RE: Here
Kent, Pete, Randy, et al. Thanks for the kind words. It was a fun rally and we hope they continue to run it in future years! Frankly, we were surprised at our result. We had not seen any preliminary stage results during service or immediately after the event. We never bothered to look or inquire since there was no re-seed. We saw our result for the first time at the awards dinner.
As you can imagine, the 510 isn't at its best in cold rainy/snowy weather (terribly insufficient windshield defogging/ventilation and water leaking everywhere) or muddy roads (too much rear end drift in corners and upon acceleration). Our best performances are always on dry roads in good weather. We had a few (minor) offs, including two early on the last stage, one of which easily could have done some severe damage had a tree been in our (my side) way. While there were some long straights where the odo said we were in the high 80s and low 90s in speed, we never thought our times would be particuarly competitive. Avoiding a flat tire on that rough surface was also lucky and undoubtedly a big factor in our finish position.
Anyway, it was a fun event, a really nice addition to the NEDiv schedule and a fortunate result for us. Major kudos to Ted Goddard and his crew, especially the guys who fixed the roads before the event. Thanks Ted!!!
Bill Rhodes