Rally4Life: Mark Jennings-Bates & Mick Extance
Mark tell us, “Back from Africa now, with a broken collar bone and ribs…. so a few stories to tell!” We’re working on getting those stories. In the mean time, here’s a link to the first interview on Rally Gearbox Magazine.

Rally4Life interview

John Cassidy of Last Ditch Racing
Last Ditch Racing, but First Class Rallysita in our opinion. John’s broken bones behind the wheel and has been seen on TV nearly missing a cliff wall at Targa Newfoundland. He’s also stuffed a rental Peugeot into a tree at Corona Rallye Mexico.  Here’s a link to our interview with John.

John Cassidy interview

Simon J. Wright
Has Simon Wright had any serious offs since our interview back in April, 2010? If he has, he hasn’t mentioned it to us! Simon temped fate by stating he’s never had a serious off, and we all know there’s two kinds of rallyistas…

Simon Wright interview

Anders Green: Evil Plans
Perhaps the most prolific rally organizer in North America, when innovation like virtual course workers, you can bet Anders is to blame. They say his mind is full of evil plans, but is it so evil to put the competitor first?

Anders Green interview

Andy Rowe & Cat Lund: FIRC Wrap Up
2010 saw Andy and Cat take on the Flanders International Rally Challenge in Belgium. Here is an epic tale of sleeping in the service van, stuffing the car on a corner, keeping things together, taking home top honours, and winning free entries for the 2011 FIRC season.

Andy Rowe & Cat Lund story

And the “This Is Why” Award goes to…

Darren Jones
Darren shared a magical story with us not too long ago wherein he recounted his WRC experience at the 2010 running of the Wales Rally GB. Yes, there were mechanical failures. Yes, there were close calls. Yes, they even had to push the car across the finish line. But they finished – first in class, and in a restored parts car, no less. This is a story about rally, about competing on the same field as the biggest names in the sport, about balancing the passion for competition with the spectacle of witnessing a WRC event.

Darren Jones interview

What was your favorite story from 2010?

I posed a handful of questions on the forum at Rally Anarchy. As I put this post together, there are 12 responses from drivers and co-drivers on two continents. Long term, I’d like to run surveys like this every year. We can modify the questions as needed, but let’s see what we’ve got after just 12 responses in a week.

How many events did you enter?  low: 1 hi: 7 avg: 5.3

How much was the least expensive event you entered?  low: 0 hi: 450 avg: 295.92

How much was the most expensive event you entered? low: 150 hi: 5000  avg: 1123.07

What was the shortest distance you traveled to an event? low: 10 hi: 300 avg: 138

What was the longest distance you traveled to an event? low: 200 hi: 2100 avg: 1234

Approximately how many stage kilometers/miles did you drive this year? low: 250 hi: 950 avg: 550

How many competitors were there in your class over the year? low: 5 hi: 50 avg: 26.8

How many competition licenses did you need this year? low: 1 hi: 3 avg: 1.8

What was the worst thing that happened at a rally this year?
A stage or two got canceled and we had a flat tire on stage.
Broken CV joint, and drank to much before Tall Pines.
Puncture on a fairly new gravel tire I think. Or a broken CV joint.
Ran 5 miles on a flatted front tire.
Nothing I would call ‘bad.’
Lost intercom a couple of times due to a faulty Peltor mic connector, had a crank trigger issue that kept us off the pace.
Blowing a turbo in the last event making the entire season “for not.”
Having to stop mid stage so my co-driver could hurl multiple times on day one of Idaho.
Crashing on day 5 of Targa (Newfoundland) while sitting 12 sec out of the lead.
Off at Rally Tennessee, losing 15 min or so.
Watching a friend’s car burn to the ground.
Car burned to the ground at rally Idaho .
Took a big jump where the road turned, landed on the berm, popped 4 tires, bent 3 rims, bent sub frame, A-arm, broke sway bar, tore out some bolts from the skid plate + other damage (ran out of tires)

What was the best thing that happened at a rally this year?
Really fun and close racing with other 2wd teams like Shephard, Duplessis, Burmeister, O’Sullivan, VanWay, Johnson, Vlasic, Tancredi, Brosnan, etc., etc..
3rd g2 STPR regional, and I autographed some chubby kid’s back with a Sharpie.
Doing the minirally. Proper stage rally with recce and everything. Big sense of accomplishment.
Had lots of fun, considering I hadn’t driven in ’09 at all. Podiumed 3rd O/A at Gorman.
Co-driving for an ex BRC/PWRC champion
Had fun. Got to meet a lot of new people. Learning to put the notes and speed together better.
Great friends, sponsors, and good times.
Finishing that first rally, even with some problems. And moving from the bottom third to the top third of the pack over a season.
Targa (Newfoundland), and being 12 seconds out of the lead on day 5.
First event!
Finishing races
Helping Brian to his first class win my first time co-driving for him at DooWops, 5th at MaxAttack! OTR
7th overall and class win @ Rally Idaho, lead my class from the first stage to the last stage.

This survey is FAR from perfect.  Help us change that!
Some respondents specified running stage rallies, “Euro” Rallycross events, club rallies, rallysprints, and minirallies, which were regional, national, and international. What should we ask to clarify these? How should they be sorted?

Some rallyistas measure by the mile. Others measure by the kilometer. Likewise, the figures above include a mix of US$ and CDN$, and some were generously converted to USD from DKK. If we’re going to compare apples to apples and all that, how should we go about doing so?

Other concerns came to mind…
How do we account for co-driving (multiple classes, et al.) and volunteering? Not everyone who attends a rally is a competitor, after all.

Finally, what other questions would be of interest to you?
We’d like to give you an idea how your rally situation compares with that of your peers all over the world.

This survey is a bit rough, for sure, but even from relatively small sampling thus far, the information shows potential. With your feedback (and helping spread the word of this survey), we can all work together to see the big picture more clearly.

Thank you for reading Gearbox Magazine. Press on regardless.

Image: bobaliciouslondon, Flickr Creative Commons

We arrived in Prescott, Arizona, USA, for the 23rd running of the Prescott Rally under bright, sunny skies. The air was filled with the familiar staccato of Subarus, the undulating growl of Mitsubishis, the sophisticated thrum of Mazda rotaries, snarling, naturally aspirated fours and sixes, and the roar of one very angry Ford truck. We made our rounds, admiring the hard work of many a dedicated rallyista, meeting new friends, and catching up with old ones.

Media passes and yellow wristbands hanging round our necks from spanking new Subaru lanyards, we patiently waited our turn at the grill, where burgers and hot dogs were sizzling under the roof of one of Tim’s Subaru’s new service drives. There was a crack of thunder and it began to rain; a light sprinkle giving way to the sort of “big ol’ fat rain drops” Forrest Gump once talked about. While some took shelter in the service drive, others continued about their business as if nothing had changed.

The afternoon shower soon passed. An army of “left coast” Dirty Impreza members marched past the Asfir (AOTechUSA.com) 4X4 display. One by one, rally cars were filling the slots in Parc Expose, 18 cars, four trucks, and two motorcycles. Drivers, co-drivers, and service crew milled about, trying to hide the boiling anticipation of firing their engines and heading to the first control of the rally.

Friends Michael Rodarte and Mike Foster joined me this year as Gearbox Magazine sought a different kind of story on the “home” event. With all the competitors tied up in Parc Expose, we got checked into our hotel (the Prescottonian, Rally HQ for several years, now), and made our way out to the stages.

Our plan was to transit Perkinsville Road and set up our cameras somewhere along Witty Tom. Sadly, we spent so much time farting along behind a local on a cell phone on Perkinsville, we arrived at the control after the stage was declared “hot” and had to observe from there.

One by one, the teams began to arrive. Brian Scott appeared to be stuck in third gear, struggling to get the car moving, and even letting others go by before starting down the stage himself. Each machine had a solo in the symphony that is stage rally, and we enjoyed each of them, as they made their way through the first narrow hairpins of Witty Tom and over the ridge.

The most interesting Toyota Celica on the planet rolled by, green light flashing on the roof and we knew it was safe to make our way onto Witty Tom ourselves, marveling at the skill of such a diverse group of drivers, who made conquering these bumpy, washboard-riddled, blind, uphill hairpins look easy. We threaded my old Galant VR4 through the twisties at a brisk 15mph or so (wink) and staked out a spot along the stage while the competitors were at service. Soon they would be coming back through.

The problem with trying to find a “good spot” to watch rally is that, just about every corner is a good spot. You think to yourself, “This would be perfect,” but you have to keep going, because maybe there will be something better just around the bend. We did not have time to drive the stage back and forth a couple times and so settled on the outside of a nicely-cambered L3.

So the first rule of rally spectating is “You do not spectate from the outside of corners.” This is similar to the second rule of rally spectating, which is “You do not spectate from the outside of corners.” Time was running out before 00 would be coming through, so we pulled well off the road, behind some trees, and hoped for the best. (Still bugs me that we did this, for the record.)

The sun set and we found ourselves surrounded by inky darkness, our pupils opened nearly as wide as our ears, which were filled with the sound of Cicadas. The storm from earlier had cleared to the north, flickering with lightning on the horizon. A river of stars made its way overhead, and we spotted more than a couple shooting stars.

Our wishes soon came true. The crackle and pop of anti-lag echoing off the distant hills combined with high intensity discharge pencil beams reaching towards the sky as mechanical monsters made their way towards us. Would our decision to spectate from this location be problematic? I wasn’t sure yet.

The bang-bang got louder, the HIDs brighter, until, finally, the brilliant blue-white beams were upon us! We stood there, motionless, as Lawless rounded the corner, clean, smooth, and fast. Gravel bounced on the ground all around us and, as the cloud of dust rolled over our position, we turned to the south to watch him turn the high beams back on and roar up the straight, lighting even the tops of the trees until he crested the ridge and began his descent to the twisty finish.

One by one, the competitors passed us. There were sparks from the skidplate as the black Ford Focus rounded the bend, and Aaron Ekinaka, in his first stage rally, seemed to slide ‘round the bend for days. Each vehicle would pass and we would watch them climb up the straight and out of the valley through the dust and green streaks their pencil beams left etched into our retinas.

Green streaks gave way to blinding green flashes of sweep, as once again, the most interesting Celica on the planet rolled past, then stopped and backed up to be sure there weren’t time cards to collect. We made our way back down Witty Tom to Perkinsville, passing a dazed rally team standing at the edge of an exposure, holding their “OK” sign.

Oh shit. They stuffed it right before the end of the stage, some 50 feet down into the canyon. Nose dive. Game over. Though, their standing alongside the road was indeed a sign of sportsmanship, as they made sure their fellow competitors would not start the next stage worried about them.

Back at the Prescottonian, we wandered out back to see what was going on. McCormack’s rally was obviously done, his red Lancer Evolution lashed to the trailer with a rather unique door ding. That had to sting a bit, as reaching through the hole to see if the door/sill bars were affected, I couldn’t find any.

Mustafa had lost oil pressure shortly after starting Witty Tom south and now had a small army of professionals huddled over his engine bay. He would return Saturday morning. Also hopeful for the morning was Brian Scott, who was jumping into a truck at 11pm to make the 2+ hour drive down to Mesa for a transmission part, bring it back, and have what appeared to be his one-man service crew re-install the transmission.

Saturday morning, we followed the Marciniaks out to Perkinsville Road and, as the stage was hot, marched a quarter-mile in to get some pictures and video. (Sadly, the video camera spent Friday night at the hotel, while the Nikon refused to take pictures when it couldn’t focus on anything in the pitch black.) We got an excellent spot, this time properly up and off the side of a straight away, just before the flying finish.

Rather than go on and on, making this post even longer than it already is, I’m going to shift gears and share a couple more pictures before a huge gallery of shots taken on Perkinsville Saturday afternoon.

The all-important champagne spray and victory celebration.

This has to be the most interesting way I’ve ever seen a race car loaded for transport (I hear Lawless has a loading dock back in New York).

Finally, as there’s no party like a CRS party, introducing John Rood, Mustafa “Moose” Samli, and El Blendero Evolution II (dos).

For a complete listing of stage times and final results, please visit RallyData.com. Below is a gallery of all the pictures I managed to get on Perkinsville, just before the flying finish. If you’d like a larger version of any shot(s), please contact me and I’ll make it happen for you.

Note: It seems some of the thumbnails are missing. The pictures are still there. These were uploaded completely unedited and using an experimental image viewer plugin.

[nggallery id=1]

First of all, “we” and “us” on these pages refers to all of us together. Each channel of Gearbox Magazine is run by a single person at this point. That will hopefully change at some point in the future, but right now, Rally Gearbox Magazine is a one-man show. I need to get an “About our staff” page put together one of these days, but I’m usually pretty busy finding people with stories to tell, so it will wait a bit longer. In the meantime, if you’re curious who runs this show, you might check learn a little bit about me on the Mitsubishi Gearbox Magazine site.

Why are we doing this?
Before getting into the basic steps behind each interview published on this site, it might be good to share why any of it happens at all. Gearbox Magazine is trying to get rallyistas from all over the world to view themselves as part of a world rally community (better than the traditional WRC, if you ask me). I like to think these shared stories might spark ideas or prompt discussions on what works, how it works, and why. It’s also nice to know that, no matter how much press coverage (insert mega-huge rally superstar name here) gets, there is one place on the web where the rallyista with a day job who pays his own entry fees still reigns supreme. And wouldn’t it be nice to get a little press for yourself and be able to mention your sponsors and supporters; giving them the credit they so deserve? These are the core aims of this website.

What goes into each interview?
I start by wandering all over the internet in search of rallyistas to interview. Emails and private messages are sent. Contact forms on websites are filled out. I tell them a little bit about Gearbox and ask for the interview. If they accept, the most recent list of questions is sent over via email. (The interview process is still 100% email-based.)

Once I get the questions back (with pictures to accompany the story), I get started with “pre-press” work. The text is stripped of formatting through Notepad, then pasted into the WordPress content management system which powers the entire Gearbox network. Questions are bolded, and the interview is read and re-read to check for typos, punctuation, and such. Where you mention rallies, I hyperlink to their home pages. The same is true when you mention shops or sponsors. It’s the least I we can do, right? Let’s try to send them a little traffic while we’re doing this! I want to make you look as professional as possible.

Next, I start adding pictures. If you’ve included photo credits, I’m happy to include the information. We’re all in this together, so let’s give credit where it’s due. Sometimes there aren’t as many pictures as I might like. Other times, there are too many to choose from, or I have to open them all in Photoshop to resize them so they don’t take all night to upload. (All the pictures on the site are scaled to 630 pixels wide. FYI.)

Once the interview looks complete, I give it a couple more once-overs. I’ll read it top-to-bottom, I’ll skim it top-to-bottom. Sometimes, I’ll even start at the bottom and read every sentence back to the top to be sure things are really good to go. At this point, I double check the tags that will end up in the cloud up there on the right before scheduling the post to auto-publish at 3AM Phoenix time on Tuesday morning.

But wait! There’s more!
I’ve recently started doing two stories each week. One is a new interview (save this week, sorry), the other is a discussion question based on the previous week’s interview. I’m hoping this might get us all talking over time. Having been commenting on blogs for a couple years now, it’s a great way to get to know some new people you might not have met otherwise, and this might be a good place to discover those new ideas.

So each week, I put together a new interview and then re-read the interview from last week to come up with a conversation idea. All the while, trying to do the same thing for Mitsubishi Gearbox Magazine. That’s four posts every week. I pretty much spend every spare hour I’ve got during the week thinking about or working on Gearbox Magazine. It takes a lot of time, but it’s a labor of love.

We’ve got a couple interviews in the works as I write this, but nothing ready to go to “print” yet. Have we shared your story yet? Know someone we should track down for an interview? Please! Send me an email through the contact form up top and let’s make it happen – together.

Press on regardless, right?

We do this because we love rally.  Please stop by on January 1st to see our first interview (or subscribe to our feed today so you don’t miss it).  We appreciate your checking out the site.

Press on regardless,
The Gearbox Magazine crew.