[Rallychick from Oregon]

Hey y'all--

My brother Mark is running the CRNC the weekend, and I thought I'd post some of the things he's been calling in to us. He's running Mad Mike's StudBug.

Some of yesterday's stages had some degree of ice and/or slush; some of the stages are really tight and twisty! Stage 2 had soemthing like 6 pages of instructions and 19 cautions, and the road was about 1 lane wide.

Lots of good competition, lots of slick roads, and lots of delays! Evidently, this morning and spectator lit a fire in an effort to keep warm, and it got away from them. Mark wasn't sure what all the other delays have been from, though.

More later, as we hear it!

KT

 

[Mad Mike]

Mad Mike here - direct from the Rally America van ...

Mark was a bit rattled when he pulled the StudBug behind the VANimal at the Viburnum service a whuiloe ago - It seems he came close to seeing Jesus on SS4 (Ollie 'n the Camel) when they topped a crest at speed and wound up spinning out.

Servicing for the Oregon Rally Team CRNC effort has been a snap - add fuel, check fluids, check tire pressures, replcae bottles of water and send them on their way. Shoot, so far I've done more work on the Cox S-10 (helped Jim replace a RF lower shock bolt) than I have on the V-Dub.

Anyway, I'm headed to check out the Fat Tire Ale inside while we wait for the teams to get back. This Crew Chief gig ain't half bad ...

;-)

Halley ...
ProRally #86
http://www.realautosport.com

 

[AlanPerry]

Well, I just got back home from Trespasser Wil/100AW. I was co-driving with Dennis Martin. His usual co-driver is Kim DeMotte, the chair for those events.

Although I have some issues with the events, I am going to discuss them constructively with Kim, not whine about them here. The roads were great and it seems like all of the people associated with it worked hard to put on a fanastic event and in many areas they succeeded despite circumstances often getting in the way. Thanks to you guys very much.

Dennis and I won both events overall. I am thankful for the opportunity to work with Dennis because he drove the car exceedingly well despite my poor first attempts at calling a rally from maps. Speed Channel had cameras in the car, but had battery problems that didn't get corrected until the one stage that I forgot to copy all of the route book instructions onto the map, so I reached a point where I couldn't tell him about the big cattleguards and low water bridges. Doh!

For me, the highlights of the rally were Steven Perret and Kathryn Hansen's performance (uh, until they, uh, crashed out) and Steve Gingras and Bill Westrick's time on the last stage of 100AW.

Steven and Kathryn have shown themselves to be fast in PNW events, but they were crazy fast at TW/100AW. I heard they had something like 2 minutes on the next G2 car when they went out. Glad they both got out of the car relatively unscathed.

Steve and Bill beat us on the last stage by 12 seconds, I think, and they didn't have maps and had to deal with dust. We were not going as hard since we had a big time cushion, but Dennis wasn't slouching either. That had to be one fun/scary ride!

alan

 

[Mad Mike]

Even after his brush with owning the StudBug (Mark's words), it's clear the Oregon Rally Group representatives at the CRNC were back in 'Let's have some FUN!' mode!

http://www.realautosport.com/pics/Beetle/100AW-04/100aw04088.jpg

Here's the "the car is safely on the trailer" team shot taken Sunday morning -

http://www.realautosport.com/pics/Beetle/100AW-04/100aw04113.jpg

Halley ...
ProRally #86
http://www.realautosport.com

 

[JC_595]

Speed Channel was there?

JC
#595
www.gnimotorsports.com

 

[AlanPerry]

>Speed Channel was there?

Dennis should really respond to this because he definitely knows the details more than I do, but some production guys from St. Louis were there working on a Speed Channel show on amateur drivers, taping us in action on stage and interviewing Dennis, stuff like that. Since I spent most of the rally with Dennis, not sure what they were doing when they weren't with us.

alan

 

[Flyboy]

>>Speed Channel was there?
>
>Dennis should really respond to this because he definitely
>knows the details more than I do, but some production guys
>from St. Louis were there working on a Speed Channel show on
>amateur drivers, taping us in action on stage and
>interviewing Dennis, stuff like that. Since I spent most of
>the rally with Dennis, not sure what they were doing when
>they weren't with us.
>
>alan

Alan pretty much nailed it. It wasn't Speed, but a production company making a show called Driving Force. Details are sketchy but I think it is supposed to highlight amateur motorsports and the struggles we face to get our jollies. They suction cupped a camera on the roof, one facing us in the car, and took some footage of a stage start/service/spectator points/etc.... They had never filmed a rally before and had some trouble getting the equipment working, but all in all did a remarkable job getting as much footage as they got. Despite Mark McAllister's predictions that cameras were a "bloody bad omen" we survived unscathed. I'm not quite sure, but I think it will air in April sometime on Speed.

Dennis Martin
[email protected]
920-432-4845

 

[Lancia037Rally]

>Speed Channel was there?

They were taking a break from recording the nearby bob-sledding trials. Seems they are broadcasting a lot of bob-sledding and no ProRally. Money talks.

 

[Eileen]

The TV crew was from Technisonic Studios.

They formerly produced Motor Sports Weekly (among other programs) seen on Fox Sports Midwest for which they won three Emmys.

Last year the cameraman shot the Great Race........so he does have some rally experience........just not performance rally experience. (Which this is a hard sport to cover with a camera (of any type) unless there would be a helicopter that would happen to be available.)

They evidently do a lot of work for Roush.

The program is called Driving Force. It is not a results oriented show.....from what I understand it is to be a human interest and ends of the sport not typically covered program. The piece featuring Dennis and the CRNC is slated to air in April.

I will be happy to post when the program will air once I know.

Understand that often in a 3 - 5 minute TV segment there will be about 100 hours of time invested in gathering the info, shooting the footage, and putting it all together to air.

As a side note.......all teams need to keep in mind that whether we are talking print, TV, or radio media they are looking to tell a story that hasn't been told before. You need a "hook" or an "angle" or something unusual. For example St. Louis is blessed with a large number of dirt short tracks that the local stock car types compete on. They won't receive weekly coverage even in papers, let alone radio or most especially TV unless there is an unusual or human interest story........like a female flagman (which there is, but that is a one time story). They also won't get much coverage unless they basically hand deliver all the information to the media outlet. In other words.....the more work you do for them to cut down on their time invested the more likely you are to receive coverage........especially if you are thorough, accurate, and professional. TV and radio will also require a certain amount of animation on the individuals part. I understand most teams don't have the time or the staff to dedicate to some of this. I also understand that a lot of racing series or race tracks don't have the time or the staff to dedicate to the media either.