[Lurch]

Just a quick note and thank you. We had a great run on Friday. Found a tread pattern that worked well and we were 13th OA at end of Friday night behind Mr. Johnson. What fun! Maybe I should adjust my car to have an inch and a half of toe in on the front all the time!

On Saturday we had a plug come off the intake on the engine that made the car run like pus. We struggled through 2 stages that way (including the normally ultra fast Delaware Mine stage) before getting things worked out. Big mistake on the delta on the first trip. Oh well. How did my rev limiter sound guys?

Brockway with notes was the most fun I have ever had in an automobile. In the front seat or the back.

Got 2nd G2 for the rally. 2nd in G2 Drivers Championship. 2nd for Woodner cup. 2nd for G2 man. champ. I see a trend here, do you? We'll be back next year. One place higher.

Just want to thank Eric Adams, his parents, my (volunteer) crew, my parents, all my sponsors and especially Mazda. Thanks to the LSPR crew for putting on another exciting rally...you can lose Thayer lake tho... Thanks to Matt Johnson and Carl and Emmy Fisher (whose rent-a-car engine mount is still under my hood...I'll have Mazdaspeed send one to Avis for ya) for great competition. One more fishbowl and I'm sure we coulda swam across Portage Lake! Also to Lauchlin O'Sullivan and Matt Chester for making it one heckuva fight. Congratulations, guys.

More formal PR to follow after sleep.

Cheers!

Lurch

 

[jmullan]

[link:gallery.jpmullan.com/2002LSPRbyJesseMullan/CRW_5144_RJ|http://albums.jpmullan.com/2002LSPRbyJesseMullan/CRW_5144_RJ.thumb.jpg]

 

[Mad Mike]

Mad Mike's LSPR Fun ...

As the near-unanimous pick for the LSPR Prod title in the Hintz Fantasy ProRally contest (http://www.specialstage.com/forum/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=read_count&om=52&forum=DCForumID27) I must apologize for pissin' away so many good prognostications. For whatever it's worth, Friday was the first time in a 34+ year autosport career that I managed to wreck out of the lead of anything.

Ever.

Had we known we were leading there's a chance I might not have taken that 6-left flat. The corner's exit was slippier than the previous ones and we skittered onto the outside bank. The ensuing skidplate-bashing caused the Bug to quickly rotate clockwise.

http://www.realautosport.com/pics/Beetle/LSPR2002/SB_LF3.jpg

With foot to the floor and steering wheel at full lock left we wound up nosing into a little swamp on driver's right. My side of the car dug into the dirt and parked us on the wrong door atop a small stump. Surprisingly, nothing was broken but my pride. The door and electric window lift still work fine. Of course, the window only lowers to the point it runs into mangled sheet metal.

http://www.realautosport.com/pics/Beetle/LSPR2002/SBDoor2.jpg

While a couple of small but stout trees kept us from ending our event on the roof, they also did in the great hand-crafted Stag Beetle artwork added by Hokus Pokus Grafix (918.865.3696) of Mannford, Oklahoma. Eric Cameron does helmets too! Call him!

http://www.realautosport.com/pics/Beetle/LSPR2002/SBHood1.jpg

Shortly after Bill found his way out the door that opened to the sky we pushed the car back onto its wheels and waved cordially at the remaining cars that passed. It took a big PowerStroke Ford 4WD sweep truck about six snatches to yank us out of that swamp, but once on the road the StudBug fired right up and we drove a perfectly serviceable-but-rumpled rally car to Houghton. Had I the money, the inclination or a guarantee we wouldn't do even more damage running Saturday we could have competed in the last half of the LSPR ClubRallys.

What's been learned?

- All accidents remain 100% the driver's fault!

- Stage Notes can make you fast but even minor mistakes can lead to serious consequences. I can safely say there is no way I'd have tackled that corner like I did without the notes and the confidence I had in Bill Montgomery's calls.

- Some times you eat the bear and some times the bear eats you.

- The flip-side to significantly better road placement thanks to seeding is the fact its tougher exchanging stage times with the competition. The only thing we knew for sure was that we restarted second in Prod (based just on SS1), 15-seconds behind MacAire. Since we broke a rear shock mount on SS1, had that shock come apart on SS3, ran better than half of a 14-mile stage on a left rear flat (mid stage I asked Bill to decrement the rating of each call he made concerning a right-hander and he handled it like a pro) and did all the pre-restart stages with 40psi in those Silverstones (I forgot to air them down!) I couldn't imagine we were actually leading.

- Still, all accidents are 100% the driver's fault!

- Despite the fact I'm 2-for-5 as a driver finishing rallies on the U.P. I really love events up there. The roads are a great mix, the weather is never predictable and the whole experience is always unique.

http://www.realautosport.com/pics/LSPR2000/Flipped.jpg

- Don't piss off the Rallye Gods upsetting rally organizing comittee members! The Great Ones reach down from the sky and cause weirdness to ensue!

- Houghton remains one of my favorite towns, bar none. This was my eighth trip there (including a honeymoon visit in 1986) and I always leave there looking forward to my return.

http://www.realautosport.com/pics/Beetle/LSPR2002/Houghton.jpg

My thanks to Scott Carlborn's entire LSPR crew, my weekend Crew Chief Greg Montgomery and latest navvie, Bill Montgomery. Great work all!

My apologies to everyone who wasted a pick on me but especially to Registrar Jack Swift. It really wasn't my plan to complicate his job earlier this month.

Halley ...
http://www.realautosport.com

 

[mgpsmith]

RE: Mad Mike's LSPR Fun ...

You must not have gotten to the "waving cordially" part when we came by. You were on your feet but I believe still deciding about your mood. We were sorry to see you out....your placement was one of lots of places on Friday (and Saturday) where the lack of grip could reach up and grab the gonads though!

 

[Mad Mike]

RE: Mad Mike's LSPR Fun ...

>You must not have gotten to the "waving cordially" part when
>we came by. You were on your feet but I believe still
>deciding about your mood.

Well, that was as cordial as I could muster standing in the snizzle, feet soaked, cold and pissed at myself ...

>We were sorry to see you
>out....your placement was one of lots of places on Friday
>(and Saturday) where the lack of grip could reach up and
>grab the gonads though!

Thanks. Such is life in the muddy fast lane.

I gotta say I like Cherokee's slick-as-snot spots better - they're RED and easily whoaed up for! ;-)

Halley ...
http://www.realautosport.com