I heard the wind was blowin hard. I hope everyone is back safely.



gino

www.gb-motorsports.com
www.mpjperformance.com

 

It was pretty terrible. Last year they had the first stage of each day in town at the Holiday Inn rally headquarters. This year you had to trek out to the boonies if you wanted to see any action. We froze our asses off in the dark, it wasn't worth it. They should at least run a superspecial or something in town. Vendors were good, but not as many or as much product as I expected. I did get my ECU reflash from Cobb there. The Subaru tent was alright. They had the STi, the '04 WRX rally cars, and a Baja with WRB paint and rally graphics. But they really cheaped out compared to last year. They didn't have any Subaru owner specials like free food and exclusive swag like last year. The ESX 740hp WRX was there as well as an HKS 500hp EVO. I hope everything is better next year, especially the weather.

 

I didn't go, but a clubWRX.net member went and took all of these pics:

http://www.public.fotki.com/RallyeX/...he_world_2003/

Kurlee Daddee
(THE ORIGINAL)

 

Those are some kick *** pictures. I wish I was there.

 

The Rallye was FANTASTIC and NOT for the weak!!! They can watch the one hour Speed presentation or look at the FANTASTIC collection of pictures that RallyeXpress took for the last two weeks...actually ALL his pictures are great. Rally America had real time online updates of the event and there were others (Subaru.net, Rim staff, etc) that updated almost daily. The weather sucked, but if you were not prepared for the weather you were better off staying home. Rallye Racing is only for the REAL MEN/WOMEN and watching at the stage sites is the same, very difficult and not for the weak

 

it was cold and wet! I worked there Friday and Saturday.

 

Rim was SO vastly different from last year, I'm amazed. The complete about face in weather (last year was an awesome non-stop sun & dry weather) made things interesting to say the least. I did bring a lot of my water proof stuff with me since I knew it was going to be raining, but wow, I still wasn't fully prepared for just how MUCH rain came down.

Even though it wasn't what I'd expected, and we only saw 4 cars start , I had fun because of the great company. There are a lot of memories made that I won't forget, so thanks everyone!

Of course, on Saturday as we were going up the dirt road to the Spunky spectator area, I lost my cell phone. Justin, Subydude, and John were great in trying to help me find it, but everytime we called the phone it went straight to voicemail, suggesting that it was still in an area with no service. And going back to the bottom of the dirt road turned up nothing (not even the crushed bits of a cell phone that I was prepared to find.) I was really sad to have to admit to myself that it was lost, cuz I was still holding out hope for some miracle (I tend to lose things often and they always seem to find a way to get back to me - though this is the first time for me to lose my cell phone). So the weekend pass and I go home with no cell phone. And lo and behold, just 15 minutes ago I get a call at work that started out with "I found a cell phone..."

Woohoo!!!! ::: Thank you Slig for finding my phone and contacting me!!!!! (See, this is the reason why I do believe in miracles!)

I definitely made it through Rim with the help of many people this year.

Owlboogie for the ride down. It was fun!
MPJperformance for lodging & rain gear. Mike, you need to cut down on that deodorant spray!
bluewrxwgn for helping me try to find my cell phone saturday and the ride back on sunday.
Subydude for chilling in the hotel room with the family (your kids are cute!) and mixing the diet coke
Slig for finding my cell phone and hunting me down to return it!!!

Yes, this has been very memorable, and it all turned out well in the end.


Ravent: you're quite right about that! rallying is all-weather/no-matter-the-weather!

 

Rim was fun this year albeit a little wet and wild. Oh, and most of us didn't even get to see a car on stage. I'm just bummed I didn't stay for the i-Speed RallyX late night Saturday as I'm sure it was exciting. I was a little too inebriated to continue on with the shenanigans.

-Brian

 

It was hard to get to the stages. I'm not as hardcore as Randy. All in all very fun. Nice to meet subaru folks! Thanks for the ride to the first stage JC.

What a geek!


Pics here!

 

yeah ! Randy couldnt help notice that most folks had no gear (rain coats etc.) ..

Mike had a sad story about the folks who got their cars towed // dam imagine being tired wet and then when you hurry back to your car BAM not there... towed by the fearless men and women of the CHP..

that is lame

gino

 

Yeah I didn't hear about the cars being towed until I got home...sounds like a pain in the *** for all involved. Tow truck drivers saying something to the effect of Christmas in May...hmm..they weren't out for the buck.

Went down with some friends to help them rally...awful weather to service in and I got a cold to boot because of it!

We are used to the rain here in the NW, but we were all hoping for the sun....but it sounds like the stages turned into a mess for most competitors.
Has to be better next year...right?

 

Somebody found it! That's great Aya. I want to say thanks to John for bringing us to the Spunky spectator area. I couldn't make it in that rain, wind and who knows what else. To bad it was taking forever to figure out if they were even going to run the stage. And thank God my car didn't get towed. I was smart and made sure I parked away from the white line. In spite of the weather I still had a good time. Like Aya said, it had to do with the company.

Thanks Joe for letting me stay with you. And eastbaysubaru, you missed out on the I-Speed Rallyx. That was fun to watch. Till next year people. And I plan on coming prepared this time. No more running to target to get shoes and socks. Oh that's right, only Aya needed the socks. What are you gonna do with that non water proof shoe?

 

If people have trouble with watching things at the stages, think about the troubles the crews have, especially if there is a problem. If you are a spectator and things get tough, you can go home and relax, the crews don't get this luxury, but I did hear many people in the crews say "thankyou" when they cut the last few stages. They were cold and wet too. My hat is off to anyone that was brave enough to come to the ROTW. I am sure they all got a better respect for the sport. I hope all that did not come are able to talk with others that did and see it on Speed. Maybe next time the spectator participation will double again because it is still way below European standards with close to 1 million spectators per event...then again maybe it is better if they don't come, cuz it will be so darn hard to see anything

 

I was kind of bummed out about not getting to see any of the action. We tried to see it on Saturday, but the conditions would not allow us to. So that night mcgyver and I were challenged to our own rally behind the holiday inn.................... Hopefully we can get the video posted soon . It will show you why you should not rally on 18s. But at least I didn't damage anything.
Otherwise it was cool to go and see all of the cars, people, etc.

 

It sucks about your tire man. But yea, at least there was no damage. I would have gone out there if my Wagon wasn't lowered. I could barely drive over those speed bumps, let alone on that road.