After the Toyota fiasco as we now call it, the Midnight rally was coming up on Vancouver Island. This would be a good event to get back into rally!. We had decided that this time we were going to go in the ever-faithfull Pontiac Firefly of Shelley's. Over the ferry we went, and see it was a late rally (starting at 10:00 pm) and we were on the 5:00 pm ferry, we just parked somewhere and caught a few "zzz's". Come 10:30pm, we were on our way. With the fog and cold temperatures, a wrong turn here and there was quite frequent! Fortuneately we were not the only one's who made alot of these mistakes. As we were back tracking, we would run into other cars doing the same mistake!(a little more comfort!). It was also while trying to make up a little time from one of these little 'excursion' that we had our first moment. Shelley had warned me that in about 5Km's there was a hairpin left with a !!! (triple caution) at it. To give her a chance to catch up, I told her I would let her know hen we got close to 5 kms. Of course, with trying to make up time, I forgot to advise her of getting close, and forgot about the hairpin left! Thank goodness for small cars that can stop in short distances! After screeching to a stop with the nose in the ditch and touching a log, and 1 back wheel in the air, we counted our blessings and prayed that the car would back out! In reverse we went and out she came! (Small celebration!) And we were off! Lesson learned - don't get carried away trying to make up time or by overdriving your lights in poor conditions! You can't win if you don't finish, and the tow billl back home from the Island would have REALLY put a damper on rallying!
Getting to the last tranist with no further incident. Shelley was WIDE awake still from her first ever cup of coffee the night before, that I slept back to the finish (I drink coffee on a regular enough basis that it doesn't keep me awake for very long) coming back and finishing 6th overall and 3rd in Novice class, we were back on the ferry (the best 2 hour nap i ever had!) and back home. We are DEFINITLEY buying another car! :)
Thunderbird 2000 came and I didn't have a car! A burst of testosterone had prompted me to pull the motor on my MX-6 for "more horsepower" (ALWAYS a good thing ;-) ) and the firefly had no snowtires. (Besides after our moment at Midnight, Shelley said no more rally for her car!) So I hitched a ride with my brother who nice enough to run sweep in his truck. I hopped in with Paul Westwick and ran Checkpoint with him. This was also the first time I was ever in a Pro-rally car! (COOL! Toyota Celica like mine, but Paul's was the turbo All-trac model!) and seeing what T-bird was really about, I was really upset that I didn't enter! After a couple days of some extreme weather and watching everyone have fun on the ice track, T-bird was a not to miss event!
Shortly after T-bird, I had fallen back on to the list of cars that we were contemplating as rally cars. After the Toyota, I discovered that Toyota parts are not cheap - new or used. Shelley has used Gary's Autowrecking for many years for her Firefly. Also after talking to Scott Trinder in the rally club, he had a swift GTi as well. Scott told me that these cars were cheap, fast, and a lot of fun. So based on this, we decided to go with a Suzuki Swift Gti. After a couple of months of searching. I found one, sure it was a little rough around the edges, but the body had no rust, and it ran bad enough to pick it up cheap. $1600 later Iwas the proud owner. After spending the next 3 weeks poking and prodding the car. I discovered the rear brakes were shot, a driveshaft was shot, and a full pull tune up had gotten this little car is reasonably good running order.
The club was looking for someone to take over the Golddigger rally. I thought since I got a good healthy dose of what is involved with setting up a rally with Paul, Me and Shelley would give it an attempt! Also what better time to test drive the Suzuki! After running 2 pre-runs and the event up in Pemberton, I was happy to certify this thing as road worthy! Totem was coming up, So this was a good time to test it in competion!!
Totem 2000 came and it was a beautiful drive through the Okanagan! I had just finished buiding my rally light rack and had the car stripped down to the bare nothings for roll cage install. I am telling you, that is a cold car with no interior!!! The heat just got sucked right out through the metal! After about 1/2 hour into the night and having the full range of condles burning, the rally light fuse popped. We were left with the stock headlamps. No big deal. Just couldn't see some of the glare ice!!! After a few close 'moments' in Penticton and around Big White ski resort, we finished in Kelowna for the night. After another good day of rally, we headed for home none the worse for wear. 2nd lesson learned. Some interior in cold weather makes a HUGE difference in comfort and there is NO substitute for testing vs running in an event. ( I had run the car with the rally lights for a good 45mins out in Chilliwack where there was no traffic).
Thunderbird 2001 - Snow, ice and fear. The reputation of this rally precedes itself. We were all set up and ready to go from Totem, and helping Paul CP last year, I knew it was going to be COLD! We actually wore our firesuits for warmth! Small car - small heater!But thank goodness for large snowbanks! This was a learning experience and a half! We put this little car of ours into not only onesnow bank, but four over the course of 2 days! We had managed to tag the driver side, passenger side (X2) and the rear on snowbanks. Fortunatly the second time on the passenger side we had gone into the snow bank, we were severely hung up and required a tow out. (We were on an ice track + no studs + heavy throttle + way too much momentum = severe high centre!!!!;-) ) We finished in the middle of the pack (58 cars!!) with the only damage being a torn mudflap!