After getting in touch with registration and finding out that there was a novice course (PERFECT!) we were out there in a flash! Showing up in out "brand X" vehicle (we felt a little out of place with all the MGB's, MG- GT's, MGA's, a Fiat Gordini (cool car!) and some old Jaguar X-types! While they were some of the most friendliest people we have ever met, twin side draghts and point/condensor ignition were all around! (of course i was in my glory while poor Shelley was sitting in the car doing calculations for the first time!) We were fortuneate enough to finish First in novice class that day! Wow! what a cool day we had! Well we had gotten wind of a "West Coast Rally Club" or something from some of the other people in the MG/Jag club, but we had no idea where to look! The next event being the Dogwood Rally, also put on by the MG/Jag club came around. (we entered of course!) and also acheiving the same result (1st Novice again!) We had though to move on to more challenging events.
Internet came to our house. (COOL!) Hey look what I found! West Coast Rally Association website! The Heart of Darkness Rally ('99) is coming up in a couple of weeks! SHELLEY! wanna try something different? Well a couple of weeks later, Me and Shelley had met Bill Westhead, Patrick Richard, Paul Westwick, Budd Stanley, Ian Mcurdy, Martin Wilson, Tony Latham, and a few others yet! Well! What a blast! We had driven in an AWESOME all night event! We Finished 1st in Novice class and 4th overall! We definitely need to do this again! Well, the next event is Coast to Coast Rally on Vancouver Island. A 2 day event! 2 Days of driving! (Holy cow!) After throwing on the snow tires on the MX-6 (the 40 series tires just didn't offer the ground clearance or the gravel durability the snow's offered!) and 2 full size spares, it was off to the Ferry we went. Seeing as it was an early morning start, we had gone over and the Friday and checked out Victoria and the surronding area. We also learned that a hotel is usually cheap for a reason! This one had a set of high traffic railway tracks directly behind it! So after a poor night's sleep, we got to meet Bart, Roy and Glynn at this rally.
One of the things that stuck out the most at this rally was Glynn had mentioned on the pre-run that he had a 'moment'. (what the heck is a moment???) upon which we had found out that he had put his Mazda 323 GTX in the ditch! (What am i getting into????) So off to Port Hardy we went from Nanaimo. Although we had turned in some poor times, (simple novice mistakes!) on the first day, realizing our mistakes, we at least we able to make some "respectable" times on day 2. Hey, can't win them all! But we had an excellant time, the scenery was phenomenal and the varying terrain would make any driver giddy or terrified! After a nice nap on the ferry home, and a long in-depth discussion, it was decided that we need to buy a "dedicated" rally car. After all, we still have to go to work everyday, and the though of being stranded in Timbucktoo for repairs was just not a very palettable thought. At least with a dedicated rally car, we can "abandon ship" and still be able to get to work!
Well after checking out some of the cars available, ther were so many! Toyota Celica all-tracs, Subaru 4wd wagons, Tercel Wagon's (with 4WD of course!) The only propblem, a road worthy version of one of these cars was pretty expensive! Time to look for a "fixer-upper". We found an '87 Toyota GTS Front wheel drive car. the ad stated motor blown,$900 obo. I though tit was worth a look. I got down there and looked at the car. It was in great shape for a Celica! It had a few dings here and there but almost no Rust! I tried starting it, it fired right up, but the BANG!-BANG!-BANG! of death was deafening! So I made him an offer and i towed it to the shop a few hours later. After locating a used engine with reasonably low mileage and haggling a price, ( i didn't know any Toyota wreckers so no deal on this!!!) I had a used motor a couple of days later. After 3-4 days of many late nights,a new clutch, belts and tune up and some minor other items. She fired up for the first time! Since the car was out of the shop, i stripped the old motor and discovered that it had spun a rod bearing. What a fun car! It was comfy and had lots of power! After a couple of weeks of ironing a couple of bugs out of it, it was time to test it out! Totem Rally here we come!
Totem Rally ('99) started in Cache Creek. (to rally people, it is dubbed Crash Creek!) so after a nice solid run up the canyon with no problems, we were feeling very confident with the car. We had discovered that this was the summer sister of The Thunderbird Rally that we had just missed earlier this year. (Heart of Darkness is the next event) . We had also hear what a great event it was, and it was too bad that we had missed it! We won't miss it next year! After having some great fun and some funny scraping noises starting about 2 regulairies from the end, we were ready to call it a first day! We were amazed that they ran these roads in winter! After a short nights sleep,(we had arrived inWilliams lake around 10:30pm, so after a quick drink and unloading the car, I started tearing it apart to find the rocks in the rotor <whew!> put it back togeather and get to bed it was 1:30am!!) Starting out early Sunday morning, it was a reasonabley uneventful day with the only exception of almost running into some Bison! Finishing 6th over all, we were really happy! Things were going really well! Too Well! as we soon found out..........