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MaxAttack! at the 2011 Lake Superior Performance Rally!

19K views 56 replies 30 participants last post by  jody-z 
#1 ·
Hello all, and welcome to the press notes coverage of the MaxAttack! event at Lake Superior Performance Rally! This is the season finale that will bestow the prestigious Jake Himes Cup upon our most maximum attacker and will see 22 teams fighting for the $5000.00 purse and the bragging rights that come with conquering the "oldest, meanest, and toughest" rally in the United States.

Ben Bradley and myself are both on hand this weekend to make sure we cover the entire MaxAttack! event, dig into the teams' inner workings, and get the stories you crave. These notes will be broadcast here on this Specialstage forum, as well as on our site at www.max-attack.com thanks to our man at the controls, Shenandoah Bennet.

No sense in building this up anymore...you know what's at stake. The deepest fields of rally talent in North America follow this series for the cash, the prestige, and the pure competition that come with every MaxAttack! event. And once again we find ourselves at the end of a great season in the far northern town of Houghton, Michigan, drenched in fall colors and dampened a bit by the weather.

Houghton is a bit of a conundrum. Part old mining town, part modern college town, but all very friendly and the home of various incarnations of this rally dating back over 40 years. Most who have been around the sport think of Houghton as the rightful home of American Rallying. And what better place to host the end of season shootout for an all american rally concept, the MaxAttack! 2WD Series presented by Danza del Sol!

Here we go:

-It's Thursday night and, of course, the rally hasn't started yet, but we were out at the shake down stage at Michgan Technological University's Keweenaw Research Center to see if we could gain any pre-rally knowledge as it pertains to MaxAttack! Several competitors were there for various reasons. Here's what we saw:

-Of course, the pre-rally favorites after their 3rd place finish at the Eastern Round in New England would be Dillon Van Way and Jake Blattner in their #600 Turbocharged Ford Fiesta Rally Car. The car honestly was the fastest thing circulating the gravel test course at KRC, no matter how many wheels were driving it. It looked to this reporter (who has a bit of experience with this sort of car) that the Fiesta actually had less power, but was noticably faster than it was at Maine. Instead of struggling to put the power to the ground, it just went!

-Highest rev limiter award definitely goes to the #37 Honda Civic of Billy Mann and Mary Warren. Billy said the car has a fresh right rear quarter after an encounter with a tree in Tennessee, but after many long hours, it's ready to do battle in MaxAttack!

-Every time we see Chris Greenhouse in his #319 Dodge Neon, we think he's reached the potential of the little yellow car, but today, with codriver Brian Johnson by his side, he showed us again just how far one can go with a simple, reliable rally car. Note to Chris: You're ready for a faster car, mate!

-Steve Brockelman and Dustin Masters may be rank beginners to the sport of rallying, but the vehicle they have chosen for their debut is anything but a rookie. The pair showed up in the same GMC Sonoma pickup truck that US rally legend Guy Light prepared and raced some 20 years ago. Wearing the number 262, the truck looks as if it was prepped yesterday. The pair easily took the most laps around the KRC facility as they came to terms with it's gravel manners and their speed picked up as the team took Rally 101 at the Michigan Tech facility.

-A rather seasoned team and one that has probably 35 LSPR/POR starts between them is Chris Czyzio (pronounced Czyzio) and Jeff Secor. The car is Jay Topping's Volvo 242 wearing the 244 number for this round. The team only made a few rounds of the shakedown course, but we are hoping that Czyzio (sounds like Czyzio) will "become one with Rear Wheel Drive" as he did in the 90s in his Fire Arrow.

-Another "classic" rally car at shakedown was the #510 (what else?) Datsun 510 of Jim Scray and Colin Vickman. The car is always a crowd favorite, and the team was showing their rear wheel drive style out here today, but there was a bit of smoke coming from the tailpipe as the car's lungs reached it's upper registers. Let's just hope she's running a bit rich. Many of us are excited to see the classic rear wheel drive battle between the 510, the Volvo, and the Huebbe Bros.' VW Beetle!

-Brothers Silas and Mattie Himes looked fast in their #535 Honda Civic. Silas says he was trying to manage the variable brake boost that comes from left foot braking with a brake booster while pedalling through the turns, but overall the skills pretty much came right back after a year hiatus.

-An interesting build is the #841 VW GTI of Daryn Chernick and Matthew Conte. The car is a nicely prepared Mk. 2 GTI, but sports a modern TDI turbodiesel under the hood. Nice lightweight shell coupled with a super-torque diesel. Recipe for MaxAttack! greatness? We will find out!


There were a few more that I didn't get stories on, but this should get you salivating for the competition in earnest! Stay tuned and we'll talk to you tomorrow.

-Lurch
 
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#10 ·
22 entries at a regional event in this economy can't possibly be disappointing, especially considering the low entry lists and canceled events in CenDiv this year.
This is the first year Van Way has shown up for the final so inroads are being made with getting the money chasers to realize Max Attack is in itself worthwhile.
I'm sure Wyatt would be there if he could afford it or if someone was paying the way. ACP and Scion are only interested in the marketing opportunity of the RA Nationals so Max Attack and LSPR are not important to them, though ACP is a fan and supporter of the series, but he doesn't have a car. Not sure what Chris' deal with the R2 is but guessing it's in the same boat as ACP/Scion.
I'm going to have to drink alot of beer to get over the disappointment of not being able to be there again.
 
#12 ·
Its 2 events a year!
For this to work, more regional teams are going to drop doing some of their local events and commit to MaxAttack! for its publicity and prize $. A couple 'National' teams are going to have to realize that many years the national 2wd championship has been a towing trophy. With everyone committing to just the 2 events a season, we'll have meaningful competition again.
 
#14 ·
I count 17 AWD cars and 24 2wd cars. I'd say MaxAttack! is still doing well to pull in lots of entries.

Personally I was hoping to make the trip but blew the motor testing about a month back (excuses excuses, I know). We're actively planning on making at least two rallies next year.

Now where are those updates on how things are going up there? :)

Dave
 
#17 · (Edited)
ya,... we should be seeing results? its 4 on the west coast, so 7pm on the east coast. stage one starts at 1pm there? uhm.. :)

er 14:37 Assuming EST, 12:37, or 9:37 am pst .. hmmm :(

Refresh, Refresh, Refresh... still nothing
 
#20 ·
Kenton Service, following Stage 3

There is neither internet nor cell coverage in Kenton, so your intrepid MaxAttack! reporters have to drive about 12 miles down the road to the town of Sidnaw and use a borrowed MiFi to make updates. So there won't be much this first night.

The mud of Stage 3, Beacon Hill, has been a focal point. Seasoned veterans described the stage as one of the most muddy and treacherous they have ever seen. In Kenton it is still around 42 degrees, raining hard, and the wind is a little less vigorous than Houghton (but it is still turning umbrellas inside out). Stage 3 was run in daylight, but all the rest of stages on Friday will be run in the dark.

-Car 92, the Group 2 Hyundai Tiburon of Derek McCorison and Paul Johansen said the car is going well, and that Beacon Hill had "the worst mud ever." They were worried throughout the stage about getting stuck. McCorison said the Hyundai is an awesome rally car. After three stages they are ninth in Group 2 and tenth in MaxAttack!.

-Car 128, the Production class Mazda RX-7 of Mychal Summers and Ryan DesLauriers report that the car is holding together, and that Beacon Hill was wetter than they expected. They are glad the event has returned to a two-day format. Being a local team out of L'Anse, they are pumped to have friends and family at the event supporting them. They are currently holding down 2nd in Production class, 18th in MaxAttack!.

-Jeff Secor, co-driving for Chris Czyzio (pronounced Czyzio) in the #244 Group 2 Volvo, says that he has never seen a stage as muddy and slippy as Beacon Hill. He also reports the team did not make the best tire choice, only adding to their woes. They are one spot behind the McCorison/Johansen Hyundai after three stages.

-Matti Himes, co-driving for brother Silas in the #535 Honda Civic, reports that Beacon Hill was a wet mud pit. It was fun, and was "the sort of stage that will make a man out of you." He also said that mud takes the "snort" out of the motor. After three stages they are maintaining an excellent second overall, just 22 seconds out of first.

-The team with the lone truck entered in the event, the #262 GMC Sonoma of Steve Brockelman and Dustin Masters, report that the truck is running well, and nothing is broken. They said that Beacon Hill was so muddy they just kind of limped through. They say the Sonoma makes an awesome rally vehicle; they are currently leading Production class.

-Jake Blattner says that the heated windscreen in the #600 Ford Fiesta is just not keeping up with the fogging that happens on a drenched rally like this. He says that he and Dillon Van Way did their best to keep it wiped down while sliding through Beacon Hill.

-Joseph Burke and Alex Kihurani are also "fighting the fog" in their #115 Ford Fiesta R2. There is still no heat in the car, though the defroster blower does blow cold air. This car is the same car that Chris Duplessis took to the MaxAttack! win at the New England Forest Rally earlier this year.

-Brothers Mark and John Huebbe are just amazed at the lack of traction in their classic VW Beetle. The team suffered a seized front caliper yesterday as they were heading to the shakedown stage. They got the caliper freed, but had to weld up new custom mounts to the suspension to get it mounted again. They said that the car danced back and forth while driving down even the straightest sections of Beacon Hill.

-We have a report that Erik Hill and Oliver Cooper in the #864 Eagle Talon are out with a broken axle on Beacon Hill. We'll try to get the rest of the story when we see them.

-Yesterday we reported that the classic Datsun 510 (#510) of Jim Scray and Colin Vickman was smoking a bit at the shakedown. Jim tells us that the culprit was a bad transmission seal, but that they were able to fix it. They are having fun and are moving well in the rear wheel drive beast.

-The super-fast Canadian brothers Jan and Jody Zedril are leading MaxAttack! after 3 stages in the #708 Mitsubishi Lancer. After the soaking rain, the notes for Green Acres just didn't fit their pace well, so Jody rewrote them on the first pass and got something more to Jan's liking for the second pass.

-Billy Mann and Mary Warren report extremely soupy conditions as well in their #37 Honda Civic. Billy slid wide at one turn and hit the grass with a bit of force. He thought maybe he had a flat tire after that, but it was actually just the lack of traction making forward progress very hard-earned.

-Matt and Andrew Bushore have managed to get three flat tires in three stages in their #548 VW Jetta! The first came when they hit the big hole at turn one on Green Acres 1. The second came on the transit after SS2, and they scored one more on Beacon Hill. They are continuing thanks to the MaxAttack! generosity of Billy Mann, as Billy loaned him some wheels to continue.

-Cameron Steely and Josh Buller report some drama in the first three stages. After doing a "tank slapper" in their #824 Ford Focus they suffered a broken brake hose to the right front caliper on SS3 (Beacon Hill). They nursed the car back to Kenton service, pinched off the brake line, and are continuing on three brakes. They're hoping to score a new hose and line to restore full braking for tomorrow.

-Paul Donlin and Jonathan Tinsey, the #666 Ford Escort, broke a water pump belt but were able to limp back to service. There did not seem to be any engine damage, and the team was working to free the water pump to install a new unit before heading out to Stage 4.

The standings following Stage 3 are:

1. Zedril/Zedril (Mitsubishi Lancer) 13:33
2. Himes/Himes (Honda Civic) 13:56
3. Burke/Kihurani (Ford Fiesta) 13:59
4. Van Way/Blattner (Ford Fiesta) 14:13
5. Greenhouse/Johnson (Plymouth Neon) 14:22
6. Mann/Warren (Honda Civic) 14:43
7. Bushore/Bushore (VW Jetta) 14:47
8. Scray/Vickman (Datsun 510) 15:06
9. Huebbe/Huebbe (VW Beetle) 15:28
10. McCorison/Johansen (Hyundai Tiburon) 16:06
11. Czyzio/Secor (Volvo 240) 16:22
12. Brockelman/Masters (GMC Sonoma) 16:37
13. Steely/Buller (Ford Focus) 16:40
14. Seppanen/Clark (Nissan 240SX) 17:02
15. Chernick/Conte (VW Golf) 17:11
16. Donlin/Tinsey (Ford Escort) 17:22
17. Holder/Payeur (Plymouth Neon) 17:26
18. Summers/DesLauriers (Mazda RX-7) 17:51
19. Grenwis/Burkholder (VW GTI) 22:10
20. Yahner/Benusa (VW Golf) - no score card received, assumed DNF
21. Hill/Cooper (Eagle Talon) DNF (half-shaft)

This just in: Car 548, the Matt Bushore/Andrew Bushore VW Jetta, was forced to withdraw from the rally after Stage 4. Their car lost fourth gear, and it was determined that there was too much damage to the gearbox to continue. They do not expect to contest Saturday's rally.

Cars will be returning for another service in Kenton in about half an hour.
 
#21 ·
Kenton Service, following Stage 3

There is neither internet nor cell coverage in Kenton, so your intrepid MaxAttack! reporters have to drive about 12 miles down the road to the town of Sidnaw and use a borrowed MiFi to make updates. So there won't be much this first night.

The mud of Stage 3, Beacon Hill, has been a focal point. Seasoned veterans described the stage as one of the most muddy and treacherous they have ever seen. In Kenton it is still around 42 degrees, raining hard, and the wind is a little less vigorous than Houghton (but it is still turning umbrellas inside out). Stage 3 was run in daylight, but all the rest of stages on Friday will be run in the dark.

-Car 92, the Group 2 Hyundai Tiburon of Derek McCorison and Paul Johansen said the car is going well, and that Beacon Hill had "the worst mud ever." They were worried throughout the stage about getting stuck. McCorison said the Hyundai is an awesome rally car. After three stages they are ninth in Group 2 and tenth in MaxAttack!.

-Car 128, the Production class Mazda RX-7 of Mychal Summers and Ryan DesLauriers report that the car is holding together, and that Beacon Hill was wetter than they expected. They are glad the event has returned to a two-day format. Being a local team out of L'Anse, they are pumped to have friends and family at the event supporting them. They are currently holding down 2nd in Production class, 18th in MaxAttack!.

-Jeff Secor, co-driving for Chris Czyzio (pronounced Czyzio) in the #244 Group 2 Volvo, says that he has never seen a stage as muddy and slippy as Beacon Hill. He also reports the team did not make the best tire choice, only adding to their woes. They are one spot behind the McCorison/Johansen Hyundai after three stages.

-Matti Himes, co-driving for brother Silas in the #535 Honda Civic, reports that Beacon Hill was a wet mud pit. It was fun, and was "the sort of stage that will make a man out of you." He also said that mud takes the "snort" out of the motor. After three stages they are maintaining an excellent second overall, just 22 seconds out of first.

-The team with the lone truck entered in the event, the #262 GMC Sonoma of Steve Brockelman and Dustin Masters, report that the truck is running well, and nothing is broken. They said that Beacon Hill was so muddy they just kind of limped through. They say the Sonoma makes an awesome rally vehicle; they are currently leading Production class.

-Jake Blattner says that the heated windscreen in the #600 Ford Fiesta is just not keeping up with the fogging that happens on a drenched rally like this. He says that he and Dillon Van Way did their best to keep it wiped down while sliding through Beacon Hill.

-Joseph Burke and Alex Kihurani are also "fighting the fog" in their #115 Ford Fiesta R2. There is still no heat in the car, though the defroster blower does blow cold air. This car is the same car that Chris Duplessis took to the MaxAttack! win at the New England Forest Rally earlier this year.

-Brothers Mark and John Huebbe are just amazed at the lack of traction in their classic VW Beetle. The team suffered a seized front caliper yesterday as they were heading to the shakedown stage. They got the caliper freed, but had to weld up new custom mounts to the suspension to get it mounted again. They said that the car danced back and forth while driving down even the straightest sections of Beacon Hill.

-We have a report that Erik Hill and Oliver Cooper in the #864 Eagle Talon are out with a broken axle on Beacon Hill. We'll try to get the rest of the story when we see them.

-Yesterday we reported that the classic Datsun 510 (#510) of Jim Scray and Colin Vickman was smoking a bit at the shakedown. Jim tells us that the culprit was a bad transmission seal, but that they were able to fix it. They are having fun and are moving well in the rear wheel drive beast.

-The super-fast Canadian brothers Jan and Jody Zedril are leading MaxAttack! after 3 stages in the #708 Mitsubishi Lancer. After the soaking rain, the notes for Green Acres just didn't fit their pace well, so Jody rewrote them on the first pass and got something more to Jan's liking for the second pass.

-Billy Mann and Mary Warren report extremely soupy conditions as well in their #37 Honda Civic. Billy slid wide at one turn and hit the grass with a bit of force. He thought maybe he had a flat tire after that, but it was actually just the lack of traction making forward progress very hard-earned.

-Matt and Andrew Bushore have managed to get three flat tires in three stages in their #548 VW Jetta! The first came when they hit the big hole at turn one on Green Acres 1. The second came on the transit after SS2, and they scored one more on Beacon Hill. They are continuing thanks to the MaxAttack! generosity of Billy Mann, as Billy loaned him some wheels to continue.

-Cameron Steely and Josh Buller report some drama in the first three stages. After doing a "tank slapper" in their #824 Ford Focus they suffered a broken brake hose to the right front caliper on SS3 (Beacon Hill). They nursed the car back to Kenton service, pinched off the brake line, and are continuing on three brakes. They're hoping to score a new hose and line to restore full braking for tomorrow.

-Paul Donlin and Jonathan Tinsey, the #666 Ford Escort, broke a water pump belt but were able to limp back to service. There did not seem to be any engine damage, and the team was working to free the water pump to install a new unit before heading out to Stage 4.

The standings following Stage 3 are:

1. Zedril/Zedril (Mitsubishi Lancer) 13:33
2. Himes/Himes (Honda Civic) 13:56
3. Burke/Kihurani (Ford Fiesta) 13:59
4. Van Way/Blattner (Ford Fiesta) 14:13
5. Greenhouse/Johnson (Plymouth Neon) 14:22
6. Mann/Warren (Honda Civic) 14:43
7. Bushore/Bushore (VW Jetta) 14:47
8. Scray/Vickman (Datsun 510) 15:06
9. Huebbe/Huebbe (VW Beetle) 15:28
10. McCorison/Johansen (Hyundai Tiburon) 16:06
11. Czyzio/Secor (Volvo 240) 16:22
12. Brockelman/Masters (GMC Sonoma) 16:37
13. Steely/Buller (Ford Focus) 16:40
14. Seppanen/Clark (Nissan 240SX) 17:02
15. Chernick/Conte (VW Golf) 17:11
16. Donlin/Tinsey (Ford Escort) 17:22
17. Holder/Payeur (Plymouth Neon) 17:26
18. Summers/DesLauriers (Mazda RX-7) 17:51
19. Grenwis/Burkholder (VW GTI) 22:10
20. Yahner/Benusa (VW Golf) - no score card received, assumed DNF
21. Hill/Cooper (Eagle Talon) DNF (half-shaft)

This just in: Car 548, the Matt Bushore/Andrew Bushore VW Jetta, was forced to withdraw from the rally after Stage 4. Their car lost fourth gear, and it was determined that there was too much damage to the gearbox to continue. They do not expect to contest Saturday's rally.

Cars will be returning for another service in Kenton in about half an hour.
 
#22 ·
Thanks Ben! Thanks Lurch! Thanks Danza Del Sol Winery! And thanks Max Attackers for giving them something to report about and sponsor!
 
#24 ·
The mud is in-freaking-credible. Somewhere out there, Himes were backed off the road on the first pass of Passmore. I don't know what happened, I suspect we'll hear eventually. They had to be going incredibly fast, and the corner they were off on was the consistency of moose snot.

Passmore was almost "normal" about 7 or 8 miles in- it's a 17 mile stage, so we were really bummed to not have *the* gear we needed to stay in the powerband.

I also can't fathom how Jan and Jody are on the pace they are. We just couldn't keep the car going the right direction on Beacon Hill long enough to reach any kind of speed.
 
#26 ·
Kenton Service, following Stage 6

-The Himes brothers described the three stages between the Kenton services as "shitty, OK and OK." They lost a wheel a few miles into Stage 4, Passmore. They were able to find the errant wheel, but they estimated they lost about five or six minutes. Silas reports that the stages are "slipperier-n-shit."

-The crew of the #262 GMC Sonoma, Steve Brockelman and Dustin Masters, said stages 4, 5 and 6 were "brutal and slippy." It was hard to stay away from the stumps, rocks and trees, but they managed to pull it off. They even managed to pass a car on one of the stages. Dustin, the co-driver, reported that he felt queasy on Stage 4, Passmore, and they just had to drive what they could see for much of the time.

-Chris Czyzio, driver of the #244 Volvo 240, caught and passed a car about 5.5 miles into Stage 4, Passmore. He and co-driver Jeff Secor had a lot of fun on Passmore. Far Point, Stage 5, was slippery but they had no problems. Bob Lake, Stage 6, was very slippery for the first four miles, but the last two miles were a different surface and had a lot more grip, it went much quicker. Jeff adds that, "windshield wipers are for sissies." Indeed their wipers are not working in this downpour, and they literally had to come to a stop a couple times because of mud covering the windshield.

-Joseph Burke said that he can't see. "I've never worked so hard to keep a car on the road in my life." He's missing turns in transits as well, due to the lack of visibility.

-Mark and John Huebbe lost a wheel from their VW Beetle.

-Derek McCorison and Paul Johansen, in the Hyundai Tiburon #92, did not have enough E-85 to last the event, so they had to send a crew member to Ashland, Wisconsin to obtain a supply for Saturday. The car runs very well with a neat individual throttle body system, but it does not like the water. They were having problems with the linkage, which was sticking a bit.

-Ian Seppanen and Daniel Clark, in the #240 Nissan 240SX, were having a lot of fun, spending a lot of time with the car at a 45 degree angle to the road.

-Paul Donlin and Jonathan Tinsey, the #666 Ford Escort, lost another water pump belt on Stage 5. It appeared the water pump was seized, and the team was unable to finish the evening.

-Daryn Chernick and Matthew Conte, the #841 VW GTI from Manitoba, converted the car to a turbo diesel. They lost the rally computer when sand in the rim knocked off the sensor.

-Car #696, the Plymouth Neon of Bryan Holder and Tracy Payeur, said that Stage 4 and Stage 5 were pretty good, but Bob Lake (Stage 6) was really torn up. They dragged their rear bumper for half a stage, but they were able to re-affix it.

-Car 600, the Ford Fiesta of Dillon Van Way and Jake Blattner, had a problem with a slipping clutch.

-The crew of Car #128, the Mychal Summers/Ryan DesLauriers Mazda RX-7, left Kenton with a trailer to retrieve the car. They had no information as to what might have happened.

Here are the results after Stage 6:

1. Zedril/Zedril (Mitsubishi Lancer #708) 53:12
2. Burke/Kihurani (Ford Fiesta #115) 55:02
3. Van Way/Blattner (Ford Fiesta #600) 56:27
4. Greenhouse/Johnson (Plymouth Neon #319) 57:21
5. Mann/Warren (Honda Civic #37) 57:56
6. Huebbe/Huebbe (VW Beetle #242) 1:02:30
7. Brockelman/Masters (GMC Sonoma #262) 1:02:38
8. Seppanen/Clark (Nissan 240SX #240) 1:03:38
9. Czyzio/Secor (Volvo 240 #244) 1:04:06
10. Steely/Buller (Ford Focus #824) 1:04:38
11. McCorison/Johansen (Hyundai Tiburon #92) 1:05:46
12. Himes/Himes (Honda Civic #535) 1:05:48
13. Chernick/Conte (VW GTI #841) 1:06:54
14. Holder/Payeur (Plymouth Neon #696) 1:08:15
15. Grenwis/Burkholder (VW GTI #654) 1:38:54
DNF - Donlin/Tinsey (Ford Escort #666) belt
DNF - Summers/DesLauriers (Mazda RX-7 #128) unknown
DNF - Scray/Vickman (Datsun 510 #510) unknown
DNF - Bushore/Bushore (VW Jetta #548) gearbox
DNF - Hill/Cooper (Eagle Talon #864) broken axle
DNF - Yahner/Benusa (VW Golf #551) unknown

News flash! Dillon Van Way's Ford Fiesta is sitting forlornly at the team's service area in Kenton. He and co-driver Jake Blattner completely lost the clutch. They are going to replace the clutch and run tomorrow's regional, but they are a DNF from the MaxAttack! event.

We will try to get updates from the final MTC, although they probably will not be posted until the wee hours.
 
#28 · (Edited)
Here are the final Day 1 updates from LSPR:


MTC 2, Kenton

Welcome to the end of a long and challenging first day of the Lake Superior Rally. It has poured rain all day, the wind has blown, and the stages have been treacherous. But there are a number of hardcore spectators that have been enjoying the action out in the woods.

Here's what some of the teams had to say as they checked in to the final MTC for the day:

-David Grenwis and Drew Burkholder, in the #654 VW Golf, went off on Stage 6 and got pulled out by another competitor. They got down the road a bit further, then they stopped to pull out the Summers/DesLauriers RX-7 which had gone off the road. The lengthy stage time resulted in just five minutes of service. They went out for Stage 7 and lost their windshield wipers, then they lost their driving lights. At that point they decided that they needed to fix some things before they continued, so they withdrew from Friday's event.

-Jan and Jody Zedril, on Bob Lake 2, went wide around a corner and went off-road over two very large logs. They were a minute slower then their earlier running of the stage, but they are OK and their #708 Mitsubishi Lancer is in good shape.

-Joseph Burke says, "This is the most difficult rally I've ever done, with all the slipperiness and dealing with the windshield issue." He and Alex Kihurani are soldiering on in the #115 Ford Fiesta.

-Chris Greenhouse and Brian Johnson, in the #319 Plymouth Neon, report that on Bob Lake 2, the trenches were so deep they was getting high-centered in the middle of the road. Chris is happy that the team is still moving and in the rally.

-Billy Mann and Mary Warren hit something (they were unsure what) on Far Point so hard that it moved the right front wheel back several inches. They #37 Honda Civic is tough to drive in the slop, but OK on the solid roads. Billy will try to fix it before morning.

-Chris Czyzio and Jeff Secor hit a big rock on Far Point and lost the brakes of their #244 Volvo 240. They finished that stage, and Bob Lake 2, using just the handbrake.

-There were five or six cars stuck on Bob Lake, but Mark and John Huebbe managed to bob and weave around them and they got through. They have no major issues with the Volkswagen Beetle.

-Steve Brockelman and Dustin Masters, in the #262 GMC Sonoma, also came across the folks stuck on Bob Lake 2. They tried to pull out the front one, the #824 Ford Focus of Cameron Steely and Josh Buller, to relieve some of the congestion, but they were just digging a hole so they had to give up. The truck is doing well.

-The #824 Ford Focus of Cameron Steely and Josh Buller did, indeed, get stuck on Bob Lake 2. They still just have one working front caliper, and now have developed a coolant leak, and they are having the same windshield fogging issue that seems to be plaguing most teams. They are glad the night is done and they are looking forward to running on Saturday.

-Derek McCorison and Paul Johansen, in the #92 Hyundai Tiburon, ingested some water in the throttle bodies, and got stuck. They were one of six or seven cars that got stuck on the stage, and they were pretty frustrated that the second running of the stage wasn't canceled after how bad it was the first time through.

According to Ian Seppanen, in the #240 Nissan 240SX, the sweep crew pulled the time cards of the six or seven cars that got stuck on Bob Lake 2. They checked in, despite not knowing whether or not they would be counted as finishers. He adds that if they are counted as finishers, he'll give someone a great big hug.

Unfortunately, all of the cars that were stuck on Bob Lake 2 and had their time cards pulled by sweep were classified as DNFs. So at this point, of 21 starters, there are only 9 cars remaining to start the second day of Lake Superior MaxAttack! (although presumably most of the DNFs will start Saturday's regional rally).

The unofficial results after the first day are:

1. Zedril/Zedril (Mitsubishi Lancer) 1:35:03
2. Burke/Kihurani (Ford Fiesta) 1:37:32
3. Greenhouse/Johnson (Plymouth Neon) 1:41:41
4. Mann/Warren (Honda Civic) 1:44:53
5. Himes/Himes (Honda Civic) 1:47:17
6. Czyzio/Secor (Volvo 240) 1:56:08
7. Huebbe/Huebbe (Volkswagen Beetle) 1:56:34
8. Brockelman/Masters (GMC Sonoma) 2:05:26
9. Chernick/Conte (VW GTI) 2:05:37
DNF - Seppanen/Clark (Nissan 240SX)
DNF - Steely/Buller (Ford Focus)
DNF - McCorison/Johansen (Hyundai Tiburon)
DNF - Van Way/Blattner (Ford Fiesta)
DNF - Grenwis/Burkholder (VW GTI)
DNF - Holder/Payeur (Plymouth Neon)
DNF - Scray/Vickman (Datsun 510)
DNF - Bushore/Bushore (VW Jetta)
DNF - Donlin/Tinsey (Ford Escort)
DNF - Summers/DesLaurier (Mazda RX-7)
DNF - Hill/Cooper (Eagle Talon)
DNF - Yahner/Benusa (VW GTI)

We'll see you in the morning at Parc Expose at the L'Anse Marina.[more like in a few hours- BB]
 
#30 ·
Great reports Ben, Lurch. I really wish we could have bee there, we planned to, but then had truck problems $$ which consumed the LSPR budget.

Matt, wondering how the Zedrils are going so fast? They are always fast, howver they just did PFR in similar slushy conditions, my guess is the practice really helped them be fast right out of the gate.

So if Van Way is the only MaxAttack!! competitor who did a qualifier and entered the final, but he is DNF, who will win the Jake Himes Cup?

-Martin.
 
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