile to the stage end 1.5 minutes behind their compatriots...

After the harrowing start, the Primitive Team began clawing back time, eventually overtaking the Hintz's and moving up to the 5th Overall position for the day.  The roads were quite slippy, with round river stone base instead of the usual crushed gravel.  So finishing fifth overall was a good outcome, but the team knew they could do better.  Carl Jardevall again proved that he is a top driver in the USA and smoked the field by almost 3 minutes.  Andrew Havas took his rented EVO to a solid second place with Gary Cavett and Carey Wright finishing 3rd and 4th in their GC bodied Impreza's.

SHITEPOKE RALLY Sunday, June 5th  (Western States Rally Championship event):
The rally would be simple.  A beautiful 8.5 mile stage run twice in quick succession with a service in between followed by the almost famous "Nahwatzel Complex" stage run twice as well.  A short day? Not really, the Nahwatzel stage is 24 miles long and contains every element of a rally stage, from flat and open to tight and twisty including a little uphill and a little downhill.  Being run twice, this stage alone is longer than some other entire rallies.

After the first two stages, Primitive looked to be in second place overall, behind the untouchable Jardevall, and just ahead of Havas and Wright, with Hintz and Cavett only seconds back.  Patterson had retired early with diff problems on the first day and Thomas went out with a broken control arm on stage 2.  On the first pass through the long stage, Primitive made no mistakes and felt good about their 25.44 run (just shy of a 60mph average).  But seeing Wright's 25.41 and then Hintz's 25.25 took the wind out their sails.  Wright was now ahead by one second and Hintz's were now ahead by 15 seconds!   The battle was on.  One last 24 mile stage.  Eklund and Price tightened the belts and tried to rip an unbeatable time, dropping their score to a 25.03 (full 40 second drop in stage time) but Hintz's pulled a terrific 24.59 beating them by 4 more seconds!!!  All bow to the mighty Hintz brothers who took second behind Jardevall!   Wright smoked in with a 25.05, but that dropped them to one second BEHIND Primitive in the overall standings (to fourth).  Havas suffered differential problems similar to Patterson and slowed on the final stages dropping to 5th.  So Primitive managed a decent 3rd overall and some important Western States Championship points.

What about some others?   Mike Goodwin in his PGT Mazda 323GTX, slid wide and smacked a tree with the rear on day one, shearing of the bumper and shattering the hatch.  He continued only to roll heavily and wedge between some stumps.  Car busted, everyone OK.  Bad day for Goodwin.  Fling Pu's Wellemeyer and Wellemeyer center punched a tree, resculpting the bumper, hood and radiator on their RX7 and were out.  After winning Group 5 on Day 1, Foster and Rounds lost the water pump on their aging RX3 and went out on Day 2.  April Smith kept her mighty GEO Metro running all weekend with 4 squirrels on the bumper pumping out a full 42hp.  Big smiles.  Villy "big talk before the rally" Husko rolled his Toyota and was out.  Chip Miller hit the Honda Civic hard, but got back into the rally on Day 2.  Cody Crane lost the front bumper on his CRX, but finished well.  Gabe von Ahfeld went off hard in his Legacy on Day 2 hurting the car and reportly his co-driver's elbow (swollen).  Matt Tabor lost a rear trailing arm and Bruce Tabor perforated the motor with several rods on his Nisan Sentra.  Barrett Dash tried to blow up his motor running for miles with no coolant and the motor finally did wheeze to a stop.  Pat Harris carried the Fling Pu flag until the final stage, but courage overcame traction and she slid wide in her Datsun 510 and creased the entire right side on a stump breaking the rear suspension.  
Full results soon at:  www.nwr-scca.org/rally/dryad/index.html

Rim of the World Rally
www.rimoftheworldrally.com
May 6-7,  Lancaster/Palmdale, CA

Primitive's STi Running In Top Ten,
But Then... Trouble on Stage 9

Full report to come

Rim is a great rally, but it's a demanding one. It looks like the attrition rate this year is about 50%. Primitive ran well until Stage 9, when something went wrong. (Still waiting to find out exactly what, but it seems to be teething trouble with the new Turbo + 2.2 engine.)

(While we're waiting for Paul to report, do you want to see why Rim is so great/scary? Some nice in-car video with audio from Matthew Johnson and Wendy Nakamoto in their SuperStock Subaru WRX. Listen for the quotes like "we could have crashed right there" and "that was the fastest craziest bit of road I've ever been on.")
 

Photo of the Primitive STi on
the media stage, by Brian Kelly.

 Northwest Rally School            
March 18-20, Hillsboro, Oregon

 Hosted by Primitive Performance Driving 
 and the Oregon Rally Group

 Here's your chance to get serious with rally driving and
navigating, while having fun also.  Learn from the experts
who have done it all.  Ask any questions and get one-on-one
instruction.

 Click the button to get all of the details --

Primitive News
January 28-30, Portland, Oregon

The Primitive
Subaru WRX STi 2.2
PRO Rallycar shines
at the Portland Auto Show...

Lots of fans got a good look at the latest
Screaming Yellow Thunderlizard from Primitive Racing...

Polishing Up the
Primitive Rallycar -
the WRX STi 2.2!
January 12, Portland, Oregon

The Primitive Racing Subaru WRX STi 2.2 is getting ready for a fast season...

The car features a Turbo XS tuned motor; DMS 50mm suspension; Carbon Kevlar seats by Momo; Pyrotect Harnesses and Silverstone Rally Tires. Going in now: the heavily modified 2.2 DOHC rally motor and 6-speed transmission. This will significantly increase horsepower, torque and transmission strength.

Primitive strongly endorses Subaru Performance Tuning parts and exciting, safe rallysport in the USA. Our team has continuously raced and rallied Subaru Imprezas for longer than any team in the USA (over 7 years) and continues to be successful in all venues challenged.

Looking forward to an exciting 2005 season.... pe

EVENTS ON THE PRIMITIVE 2005 CALENDAR
Download the 2005 PDF

Doo Wops March 5-6

Oregon Trail April 23-24

Rim of the World May 6-7

Dryad Quest / Shitepoke June 4-5

Treeline Rally July 16

Gorman Ridge August 20

Wild West Int’l Rally September 10-11

Mt Hood October 22-23

Reno Rallys Nov 2-13

Ramada Express Int’l Rally Dec. 2-4

- plus RallyCrosses, auto shows and other special events to be announced...

Thunderbird TSD February 19-20

Coast to Coast TSD May 14-15

No Alibi TSD June 11-12

Totem TSD November 19-20

2004 Highlights...

Primitive Racing won several honors in 2004. Driver Paul Eklund won the Western States Rally Championship and the Northern Pacific Division Championship in the OPEN Class driving the Primitive Subaru WRX Rallycar. Co-driver Jeff Price won the Western States and NORPAC championships as well for navigators and in addition took home the 2004 National ClubRally Co-Driver Championship. The team continues to be successful in a grass-roots effort to run with the big dawgs.

Earlier in the year, Eklund and TSD co-driver Kala Rounds won Class 3 (SOP) and were an amazing third overall at the 2004 Alcan 5000 winter rally. They ran in studded tire class and chose Cooper Weather Master tires for their Subaru Forester XT. The team dominated nearly every ice racing venue, crushing Hakka-shod BMWs and Audis. See coverage of this epic, 4600 mile long endurance rally here.

Primitive thanks its long-standing and new sponsors, and our tireless service crew:

Royal Moore Subaru
T-Scandia Motors
Silverstone Rally Tires
Subaru Performance Tuning
Turbo XS
PIAA Lighting
Exedy/Daiken Clutches
Cooper Tire
Subaru Western Region
Bosal Performance Exhausts

We look forward to a successful 2005 season.