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Perfectly clear days in Oregon in late October are to be taken advantage of. Simon Levear put on a wonderful event so we could do that. And the battles were hot.
The Overall/Open class race started off with Ross Foster dominating early on in his Cascade Autosport Evo 8. Among the Subarus, Gary Cavett led Paul Eklund (first on the road) and Dave Hintz. That was stage 1 and 2. On twisty technical downhill Stage 3 we Hintz brothers posted 2nd overall quickest time and moved up in the cumulative standings into a tie with Eklund. After stage 4, the overall order was Foster, Cavett, Hintz, Eklund at the service halt.
Then everything started changing again. Stage 5 had major dust and Paul and Ross whupped us all. Paul got ahead of us and even Cavett on that stage. Immediately, and to our great relief, the organizer switched to 2-minute dust windows from his vantage point over the dusty valley. But Paul never let up, basically dominating the rest of the rally, as Ross ran with only the stock HID lights - no extras - into the night. The Hondas of Nelson/Flagg and Perret/Hanson posted some really quick times mixing it up with the open class cars when the road was virtually straight and downhill. Ross had a big enough lead that even though he was losing time he was safe. Dave Hintz continued to chip away at Cavett's big early lead. On the next 4 stages we eked him out by 4, then 1, 1, and 2 seconds. Cavett had a 13-second lead going into the last stage, but we managed to gain 14 on him to just barely finish 3rd overall.
With no huge mechanical problems or crashes, it was seriously good competition, with 2nd, 3rd, and 4th changing on almost every stage.
In Gp2 Steve Perrett put in an amazing drive to place 5th overall. Jamie Thomas won PGT. Mark Tabor took Production. John McKean won Gp5.
The Overall/Open class race started off with Ross Foster dominating early on in his Cascade Autosport Evo 8. Among the Subarus, Gary Cavett led Paul Eklund (first on the road) and Dave Hintz. That was stage 1 and 2. On twisty technical downhill Stage 3 we Hintz brothers posted 2nd overall quickest time and moved up in the cumulative standings into a tie with Eklund. After stage 4, the overall order was Foster, Cavett, Hintz, Eklund at the service halt.
Then everything started changing again. Stage 5 had major dust and Paul and Ross whupped us all. Paul got ahead of us and even Cavett on that stage. Immediately, and to our great relief, the organizer switched to 2-minute dust windows from his vantage point over the dusty valley. But Paul never let up, basically dominating the rest of the rally, as Ross ran with only the stock HID lights - no extras - into the night. The Hondas of Nelson/Flagg and Perret/Hanson posted some really quick times mixing it up with the open class cars when the road was virtually straight and downhill. Ross had a big enough lead that even though he was losing time he was safe. Dave Hintz continued to chip away at Cavett's big early lead. On the next 4 stages we eked him out by 4, then 1, 1, and 2 seconds. Cavett had a 13-second lead going into the last stage, but we managed to gain 14 on him to just barely finish 3rd overall.
With no huge mechanical problems or crashes, it was seriously good competition, with 2nd, 3rd, and 4th changing on almost every stage.
In Gp2 Steve Perrett put in an amazing drive to place 5th overall. Jamie Thomas won PGT. Mark Tabor took Production. John McKean won Gp5.
