Oregon 1000 Frantic and Fun for Sirius Team

Ben and Jennifer started the second day of the Oregon 1000 under duress, when they realized, on their way to the first regularity, that the rally computer was not working.   After couple of stops at curbside repair ramps, Ben was able to fix the problem, but the team was very late and forced to take a time deck.   They ended up disorganized and frazzled through the first reg, taking on maximum points at one checkpoint and hefty early points at another, effectively putting them out of contention for the event.

After the chaos subsided, the fun began.  Ice cream, thunderstorms, water balloons and good rally friends became the highlights of the day.  As the rally progressed through the twisty, rolling roads of the Oregon backcountry, the weather cleared and Ben and Jennifer got back on track, improving their scores and working as a successful unlimited team.  

The end of rally party took place on a lovely shaded patio in Hood River, OR as teams shared stories of spinning out, close calls, flat tires and even some scoring concerns, including an unresolved balking penalty.  After the awards, Alex joined Ben and Jennifer back in Portland, where a final water balloon fight temporarily remedied the intense heat that had gripped the Pacific Northwest for the previous weeks, and the first Oregon 1000 was over for the Sirius Rally Team.

No online results have been posted.

Link to Sirius photos HERE.

Oregon 1000 Update

Jennifer and Ben survived the first day of the Oregon 1000, accumulating a total of 24 points.  The first place teams has 12 (Kraushaars), 13 (Smith/Song) and 16 (Webster/Harer), with three others close to the Sirius rally total.  Few teams finished the day without a challenge or a story to tell; for Jennifer and Ben it was a haunted rally computer that dropped the count mid-regularity, leaving them with no information for 3 miles.  They were very lucky to take only 5 points at the next checkpoint, the highest single score during their day.  Other teams got lost, had serious computer issues, the wrong in times or rally times; another team burnt out and replaced an alternator at the roadside.  The most memorable roads were twisty, elevation changing tarmac trails through state forests.  Thunderstorms with pounding rain and hail, dramatic lightning and winds followed the teams throughout the afternoon.

Sunday will feature more gravel, and Jennifer and Ben will be focused on catching the teams close in the points totals, and getting a few more zeros before the final control.

New Challenge for New Team at the 2009 Oregon 1000 TSD Rally

The newest incarnation of the Sirius Rally Team will be in action at one of the more demanding TSD rallies of the season, the Oregon 1000 Rally, coming up July 31 – August 2, 2009.  The 2009 edition of the Oregon 1000 will venture into Central Oregon, rather than the southern coast.  Staying true to its name, the route will once again cover 1000 kilometers of some of the best rally roads Oregon has to offer, and contain significantly more unpaved roads than previous editions.  It starts in the greater Portland area and finishes near Hood River, with a Saturday intermission in Prineville, Oregon.  

Driver Jennifer and codriver Ben will be competing in the equipped (read: unlimited) class with Ben’s WRX wagon.  This will be the second outing for the team with the fancy computer setup, and their first gravel event.  Oregon 1000 is a much longer, more serious gravel adventure compared to the paved afternoon SnoGit rally, with a much more competitive entry field.  The entry list is full of familiar friends from the 2008 Alcan 5000 Winter Rally, many in different teams and classes, but all capable of keeping their scores low and winning the Oregon 1000.

The Oregon 1000 will also be an occasion to celebrate the birthdays of Ben and one of the Tabor rally clan.  Alex will be traveling down from BC again to codrive Robert, so there will be some relaxed fun and socializing in addition to the challenges and excitement of a summer tsd rally.

Link to the Oregon 1000 webpage HERE, and entry list HERE.

SnoGit TSD 2009 Podium Finish for Sirius in Debut Unlimited Class Drive

This year’s SnoGit TSD featured miles of twisty and scenic tarmac roads through the lush forests and farmlands of Washington’s Skagit County, designed by Jack Heppes and the Olympic Rally Competition Association. The speeds were lively; teams were kept busy searching for do it yourself checkpoint markers along the regularities and negotiating tricky sections with multiple tight corners. Main roads busy with summer recreational traffic were challenging for some competitors, and with a large number of novice teams participating, many of the regularity starts were busy and interesting, with multiple cars leaving on the same minute.

After a sunny day of TSD competition, SnoGit concluded with a spirited uphill transit, followed by hearty barbeque and storytelling at Lake Tyee. The results were tallied, and the rally ended up as an extremely close battle between seasoned veterans and teams quite new to the unlimited class. Three teams finished with a total of 14 points, with two more teams close behind at 15 and 16 points. The three-way tie was broken by totaling zeroes, and the practiced elders came out on top. Don Gibson and Mike Workman took first overall with 9 zeroes, Michael Daily and Tom Palidar finished second overall with 8 zeroes, followed by Jennifer Daly and Ben Bradley in third overall with 7 zeroes, as their first outing with Jennifer driving in unlimited. Also fairly new to the unlimited class, SOP experts Steve Perret and Kathryn Hansen finished in fourth, only one point behind the overall leaders. Joel McLaughlin and Chris Ringhofer won the equipped class, Terry and Arlene Nickels took first in SOP and Tom and Tate Matthews were the top novices.

This was the largest SnoGit ever, with 26 entries. Many teams traveled from British Columbia, drawn by the inclusion of SnoGit in a new novice TSD series created by Jim Bowie from the West Coast Rally Association. The entrants spanned over five decades in age range and featured an interesting variety of vehicles, including rentals, demos, the usual contingent of Subarus and a pickup truck. At the finish, many teams were already talking about their preparations for the upcoming Oregon 1000 TSD rally, a longer gravel event with an impressive entry list featuring the most competitive TSD teams in the Pacific Northwest.

Link to full results HERE.

Link to Sirius photos HERE.

Sirius Rally Team Takes 1st in Class & 2nd O/A in 2009 TSD Debut!

The 2009 Trail of the Gnu Rally around Rocky Mountain House, AB in late March turned out to be a true winter driving adventure for Sirius driver Jennifer and her new teammate codriver Leanne.  The first outing for the all girl team was a super fun, spirited and lucky drive, with challenging slippy and deep snow roads, and the rex’s wheels leaving the ground on more than one occasion.  

The team had the privilege of starting directly behind rallymaster Taisto and his accomplished right seat Jim, who provided a lot of advice and encouragement, as well as great racing lines, throughout the event.  Organizers Eric and Kris have built Gnu into the premiere TSD in AB; indeed, the Gnu roads rivaled any of the Alcan regularities, except for Blackwater, and were some of the best times Jennifer has ever had at a TSD.  After a bit of a rough start as the new team sorted out how to work together, the points stayed low, with the exception of overestimating the difficulty of a series of hairpins and coming in early, and stuffing the car into the deep snow on a narrow section.  Luckily, on the reg where the team got stuck disruptive locals caused havoc for the cars behind, and it ended up being an unscored section.  Even luckier, the team put the car in the bank on such a narrow road that the next cars could not pass and were eager to pull them out quickly.  Many thanks to Richard and Helen for getting the rex back on the road with their 1974 BMW!  

After the off, the codriving was impeccable and the rest of the rally flew by, highlighted by a zero through a challenging hairpin series, and an impressive ‘jump’ over one of the final cattle guards.  Veterans Peter and Geoff Hill took the overall win, besting Jennifer and Leanne by only two points!  Unfortunately, the newly formed team will be unable to contest for the 2009 RallyWest TSD title because of the untimely crash and writeoff of the Rex in late April.  

Link to results HERE.

Link to istaphoto.com event photos HERE

Link to Sirius event photos HERE.

2009 Thunderbird Rally in Review

The Okanagan and environs became the partly sunny playground for the biggest TSD rally of the season this past weekend, where almost fifty rally cars took on the snow, ice and bare gravel roads in pursuit of the 38th Thunderbird title.

Our Thunderbird Rally adventure began in the ranchlands outside of Merritt, sailing through the sweeping corners of the Minnie Lake regularity.  I’m pretty sure this reg has been cancelled in years past because of flooding, but this year we just sailed over huge glass ice puddles that covered many spots on the long straights, maintaining our speed and line effortlessly.  Apparently the ice broke and the conditions deteriorated as the rally progressed, resulting in front end damage and a very early retirement for the 1967 Volo Eis Munky lead team.  The second Eis Munky paper class entry was reported off on the same reg, eliminating the team from contention.

The hairpin checkpoint we were assigned on Sunday was the most eventful of the rally, as almost half the field ran into some sort of trouble negotiating the steep, acute L turn.  

With provisional scores posted, the 1969 Saab of driver Satch Carlson and codriver Russ Kraushaar was in the top position, repeating their 2007 victory.

Link to Sirius RT event photos HERE.

Link to Eis Munky Brian’s photos HERE.

Link to event results HERE.

Hairpin video to follow….

Thunderbird Rally Goes High Tech with Sirius Team Checkpointers!

The Sirius WRX Wagon will be traveling the back roads of BC this weekend as part of the Thunderbird TSD Rally.  Over forty teams from the Prairies to the Pacific Northwest, including seasoned stage rally veterans and a herd of newbies in shiny Subarus, will be competing for the Thunderbird Title.  

Without a dedicated TSD rally budget for 2009, Jennifer and August are volunteering for the weekend, and looking forward to some serious winter driving and Subaru rescuing.  Jennifer will be trying out the PBRT twitter rally setup, sending mobile updates from the road, and the Sirius team’s location will be available via August’s Spot tracker @ whereisaugust.com.  Check the Twitter link in the side column of the Sirius team site for twitter updates.

The Eis Munky Rally Team will be attempting to defend its team title from last year, with founding members Gil Stuart and Chris Peake leading the team in Gil’s historic class 1967 Volvo 123GT.  The 2009 Eis Munky Team continues its tradition of including a paper class entry  with Washingston’s Steven Kang and Greg Hightower in their 98 Subaru Outback Sport.  The third Eis Munky team will be an unlimited class 2000 Subaru Impreza piloted by veteran rally fans and organizers Max Vaysburg and Tony Latham. 

GO EIS MUNKY RT!!

2009 Thunderbird Rally Home

Eis Munkys Take Savoia Aero Team Prize at TBird 2008

This year’s Thunderbird rally was a classic snow event. Over forty cars took to the backroads between Merritt and Kamloops, and although many ended up in snowbanks multiple times during the rally, at the end of the event there were only 2 DNFs. The Eis Munky Rally Team this year had both new and returning members, and took the overall team prize with three class wins. Congrats to Historic winners (and captain) Gil and Chris, Paper winners Alan and Emma, and to new Eis Munkys and Novice winners Karl and Shane.

Sirius team member Josh drove his Alcan Forester and won the Calculator class. Josh will be writing for the website during Alcan, so that the Sirius team will have both cars represented in the daily updates.

While Jennifer and Josh were at Thunderbird, Gord and the Rocket Rally crew started their 2008 rally season with a 3rd place overall at the Rallye Perce-Neige in Manawaki QC. Everyone is back home now, and the last minute preparations are under way. The Sirius Rally Team is looking forward to a cold, snowy and eventful Winter Alcan Rally – only 5 days away.

Link to Thunderbird 2008 results HERE.
Click HERE for TBird photos from Sirius Rally.

Four Decades of Winners Compete at Thunderbird Rally

With tonnes of snow and an exciting entry field, the 2008 Thunderbird TSD Rally is sure to be an epic ride. The rally will feature snowy backroads between Merritt and Kamloops BC; the ample snowfall this season has created snowbanks big enough to keep cars on course. Thunderbird is the largest TSD Rally in BC, and draws teams from as far away as Arizona and California.

The entry field is stacked with over 15 teams that have won the event in the sixties, seventies, nineties and in recent years. Taisto Heinonen, one of the most decorated stage rallyists in Canada, tops the entry list. Competitors for the 2008 Alcan 5000 are also well represented, mostly by factory teams. The oldest car entered at present is a 1971 Alfa Romeo that also made an appearance at Totem last year.

This year all cars are required to be part of a team entry. This was optional last year and the Sirius crew founded the Eis Munky Rally Team, which is being represented again by TSD veterans Gil Stuart and Chris Peake. The 07 Eis Munkys finished in last place as a team, plagued by mechanical problems, but with new rules and a new line up, the 08 Eis Munkys could have a shot at the Savoia Aero Team Prize.

The Sirius Rally Team will be represented at TBird by Jennifer, who will be checkpointing in the Rex. Gord will be with the Rocket crew at Perce-Neige. Thunderbird was the first rally for Jennifer and August as a team in 2005; Gord and Onur ran in 2006 with no heater as the first rally for the Rocket Legacy. The organizers kindly moved the event this year to accommodate Alcan teams, so Thunderbird will be a great snowy warm up event for the Alcan adventure that starts next weekend!

Sirius Team Completes 2007 Rally Season Together @ Totem

August, Gord and Jennifer placed 3rd in calculator class and 13th overall at the Totem TSD Rally in the Fraser Canyon this weekend. The team finished with 77 points overall, improving on previous totals by hundreds of points.

The Sirius Team covered over 800km in their 2 day Totem journey, and got a sense of how they will run things for the ALCAN5000 in February. Now that we know we can get along and do well for the TSD sections, car preparation will be our major focus in the upcoming month. The rex’s ALCAN makeover will be detailed on the website, so check back to see how Gord turns a tired daily driver into a winter rally machine!

Click HERE for final results.
Click HERE for Formula Photographic images.
Click HERE for Sirius photos.

Bad Night on Bald Mountain

The Sirius Rally Team successfully completed the Night on Bald Mountain TSD Rally this past weekend. The high mountain roads of Washington’s Snoqualmie pass were packed with exposure hairpins and sneaky corners; the Pacific coast rain also added to the challenge. The road surfaces were smooth packed in some places and covered in marble pebbles in others. This event was extremely organized and run at a brisk pace. Jennifer and Gord started the rally quite high up in the order, leaving hardly any time for math before they started out on the first regularity. Troubles with calculation plagued the team for the rest of the rally. The rex pulled into the first gas stop with a smoking rear tire – the newest and least bald of the worn winters had punctured, and the rim was mangled from driving on the flat. It hadn’t affected the car’s performance on the road, so it was hard to guess when and where the tire actually punctured. A quick change to a spare summer and a bit more math, and the team was back out for leg two.

Jennifer got a huge amount of driving practice over the weekend, most importantly on the untimed Monte Carlo sections, which were gravel roads without prescribed speeds. Gord had the math ‘dialed’ by leg two and the team felt confident that their performance was improving. The team had an off near the end of the rally, where they slid through a tight left and crashed into the bush. The last regularity was a second time through with a CAS increase of three miles, and a dramatic decline in road conditions. The recovery was quick as the team was able to bust back onto the road through the bush in reverse. The rest of the reg was speedy in an effort to make up the 30 second time deficit. In hindsight, it would have been smarter to take a time deck for the off and avoid accumulating points, but catching up was way more fun. The event was well staffed with volunteers and there were 24 checkpoints total – a good test of tsd ability.

The team finished with an unimpressive last in class and 21st overall, accumulating 450 points. Congratulations to Ben Bradley and Russ Kraushaar, who killed the event despite a sluggish ride. Thanks to rallymaster Greg Hightower for a great rally and for letting us crash at his place – camping at Snoqualmie Pass turned out to be a really bad idea, and we were lucky to have another option!

The team is looking forward to better results at Midnight, Armageddon and Totem, coming up in the next month. August Ustare will be back in the right seat for some of these events, after a fairly lengthy break from rally. His navigational abilities should help the team become more competitive as they strive for better results in the rallies leading up to Alcan.

Link to final results HERE.

Sirius Zeros at Gold Digger

The Gold Digger TSD Rally results have been posted. Gord and Jennifer collected 3 zeros, the most ever during their somewhat unsuccessful but seriously enjoyable TSD careers. Although they placed at the back of the pack, and ahead of only one team – pals and foolhardy TSD’ers Onur and Jeff, Gord and Jennifer are almost getting good enough for Alcan!

Click HERE for results.

Novice Pals find Gold at 2007 Gold Digger TSD

Sirius team members and friends successfully completed the all night Gold Digger TSD rally on Saturday/Sunday. The roads were fierce and almost hostile, with large rocks, dry mud ruts and lots of washboard kilometres. A lot of position switching occurred, with the passed cars getting roostered with gravel. Long, pitch dark transit breaks were a great chance to meet and chat with other entrants, including accomplished rallyist and two time Alcan champion Gary Webb.

Gord and Jennifer struggled with math errors and an odo that seemed in need of exorcism. They had a fantastic time, but finished last in class. Onur, Sirius member in training, got extremely lucky and landed a semi-willing codriver at the last minute, allowing him to enter the race. Jeff’s enthusiastic spontaneity was awesome, and it was good fun to watch him go for the ride of his life. They finished with an unusually low score for such carefree novices, and claimed the first novice title, previously held by Gord and Jennifer. Dave and Angie enjoyed working as sweep and checkpoint volunteers; there were also reports of some diesel truck drifting moments as well.

The late night high elevation course roads and early morning mountain views were breathtaking. The last regularity was the Green River road, which flows like an engaging stage course and had plenty of exciting turns and challenges. The morning ended with everyone looking pretty awful but feeling accomplished and happy. A likely groundless protest delayed the official announcement of the results, but it was eventually announced that Onur and Jeff finished first in novice class. We wished Jeff luck as he set out immediately after breakfast to his all day wildlife recreation course. The rest of us chilled out for the day, recovering and working on our new rally stories.

Click HERE for results.
Click HERE for event photos.

Sirius Team to Tackle Night on Bald Mountain

Night on Bald Mountain is an infamous gravel TSD in Washington’s Snoqualmie Mountain Pass. The rally uses an alpine Monte Carlo format, and this combined with working in miles, will be good Alcan practice. Jennifer and Gord are taking the rex; this will be Gord’s first US event as a TSD codriver. Despite its title, this TSD is not an all nighter and is therefore not likely to be nearly as tough as Gold Digger!

Click HERE for event information.

Digging for Rally Gold this Weekend

Sirius Team members Gord and Jennifer are competing in the Gold Digger TSD Rally out of Pemberton BC this weekend. This rally is an all night event with rough roads and fantastic stargazing. The 2006 event was the first rally Gord and Jennifer ever entered together. Blue Thunder is taking a break from its blossoming stage career to tackle the unique challenges of a night TSD rally, with Gord behind the wheel. With Jennifer manning the calculator there’s not much promise of a win, but it will be great Alcan practice and good fun. New rally pal Dave Hood and his wife Angie will be bringing up the rear in the sweep truck for the event. We really hope not to see them on the course until Sunday morning at breakfast! Check back for results and rally stories on Sunday.

Alcan Preview at SnoGit TSD 2007

Jennifer, Ben, Dave and Alex had an entertaining and successful run at the SnoGit Monte Carlo TSD in Marysville this past weekend. The tarmac regularities were fast and flowing; the lack of huge rocks and potholes made it much easier to focus on keeping at speed and on navigation.

Taking tight corners signed at 15 mph at the prescribed 47 mph was very exciting and fun. Despite the thrills Alex managed to sleep through the better part of the rally, but Ben was attentive to the routebook and worked very hard. Being used to a full unlimited TSD system, he was somewhat disappointed in the team’s 73 point finish, but Jennifer was thrilled because 73 points is 100’s better than her best TSD result! Dave and Alex struggled with a stock km odo but managed to finish in 1st place novice and 13th overall. Jennifer and Ben placed 3rd in the unlimited class and 9th overall. Jennifer and Ben collected mostly excellent scores of 0, 1 and 2, but had three poor checkpoints and accumulated another 58 points, putting them out of overall contention. Jennifer got good practice at being a steady TSD driver and picked up many great ALCAN and general tips from Ben, who has placed 3rd in a previous ALCAN and has a wealth of rally experience. He made the trip from Portland to codrive Jennifer at SnoGit and hopefully they will join forces in future events.

The rally was organized, challenging and fun. Hidden checkpoints are novel to these local events and mostly the teams had no idea when they were being scored. There were no ‘tricks’ or ‘diy’ checkpoints, but there were enough unfamiliar elements to keep the Canadian entries busy. The event organizers were enthusiastic and friendly, and the team is looking forward to attending the next Pacific Northwest event, Night on Bald Mountain, on October 6th.

Link to SnoGit photos HERE.

SnoGit TSD this Weekend

Sirius team member Jennifer will be joining up with experienced codriver Ben Bradley for the SnoGit TSD in Marysville WA on Saturday. This TSD will be her first ‘Monte Carlo’ tarmac race. It includes some ‘do it yourself’ control points, which will be new to Jennifer, but old news to Ben! These sorts of checkpoints are part of the ALCAN rally in February, so it will be great practice. They will be competing in the unlimited class with the Rex. Jennifer is making the trip down with fellow Kelowna rally keeners Dave Hood and Alex Schubel, who will be running in Dave’s Impreza. There will likely be some camping in the rain but the tarmac regularities should be good fun, and it’s a great opportunity to learn from Ben, who has competed in ALCAN previously.

Winner and Vintage Rallyist Weighs in on Thunderbird 2007

In true style and with the spirit and love of rallying that makes us all fanatics about the sport, Satch Carlson won the event in his 1969 Saab Sonett II V4, and penned a letter summarizing his Thunderbird win and many years of rally:

Hey, fellow rally loons! I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all again for the support you showed to Russ Kraushaar and me – and the little red Saab Sonett. Over the years I have been in many rallies where the competition was fierce and the attitudes unfriendly; Thunderbird, however, seems to exemplify all the values of sportsmanship that are supposed to underlie all our efforts. It was amazing to me to feel that the entire field was pulling for us, especially after our mechanical mishaps on Saturday; instead of depleting the world’s supply of Kokanee in the warm, cozy bar, our friends and competitors were vying with each other to see who could round up the tools and hardware we needed to cobble together our rear suspension!

It may have sounded trite or corny when I said that this win meant more to me than anything else I’ve done since I started rallying in. . . um. . . sometime in the early 1970s, actually-but it’s true. And the reason I felt so good about the weekend was that I truly felt that we were among close friends, where victory is not nearly as important as the spirit of camaraderie and competition.

So thank you again for your support of Team AFRICA. Though to tell you the truth, this year we were more than a little envious of those terrific Eis Munky T-shirts!

See you next year in deeper snow,
Satch Carlson, Spiritual Advisor
Team AFRICA

Thunderbird Rally 02.17.2007

The Eis Munky Rally Team was born! Sirius Racing members joined rallyists from BC and WA to compete in the 50th annual Thunderbird Rally. Gord and Jennifer, in the Rocket Legacy, were one of the calculator class entries for this team, which proudly sported an entry from all the competition classes, and the best tshirts. They made a run at the Savoia Aero Team Prize on Feb 16-18, 2007, but due to 2 DNFs the Eis Munkys were the last place team.

Gord & Jennifer brought up the rear of the Eis Munky entries that finished the rally in 35th overall and 12th in calculator class. I have always despised math and this was a very intense and math heavy TSD event. We got lost (briefly) for a few times, but for my first real TSD codriving effort I think we did well.

Details here

TEAM MEMBERS & PRECIS:
Peter & Timothy Ryce – 1988 Mazda 323 GTX (unlimited) second overall!!! Thanks for the advice and the sealegs….

Gil Stuart & Brian Carriere – 1967 Volvo 123GT (historic) the oldest car in the rally… Brian C is a huge lover of rally schwag and helped get the team, logo and tshirts up and running.

Stephen Ban & Chris Peake – 2003 Subaru WRX Wagon (calculator) big off on Twig Creek but managed to get back on time and finish in 25th overall; 7th in calculator class.

Rob & Lucille Anderson – 2006 Subaru STI (novice) Marsh Lake Rocks – 2 tires = DNF + 4 new $$$ tires, but they still finished Sunday just for fun.

Alan & Emma Perry – 1997 Audi A4 (paper) DNF b/c of ailing suspension; Alan was great with advice for getting to DooWops.

We had a great time with everyone on the team, and hope the Eis Munkys will continue next year while we are @ Alcan.