Hi all,
We finished 12th of ~30 regional competitors at Rocky Mountain Rally this past weekend.
No drama on the stages besides some difficulty adjusting to Jemba style notes (for instance: "Heath, you really need to tell me about those 'R2's with exposure' a bit sooner!!"). Actually, Heath did an excellent job with the notes considering we're both very new to the sport. Some mechanical problems, including the fuel pump which was on its last legs and at some times wouldn't let me get up over 5000rpm. The car started overheating seriously (temp guage was off scale during some of the stages). The cooling fan wouldn't run continuously so I thought the thermo switch was busted. We hard wired the fan at service to run non-stop but that didn't really seem to help. Now I think there may be a blockage of some sort somewhere in the cooling system. Even though the car was overheating, we pushed it as hard as the fuel pump would let us. One of the microphones on our intercom also broke, leaving Heath yelling the notes to me for a couple of stages untill we could fix it. As we were coming into the final time control (finish) after about a 10km transit, the oil pressure warning light was coming on (but it seems to do that when running hot - vw mechanic says I've got the wrong sensors(??)). But, the car made it to the finish and we were happy with our result (whoo hoo 12th, Yahhh 12th !!! ....seems a bit funny )
The stages were long, fast and flowing. Lots of long uphills that really made me wish I had way more power. Some short tighter sections where the car behaved very good. I'll get some pictures up once I get some.
Take care,
Chad.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Looking forward to Rocky
Rocky 2004 - My 1st time ever as a spectator at a Rally, sat on the side of a cold dusty road with Warren Currie's brother and decided that I need to do this rally thing for myself (as if I wasn't already addicted).
Rocky 2005 - Heath and I volunteer for the rally and work time control at service (both of us get severe sunburn!!).
Rocky 2006 - I was very disappointed to not have my car ready, as I had hoped this would be my first rally...had to wait until fall of 2006 to debut at Pacific Forest Rally in Merritt, BC (and then went ~14kms before I went off the road...lol). Turned out the weather did not cooperate anyways and many stages had to be cancelled as they were virtually impassable (sp?) due to mud.
Rocky 2007 - Finally going to the show with my own rally car. To say I'm excited is an understatement. Based upon the weather pattern for the last 3 years, I'm expecting sunny skies.
Rocky 2005 - Heath and I volunteer for the rally and work time control at service (both of us get severe sunburn!!).
Rocky 2006 - I was very disappointed to not have my car ready, as I had hoped this would be my first rally...had to wait until fall of 2006 to debut at Pacific Forest Rally in Merritt, BC (and then went ~14kms before I went off the road...lol). Turned out the weather did not cooperate anyways and many stages had to be cancelled as they were virtually impassable (sp?) due to mud.
Rocky 2007 - Finally going to the show with my own rally car. To say I'm excited is an understatement. Based upon the weather pattern for the last 3 years, I'm expecting sunny skies.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Apology
WOW...just read through the post below and am I ever long-winded, boring, and full of excuses. Sorry (will do better next time).
Chad
Chad
Cochrane Rally 2007
I'm a bit overdue for this update. We competed in the Cochrane Rally of the Ranchlands on March 17th, 2007. There was a record number of entries for the event at 25 teams. This rally included "recce", or in otherwords, we had the option to drive the roads before the event to make pace notes. We were also given the organizer supplied notes if we wanted to use them. Since we had no experience creating pace notes, and since this was essentially our first rally after our premature exit at PFR, we decided to do recce but use the organiser supplied notes (rather than creating our own from scratch). We also decided ahead of time that we were going to take it easy and finish the rally. The registration, recce, and the technical inspection was on Saturday and then the rally was on Sunday. Saturday was a beautiful day and there was lots of melting and mud on the stages. However, the day of the rally we had snow and freezing rain. Even before the start of the rally we had problems. Our service man (my good friend Todd from Calgary) came over to the rally car as we were about 2 minutes away from the start to tell me my truck wouldn't start. This was the truck that I had just purchased the weekend before the rally (used). So Todd was forced to unload all of my tools and equipment into his truck so he could have them ready for us at the service area approx. 70kms away. Unfortunately, having my truck not start really threw me off for the day. We had to abandon the truck in Cochrane for the day and we had no idea what was wrong with it (although Todd thought the starter quit). I kept thinking about the truck all day long. The funny thing is if it had been my old truck I would have thought "stupid truck" and that would have been it. Since I just got this one, it really struck me that I might have just purchased a lemon and, as I said above, I couldn't put it out of my mind all day.
Anyways.....We decided to REALLY take it easy since we didn't want to break the car and then have two vehicles out in Alberta that couldn't go anywhere. Despite this we were having grip issues right off the bat. I attributed this to the snow and ice, but after talking with some of the other competitors I realized they were setting considerably better times than us. We continued to struggle with grip and on SS5 (5th stage) we went off the road on a slow downhill left hander. I wasn't on the brakes at all and the car just wouldn't make the corner. We got high-centred on a snowbank and couldn't move the car. We had to wait for sweep to come yank us out of the snowbank. Fortunately, there was no damage to the car. There was significant damage to my confidence, however. We lost about 9.5 minutes on the stage (compared to the first time we went through this same stage in the same direction) and then took 3 minutes in penalties for arriving late to service.
Ok...here is where it gets kinda embarrassing. We get to service late and decide to rotate the tires front to back since the fronts have some wear (although not much). We go out on the stages and still have lots of grip problems on SS6 ans SS7. At the end of SS7 is a turn around and a relatively long wait for SS8. We check tire pressure and we're at 38psi. Ok..so it's my fault for not checking the tire pressure anytime between having the tires mounted and the end of SS7. So I check with a few other people and they're running 28 to 31psi. So all the steel studs on the tire are around the outside of the tire and when we were using too high of tire pressure only the centre of the tire makes contact with the ice (no studs). So we drop pressure to 29psi and the car feels WAY better on SS8 (although I'm still not feeling confident with the car due to our off, and my nerves were still being tested as I continue to wonder what's wrong with my new-to-me truck). We decided that we'd lost so much time with our offroad adventure that we weren't going to take any risks and just slowly finish our first rally.
So, we finished in 2nd last place of the cars that finished (20th of the 25 entered). The only team we beat spent twice as much time as us in the ditch (and we beat them by less than a minute, so they were way faster than us for the rest of the rally). I'm a bit dissappointed with our final position, but I am proud that we finished this time. We learned a lot at this rally, including checking tire pressure before being in the middle of the race. We missed most of the banquet at the finish since we were busy trying to figure out what was wrong with my truck. Fortunately it was a broken wire on the starter, so it didn't take us long to get it fixed, loaded up, hook up the trailer and take off back for Saskatchewan. I feel a little silly for stressing so much about it now. I apologized a few times to Heath and Todd for not being much fun to be around before we knew what was wrong with the truck.
Once again, we'd like to thank our supporters for this rally. If you need a new water well, don't hesitate to contact Lorne at Stauber Drilling. If you Geo-environmental consulting (ok..well maybe you don't need this often unless you're in the mining industry) call ME at MDH Engineered Solutions. If you need any photographic services, please contact Deb at Balance Photography. Also check out flatoutperformance.com if you're looking for aftermarket parts for your car.
I still plan on posting a build log for the race car. Check back if you're one of the 70-or-so people who've actually been to the site before.
My favourite picture from Cochrane Rally:
Anyways.....We decided to REALLY take it easy since we didn't want to break the car and then have two vehicles out in Alberta that couldn't go anywhere. Despite this we were having grip issues right off the bat. I attributed this to the snow and ice, but after talking with some of the other competitors I realized they were setting considerably better times than us. We continued to struggle with grip and on SS5 (5th stage) we went off the road on a slow downhill left hander. I wasn't on the brakes at all and the car just wouldn't make the corner. We got high-centred on a snowbank and couldn't move the car. We had to wait for sweep to come yank us out of the snowbank. Fortunately, there was no damage to the car. There was significant damage to my confidence, however. We lost about 9.5 minutes on the stage (compared to the first time we went through this same stage in the same direction) and then took 3 minutes in penalties for arriving late to service.
Ok...here is where it gets kinda embarrassing. We get to service late and decide to rotate the tires front to back since the fronts have some wear (although not much). We go out on the stages and still have lots of grip problems on SS6 ans SS7. At the end of SS7 is a turn around and a relatively long wait for SS8. We check tire pressure and we're at 38psi. Ok..so it's my fault for not checking the tire pressure anytime between having the tires mounted and the end of SS7. So I check with a few other people and they're running 28 to 31psi. So all the steel studs on the tire are around the outside of the tire and when we were using too high of tire pressure only the centre of the tire makes contact with the ice (no studs). So we drop pressure to 29psi and the car feels WAY better on SS8 (although I'm still not feeling confident with the car due to our off, and my nerves were still being tested as I continue to wonder what's wrong with my new-to-me truck). We decided that we'd lost so much time with our offroad adventure that we weren't going to take any risks and just slowly finish our first rally.
So, we finished in 2nd last place of the cars that finished (20th of the 25 entered). The only team we beat spent twice as much time as us in the ditch (and we beat them by less than a minute, so they were way faster than us for the rest of the rally). I'm a bit dissappointed with our final position, but I am proud that we finished this time. We learned a lot at this rally, including checking tire pressure before being in the middle of the race. We missed most of the banquet at the finish since we were busy trying to figure out what was wrong with my truck. Fortunately it was a broken wire on the starter, so it didn't take us long to get it fixed, loaded up, hook up the trailer and take off back for Saskatchewan. I feel a little silly for stressing so much about it now. I apologized a few times to Heath and Todd for not being much fun to be around before we knew what was wrong with the truck.
Once again, we'd like to thank our supporters for this rally. If you need a new water well, don't hesitate to contact Lorne at Stauber Drilling. If you Geo-environmental consulting (ok..well maybe you don't need this often unless you're in the mining industry) call ME at MDH Engineered Solutions. If you need any photographic services, please contact Deb at Balance Photography. Also check out flatoutperformance.com if you're looking for aftermarket parts for your car.
I still plan on posting a build log for the race car. Check back if you're one of the 70-or-so people who've actually been to the site before.
My favourite picture from Cochrane Rally:
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Thanks Stauber Drilling
Hello all (or should I say "hello few" since this site is still very new - well we're working on increasing exposure). There is just over a week remaining until we leave for Cochrane Rally. I am very excited to get out there with the car, although our strategy/goal is to finish each stage without drama. We are going to drive quickly but not push anywhere near the limit due to reports of mixed surfaces (gravel, snow, glare ice)on the stages. I've been watching the weather forecast for Cochrane and I'm not sure how there is going to be any snow or ice left by the time we get there (highs in the double digits almost everyday). Oh well, I'm planning on bringing both the gravel and the studded winter tires. My hope is that if we can set "good" times on all stages, that we will move up the leaderboard as others have difficulties.
Also, I've finally sorted out about 50 pictures of building the rally car. I'm going to get them up onto some photo hosting site somewhere, and then put the link to it on this site. As mentioned in previous posts, I think this is almost a duty to the rally community since I spent countless hours reviewing other peoples sites to see "how they did it".
In other news, we are very pleased to announce that Stauber Drilling of Regina, SK has joined as a Sponsor to the Gopher Rally Racing Team. If you need any drilling done, water wells installed, etc., please give Lorne or Fred at call at 306 359 1959.
Also, I've finally sorted out about 50 pictures of building the rally car. I'm going to get them up onto some photo hosting site somewhere, and then put the link to it on this site. As mentioned in previous posts, I think this is almost a duty to the rally community since I spent countless hours reviewing other peoples sites to see "how they did it".
In other news, we are very pleased to announce that Stauber Drilling of Regina, SK has joined as a Sponsor to the Gopher Rally Racing Team. If you need any drilling done, water wells installed, etc., please give Lorne or Fred at call at 306 359 1959.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Ice racing video
A bit of action this past weekend for the rally car. I went out to the local ice race track for a bit of a "shakedown" on the new winter tires.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Welcome to our Blog
Well...here we are with a web presence. The purpose of this blog is to post information regarding the Gopher Rally Racing team. The team is made up of myself, Chad LePoudre (car owner and driver), Heath Hrappstead (co-driver, ballast, and all-around good guy), and various friends and family who take time out of their own schedules to come and assist us at events. We campaign a mk2 VW Golf in a modified 2wd class (Group 2) in the Western Canadian Rally Championship.
My hope is that there will be information regarding our recent events (racing or otherwise), photos, etc. I also hope to create a link to a photo gallery that has pictures during builiding of the race car. I consider this almost as a duty to the rally community since I relied so much on other peoples websites during the construction of my car.
One of my philosophies for our rally team is to get as much fun for the $$ as we can. That means that I bag lunch almost everyday, use Canadian tire money to its fullest potential, buy parts from ebay or wreckers, and rely on free web hosting space (thumbs up for blogspot). Since rally is a relatively expensive sport, we also have support from a few different companies and I like giving them as much credit as possible (within the constraints of the blogspot terms and conditions, of course).
Our next rally is coming up on us quickly. It is the Cochrane Rally of the Ranchlands held out of Cochrane, AB. I noticed this morning that our entry form is the first to arrive. It appears that there will be a relatively large field of competitors for this event (almost 20 have confirmed already).
A few links for those of you who land on this blog.
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