 |
||||
|
||||
|
Wild West Rally -- Olympia. WA Dec 2-3
Well, were pretty excited to take the lead after the first stage of
this abbreviated Rally America National event. Due to flooding
and snow, the landowner could not let us run in the FOREST, so the
organizers scrambled to put together the rally at an ORV Park on
Saturday (still pretty darn muddy and slick) and at Pacific Raceways
(a 2 mile asphalt track) for Sunday. We were ahead of eventual
winner Travis Pastrana by a couple of seconds after the first sloppy
stage. By stage 2 we had dropped to 2nd overall, and eventually
slipped to 4th overall and 1st in the Regional Rally Championship by
the end of the weekend. We simply could not keep up with the
power of the top cars, especially on the paved track.
The rally was 5 stages at the ORV, and then 3 time trial sessions at the
racetrack, where cars were launched in groups of 5 at 10 second intervals.
So you had 5 rally cars (on rally tires) screaming around the racetrack just 10
seconds apart and trying to catch and (hopefully) pass each other. Well, I
was behind Ken Block and he would just check out and be a speck on the horizon
when I launched 10 seconds later... We beat the Hintz's pretty good on
Saturday with a good tire choice and them suffering with a back up (albeit dogbox) transmission, but they came back strong and latched to our tail by the
end of the 3-lap session making up nearly 9 seconds each time out, so they
won for the day, but we stayed ahead by 7 seconds for the weekend!
Post-note: I think that I just miss the Northwest Rally Championship
overall by one point behind Dave Hintz (but Jeff wins as co-driver
because he did Mt Hood Rally), but we apparently did win the Open Class
Championship by a point.... That championship is organized by the Pacific
Rally Group (PRG). We may also win the Rally America West
Championship too. We'll find out before the January 28th
Rally Worker Party and
Awards banquet. Pe
Click here for Jeff Price's
detailed account of the Wild West rally from an experienced co-driver's perspective. Pacific Forests Rally -- Merritt, British Columbia in Western Canada.--October 12-15th
This was Primitive's first foray into the CARS events,
which feature RECCE and highly varied stages. Pacific Forest
was a fast, sometimes rough, recce event in Merritt, British
Columbia. Only the second recce event (reconnaissance
allowed) for Team Primitive, getting the notes correct
proved to be difficult for the team and they fell back after
the first few night stages. The notes weren't wrong, just
not proven enough to have full commitment over the many
blind crests and high speed turns. See www.rallybc.com for more details. Primitive's Sunday's Best RALLY CROSS -- Sunday Sept 24th -- Hillsboro, OR -- at the Washington County Fairplex site. A success with 43 drivers tossing their cars around a flowing 2nd gear course. Top AWD time was 1:18.53 and top 2WD time was 1:19.56 Click here for more details and here for RESULTS Triple Threat Rally Weekend - August 18-20th
National RallyCross - June 24-25th
No Alibi 2006 June 3-4th Wenatchee,
WA
Olympus Rally 2006 Shelton, WA May 20-21st.
See the results at
www.olympusrally.com and a few pix. Primitive started a bit slow and clawed their way back into the hunt, but
never threatening to lead the resurrection of the mighty Olympus Rally.
The organization was top-notch and the roads good. Weather was
terrific and the event went smoothly and on time. Results were posted
to the internet before stages were even completed... SubieGal, Jamie
Thomas beat us on Saturday, but we had her on most stages Sunday falling
only to Gary Cavett on Sunday as far as regional competition. National
level competitors like Wyeth Gubelman and Wolfgang Hoeck were minutes ahead
by the finish. Primitive did take one short stage win. We
battled a failing wheel bearing on Day 2 and that may have put us just a tad
off our driving plan... The Hintz brothers were moving fast
early, but a blown engine put them on the sideline. Here is a link to
some video on the last stage after I had already rattled myself with a
big spin and stall: Oregon Trail Rally Hillsboro, OR April 21-23rd.
See
the results at www.rally-america.com
and some pix and commentary.
We finished up with one trophy, so all was not lost, but the 2 weeks prior to Olympus was filled with painting new body paints (2 new fenders, both bumpers, new hood, new headlight) and removing other dents and rebuilding the crushed exhaust system. I won't go too deep into that corner again.... for other coverage see www.oregontrailrally.com
DooWop Rally
 Atlantic's Grand Canyon Tour Rally www.atlanticdrivingschoolaz.com Laughlin, NV, January 13-16, 2006 Report from Cottonwood, AZ -- Sunday "The rally has been very relaxed and a lot of fun. Saw the ghost town of Oatman, with its shops and historic hotel and bar, fed the burros, went on a mine tour and then toured the awesome West end of the Grand Canyon. This really is a vacation rally, but this rally is competitive. We were 2nd after Day 1, and today managed to keep our respective noses clean and moved into the overall lead. Close behind are Bill-L and Debbie Seagall (good rallyists from East Coast now living in AZ). Satch Carlson is close behind in his BMX AWD as well as Dave Jameson and Karl Broberg in a Neon SRT-4. Had some mistakes with CASTS and mileage corrections, but got recovered before a control and our worst was about a score of 5. Roads were mostly good but some very rough, with several contestants with flats. R.Dale and Francesca are just a little back, and Larry is struggling in another car as co-driver." Post-script: Race finished up here in Seligman -- Paul Eklund and Vicki Vohs of Primitive Racing took first place in this really fun TSD event, with a score of 127, followed by Bill Laitenberger and Debbie Segall (139) of Arizona and Oregonians Satch Carlson and Kelly Kirkland third (142). R.Dale and Francesca Kraushaar, now Arizona residents, followed with 158. Click here for Vicki Vohs' interesting account of the rally from a rookie co-driver's perspective.
|
||||
Paul teamed up with long-time
friend and Alcan teammate RDale Kraushaar for this 3-rally event weekend in
the turbo BAJA! (great car...errr truck...ah whatever). The weekend
was composed of a brutal Friday Night TSD Rally in Vancouver, WA followed by
the awesome Mountains to the Sea Touring rally from Portland to Seaside on
Saturday taking the back roads. It ended with a RallyCross in Astoria
on Sunday. You scored points for each event and the winner came home
with a big ol' trophy. Paul took second in the TSD Friday, 2nd in the
Touring rally and 1st in the RallyX to win the weekend overall. RDale
finished tied for 6th after finishing 5th in the RallyCross...
