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Race News and Events -- 2000 |
RACING NEWS ARCHIVES 2004 2003 2002 2001 |
| Primitive Racing Team Does It Again With 5th Place Overall! The Primitive Racing team turned in another solid performance in the badlands of Arizona, finishing with fifth overall and fourth in class, duplicating the Wild West finish results. Paul Eklund, in his return to his native state, suffered only a CV-boot failure and a cracked rim on the rocky roads. As reported in the SCCA race results, co-driver Scott Huhn commented that in the last two races they put some priority on simply finishing, but now have enough confidence in the car to start turning up the boost (read competitiveness). Scott and Paul want to thank the several volunteers that assisted in the service areas. Lee Shadbolt also turned a helping hand before a premature departure occasioned by a balky engine management system that wouldn't even let him get a start in the race. As reported (see link above), Paul Choiniere's Hyundai came in first overall. |
| Prescott Forest Rally Draws Near!
From the Primitive Racing News Release September 22: Primitive Racing Prepares for Penultimate Performance Rally Next Friday, the Prescott Forest Rally begins in the high desert and mountain foothills surrounding scenic Prescott, Arizona. Primitive Racing is in the midst of preparing the Primitive Racing Subaru Impreza USX (2.2 liter, all-wheel-drive, turbocharged, intercooled, rallye car) for the challenge of rough roads and high speed. Last weekend the team fought to a very successful 5th overall in the Wild West ProRally. |
 Photo by Jamie Thomas |
"The suspension is holding up fine," says team owner Paul Eklund, "but we
developed a nasty rod knock in the number 4 cylinder about half way through
the last race and we will have to tear it down to determine the cause." "We
were glad it held together as long as it did, but we were not downshifting
much and staying out of top RPM's to save the motor. Now it's time to get
it fixed right." That does not leave much time for the team to determine
the cause and get it put back together. They will be having a now infamous
"work party" tomorrow (Saturday 9/23) to get the engine removed, rebuilt and
re-installed. The team has switched to larger size Silverstone rally tires and is impressed with their performance. The DMS 50mm Giant Suspension keeps working as well. The new larger hood scoop from Primitive Enterprises pictured here is lowering charge temperatures and reducing under-hood temps as well. |
"I'm the happiest co-driver in the series," chirps co-driver Scott Huhn after the team's best finish of the season, "but I want to take home a trophy for Subaru and for Silverstone tires." Look for both the Wild West and Prescott Forest rallies to appear on Speedvision in October. More information and advice on Primitive Racing and Subaru performance parts may be found in this Website. For more information on this release, e-mail pauleklund@msn.com or call Paul Eklund at (503) 699-0311 ext 134 (Pacific Time Zone). |
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It's official! Impreza USX Takes 5th ... Overall: The Primitive Racing Impreza USX team has taken fifth overall in the ProRally event, barely edging out fiercely competitive Patrick Richard of British Columbia. The team also tied for fastest time on a stage, and placed 4th in the Open Class. The team finished without a major breakdown, a welcome respite from the mechanical problems that have haunted them all season. Also, Eklund and Huhn took first place in the Wild West ClubRally. | ||
 Photos by Jamie Thomas |
Race Details --
From the Primitive Racing News Release September 17: The dusty, gravel roads outside of Shelton, Washington proved to be tough testing grounds for several teams at this weekend's National event. But several teams who have suffered various woes during the season came back strong. Noel Lawler simply ran away and hid from the rest of the pack in his turbo Hyundai Tiburon. Paul Choiniere followed with a good run in his Tiburon, and Garen Shrader added another great finish to his excellent season. Next up was crowd favorite Carl Jardevall and Amity Trowbridge in the turbo Volvo Group 5 car. That car was sideways the entire rally and the spectators loved it! Rounding out the top 5 was Paul Eklund and Scott Huhn in the Primitive Racing prepared Subaru Impreza USX turbo. With fresh engine, tranny and turbo the team was able to post good stage times and even tied for top time on one short sprint stage. The only real problems suffered were a flat on stage which cost the team only about a minute, and a clogged airfilter which cut engine power slightly until it could be cleaned at service. |
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Patrick Richard and Ben Bradley took the sixth spot, finishing just behind Eklund's Subaru after
launching a full-out attack on the final stages which netted him several top stage times!
Simply amazing for a PGT class car without a turbo. "That was a BLAST," raved Richard after the
final downhill stage, "it was fun racing flat-out against you [Eklund]." On the wilder side, one off-camber righthand corner apparently caught most teams off-guard and sent several tumbling up a hill. Yes, UP a hill. Karl Scheible hit the bank and a stump hard, peeling off the rear bumper and jamming the trunk shut. This prevented him access to his spare tire and was unable to continue. Later, locals Bob and Tammy Reaves slid off the corner at a high rate of speed and rolled their Mazda RX-3 up the hill about 30 feet. It came to rest on its wheels perched at the top of the hill, but badly battered. Both driver and navigator were shaken up severely, but later attended the awards ceremony in good spirits. Even later, another ClubRally car driven by John Teeter would roll in the same corner. Mark Utecht, Group 5 contender would also end up with a crunched roofline from an off course excursion. On the previous evening, the Subaru XT driven by the Sorem's tumbled on a different section of road. For the Primitive Racing team, the event was a great reward for a season filled with troubles. The car, sponsored by Taylor Made Labels, T-Scandia Motors of Tigard, Oregon and Royal Moore Subaru ran nearly flawlessly. The new, medium compound Silverstone tires provided excellent traction on the varied surfaces and the DMS suspension continued to do its job well holding the rallycar on the road. The new "monster scoop" gulped lots of air for the intercooler and the cooling ducts definitely reduced underhood temperatures. One of the few big "moments" came on the final corner of the final stage as the team fought hard to negate Patrick Richard's maximum attack. Swinging the car a bit too wide around a right turn, the car faced into the lights of the Speedvision cameras while heading perilously towards a giant, old growth cedar. As driver Eklund waited anxiously for the boost to build, the car continued to rotate and draw closer to the giant tree. At the last moment, the turbo spooled and Eklund tossed the car into the left hander around the tree and across the finish line in a giant broadslide. | ||
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Ready to Challenge Wild West Roads! --
From the Primitive Racing News Release September 12: The Primitive Racing crew has proven its muster yet again this season! With incredible support from Subaru Western Region and Royal Moore Subaru's own Richard Buckner, the team has built a completely new motor to replace the one that was damaged when the turbocharger blew up at the Ojibwe Forest Rally only two weeks ago. The tranny that had stuck in gear has also been rebuilt and put back into the car. "All systems appear to be GO," claims Primitive's Paul Eklund. "We hope to break the string of disappointments at this rally," says Eklund. "We are driving the car everyday to get some miles on that new motor before the race. It features ceramic coated pistons, but much of the 2.2 liter motor remains virtually stock." The Primitive Racing team placed 3rd overall last year at this event and hopes to maintain or better that record. Among the various entries for this event will be the familiar green Impreza of North American Rally Cup Champion Lee Shadbolt, but with the car in Open Class configuration for the first time this season. It appears that Group A class has been dissolved in the ProRally series. Shadbolt had been the only Group A entrant in previous rallies. The rally will start from the streets of Shelton, Washington Friday afternoon and will take to the gravel logging roads west of town for great racing. Action resumes Saturday morning from Shelton and will continue all day. "We are gonna have some fun out there," quips Primitive co-driver Scott Huhn, who has substantial experience at speed on those logging roads. Prior to joining Primitive, Scott had copiloted in a 500+ hp Group 5 car. He has played a key role in getting and keeping the Primitive Racing Impreza USX on the road for each major rally this season. The team looks forward to a good finish in Washington and a successfull trip to the Prescott Forest Rally only 2 weeks later in beautiful Arizona. Last minute update ... Friday Sept 15: On a final pre-rally test run, the rebuilt transmission unexpectedly snapped. This failure was unusual in that it did not happen during shifting, just during a hard acceleration. With lots of help from Richard Buckner of Royal Moore Subaru, the Impreza is running again, with still another tranny. Hopes remain alive for the Wild West. | ||
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Primitive Racing Suffers More Mechanical Woes at Ojibwe -- From the Primitive Racing News Release August 29: The long, hard learning curve of fielding a competitive ProRally team continues for Primitive Racing in Minnesota. After winning the RallyCross event outright the evening before the ProRally, the team seemed poised for a good finish. Starting at the top of the seed 2 drivers, the team was holding its own on the sandy roads when the transmission became stuck in 4th gear. While driver Paul Eklund and co-driver Scott Huhn both tried to pound and pry the car out of gear, they motored across the finish of Stage 4 and on into service. Starting the car in 4th gear was a testament to a strong clutch and a will to continue. Transmission problems have been a persistent problem for US and Canadian Subaru rally teams for the past 4+ years. | ||
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 Photos by CTC MotorSports |
At service, it became clear that the faulty transmission would need to be replaced. The service was one hour and 54 minutes long.
Primitive's crew included Richard Buckner (Subaru service veteran) and 2 local Impreza enthusiasts who had volunteered
their services for the weekend (Christian Banks and Brian Dondlinger). Boy, had they volunteered! The short story is that after 1 hour and 47 minutes, the new AWD transmission was installed and the car was being tested through all the gears on the jack stands. Local TV cameras caught the triumphant moment as the team celebrated a servicing feat--in the middle of the night, in the middle of a dirt parking lot. So the team was only down about 45 seconds at this point... Eklund and Huhn finished out the night, taking it easy on the car. They were 19th overall out of 75+ starters. In the morning, Team Primitive took one of the top times at the Bemidji SuperStage showing the crowd a new inside line at a key corner and being edged out barely by the powerful Hyundai teams on the banked track. Things looked good until the afternoon when the IHI turbo blew, dumping most of the engine's oil into the exhaust and creating a smoke cloud that chased away all the local mosquitos... (quite a feat!) | |
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Determination again prompted the team to action! Using their patented Leatherman pocket tools to carve
plugs from local tree branches and plug the oil line to the turbo, the Primitives were able to
complete the stage without turbo boost. They used a sock to create an air filter over the intercooler
opening. "We were surprised to see all the Mitsubishi cars broken at the side of the road as we puttered
past," said driver Eklund after completing two more stages and returning to the final service.
"It looked like a Lancer graveyard." Once the team made it back to service and removed the intercooler,
they were able to complete the rally at 1/3rd power, rescuing a finish from the tragedy. For other information on this impressive event, contact Scott Putnam at Morrie's (612) 544-0376 or visit his terrific website at www.subaru.net. | ||
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Subaru Imprezas on display -- From the Primitive Racing News Release August 7: "Primitive Racing's screaming yellow USX and Hairpin Racing's Group A Impreza arrived at Morrie's Subaru in Minnetonka this weekend as planned, joining Rocket Racing's PGT class Impreza on the showroom floor." These cars will be on display for the next three weeks leading up to an Impreza event on Wednesday the 23rd at the dealership just prior to the start of the Ojibwe Forest ProRally. Sponsored by Morrie's Subaru and www.subaru.net, this event will allow the press, media and enthusiasts see the development of Subaru performance in US rallying and gives a peek at the potential of the 2002 model Impreza with its turbocharged performance package. Lee Shadbolt and his Hairpin Racing Team will provide a short presentation on the features of the Impreza and how the road car lends itself to rallying. He has been rallying the Impreza longer than anyone else in US performance rallying, and now has converted his car to Group A specifications including a 2.0 liter WRX engine. He and co-driver Bob Sherman will also be available during the day to answer technical questions about putting a rallycar together. Lee is a mechanical engineer and member of SAE (Society for Automotive Engineers). Paul Eklund took a few years off of driving and was Lee's co-driver for 1997 and 1998 in a stock Impreza , winning the Production GT co-driver's championship in '98. Last year he returned to driving behind the wheel of the potent Impreza USX rallycar prepared by Primitive Racing complete with a 2.2 liter intercooled, turbocharged motor and took 6th overall at his first rally and a podium finish at his second National event (Wild West). Early this year, Eklund won the prestigious Alcan 5000 winter rally with teammates R.Dale Kraushaar and Larry Richardson in Kraushaar's stock Impreza 2.5RS. Paul and his co-driver Scott Huhn will be available the afternoon of the 23rd to answer questions on how to get into ProRally and how to assemble a successful team without spending a ton of money. Patrick Richard is the "James Brown" of rallying, meaning he is the hardest working man in performance rallying, participating in both the Canadian and US National Championships--and winning. He drives an Impreza 2.5RS harder, and flies it farther, than anyone else on the circuit. His Rocket Racing team has criss-crossed the continent getting to events on both coasts. Gettin' ready -- From the Primitive Racing News Release July 24: Thanks to the many volunteers, some coming from over 200 miles away, the Primitive Racing Subaru Impreza USX turbo is up and running strong! Work was completed this weekend on a new engine, new larger turbo, enlarged downpipe, reinforced rear suspension, new driveline and exhaust gas temp gauge, which propels the intercooled rally car closer to the 300 hp mark. "We are now running out of fuel injector with duty cycles hitting 100%," says team owner Paul Eklund. "These helpers were just great! We crossed several dozen items off the "to do" list that I never could have completed myself. People seemed to have a good time, I would usually bring in pizza or have a big BBQ; some helpers even brought their kids" The car has now been spot painted and prepped for display at Morries Subaru in Minneapolis. It is looking as good as it runs. Nearly every nut and bolt has been checked, hopefully there will be no reliability problems at the Ojibwe ProRally in Minnesota. "We can win that race, as long as we FINISH," quips co-driver Scott Huhn, who has put dozens of hours and more than a drop of blood into the car. | ||
| The early portion of the season started with a great victory at the Alcan Winter Rally but has been loaded with setbacks, most stemming from a serious shunt at the Doo Wop Rally in Olympia. Following the wreck were a series of DNF's caused by a blown transmission, a blown head gasket and subsequent melted crank sensor, and a broken connecting rod at the Dryad Quest rally. A new 2.2 liter engine is now in the car with a fresh transmission. [And many other upgrades as described above.] | |
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After Ojibwe, the team plans to enter the Wild West Pro Rally (9/16), The Prescott Forest Rally (9/30) and possibly the LSPR rally in October. "We still have a chance for a good season points finish," says Eklund, "We took 3rd at Wild West last year and I always love the rough roads at Prescott!" On Sunday, July 30, the car got a final checkout at the Oregon Rally Group's rallycross event in St. Helen's, OR. | ||
 Photo by Dave Wong |
THE BIG ONE -- The Primitive Racing Impreza USX got off to a good start in Stages 1 & 2
in the prestigious Rim of the World ProRally in Palmdale, CA. With a new turbo transmission
and a bigger intercooler and downpipe to boost the horsepower into the 275HP range, the Impreza USX had the fourth fastest time in Stage 1. And even with a coddled engine,
the USX placed 7th or better in the last four stages.
But in Stage 3, the overheating problem experienced earlier became catastrophic, with a melted crank sensor
and a spectacular explosion of a radiator hose, forcing a DNF for Friday. To alleviate the overheating problem, the boost was lowered dramatically. Even so, the team placed 5th in class and 7th place overall in the Saturday ClubRally event. |
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On the positive side, the Silverstone tires and the DMS suspension performed faultlessly. The Primitive Racing entry is sponsored by Royal Moore Subaru, T-Scandia Motors, Puffin Engineering, and Taylor Made Labels. |
 Photo by Jamie Thomas .  Photo by Roman Hintz |
FIRST DAY -- The Primitive Racing Impreza USX, sponsored by Royal Moore Subaru, was doing pretty well
the first night. "The car was running great and we even caught and passed one of the comptetitors who started in front of us",
explained driver Paul Eklund. Co-driver Scott Huhm observed, "The roads are very technical, and I got a little tense in a few places". Later in the night, the transmission broke, and the team had to shift from 1st to 3rd for the remainder of the night. Even so, they finished 2nd overall in the Oregon Trail ClubRally. Click www.oregonrally.com for all of the rally details. SECOND DAY -- The strain on the transmission was just too much, and the transmission shattered with finality. Eklund commented."These Subaru parts are darn tough, but pumping 250hp through it under these conditions is asking an awful lot from stock components". NEXT -- After transmission replacement, Primitive Racing heads for Palmdale, CA for the renowned Rim of the World Rally May 5th and 6th. Having placed 6th overall there last year, the team hopes that the added 40hp and a year's experience will move them up at least a couple of spots. |
BEFORE THE SHUNT -- The Doo Wop 3 & 4 ClubRally is always lots of fun, and this
event was no exception. Starting in Olympia, five short stages were featured Saturday
in and around the Thurston County Off-Road Vehicle Park. The driving was very technical,
and very muddy through the center of the ORV area.Eric Eaton, in a Mazda 323, pulled in first place. Day two in the Capital Forest featured the Brooklyn Tavern stage, as well as a paved stage around the infamous never-completed WHOOPS nuclear plant. Paul Eklund's Subaru Impreza USX came in 2nd under trying conditions. |
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AFTER THE SHUNT --In an overly-exuberant "near-victory" lap, Paul
suffered a lapse in his normally good judgment, with the result shown. Paul extends his apologies
to his faithful team. The Primitive Racing team has been working hard ever since. The car has been rebuilt from the firewall forward. "The car is running, but not yet tested, after a terrific effort by Subaru enthusiasts from all over the Northwest, who converged on Primitive Enterprises' home base in Tigard April 1, and put the engine and tranny in," remarked team leader Paul Eklund. He continues, "...and we hope to complete wiring and assembly by this coming Saturday to provide some much needed testing on Sunday." |
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Royal Moore Subaru teamed up with Subaru Western Region to get parts and framework done on the
screaming yellow zonker (a 1995 Subaru Impreza USX --2.2l turbo) in short order. The rebuilt car will
feature an ACT Extreme Pressure Plate, more boost and a new cold air intake system using 3" tubing. The car now also features DMS (Drummond Motor Sports) 50mm Giant Struts and progressive rate springs. "We've been running on these struts since December," says Eklund, "but we were waiting to test them on a few stage miles before announcing it to the world." Initial test indicate reliability improvements over the team's former setup. The Oregon Trail Rally is in Eklund's back yard, but no competitors have seen the roads to be used around Tillamook. Eklund and co-driver Scott Huhn (new to the Primitive Team for 2000) hope to make a good impression in front of the home crowd. "This car ROCKS!" claims Huhn after a good final stage at Doo Wops. The team hopes to win the series championship and to compete in the North American Rally cup by attending some Canadian events. But they will have to contend with Lee Shadbolt and Bob Sherman on the Hairpin Racing Team who have converted their '97 Impreza to a homologated Group A version for this season. This will make the first appearance of a Group A car at an SCCA ProRally in recent history. "They still have some teething problems, but it is apparent the car will get sorted out by the end of the season." The Hairpin, Primitive, and Rocket teams (Pat Richard) provide good hope for overall points finish for Subaru this year. And all indications point to additional Subaru teams popping up during the year as well... |
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