IDP Racing at Gorman Ridge Rally (now with PICS!)
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From: GST Motorsports - Rally Division
Car Info: dangerous with a wrench
oh Andre, if you would have only been there it would have made for the tri-fecta of you, Dodgy, and Greg.
In other news, the Mustafa count was 2 this time with Jeremy and Greg getting Turked.
In other news, the Mustafa count was 2 this time with Jeremy and Greg getting Turked.
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Car Info: MY03 WRX (SOLD)/1997 Jeep Cherokee 4x4 w/4.5" lift
Originally Posted by platypus
Big thanks to Moike for calling the notes, and Dodgy, Greg and Aaron for helping out with the servicing. We'll be back in action before you know it!
Originally Posted by platypus
oh Andre, if you would have only been there it would have made for the tri-fecta of you, Dodgy, and Greg.
In other news, the Mustafa count was 2 this time with Jeremy and Greg getting Turked.
In other news, the Mustafa count was 2 this time with Jeremy and Greg getting Turked.
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From: GST Motorsports - Rally Division
Car Info: dangerous with a wrench
Rally report
Friday, August 18
We loaded the car onto the trailer and head down to scenic Lebec, CA. We planned to leave at 9:00 am sharp. We left at 12:30 - pretty much par for the course. The trip down to the Grapvine was uneventful which is just how you'd like it.
We arrived at the Flying J about an hour before Tech opened and set up our overnight service area. For the first time ever, I was not nervous about passing Tech. The car is well sorted and solid, thanks to lots of hard work by the Gruppe-S crew. We showed up for registration 5 minutes early and were third in line.
Guess we weren't the only ones with that idea.
Tech went smoothly, and we settled in for a good night's rest before tomorrow's stages. the awful awful SciFi zombie movie helped to set the stage for the rally.
Saturday, August 19
Mike and I saddled up for the Odometer check Saturday morning. Given that we were using the same tires as we did at Rim, it was no surprise that the Odo was spot-on. No adjustments needed.
Our out time arrived and we trundled off to stage 1. The roads in the Hungry Valley OHV park were simply fantastic since they'd been graded before and after the X Games, and the times were certainly showing the great condition of the roads.
It was fast, fast, fast flat on the throttle for most of the stage in stage 1 and 3 (the same road run twice). Stage 2 was a bit longer and a bit rougher, but still fast as hell. We stopped in for service after stage 3, but the car was running fine and didn't need a thing.
During the service period, Greg mentioned that the crew was so bored in the OHV park they were actually looking forward to going back to the Flying J. I bet that's not a comment you hear too often.
We made a slight adjustment to the front tire pressures to decrease a bit of understeer, and headed back out for stages 4, 5 and 6 which were simply the first three stages run in reverse. Consistency over the morning legs worked in our favor, and by the lunch break we were up to 7th overall. Nine out of the ten DNF's for the rally dropped out in the first six stages, but our car was going strong and we were in a battle with Dave Coleman's 510.
The Lunch break was notable for an old man getting kicked in the stomach at the Flying J.
We topped off the fuel in the car, and changed a suspect rear tire. The transit to the forest stages took us onto The Old Ridge Route which was been designated a national historic highway, meaning we were to stick to the 15mph speed limit over about a 5 mile stretch. Let me tell you, that is painfully slow in a race car.
Stages 7 and 8 were on a couple of the same roads used for Rim of the World, and they're tough roads. Leona Ridge is a sandy twisty mess of a road, but Mike was able to make good use of the Stage Notes and we picked up quite a bit of ground. Maxwell Road is a bit of a misnomer, since it's not much of a "road" at all. The goat trail is one of the roughest rockiest stretches of earth that you'd ever consider driving a car across, and we were hauling butt!
At the evening service in Lake Hughes we were still in 7th overall, but it was no time to get complacent. We hooked up the light pods and headed back out to Maxwell road for a reverse run over that treacherous path. As night rolled in, so did the fog which made the night runs even more challenging than the same roads during the day.
We were able to pick up enough time to move up to fifth during the ninth stage, but Coleman also had a good run and stayed in front of us by about 6 seconds. The tenth and final stage was more exciting than usual, as the rear of the car began fishtailing wildly on right-handers. Wild dorifto action aside, we were able to keep enough speed in it to hang on to 5th place and get back to the fabulous Flying J, completing our first top-5 finish.
The after-party went on till 4 in the morning (so I'm told - I went to sleep! :-), and a good time was had by all.
We loaded the car onto the trailer and head down to scenic Lebec, CA. We planned to leave at 9:00 am sharp. We left at 12:30 - pretty much par for the course. The trip down to the Grapvine was uneventful which is just how you'd like it.
We arrived at the Flying J about an hour before Tech opened and set up our overnight service area. For the first time ever, I was not nervous about passing Tech. The car is well sorted and solid, thanks to lots of hard work by the Gruppe-S crew. We showed up for registration 5 minutes early and were third in line.
Guess we weren't the only ones with that idea.
Tech went smoothly, and we settled in for a good night's rest before tomorrow's stages. the awful awful SciFi zombie movie helped to set the stage for the rally.
Saturday, August 19
Mike and I saddled up for the Odometer check Saturday morning. Given that we were using the same tires as we did at Rim, it was no surprise that the Odo was spot-on. No adjustments needed.
Our out time arrived and we trundled off to stage 1. The roads in the Hungry Valley OHV park were simply fantastic since they'd been graded before and after the X Games, and the times were certainly showing the great condition of the roads.
It was fast, fast, fast flat on the throttle for most of the stage in stage 1 and 3 (the same road run twice). Stage 2 was a bit longer and a bit rougher, but still fast as hell. We stopped in for service after stage 3, but the car was running fine and didn't need a thing.
During the service period, Greg mentioned that the crew was so bored in the OHV park they were actually looking forward to going back to the Flying J. I bet that's not a comment you hear too often.
We made a slight adjustment to the front tire pressures to decrease a bit of understeer, and headed back out for stages 4, 5 and 6 which were simply the first three stages run in reverse. Consistency over the morning legs worked in our favor, and by the lunch break we were up to 7th overall. Nine out of the ten DNF's for the rally dropped out in the first six stages, but our car was going strong and we were in a battle with Dave Coleman's 510.
The Lunch break was notable for an old man getting kicked in the stomach at the Flying J.
We topped off the fuel in the car, and changed a suspect rear tire. The transit to the forest stages took us onto The Old Ridge Route which was been designated a national historic highway, meaning we were to stick to the 15mph speed limit over about a 5 mile stretch. Let me tell you, that is painfully slow in a race car.
Stages 7 and 8 were on a couple of the same roads used for Rim of the World, and they're tough roads. Leona Ridge is a sandy twisty mess of a road, but Mike was able to make good use of the Stage Notes and we picked up quite a bit of ground. Maxwell Road is a bit of a misnomer, since it's not much of a "road" at all. The goat trail is one of the roughest rockiest stretches of earth that you'd ever consider driving a car across, and we were hauling butt!
At the evening service in Lake Hughes we were still in 7th overall, but it was no time to get complacent. We hooked up the light pods and headed back out to Maxwell road for a reverse run over that treacherous path. As night rolled in, so did the fog which made the night runs even more challenging than the same roads during the day.
We were able to pick up enough time to move up to fifth during the ninth stage, but Coleman also had a good run and stayed in front of us by about 6 seconds. The tenth and final stage was more exciting than usual, as the rear of the car began fishtailing wildly on right-handers. Wild dorifto action aside, we were able to keep enough speed in it to hang on to 5th place and get back to the fabulous Flying J, completing our first top-5 finish.
The after-party went on till 4 in the morning (so I'm told - I went to sleep! :-), and a good time was had by all.
Last edited by platypus; Aug 21, 2006 at 01:15 PM.
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From: GST Motorsports - Rally Division
Car Info: dangerous with a wrench
Nice photo from Bill Rogers: (larger version at http://www.idpracing.com/gorman_2006.jpg)
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Apr 28, 2006 10:04 AM
