Welcome to 2008

I'm taking a quick breath away from work for a moment to update the blog.

I am pleased with how the 2007 season went and am looking forward to 2008. 2007 really was a 'building' year as it was my first full year competing. I competed in 4 events during 2007 and the finish positions generally improved throughout the year. The car got a new engine and the team got a new co-driver (thanks John) over the summer break. I also put a video camera in the car half way through the year, so I now have some in-car vids to keep my blood warm on these cold Saskatchewan winter nights. A couple of the videos I'll post up on Youtube and put a link here for everyone else. I've also been working on the 'build gallery' that I've been promising, pretty much since I started this blog. I have all the pictures organized now, and just need to find some time to post them online.

I've been working on the car a bit recently. The car was feeling a bit neglected, as I parked it in the garage following Kananaskis in November and hadn't looked at it again until near the end of January (did I mention that work has been crazy). I've finally gotten around to putting the new cams in the car, and have also recently sourced some sidedraft carbs. The carbs are 'old-school', but the car will make more power with them than it was with the original VW fuel injection system. I'm hoping that the combination of the carbs and the new cams will really be noticeable. Now I just need to become a better driver!!

I've also decided to put a little more paint on the car. The plain white (it's actually light grey) just doesn't look enough like a race car. The painting, however, does not have priority over the engine work I am doing and will depend on my schedule between now and Cochrane in March.

Kananaskis Results

We finished 9th of 17 cars that started the rally. Another ~mid-pack finish. I had hoped for a bit of a better finish, but I've still got some learning to do and I need bigger balls when it comes to trusting the notes. The car ran well for the event, but we couldn't match the speed of the other Group 2 cars that went 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in the event. Overall, I'm still very happy to have finished the event and not have many repairs to do to the car.

We had a couple of close calls during the rally but the car (and the occupants) were unharmed. This was the second event where we made our own pace notes. Our notes were better than our first attempt (at PFR) but there is still room for improvement - mostly in the way that I interpret the road and the notes I give to John. I think that the notes will also improve for subsequent passes of the same roads, since we'll be able to refine the notes rather than writing them from scratch.

So winter work begins on the car. The stock cams will finally come out, and the race cams will go in. I will also be installing a standalone engine management system to make the engine run better with the performance modifications the car has. I'd also like to paint the car again because, well...it's ugly. I'm really looking forward to the next season of racing.

Kananaskis Rally - TV Schedule

The 2007 Kananaskis Rally is coming up on Rememberance day weekend. This is a regional event that is the last rally of the year. I've never competed or even spectated at this rally before, although I lived and worked in Kananaskis for 5 years (although never driven most of the roads used for this rally). I'm excited to go..the car is still running well.

Also announced this week is the TV schedule for the Canadian Rally Series. We competed at two of these rallies (Rocky and PFR) and are hoping for a bit of TV footage to come our way. The events are televised on CityTV and were very entertaining last year.

Chad.



2007 CRC Season Airing Schedule
***Subject to Change****
Intro./ Perce-Neige, Maniwaki
A-Channel BC Sat. Nov. 3rd 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Nov. 4th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Nov. 3rd 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Nov. 4th 4:30pm
Perce- Neige, Maniwaki
A-Channel BC Sat. Nov. 10th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Nov. 11th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Nov. 10th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Nov. 11th 4:30pm
Rocky Mountain Rally-Part One
A-Channel BC Sat. Nov. 17th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Nov. 18th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Nov.17th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Nov.18th 4:30pm

Rocky Mountiain Rally-Part Two
A-Channel BC Sat. Nov. 24th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Nov. 25th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Nov.24th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Nov.25th 4:30pm

Rallye Baie des Chaleurs- Part One
A-Channel BC Sat. Dec. 1st 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Dec. 2nd 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Dec. 1st 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Dec. 2nd 4:30pm

Rallye Baie des Chaleurs- Part Two
A-Channel BC Sat. Dec. 8th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Dec. 9th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Dec. 8th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Dec. 9th 4:30pm

Rallye Defi St. Agathe/ Duhamel - Part One
A-Channel BC Sat. Dec. 15th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Dec. 16th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Dec. 15th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Dec. 16th 4:30pm

Rallye Defi St. Agathe/ Duhamel - Part Two
A-Channel BC Sat. Dec. 22nd 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Dec. 23rd 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Dec. 22nd 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Dec. 23rd 4:30pm

Pacific Forest Rally- Part One
A-Channel BC Sat. Dec. 29th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Dec. 30th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Dec. 29th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Dec. 30th 4:30pm

Pacific Forest Rally- Part Two
A-Channel BC Sat. Jan. 5th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Jan. 6th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Jan. 5th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Jan. 6th 4:30pm

Rally of the Tall Pines- Part One
A-Channel BC Sat. Jan. 12th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Jan. 13th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Jan. 12th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Jan. 13th 4:30pm

Rally of the Tall Pines- Part Two
A-Channel BC Sat. Jan. 19th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Jan. 20th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Jan. 19th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Jan. 20th 4:30pm

TARGA
A-Channel BC Sat. Jan.26th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Jan.27th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Jan.26th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Jan.27th 4:30pm

PFR Results - Quick Summary

Well...it was an intense event. A Blizzard rolled into the mountains and covered 3 of the stages in snow. 2 of the stages had to be cancelled since 3 competitors ended up going off the road during recce and no trucks could even get to them. We were able to finish Recce but had some hairy moments on the gravel tires (the only ones we brought with us).

We finished 14th of 26 regional competitors for the Friday night stages. I am pretty happy with that result since I've never ran those stages before, had a new co-driver, and were running on pace notes that we wrote (also a first for me) and, as a result, were not pushing. The Princeton Cutoff stages were CRAZY with huge exposures, ruts, and rocks (my skid plate has some new dents). Also, the Friday stages did not count towards the WCRC points, and were essentially ran for fun by the regional competitors so no point breaking the car. Something like 6-8 cars didn't finish the Friday stages (including 1 roll over).

Saturday went mostly well for us. Because 2 stages had been cancelled, the organizers decided to run the other snow covered stage an extra 2 times in the morning. We found out about this at 8:30 on Saturday morning. I ran into Canadian Tire when they opened at 9 and bought 4 Goodyear Nordic snow tires and 4 rims (I should have bought the ones available in the Classified forum before leaving). They had them mounted for me by 9:45, our start time was something like 10:24. Because we're relatively new to rally, we were seeded as 26 of 32 cars. Even though we took it easy on the first stage (covered in snow) we passed 3 cars over the 23kms. We knocked another 40 seconds off our time the 2nd time through. At that point we were running 9th of 26. We had 5 gravel stages through the afternoon and slipped to 12th. We gained back one position on the 2nd last stage (back onto the snow again) knocking a minute off our time from the first time through - but we had a puncture near the end of the stage. We got the tire changed and made it to the time control on time for the last stage. We decided on the start line not too push again and take our 11th place finish. About 5kms from the end we punctured another of the snow tires and had to finish the stage with the flat...losing about 2.5minutes from the previous time through. The tire was smoking when we got to the finish, I thought for a second that it might be on fire. We then had to wait for the next VW to come that had a spare for us to borrow so that we could get back to the finish control. We took 1m:10s in penalties for arriving late to the finish, bumping us to 14th.

So..it was a finish and the car isn't broken. 3rd finish of 4 rallies...not too bad, but I really would have liked that 11th place. Also, we were making good time on our last stage before the puncture, and a top 10 wasn't out of the question. I'm a bit dissapointed, but I guess that's what I get for using Goodyear Nordics in a rally. 4 new tires and rims, 2 punctures and 1 wrecked rim.

Lessons learned...1) when using cheap snow tires on 2 passes of a 23kms rough stage, take 2 spares. 2) We could have put snow tires on the front and gravels on the back for the last 2 passes through the snow stage. We knew that the stage was getting chewed up pretty good, and only the 1st half was snow (stage starts high and loses elevation).

I'll post more later...very tired now after 17hour drive home. I also had a video camera in the car this time and got some great footage, will post up some video when I get it edited and sorted.

Lastly...Thanks so much to John Hall, my co-driver for the event. John and I made a great team, I think, except he likes it really cold in the car and I like to run the heater non stop :). John did a great job with the pace notes, but more importantly he kept me grounded during the event, constantly reminding me to not take risks and finish the rally. As he put it "first learn to finish, then learn to finish first".

PFR 2 weeks away

So, it is 2 weeks from today that I will be leaving for Merritt, via Edmonton to pick up John on the way to a weekend of racing at PFR. I know that the race must be getting close, since I had a nightmare last night (?only a nightmare to me perhaps?) that the car was still being put together the night before the rally. The dream isn't too far from reality, however, as I am still pulling together the last few 'critical path' items together. The new engine fired up for the first time the night before last. I quickly discovered a coolant leak from the front coolant flange that comes off the head. A new O-ring comes in today, so I intend to be running the first break-in session tonight. The exhaust went on last night even though I've got a touch of the flu, or a cold or something. I still have to install the driveshafts and make an adjustment to the throttle cable (also tonight). An alignment is scheduled for Friday, so I will have the whole long-weekend to practise with and tune the car. One unfortunate item is my cams have still not arrived, but I am assured that they are on the way (?). I will be breaking in the engine with the stock cams for now and won't be pushing the car too hard for the short term anyways. I anticipate that even with the stock cams, the car will feel much more torquey (Is that a word?).

There are also some other things I want to do with the car before PFR that are not on the 'critical path' (i.e. If they don't get done, I can still race the car). I've swapped out the manual steering rack for power steering and I have a steering quickener on the shelf that I hope to install. This will likely be a 4-hourish type of job, so I'm leaving it until I'm sure everything else is ok. I've also been trying to buy a minidv camera from ebay, but I'm so cheap that I've lost like 8 auctions in a row.

Overall, I'm suprised how similar this swap has been to the project management I do as part of my day-job. I have a due date for completion and getting all of the parts, etc together in time has been a challenge. That leads me to something I've been meaning to put into this BLOG. If you ever plan to build your own rally car out of a VW Golf or any other car, PLEASE TAKE THIS ADVISE: Buy a rally car that has already been built, or start with a platform that already has the engine you want. I think the only stock items left in my car are: 1) the shell; 2) the dash and some things below it; 3)the master cylinder (although other parts of the braking system have all be changed) and; 3) portions of the wiring harness. Granted, I have learned A LOT about this car by building it myself, but 1/2 of rally is about car preparation and maintenance. I think I would have learned almost as much by now if I had purchased a car already built.

If you're coming to PFR, then I look forward to seeing you there. If not, I'll put up links to pics as soon as I can.

New co-driver found (well, ok...he found me)

I am very pleased to announce that Mr. John Hall will be co-driving for the Gopher Rally team at Pacific Forest Rally in October. John has significantly more rally experience that I do, so I hope I don't dissapoint him too horribly.

I've also been promising some pictures from Rocky Mountain Rally. The following pictures are property of flatovercrest.com (please support their website).


Shot at 2007-08-20


Shot at 2007-08-20

New Engine

Well, I've finally decided to make the leap from the 1.8 8v to the 2.0 16v engine that nearly every other vw in my class is using. This will provide us with the power and torque that we have been lacking to be truly competive (as we found at Rocky, where our lack of hp was particularly noticable due to long flowing stages, even when the car was running right). As well as the new engine, I will be converting the car from a manual steering rack to a power rack with a steering quickener.

As a result, I have a number of 1.8 8v performance parts for sale here: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3395000.

Next event is Pacific Forest Rally in Merritt, BC held between October 18-20th. I am hoping that I will have all modifications to the car complete in time for the rallycross at the Sports Car Olympics in Regina (at the beginning of Oct, I believe) so that I can have a brief shakedown with the car before an actual event.