2011
To get things started, Leo tells us he plans to compete in all 2011 CRC events, selected regional events in Ontario and Quebec, and maybe a US event. That’s a grand total of nine events in a single year. Tall Pines, Baie-Des-Chaleurs, Perce-Neige – Leo wouldn’t miss these events for the world because, in his words, they’re “just that good. I can’t say enough about them.” What’s the one US event on Leo’s radar in 2011?  Rally Tennessee. Looking toward the dim end of the pencil beams, Leo would like to eventually run in Europe, where tarmac experience is critical. Maybe one day he’ll run recce in Finland.

Image: gravitybureau.com

Bringing It
For 2011, Leo’s not concerned too much about final results. “I don’t care about titles so much,” he says. Instead, Leo aims to be on the pace with the top teams at every event he enters. “I don’t want to be winning by a fluke; somebody DNFd or mechanical. That’s not my style.” “To drive fast,” Leo maintains, “You have to try your best. You have to push.” This year, expect to see Leo Urlichich bring the fight to the top teams.

Giving Back
At Rally of the Tall Pines, Crazy Leo Can-Jam Rally Team raised over $800 for Bancroft Sled Dog Races, a charity which promotes physical fitness for kids. In the process, other teams have begun to partner with non-profits to serve their communities. When asked how this relates to rally, Leo said, “By helping the local community, we help rally. Everybody benefits in the end. Really. How hard is it to give someone a ride? It takes five, ten minutes?”

In similar fashion, this coming weekend, they will be giving away two free rides to event volunteers chosen at random during shakedown at Perce-Neige Maniwaki.

Says Leo, rally volunteers “stand there in rain, snow, sleet, hail, all not only for the chance to get a bit closer to the rally action, but also to make the amazing sport of performance rallying possible.” A shakedown run in the open class Subaru Beast is the least he can do. Imagine if every rally had a shakedown stage and every team were offering rides for a single charity.

And Then Some
Last year, Crazy Leo took the rally cars out to a couple track day, motor/autoshow, and local car club events. At these non-rally get-togethers, Leo was shocked to see how many people were genuinely interested in rally, but have no clue how to get involved in the sport. Imagine the irony of talking to university students – who have designed their own race cars – and discovering they couldn’t even guess how to get started in rally.

So Crazy It Might Work
This year, Leo will be looking into sharing the rally car with students at university. College students tend to be younger, active on Facebook, and not as tied-down. “These are hungry, hungry people [for motorsport], and we’re gonna try and get people involved.” Crazy Leo Can-Jam will be getting involved with university clubs, events, and maybe even classroom presentations. Maybe he’ll bring out a spare car and give a few rides, too, making a perfect opportunity to invite people to come out to the next rally and check it out.

Go Crazy with Crazy Leo
If running a full schedule+ and still finding the time to market rally in the local community is crazy, sign us up. Leo’s blog on CrazyLeo.net is regularly updated with the goings on of a passionate rallyista, looking to make things happen. Check it out. It’s crazy enough, it just might work.

What’s your name? Where are you located? What do you do for a living?
Keith Jackson, Vista, CA, Project manager for Skanska USA Civil.

What got you interested in rally?
Always been an off roader, but seeing a Subaru fly thru rally roads got me hooked.

Tell us about your rally car/truck. How long have you had it?
2005 Subaru STi Open AWD. Bought off the lot in 2004 and built in 2008.

Image: Patrick James for Dirty Impreza

Did you buy your rally car or build it?
What challenges did this cause? What benefits did you realize as a result?
The car was built by my brother and I at JacksonRally in the summer of 2008. Total build time was about 6 weeks from street car to open class. The biggest challenge was that this build was our first rally car, even though we’ve been building off road vehicles for over 10 years, building a rally car was new to us. We had a lot of help from Scotty of PlaCar. Building the car ourselves helped gain a vast amount of knowledge about the car and that has proved to be a huge benefit.

Tell us about a time when you stuffed the rally car (or maybe had a nasty off).
One off that stays in memory was at the Gorman Ridge Rally in 2009. We were seeded first on the road and had the job of sweeping the road against us and the first stage jitters. The stage was going very fast and about a mile from the finish we were coming downhill into a L4- way to fast, swung the passenger rear out wide, and tagged the bank. This nearly ripped off the rear bumper and bent the rear lateral link like a taco. After managing to finish the stage we replaced the link on transit and continued on, now 7 minutes late to the next ATC. This resulted in a little over 1min in road points. What makes this stuff so memorable is that we fought our way back and placed top honors at the event, 1st overall.

Image: Eli Gilbert

Tell us about a time when you narrowly avoided a DNF. How did you press on regardless?
In 2009, we ventured out of our typical schedule to compete with the big dogs in Rally America’s National Event Rally Colorado (COG). This was the teams first experience at the national level and we couldn’t have been more excited. The weekend continued on with no issue until the rain came in and saturated the mountain roads creating very slippy conditions.

As usual, we were running a very tight budget and only had 1 set of tires, which were not grooved for the rain. Despite the rain we pressed on regardless through the stages and at one point we over shot a L3 long by nearly 100 yards into the brush! We narrowly escaped a ditch on the right and continued back on the stage with no further issue, very fortunate to not hit anything else. We managed to place 6th OA (including TP!!) and 1st in class in both regionals.

What’s the most rewarding part of being involved in rally? The most challenging?
The biggest reward is the smile of our faces. Rally is the most exciting thing I have ever done. The most challenging is being a nearly 100% self funded team competing in OpenAWD class.

How many events did you enter last year? Is that trending up or down? Why?
2008 – 2 events, first year competing
2009 – 6 events, including International Rally New York (USRC championship event)
2010 – 4 events

The trend is up and down, as stated above rally is quite the expensive hobby and the time needed to commit puts a strain on work and personal life.

Image: Andrew Pascarela for Dirty Impreza

What kind of cash prize structure would entice you to enter more rallies or push the car harder?
I think, without going overboard, that a cash prize at least equal to the entry fee for the event would gather more entries and faster times.

How important are car classes? What class/region do you race in? How many competitors in your class at each event?
Car classes provide honest competition throughout most budgets and that is very important. Its not easy to compete against the top dogs but you shouldn’t have to sell any internal organs to enjoy the simplest of classes.

I currently run the OpenAWD class in the Southwest region (SoCal). The class participation for OpenAWD tends to be only at each extreme, either nearly all or nearly none.

What do you think about recce vs pacenotes vs blind rally?
I’m a fan of recce and have run recce with my own notes and organizer provided notes. I have yet to run solely based on routebook.

Spectators: Dream come true or worst nightmare? Why?
I like seeing spectators out there enjoying the action and I hope organizers continue thru the headaches to get them out there. Spectators are a very important asset to the sport; you must have people be able to see what it is or it will never grow. It’s embarrassing how many people have no clue what rally is.

How do you get local gearheads involved in rally?
Rallycross is the gateway to stage rally. That’s where I got my start. It’s cheap, local, minimal car prep/tech, minimal (if any) damage to your vehicle.

Image: Jamie Stapp

What do you see is the most critical issue needing addressed by the rally community today?
How would you address that issue if you were in charge?
Collaboration between sanctions/series. It’s hard enough to make the minimum entries on most events so why not have fewer high quality events. It would be nice to see a higher quality event get enough entries to bring the cost down to a small event price.

How do you help out at rallies when you aren’t racing?
I try to make it to any local rally that I am not racing. I have volunteered for timing and course closing thus far. Local rallycrosses usually are a good place to help out. Newcomers to the scene love to see a real rally car up close and it helps get them psyched about the sport.

If you could enter any WRC event, which rally would that be? Why?
WRC Finland. It’s my favorite rally and insanely fast with many jumps! In 2010, I spectated WRC Finland and it was amazing!

Your favorite Group B car?
Audi Quattro.

We’ve all got a rally hero. Who’s yours?
Petter Solberg. His positive attitude and pure love for the sport inspires me… and he used to drive a Subaru!

Do you have a local rally club? Tell us about it! (If not, why not?)
DirtyImpreza is my local club, from rallycross to stage rally to meets to a day in the dirt, DI is all about rally enthusiasts.

How often do you get together with other rallyistas to talk shop?
Every chance I get, mostly with my brother, Kyle, at our shop JacksonRally in Temecula, CA.

Tell us about some people who have made your rally dream a reality.
First and foremost is my brother, Kyle. He is the mastermind behind the build of the rallycar.

Scott George of PlaCar and Chris Tusow (OP). Scott has built many rally car and helped provide vast amount of expertise as we tackled my car. OP is a good friend and master Subaru mechanic and keeps an eye on us to make sure we don’t screw anything up motor/drivetrain wise.

Aaron Ekinaka of Dirtyimpreza brings us all together for pure love of the sport and continues to do so thru DI.com

Image: Patrick James for Dirty Impreza

Thank a volunteer (or group of them) here.
Huge thanks to every and all volunteers for every stage rally, rallycross, TSD, or any other form of racing, without you we wouldn’t be racing.

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned from your time in the rally community?
To finish first, first you must finish.

Press on regardless, Keith! Thanks you for letting us share your story!

What about you?

[Featured image: Juliet Ekinaka for Dirty Impreza]

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?

What got you interested in rally?
I bought a 1992 Galant VR4 in 2005.  After reading up on the history of the car I became very interested in its rally heritage.  I did some digging and found out that the Ojibwe Forests Rally was held only a few hours from my home so a buddy and I made a trip to check it out.  After watching the cars rip through the woods, I was hooked.  I immediately began pouring over the Rally America rulebook when I got home but came to the realization that as a college student I couldn’t afford to run a car.  Fast forward a few years and I now have a 2004 STi.  I began rallycrossing that car at the local SCCA events, took rookie of the year and after re-visiting the finances decided it was time to stage rally.

Tell us about your rally car/truck.  How long have you had it?
My rally car is a 2004 Subaru STi.  I’ve had it since 2006 where it served as my daily driver up until 2008 when it became a dedicated rally car.  It’s been built to run Open Class and is a very well rounded considering I run on a pretty low budget.

Did you buy your rally car or build it?
What challenges did this cause?  What benefits did you realize as a result?
I built my rally car.  I know the conventional wisdom (and it is advisable for many) is to buy a pre-built car, but I often do things the hard way.  I’m a gearhead and engineer and the actual process of building the car appealed to me.  The biggest challenge for me was in the time and money – it’s a long and expensive process to build a rally car from the ground up.  However, I’m very lucky to have Graham Evans (aka Whiskers) as a local resource.  Whiskers is a former Prodrive employee and knows more about Subarus and rally cars than anyone I’ve met.  He has been instrumental in helping and guiding my build.

Without having support from others with prior rally experience, you could make a lot of mistakes and waste a lot of money doing a first time build so I recommend anyone thinking about building a car find some knowledgeable locals to help guide you!  My benefit in building the car was being able to tailor it to myself and knowing exactly how it was put together.  Having that comprehensive knowledge can make trouble shooting go so much quicker when it’s crunch time.  There is some downside though as you do tend to get attached to the car when you’ve put hundreds of hours into it – you can’t do that or it’ll make it hard to drive flat out.

Tell us about a time when you stuffed/crashed the rally car (or maybe had a nasty off).
In 2009 at Nemadji Trail 3 I barrel rolled the car three times.  This was back when the car was Open Light and had a really poor front and rear differential set-up.  I had some good results the previous rally and was getting a bit overconfident.  I came into this tightening left off a high speed section and didn’t slow down enough.  The road had a lot of loose dirt and gravel on top of it and I wasn’t able to power out of it as my rear wheels got stuck in the sluff – then as the corner tightened they got sucked off into the ditch and the frame hooked up and over we went.  We ended up way off the road in a marsh with really tall grass all around us.  My codriver, Dave Goodman, and I were so confused – we couldn’t find the road at first because of the direction we were facing and the tall grass!  check it out.

Tell us about a time when you narrowly avoided a DNF. How did you press on regardless?
Ojibwe Forests 2009 is a great example of a Ziptie Rally POR moment.  This was the first rally after I had rolled and I was driving really slow.  We got caught a number of times that weekend.  It was the second to last stage of the rally and I was moving over to let a faster car pass when we clipped a rock that was hidden by the grass.  We limped the last few miles to the end of the stage, cleared the control and jumped out to see what the hell broke.  We found our front control arm looked like a banana and the tire was now jammed into the fender well and could barely turn.

Dave and I quickly set to work.  We had to disconnect the end link as it was keeping the swaybar jammed in an awkward spot, then we could pull the wheel off to switch to our spare (it was worn more so the smaller diameter gave it just enough clearance to kind of let me steer).  By this time sweep was waiting for us to relinquish our time card – we only had minutes to go!  Just in the nick of time we got the arm and tie rod pushed out enough and the car back on the ground to “drive” the car.  We ran that last stage and final transit with sweep right on our tail but we finished!

What’s the most rewarding part of being involved in rally?  The most challenging?
I can’t really pinpoint one single most rewarding thing about rally.  To me, the whole experience is why I love it!  From pre-event car prep to the road trip out to hanging with all my rally buddies to blasting down a forest road to the post event festivities… it really is a complete package.  I have never truly had a bad time at a rally – crashing or dnf’ing is disappointing but we’ve always made the best of it!  The most challenging aspect for me is trying to adjust back to “normal” life after a rally.  That may sound odd but rallyists know what I’m talking about.  I have to wait how long before the next one?!

How many events did you enter last year?  Is that trending up or down?  Why?
We did 15 last year (looks like a lot but we did a lot of dual weekends – like each Nemadji Trail is actually two separate rallies).  That’s more than we did our first year.  For 2011 Ziptie Rally is trying to run as a national entry.  In that case we’ll only do the 6 national rallies.  If we don’t secure the necessary sponsors expect to see us run the same number of regional rallies as we did this past season.

What kind of cash prize structure would entice you to enter more rallies or push the car harder?
Really any kind of cash payout.  I think MaxAttack has an awesome format going right now.

How important are car classes?  What class/region do you race in?  How many competitors in your class at each event?
I think well thought out classes are important but too many classes dilute the competition.  We currently race Open class in Rally America’s Central Region.  There are typically enough regional Open class cars that getting on the podium is a battle.  There is some really good competition out there – Janusz Topor, Henry Krolikowski, Erik Zenz for example.

Photo: Jerry Winker, ComicOzzie Autosport Photography

What do you think about recce vs pacenotes vs blind rally?
All three have their uses.  We prefer to run with recce and Jemba stage notes over tulips. I’ve crashed on both Jemba and tulips and don’t really have a comment on the safety argument.  For Dave and I, it is just simply more fun to use notes.  Recce is something we’ve only done once and it was useful.  The downside I see is adding another full day, which is why we often have to skip it, as we can’t make it to the rally in time.

Spectators: How would you like to see them addressed?
I love to see big spectator crowds!  It’s great to see people getting out in the woods to watch rally.  Rally isn’t just something you show up to like a ball game, it takes some real planning and commitment to get out to spectate (even more so to volunteer!).  Unfortunately in our lawsuit happy culture spectators can be a big liability.  So how to attract more spectators, but keep them safe?  Tough question for sure.

How do you get local gearheads involved in rally?
I’ve been very active in the local subaru club, MNSubaru.  In fact, my entire rally team is made of MNSubaru members.  We draw new crew from the club, hold various events with Morries Minnetonka Subaru to promote rally, and my co-driver is the SCCA rallycross chair for our region.  We work very hard to promote rally to the local communities considering we have many events close by (Nemadji Trail, Gravity Park, and Ojibwe being fairly local with Sno*Drift, 100AW and LSPR not too far away either).

What do you see is the most critical issue needing addressed by the rally community today?
How would you address that issue if you were in charge?
There needs to be more affordable, introductory events.  One day, short, cheap rallysprints – typified by events like Nemadji Trail.  Nemadji is run on one road, is about stage 30 miles total, has an entry fee of $250, has one central service, is within a 2 hour drive from 2 major cities, and has a very compact one day schedule.  This allows a team to show up with no crew, park their service rig (if they have one, two teams last year drove their cars to the rally) and run a full day of rally for a very affordable price.

Rally needs more events like this around the country.  Promoting and developing these type of rallies would be a primary objective for me if I was in charge.  A related problem to that is the lack of organizers and roads.  It is hard to put on new rallies without fresh blood and increasing difficulties in finding and securing appropriate roads.

How do you help out at rallies when you aren’t racing?
I’ve marshaled before.  This year Dave and I also joined the Ojibwe Forests organizing committee.  That was a very good experience to see what it takes to put on a rally – I recommend that all competitors help out organizing at some point.

If you could enter any WRC event, which rally would that be?  Why?
Rally Sweden – growing up in Minnesota, I am all about tossing a car about in the snow!

Your favorite Group B car?
Audi Quattro S1 – love the sound!

We’ve all got a rally hero.  Who’s yours?
Colin McRae

Do you have a local rally club?  Tell us about it!  (If not, why not?)
We don’t have a club specifically devoted to rally but we do have a lot of rally competitors, organizers, volunteers, and fans that get together on a regular basis (we just met for the Ojibwe Chili Cook-Off this month).

How often do you get together with other rallyistas to talk shop?
Very frequently.  I usually see Dave or some of the Ziptie Rally crew on a weekly basis to work on something.

Tell us about some people who have made your rally dream a reality.
First and foremost that would be my codriver Dave Goodman.  He’s been there since the beginning and has put in a lot of work on the car, on our organization, on our sponsors and has done a fantastic job in the right seat. Next I would like to thank my dedicated crew of Matt “Chux” Alexander, Martin Asao, Mike Rhode, Tim Anderson, Sheen Hua, Dan Mooers, and Dan Pulles – you guys are the best!  I’d also like to thank Dan Drury for being our crew chief the first year and continuing to support Ziptie Rally!  Special thanks to Andrew Browning and Graham Evans for their help building the car – Graham did the cage and provided exceptional advice and Andrew was out in the garage with me pretty much every night!  And lastly, I have to thank my parents for putting up with me leaving a rally car in their garage and a driveway full of trucks and trailers!

Thank a volunteer (or group of them) here.
I’d like to thank all rally volunteers!  Without your dedication we wouldn’t be able to go play in the woods.  I’d like to specially thank the Ojibwe Forests and Lake Superior Performance Rally organizers for putting on such great events this year even after being dropped from the National schedule – keep it up!

And how about your sponsors?
I’d like to thank my current sponsors: current sponsors: NOS Energy Drink, Carbonetic/Across USA Inc, The Four Firkins, Gearhead Graphics, Morries Minnetonka Subaru, Graham Evans Motors

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned from your time in the rally community?
Expect the unexpected.  And if you can’t fix it with zipties, a big hammer and some kind of tape (ZRT favors aluminum tape), it just wasn’t meant to be.

Is there anything else rally-related you’d like to talk about, but hasn’t been asked?
Just a personal plug – Dave and I are pushing to run a full Rally America National Championship and are looking for some sponsors to partner with.  So any companies out there looking to partner with Ziptie Rally – give us a shout!  We also have a second team car driven by Anthony Israelson and codriven by Jason Standage who will be running Central Region events this coming season in Open class – they are looking for sponsors as well.

Gearbox Magazine would like to thank Carl for taking the time to share his story with us. We’d also like to extend a special thank you to our valued reader, Shaun, for dropping us a line to suggest some interviews for us, including Carl.

• There’s two types of rallyistas – those who have rolled and those who will. Which are you?
• Have you ever worked on an event organization committee?
• What’s your most epic ziptie repair?
  

At press time, there are two auctions running on Ebay.ca for rides in Leo’s fully prepared Subaru STI rally car at Rally of the Tall Pines next weekend in Bancroft, Ontario, Canada. Proceeds from these auctions are going to the Bancroft Sled Dog Races. Why sled dog racing, you ask? Leo wants to give something back to the local community and help promote a healthy, active lifestyle for kids.

Time Travel
Last year, Leo was at his favorite rally in the world, Rallye Baie-Des-Chaleurs for the third time, when he found himself sharing a stage he calls “Time Warp Tunnel” with his team in the recce car. Perhaps the longest straight section of rally stage road in North America, tall pine trees line a section of road with no corners for 1.8km (1.1mi). Initially, the section is wide and clear, but the trees continually move in closer, until they close in overhead, turning the road into something of a tunnel. Add high powered rally headlamps to the mix in the night and you might begin to understand why Leo calls this one of the craziest experiences of his life.

When a guy they call “Crazy Leo” tells you something is “the craziest,” it kinda makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Do you have what it takes to handle something like that? What if we forgot to mention one of the biggest jumps in the Canadian Rally Championship is located along this road? Still up for it? Leo tells us this section of road has even shaken the steely nerves of Chrissy Beavis when run in the dark. This experience so excited the team at BDC, they decided to look into offering these rides at Rally of the Tall Pines.

A truly grand prize.
When we spoke with Leo, both auctions were at or near $400 bids. This might seem like a decent bit of coin to spend on a few minutes in a rally car, but it pales in the costs associated with building a car to this level of performance,  and we can all but guarantee you’re not going to experience anything like this anywhere else. Leo’s team will be filming the entire event and winners will receive copies of in-car footage, both of what they saw from the co-driver seat (if they weren’t crying the whole time) as well as their expressions from the silly seat.

Making a difference (and more of the same)
When you volunteer to work at a rally, you make motorsport possible. When you volunteer to help a rally do good in its hometown, you make a difference. Leo tells us he will be doing more of this in the future, so you’ll want to keep an eye on his website to details, but for right now, check out Auction #1 and Auction #2 on Ebay and make it happen.

The winners will be announced on CrazyLeo.net on this coming Tuesday and Wednesday. These folks will be going on the ride of their lives Friday at Rally of the Tall Pines and directly benefitting the local community. We’ll be getting in touch with Leo afterward to see how things turned out.

This idea is so crazy it just might work. Lucky for us, we’ve got the right man for the job.

As a Mitsubishi owner for 15 years, I’m firmly in the Mitsubishi camp. Tommi Mäkinen, with his gold driving shoes and four consecutive WRC wins (1996-1999), all in Mitsubishi Lancers, stands as my all time favorite WRC jock. Still, I often found myself cheering for Petter Solberg and Colin McRae in the Subarus. How could any rallyista not be moved by Solberg’s unabashed victory celebrations, or aspire to McRae’s humility on camera and relentless attack on the stages?

Such is the content of WRX vs. Evo. Author Huw Evans traces the history of these two platforms, starting with a general history of the two manufacturers and setting the stage for rally dominance with the introductions of the Subaru Legacy and Mitsubishi Galant. The Legacy and Galant are replaced by the Impreza and Lancer and the pace of this book quickens.

WRX vs. Evo reads like a world rally arms race. Each WRC championship is covered in great detail. No event goes unmentioned. Narratives follow the Mitsubishi team through a season, then switch gears, illustrating the Subaru perspective. You’ll be reminded of gut-wrenching mechanical failures and inspired victories from both sides. You follow the drivers as they join and leave the teams, and it seems as if just about everyone wanted a ride in these cars.

The battle royale spills over into the streets too. You’re introduced to model year changes, seeing when and where various bits of rally-bred technology made their way to the street. These were the improvements made to the Subaru. This was what the automotive press had to say about this model. Mitsubishi returned fire, bringing the next Evolution to market with these features. The press had this to say about the Mitsubishi. There’s even an appendix at the back of the book detailing the specs for each car over the years, as well as an appendix covering every special/limited edition model offered.

I’d say this is a proper gearhead’s book. You can read it front-to-back, as I did, but it’s arranged in such a way that you can just pick it up and get a quick fix of Mitsu/Subie/WRC history at a glance. Flip to 1996 and see what was new in the Lancer Evo IV. Jump to 1995 and follow along as Colin McRae wins his first driver’s title. Consider alternate gear ratios between years in the appendix. (I also suspect the WRC season recaps would make excellent bedtime stories for young, impressionable minds!)

I’ve never done a book review before, and I need to be clear that 671 Press sent me a copy specifically to review, but I’m very glad they did. I really enjoyed reading this book and make a point of displaying it prominently in the house. As a long term Mitsubishi guy, I noticed a couple typos in the book, but there is just so much data presented in such convenient, manageable chunks, I still feel it deserves a glowing review all the same. WRX vs. Evo is a compilation of stories which, together, tell a larger story which continues to this very day.

If this sounds like a book you’d like to read, or give to a Mitsu/Subie/rally friend as a gift, you can pick up a copy of ‘WRX vs. Evo’ by Huw Evans on Amazon. Full disclosure: That’s an affiliate link. If you click that link and purchase the book, Gearbox Magazine gets a percentage of the purchase price, which will help us do more for the rally community in the future.

Thank you for reading and, if you pick this book up, let us know what you think!

First of all, how did you do in Prescott?
We did better than I could have possibly hoped. I really only had 3 goals for this race. 1) Be safe – don’t kill the car. 2) Finish the race – don’t do anything stupid that’s going to make it so that you can’t cross that finish line, and 3) Have fun – which we had loads of fun. The fact that we finished was awesome, sure we made some newbie mistakes and got a bunch of road points, but I really wasn’t too concerned about things like that. They were learning opportunities. We ran our own race, and unfortunately the other teams in our class had various problems that allowed us to come in first. We moved up from being seeded dead last in 22nd position up to 10th overall by the end of day two. When Michael Taylor asked me to back my car up to where the other winners were, I couldn’t believe it. Spraying champagne at my first rally? There had to have been some mistake… but it was legit.

Did you run into any “situations” in the 48 hours prior to the start? What will you try doing different next time out?
There were a lot of things that needed to come together before the rally, and like most people find out, some things can’t get done until right before the car is supposed to be loaded onto a trailer to go to the event.

I took the car down to Jackson Rally several weeks before the rally. I made Kyle Jackson had a laundry list of things to do on my car. Fortunately, he was able to get to all the critical things that needed to be done (massive front skid plate, battery relocation, front tow hook, etc) but not everything because the list was so long. Its kind of a good thing though because I needed money for some other things too.

OP (from the Gravel Crew) looked over my car and found several things that needed to be addressed before we left. One of which was a noise coming from inside the transmission. We decided to swap in my spare gearbox before the event, and deal with this noise at a later time. One of my LCA bushings was totally shot too.

The other major hurdle was getting a new insert for one of my coil overs. I had bent one practicing before the rally and just never got around to replacing it. The replacement I got just days before the rally was not the right size. I have to tip my hat to Barrett Dash at All Wheels Driven for sending another insert via overnight first AM delivery to the hotel in Prescott. My amazing crew took care of assembling the strut as I was out doing recce in Albert’s car. It was a well orchestrated last minute fix. I still can’t believe we pulled it off.

What would I do differently next time? Pretend the rally is starting 2 weeks earlier than it really is. Maybe that will save me a couple all nighters working on the car.

How nervous were you about passing tech? Were there any surprises at tech? Any compliments or comments? Will you try doing anything different at the next rally?
I was nervous about tech. I knew Kyle had a very strong understanding of the rules, and we had been over everything already, but there’s always that “what if” feeling in your gut as the car rolls into tech inspection. The car passed with flying colors though. We were in and out of the tech bay in no time. One of the inspectors did actually comment that he was surprised that my parking brake was actually functional and could hold the car in place. I had to laugh about that, I never use the parking brake to turn the car… Now if I had a turning brake, that would be another story!

How did registration go? You had a lot of family, friends, and crew on-hand. (You might be the first team to out-do the Marciniak’s “Red Shirt Army” back in the day.) We know you were already exhausted from the final push to Prescott. How did you deal with the stress?
Registration was a breeze, it was kind of a question of “Well… what do we do now?” since we were the last car out of Parc Expose. We had what felt like hours to kill before we could suit up and go out. I think it was during the novice orientation where I first started noticing how not well I felt. I had probably a total of 4 hours sleep in 3 days thrashing just to get the car where I thought it would be acceptable, not only for the tech inspection, but for me to race in. It was almost like a catch-22: 1) I could stay up and make sure the car was ready to run from a technical stand point, and be exhausted, or 2) have the car not ready to pass tech and be rested. The only thing I could do was push myself to get everything dialed as quickly as possible, all this while holding down a full time job.

Family and friends were extremely supportive before we set off to race. My wife Juliet was taking care of random odds and ends, so that I could just take a break in the air conditioned truck to get a power nap in before we strapped in for the first transit. She really was awesome throughout the entire weekend; Making sandwiches for everyone and taking photos all over the place. It was the first rally that my Mom and Dad had ever been to too, and I think they had a great time being right in the middle of all the action. My friends/crew were just amazing, from towing my car all the way out, to working on the car even if I wasn’t around. I can’t thank them enough. I don’t think they understand how truly grateful I am for all their hard work.

Who helped with what before, during, and after the rally? (48hrs before to 48hrs after)
Literally countless people helped me before during and after. I would have to list so many people its ridiculous. Everyone pitched in to help in one way or another. Whether it be physical work on the car, monetary support, or letting me borrow parts/safety equipment.

What was going through your mind as you pulled up to the start of the first stage? Were you worried about anything? Nervous? Blindly confident? What was the one thing you wished you had done differently at this point?
As we rolled up to the start I was actually really calm. I was pretty tired, but excited at the same time. The funny thing is that I was more worried about what I would do if I had to puke and I had my full face helmet on. What a mess that would have been. I wasn’t really nervous about crashing or anything because I was in the mindset of running my own race. No one was going to catch me (I was in the back of the pack), I was very familiar with the handling characteristics of this car, having practiced many times in the desert on similar terrain. The brand new rally tires were somewhat of an x-factor, as I had not driven on new directionals before… only used ones. I felt confident, but was anxious to get going.

Tell us what you were thinking as you took off down the first stage of your first rally. Did you notice your perceptions/concerns change as you progressed through the event?
Taking off at the start was not really what I had expected. I still wasn’t feeling well as we set off on the first stage. I just kept reminding myself that I wasn’t there to impress anyone and that I wasn’t going to win the rally on the first stage. Smooth and clean was the plan, and I really needed to feel out the car before I could add any more speed. I did make a rookie mistake and jumped the gun by a full minute on the starting clock, resulting in a ton of road points right off the bat. Not exactly a confidence inspiring start in my opinion.

After a few stages in the car, the adrenaline really curbed any sick feelings I had. Albert later admitted that he wasn’t exactly feeling 100% at the start either. We slowly gained some confidence, not only in the car, but in each other too. He was on the notes almost all of the time. The first day’s stages were mostly in the dark, so I pushed as hard as I felt was safe. Saturday was a different story. In the day, we already had a good feel for the road having done recce, and run them in the dark. By mid-day I was trying to focus more on car position on the road, braking points, and not lifting on some of the more open turns.

How did you like working with a co-driver? Was it easy for you to meld what you saw with what you heard in the notes?
Albert and I had practiced recce in a few different scenarios. We both attended John Dillon’s Widget Co-driving seminar in the hills outside Los Angeles last year, and even more recently, we practiced writing our own notes on some of the dirt roads where we practice driving out in the desert. This really paid off when it was time to actually do recce for the race. Having organizer supplied notes was a huge help, as there were really only a few things we needed to change. For example, I decided to remove all the pluses from the notes, and some of the really hairy stuff was marked a whole number lower than what it really was. My co-driver was very good about repeating notes too when I asked him to. Overall, the atmosphere in the car was really lighthearted and we were joking around and having a great time the whole rally.

Have any OH SHIT moments?
We actually didn’t hit anything very hard. So the only oh shit moments were when we finished stage 2 and smoke was pouring out of the hood scoop. I knew something was up, but hoped it was only a torn CV burning grease or something. It turned out that one of the power steering lines came loose and fluid was burning off on the exhaust manifold. Sketchy, because it could have started a fire, but we were able to get back to service and the problem was fixed. There were a couple of tight turns on the FirstView stage that I managed to find some big rocks on the inside apex. We ran them over without any damage though. Those kinds of things really make your butt tense up.

How about OMFG THAT WAS AWESOME moments?
There as a section that was truly amazing during day 1. It was actually right before the finish on stage 2 when we had the problem with power steering. The end of the stage was a long uphill straight where we were going absolutely as fast as we could with all our rally lights blazing into the dark, motor screaming at redline, and on the horizon right in front of us, several bolts of lightning were hitting the ground from the passing thunderstorm. It was so insane.

How did the car hold up during the event? Any major repairs?
The car held up great. Other than the power steering issue that was repaired during service, there were no other major issues. I even ran the same set of tires on the second day that were on the car on the first. I think this was a result of good prep work. I’ve seen a trend with some of the top guys, and teams that rarely DNF, most of them seem to go over every aspect of the car before an event. If necessary they tear things down and rebuild whatever might be a weak point or potential failure piece before they ever load the car up on the trailer. Checklists are a great tool for not forgetting what needs to be addressed before racing and during service.

What was the mood in the car like on transit back to the final control behind the Prescottonian?
The mood was mostly relief, but at the same time lots of joking and laughing. I made sure to let Albert know he did a great job on the notes. We were extra careful to follow the exact route of the transit back to the MTC. We were both exhausted.

How does stage rally compare to the Dirty Meets organized by DirtyImpreza.com? How well do you think the Dirty Meets helped prepare you for rally? Did you learn anything in your first rally that you’d like to apply to Dirty Meets in the future?
To be honest, they don’t really compare at all. The previous DirtyMeets were loosely organized and was mostly newer guys going out and just trying out getting sideways in the dirt. The more of those that took place, the more I realized that its a big risk to have all these inexperienced drivers out in the same area at once.

What we found out is that going out on our own in small groups is where you can really learn a thing about car control [is a better idea]. We even setup a mock stage on some dirt roads, practiced recce, and ran them at speed to get our feet wet. I was glad we did this in the dark too, so we knew what to expect on the night stages in Prescott. The practice really helped, its just a shame that here in southern California you have to make a significant time investment to go practice. It’s not like other places in the country where guys can literally drive down the street to some amazing gravel roads.

Tell us about something you thought was critical before the rally that wasn’t as important as you thought.
When you’re getting ready for tech, it seems like EVERYTHING is critical. However, I think that one thing I over-compensated for was wheels and tires. If you’re not driving out of control and hitting things left and right, you can probably get away with 1 set of tires and 2 spares for a whole event. I had 4 brand new LASSA’s on the car, with a whole set of spare Hankooks already mounted and 2 more spares. We didn’t need the Hankooks at all. All those wheels and tires cost a ton of money too.

Tell us about something you hadn’t thought was critical (or thought about at all) prior to the rally that ended up being super-important.
Knowing exactly how transits and time controls work. We learned a lot about this stuff by actually doing it, but even in the classroom, or reading things online doesn’t really prepare you for how you need to be quick to get where you’re going for every time control. We stopped to check out the car when it was smoking, and didn’t stay long, but still ended up getting some road points for being late to time control. It wasn’t the end of the world though.

What’s the most important lesson you learned this first time out?
To always run your own race and not get caught up with the times, and who’s beating who, or worry about how far back you are from the next person, etc. This all clouds your head and will affect your driving style. There were sometimes where I could tell I was giving into the adrenaline and started pushing harder and harder, but I would catch myself and pulled back a bit if I saw it getting too crazy. You don’t want to let this get you in over your head, and outside of your ability level.

The other thing I learned, and this seems so stupidly simple, is to rest. You absolutely need to have enough rest before even going to a rally. You can’t function at your full potential if you’re exhausted or falling asleep during transits. We found this out the hard way.

What will be your next rally?
I’m not entirely sure, but for 2010 we’re done. It took a lot of resources to get to Prescott and it was definitely worth it, but now I need to focus on getting my finances back in order, etc. I’d like to do maybe a couple select events next year. Possibly High Desert Trails in April 2011, just to stay sharp and also because its close to home. It would be awesome to go to Idaho, but that’s another very big project. We’ll see though… it would be lots of fun to go back to Prescott again. I guess you could say I have a soft spot for that event now.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.
My name is Tyler Patik.  I am from Casper, Wyoming, and have lived here all of my 26 years.  I manage a local bicycle and ski shop 6 days a week, but I also do car repair, house sitting, or nearly any other side work to help pay for this rally addiction.

What got you interested in rally?
I never really planned on racing cars. From the time I was 10, all I wanted to do was to race BMX.  When I was 16 I bought my first car, a 1983 Subaru Wagon.  It was a great car and it got my bike and snowboard gear to where ever I needed to be, albeit at a snails pace. That little wagon gave me my first taste in sliding a car around a turn more or less in control.  I was hooked! This was around the same time the WRX came stateside.

Buy or build: Tell us about your rally car.
Shortly after my 17th birthday, I found a more affordable alternative: a red 1995 Subaru Impreza Coupe.  The Impreza would have all the benefits of the old wagon with Subaru’s reliability and all-wheel drive traction I had grown to love.  Though it had more power than the carbureted wagon,  ultimately it was a gutless wonder with the 1.8L engine and it was far less practical than the wagon. But I HAD to have it, and I would spend my nights on backroads learning to drive it.  Four days after I bought it I smashed it into a pole, and it took a month for the shop to repair. After it was fixed, I started racing autocross.  On my first race out I set the fastest time of the day on street tires. From then on I was in motorsports far too deep and it was a natural progression to rallycross and finally stage rally.

I would be lying if I said I never thought about racing that little Impreza.  From day one, that car was to be a race car.  A few years down the line I started replacing wheels and tires and suspension pieces.  I got involved with forums like Nasioc.com, legacycentral.org, awdpirates.net and ultimately, specialstage.com.

How far along are you today? What are your biggest concerns?
I started prepping this car roughly two years ago.  As it sits right now, the car is a solid and responsive competitive car for rallycross.  The engine and drive train are built.  I am working on new gearset from Guard Transmission with closer ratios.  My largest concern is sorting out the cage. That has been the most difficult aspect since none of the fabrication shops in Wyoming are familiar with rally cages or are willing to put the time in to build one.  I have been speaking with a few shops around the country and hope to have one finished by the end of October.

How are you involved in rally these days?
Right now I am concentrating on the SCCA Rallycross National Championships mostly for getting seat time in this car.  Its not quite the same after driving hill climbs or a stage rally but they are good practice and a good time with friends.  The race is in Fountain, Colorado this year and the Colorado Rallycross organization put on well organized events, not to mention the group has been a great starting point for some of the best drivers in Colorado and the nation.  At this time I think there are around 70 drivers registered so the level of competition should be high, which I am excited about.

Tell us about some people who have helped you out.
Of course none of this would be possible without good people behind me.  Most importantly, my Fiance Kelli has been extremely supportive.  She helps where she can with eveything including work on the car.  She even sold her new Honda CRV to drive my old Forester so we could save money for a truck and trailer.  Without her I would definitely be floundering about some.  Roger Matthews has been a good friend and source of knowledge and inspiration.  Even though he has had a tough year,  his excitement for the sport never seems to waver.

(We followed up with Tyler after the Nationals…)

How did it go at Nationals?
It was an interesting weekend at that race. While the organizers were having trouble with dust and timing, I was coming to grips with this new car.  I finished fifth out of nearly 20 cars in the Mod 4 class.  It wasn’t my best performance, but I learned alot about the car and what I still need to do to get it setup.  Had it not been for a timing issue on their part and 3 cones on mine, second would have been mine.  I don’t know if you saw any pictures from the event, but I kinda became the poster child for the dust at the event.

How did the car do?
The car itself ran great, especially for changing out the heads and doing a few other fairly drastic bits of engine work just four days before!  I need to mess with the suspension a bit more to improve the turn in and front-to-rear balance a bit, but I need to wait for the completion of the cage.

After the event I got a few other items worked out.  Barrett at AllWheelsDriven gave me a call and is helping me out with my cage predicament. I am excited to work with him.  Barrett has never let me down and been there when I have had questions for him.  He came up with the idea for the cage since he is doing 2 of the same body car in his shop soon.  Basically Barrett is going to buid me a cage and ship it to me to finish welding.  This works out great becasue the design and bending were the parts I wasn’t confident in, I have welding skills and have a stack of friends that are certified welders.  That’s what happens when you live in a state whose sole purpose is oil production.

Any thoughts on the future?
Though I haven’t nailed down a complete schedule for next year, I am working with Roger Matthews.  We are going to trade out and do double duty in each others’ cars.  On select events, I plan to  co-drive for him in either his Group 5 Jetta or his group 2 Super Bunny, and he will co-drive for me on other events.  Roger and I get along very well and we both have the same mentality when it comes to driving and the sport.  We might make LSPR this year, in Roger’s car of course, but that depends on if he finishes replacing the engine that gave out in Idaho.  Or maybe more importantly, if he has any money left after installing the new engine.

We’ll be back in a few weeks with an update on Tyler’s progress.
Thanks for stopping by. As always, press on regardless.

What’s your name?  Where are you located? What do you do for a living?
Eric Wages. Currently living in Goose Creek, SC (in the Charleston, SC metropolitan area). I’m the Operations Manager of a Google datacenter in Moncks Corner, SC where I’m responsible for overseeing the team of folks that deploy and fix all of the hardware that makes stuff like Google and YouTube work.

What got you interested in rally?
Growing up, I wasn’t really interested in cars. I did some of the usual stuff with my dad in the garage like changing the oil and air filter in his burnt-orange Ford Fiesta, but that was about the extent of it. In 1989, my father’s job was transferred to the UK, so the family packed up and went with him.

Now, as a relatively spoiled American child, I was used to cable TV that had about 50 channels at the time. Upon arriving in England, I discovered only 4 channels; BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel4. So, while mindlessly flipping through the 4 (!!!) channels, I stumbled upon this crazy program called rally. I had no idea what exactly was going on, but I knew it was extremely intense and incredibly cool. Moving back to the US in 1991, however, moved rally off my radar and I forgot about it. 10 years later Subaru announced that the Impreza WRX was being released in the US, and I remembered how incredibly cool the motorsport was. I couldn’t help it – I bought one of the first ones!

Image: Angela Cosner

In 2002, I was laid off from my job in Virginia and ended up moving back to work at my Alma mater, The University of Maine. While in Maine I met John Cassidy who, at the time, was just getting his rally program off of the ground. At that time he had only attended maybe 3 or 4 rallies and he needed an extra set of hands in the garage. It was convenient for him as I only lived 5 miles away and was a willing victim! Over the next few years I did a whole variety of jobs with him, from wrenching to ECU wiring and tuning, and crew chief to team manager. I think I did pretty much every job at one point or another, short of sitting in the seat at an actual event. I’ve had my hands in nearly every car that John’s had for the last 10 years: Fireball, the Group2 Honda; Steel Tulip (now being driven by Jason Smith/Jared Lantzy), Tulip 2 (untimely death at Maine Forest some years back) and now Tulip 4. (Tulip 3 was skipped. Ask John!) Over the years with Last Ditch Racing, I think I attended something on the order of 20-30 rallies, mostly in Canada.

As the job market shifted, I moved on to take a new job down in the South. I was still bitten by the rally bug, I had to stay involved. I had met Anders Green one year at Maine Forest Rally and we hit it off. As a fellow Mainer and UMaine alum from the same department I attended, we had a lot in common. He knew I was highly involved with LDR up in Maine and was willing to let me help out at the events. Things started slow. One year a HAM radio operator at Rally Tennessee, the next a volunteer and HAM organizer. For the last few years, though, I have pretty much cemented myself as the Chief of Controls, driving the 0 car, because my experience gave me a good perspective on rally operations, safety, HAM radio setup, scoring, etc.

Last year I was wanted to step into competition, so I finished prepping my car and finally went hot for the first time at Rally Tennessee this year with Chris Von Denes in the right seat.

Image: Jud Bartlett

Tell us about your rally car/truck.  How long have you had it?
I’ve had my Subaru WRX since April of 2002. We struck a deal with the local Subaru dealership when I bought the WRX and my wife (then girlfriend) bought a 2001 Forester. That Forester has been to nearly as many rallies as I have!

Did you buy your rally car or build it?
The plan was to always build the car, or in my words to my wife – “I’m going to drive this car into the ground.” After helping Cassidy build all of his cars, where each one was a better revision than before, I’ve (generally) learned the best practices of rally car building. I’ve seen a lot of cars, helped people at the events, and had to work on other professionally-built cars. None of them really worked for me, so I knew that I wanted to make my car my own.

What challenges did this cause?  What benefits did you realize as a result?
I had always planned on a very long build cycle. My logic was that, as I was replacing bits and pieces, I would simply get a strengthened or upgraded bit that was more compatible with the harshness of rally. When I converted the car from an automatic (yes, it started life as an auto!) I picked up a Version 7 STi Prodrive transmission. When the radiator went, I bought a multi-bar aluminum unit. And so on.

I now know the car inside and out. It’s nearly all my own work (and mistakes). I’ve only had to outsource two pieces of the build: the rollcage and the new engine. The current engine is essentially the 3rd one in the car. 1st one wore out. 2nd one I built and destroyed in 200 miles due to a blocked oil passage. I now have learned to leave engine assembly to the pros.

Image: Jud Bartlett

Tell us about a time when you stuffed the rally car (or maybe had a nasty off).
At Tennessee this year, I stuffed the car off the road on a R5->R4 at the flying finish of SS3. A lot of things went wrong: a bit too much speed, a slight bump in the middle of initial corner, and the corner actually looking like a R4->R3. We went about 50′ off through a bunch of dense brush with 1″ thick trees right in front of the StoleTheShot.com photographers. Amazingly enough, we were able to drive the car out after wasting a lot of time watching the other cars go by. We were able to make it to the start of the next stage without ANY problems to the car other than some cracked paint on the bumper!

Lesson learned: just because it LOOKS bad doesn’t mean anything! Try! Try! Try!

Image: Eric Wages

Tell us about a time when you narrowly avoided a DNF. How did you press on regardless?
Luckily, I haven’t had this problem yet. But a good one from my time as a crew member for John Cassidy at Maine Forest: He swung wide on one of the stages and smacked the rear of the car into a stone bank. It completely snapped the wheel and brake rotor clean off the car. He pulled into service with no functioning brakes other than the e-brake on one corner since all braking pressure was going to the one corner that was missing a rotor!

Since we didn’t have a spare rotor, we pulled out the one brake pad that was still stuck in the caliper on the broken corner, turned it 90-degrees between the piston and retention fingers on the other side of the caliper and tied it in with bailing wire. This allowed brake pressure to resume since the piston had something to push against – even if it was just the backing plate of the pad!

There’s a a great ongoing thread on SpecialStage.com titled “The Stupid Information Thread” that has a lot of valuable tips like that.

Image: Eric Wages

What’s the most rewarding part of being involved in rally?  The most challenging?
Certainly the most rewarding part of rally is meeting the people. We have a really interesting mix of people, all of different background and from different parts of the country, getting together and doing something that’s arguably a little nuts. It’s comforting to know that there are people just as much off their rocker as me!

How many events did you enter last year?  Is that trending up or down?  Why?
Last year, I attended just 2 events in an official capacity – Rally Tennessee and Sandblast Rally. This year, it looks like it’s going to be the same two events plus Tim O’Neil’s school in Dalton, NH since Rally West Virginia is a no-go this year. Realistically, I would like to compete or officiate 3-4 rallies next year since I will have a bit more vacation time.

What kind of cash prize structure would entice you to enter more rallies or push the car harder?
A tow fund or other similar starting award structure would help me since I’m in the southeast with only one event within 5 hours tow. I’m not going to hold my breath though; I have a fairly solid understanding of the financial structure of a few rallies in the country and there isn’t a lot of wiggle room unless there is a significant event sponsor behind the scenes.

Image: Margaret Wages

How important are car classes?  What class/region do you race in?  How many competitors in your class at each event?
Doesn’t every competitor want to compete against those who bring the same gear to the rally, give-or-take? In NASA, we’ve tried to limit the number of classes to make it easier for the competitors and the spectators, but it’s difficult. In our rule books, we have 9 current active classes and 2 new ones we’re currently working on. Generally speaking, the vast majority of entries at most (80+%) in the eastern region of NASA are lumped into one of four classes: Open AWD Heavy/Light or Open 2WD Heavy/Light.

My car is built to the Open AWD Heavy (OAH) class where the normal competition will be Evos and STis even though I’m driving an arguably wimpier 2.0L car versus the 2.5L of newer WRXes/STis. There are usually 5-10 fellow OAH competitors at any given rally. Add in my desire to keep costs down with running pump versus race gas and it makes driving skill even more important.

What do you think about recce vs pacenotes vs blind rally?
I’m a big fan of recce + stage notes. I’ve had some experience driving blind when doing 0 or 00 duties since it really forced me to keep an eye out for everything – the road, the volunteers, the spectators. As time has progressed, I’ve gotten fairly good at reading the road and the notes are simply augmenting what my eyes are seeing.

Spectators: Dream come true or worst nightmare?  Why?
Rally in the US does not have a sustainable lifecycle without spectators. We haven’t done a really good job of keeping spectators informed at US-based events, so they don’t really feel connected to what’s unfolding in front of their eyes (or elsewhere in the woods). Only recently have we begun to deploy proven systems that allow spectators (and other interested parties) receive push-based updates from rallies via cell phone text messaging. We need to continue enhancing the experience – maybe color commentary at spectator areas, giveaway prizes, or something else – to keep keep them engaged at the event and afterward. This is the key transition from casual spectator to rabid fan. And we all love doing pendulum turns in front of the fans!

Once we have rabid fans, we need to have a solid and well-marketed conduit that allows people to transition to competitor and keep them competing. Our current marketing plan of getting people into RallyX isn’t generating a huge number of competitors for stage rally and we need to try something else.

Image: Dwight Wages

How do you get local gearheads involved in rally?
In Charleston, it’s difficult. Being in the Lowcountry, there aren’t many exciting places to drive so the typical RallyX folks aren’t there. Usually, I solicit assistance on the Subaru forums to join in my “reindeer games”, and I’ve had some moderate success. A very large portion of the local gearheads are active duty in the military, either at Charleston Air Force Base or at the Charleston Naval Weapons Station, so securing their time for events can be challenging.

Luckily, I have two fellow NASA competitors in Charleston – Tibor and Chris Von Denes. They are an invaluable resource!

What do you see is the most critical issue needing addressed by the rally community today?
The issue of car classes is an interesting problem for today’s competitor – each sanctioning body has classes that are similar but the bigger issue, in my opinion, is the licensing differences between the two primary sanctioning groups. I race in NASA where we have a structure that allows for any competitor to race any type of vehicle they choose starting with their first rally. We instill proper rally procedures by requiring new competitors to attend multiple Novice Competitor Orientations (NCOs) before you are released from the requirement to continue attending. In Rally America, the primary mechanism for ensuring a safe(r) environment for the new competitor is to limit what vehicles they can drive.

How would you address that issue if you were in charge?
This is tough. Sanctioning bodies need the funds associated with the licenses to help offset operating costs, so completely waiving license fees if you have another competition license isn’t scalable. Maybe all sanctioning bodies in North America should raise their rates by $25/yr and offer a per-event license for those licensed under other sanctioning bodies?

This doesn’t resolve the philosophical difference about people running open class cars under a NASA license in RA events which does impact me personally, but this is a smaller issue compared to the overall reciprocity between NASA/RA/CARS.

Image: Jud Bartlett

In your opinion, what is the role of the sanctioning body?
The sanctioning body exists to ensure a fun, safe environment for people to come out and have a good time whether they are a competitor, volunteer, or spectator.  In my opinion, rally in the US is not so much of a sport, but an adventure weekend; the actual racing is just a small part of the whole event. I think that for most people involved in rally here on this side of the pond, it’s a hobby since most of us can’t make a living participating in the sport. Rules should be framed to keep that experience in mind.

How do you help out at rallies when you aren’t racing?
I will probably continue to perform Chief of Controls duties or Clerk of Controls if Anders needs a stand-in. I’m also working on cooking up another event in the Southeast which would be a very unique event. (Keep an eye out for more on this around the 1st of the year if it’s going to happen!)

If you could enter any WRC event, which rally would that be?  Why?
Monte Carlo. The Col De Tourini stage is pure rally nirvana.

Your favorite Group B car?
Lancia Delta S4. 1.8L of turbocharged and supercharged insanity!

Image: Dave Baxter

We’ve all got a rally hero.  Who’s yours?
I’d really have to lean towards John Cassidy. I really enjoyed living vicariously through his experiences and was proud to be a large component of Last Ditch Racing‘s successes. He certainly proved that if you have enough brains and gusto, you can do things that the rest of the world see as crazy and incredible.

Do you have a local rally club?  Tell us about it!  (If not, why not?)
No local club, unfortunately. I must be a horrible salesman for rally since all of the car folks that I’ve met aren’t really interested in getting together to sit down and watch WRC. I’ll keep trying!

How often do you get together with other rallyistas to talk shop?
Tibor, Chris and I probably see each other every 3 months or so, usually around Sandblast or Tennessee time. We need to increase that frequency, especially as I compete more events with Chris as my codriver.

Image: Dwight Wages

Tell us about some people who have made your rally dream a reality.
My lovely wife, Margaret, has been a wonderful supporter of my racing dreams and never asking why I was doing such a silly thing. She’s been been by my side at nearly every race that I’ve been involved with, either with LDR or our own rallies down south.

Mark and Laura Bench, Ryan Davis of TurboTime in Cary, NC. Ryan was the primary tech who rebuilt my motor from my horrible job and Mark and Laura provided on-the-ground service support for my first drive at Rally Tennessee. TurboTime has been a wonderful supporter of my racing and I hope to continue the relationship.

Thank a volunteer (or group of them) here.
I want to thank all of the volunteers who come stand in the pouring rain, baking heat, and freezing cold in order to close roads and handle timecards. There’s simply no way that these events can be put on without their support! In particular, I want to single out the Ball family in Linden, TN – they bring their WHOLE family out to the event to help marshal corners and run stage teams! Thanks!

Image: Angela Cosner

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned from your time in the rally community?
Most competitors don’t know, or don’t care care to know, the difficulties associated with running an event. The product (from the ceremonial start to last MTC) is too opaque; the nitty-gritty is a big black box that most competitors think “just happens”. It would benefit the community if more people walked a mile in an organizer’s shoes to really understand what it takes to put an event together.

Thanks for taking the time, Eric. Rally is not a big, black box full of magic and it takes everyone working together to make it happen. We appreciate your participating in the Gearbox project and wish you luck on the stage roads!

What got you interested in rally?
I had always loved motorsport, but the thing that got me motivated to get involved was seeing the guys fix a car and get it back out into the rally.

How many events do you attend each year?  What do you do at these events?
Well, here in Barbados, there are about 12-13 events on our calendar, but I do other rallies in the UK and Europe as well.

My duties range from number one mechanic, to just a mechanic, up to crew chief, and, sometimes, engineer on the older cars.

How did you get started as crew?
I first got started when I was working here in Barbados for a guy who builds engines for some of the race and rally cars, but I used to hang out with some other friends who worked for one of the top guys here in Barbados, I used to go to events with them and help out and eventually I was offered a job with them!

What’s the most challenging thing about being service crew for a rally team? The most rewarding?
The most challenging thing I would have to say is the late nights and the early mornings – getting little rest and still not making a mistake working on the cars.

The most rewarding is knowing that your driver is happy with the car and it reflects in his times!

Are you paid for your service? Is this the norm?
I get paid for my work. Yes this is the norm.

Walk our readers through what is involved in working as service crew for a rally team.
First of all, you have to find the service spot that is level and nice, set the tents up, ground sheets, run lights if you need to, take what you need out of the service truck, i.e., tools, jacks, jack stands, compressor, etc.. Then you find out what tires your driver wants to pick for the next run. Basically, you make yourself ready for anything that could happen; each individual should have his tools at each corner of the car so when it comes in you get straight to work.

For what are you responsible over the course of the event?
Basically, I am responsible for everything as the crew chief. I make sure the car is ready, I relay all info to the engineer, I speak to the driver with the engineer to see how the car is going, I make sure the driver is well watered and fed during the event, make sure the crew is happy and working as a team.

What’s the most critical part of service setup?
There is no one critical element to service setup; everything needs to work as a whole to get the job done.

You’re all setup and ready for the car. How long before it shows up? How do you fill that time?
It depends on the rally we are doing. In Barbados we are allowed to “chase” the car. This means we go to the end of the first stage and the beginning of the 2nd as we only run 3 stages then back 2 service. In the WRC you are not allowed to do chase so we have to stay in service unless there is a remote service. The time is passed by setting up your service area, cleaning and prepping parts. If we get a call that something needs to be changed, we get that part and make it ready to go onto the car when it comes in.

What is the atmosphere like between setup and first service?
For me it is filled with nervousness as I am very nervous whenever the car leaves service – things go through your mind and you question yourself even though you know things are done – but for the most part it is more relaxed.

How much interaction do you have with the other service crews? What’s that relationship like?
We do interact with the other crews. Sometimes we snoop on them to see what tire they are on (lol), but it is fun, whether it be here in Barbados or in Europe.

How many services are there at a rally?
It depends on the layout of the rally. Most have or run 6 -12 stages on the first leg. If they run 6 that is 3 services, if they run 12 it is like 5 services a leg.

How long do these services last?
In Barbados the services at the end of a 3 stage loop is for 20 minutes, then lunch is an hour. In the WRC it is three 20 minutes services then a 40 minute service at the end of the day.

What happens if you can’t get the car back together in time?
In rallying we never say “never,” but in a case that the car could not be fixed in time for it to get back its place in the rally, each car is allotted 15 minutes of lateness for the entire rally, so we use that. If we go over, you are basically out. In the WRC you can rejoin the next day under Super Rally rules.

Tell us about some “major” repairs you’ve managed in such a short amount of time.
WOW, some major repairs include a gearbox change in a Group N GC8 (he won his group), had to rearrange the front of a Group A car with zip ties, run over the sump guard with a truck to straighten it, nick someone’s radiator out of the stock Subaru as well to put in that (he finished 2nd), fix a power steering leak in one of the WRC cars, bleed the system, and pressurize it again (that was hard as we had to use a fitting we found off of a tractor to get it going again).

Can you tell us about a time when you did whatever it took to get the car back into the race and were surprised to see it actually finish?
Years ago, when I first started, I used to look after a little 12 valve Toyota Starlet turbo. Everything was good until the first stage, when it had no 3rd gear. We checked and it was a clip missing for the linkage. With nothing to work with, we zip tied the hell out of it and the car actually finished the rally! The driver said it never shifted so good! (LOL)

Another time was in Jamaica. When a friend of mine’s Subaru poked a hole through the gearbox in the penultimate stage, we broke a branch off in the hole of the gearbox and it finished! Did not even leak!

Can you share a time saving tip for other service crew members out there?
The only tip I would add is to be organized; know what tools are needed to spanner check your corner of the car and only take them to that corner. Always work calmly and try not to rush, but still have a sense of urgency about what you are doing. If you are finished doing what you are doing go help your mates with their task if they are not finished.

What’s the one thing you would never – ever – forget to bring to a rally?
I would never forget my tool box, without that you are useless!

How do service crews mitigate environmental concerns at rallies? What are those concerns?
Most of the newer WRC cars have catalytic converters on them so they burn fairly clean and all of our fuels are unleaded. The cars themselves burn fairly clean as well. We always take trash bags and have a designated trash can for our team so as not to litter on the premises we use for service.

What do you see is the most critical issue needing addressed by the rally community today?
How would you address that issue if you were in charge?
My main concern is for the smaller people in rallying who would like to rally on the top level, but the cars and the maintenance costs are so high. Something needs to be done, like a group where the cars are cost effective yet competitive. This, in turn, will attract manufacturers.

I would address this buy making it cheaper to build a car for a certain class, which would make it more affordable for both teams and manufacturers to afford.

Which WRC event is your favorite? Why?
My favorite WRC rally would have to be Finland. You have to have balls to be quick there, but yet still you have to respect the roads.

Your favorite Group B car?
Well I have 2 favorite GRP B cars, and those are the Audi Quattro S1 and the 205 T16 EVO 2.

We’ve all got a rally hero.  Who’s yours?
My favorite drivers are Henri Toivinen and Juha Kankkunen, followed closely by Carlos Sainz.

Do you have a local rally club?  Tell us about it!  (If not, why not?)
We have two rally clubs here in Barbados; those are The Barbados Rally Club and the Barbados Motoring Club. The rally club is the oldest motorsport club in Barbados, founded over 50 years ago!

How often do you get together with other rallyistas to talk shop?
I sometimes do, but I hate to be the one in the crowd that is talking all of the time (lol).

How do you get other gearheads more involved in rally?
I have brought some guys into the team I used to work for and they have moved on to bigger things. The easiest way to get involved is just to show interest, be proactive, and get involved!

Tell us about some people who have made your rally dream a reality.
This is going to be a long list!

Roger Skeete
Brian Eeles
Brett Judd
Phil Morgan
Rob Atkinson
Colwyn Warner
Adrian Linton
Erick Clark
Garry Clarke
Dean Serraro
Tommy Fields
Terry Stamper
There are many more…

Thank someone who inspired you here.
I would have to say Erick Clark… If not for him, I would have never picked up a spanner. He got me into this mess!

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned from your time in the rally community?
My lesson learnt is, never have brand loyalty or put all of your eggs in one basket. Do good work and it will reward you.

Thank you for sharing your unique perspective on rally with us, Damian! Press on regardless!