We had an eventfull trip to Calgary for an exhibition at the Telus Convention Centre. Believe me, that trip is brutal. The road is so flat and straight, it's a feat to not fall asleep!. Ken and Mark from Rrun racing had left shortly before us and we were catching up when we passed them stoppped on the side of the road! A rock had bounced over the Jeep towing the Rrun racing Subaru Legacy and smashed the rear window out! Good thing it was Wednesday and Mark was able to get a window installed before raceday on Friday. After the exhibition and wandering around Calgary for a bit, we headed back to Edmonton. We came back down on Friday for the first stage at the Blackfoot motorcycle park. After a hectic few hours of registering and last minute adjustments, we were ready to go! Being our first national rally we were really excited! Adrenaline pumping we were off on our first stage. Starting in reverse order, we were 2nd car out. As we were coming to the end of the first stage (and catching some air!!) we were waved to slow down, Penny Zuk in the VW GTi ahead of us missed the last corner and rolled down an embankment! We finished the stage and watched the 'Big Boys' go at it and show us how it's done! Between stages, it was decided by the officials to water the track down to keep the dust minimal. This was cool as the dust was blinding and not much wind to clear it.
As we lined up for the second go (I was shaking so bad from the adrenaline that I had to get Shelley help me put my seat belt on!) I was ready to go a little faster after taking it easy the first time around, and being second car out again, i wanted to show what this little suzuki can do! As we were coming up to the first haipin left, I noticed that it was a little bit slippy since the track had been watered down,(the first lap was SUPER grippy! I had a hard time just spinning the wheels!)Even better! I can get a bit of a slide going now! so i went into the first corner pretty hot, the ruts from the open class cars held me strong! As I exited the corner I had punched it after a picture perfect slide! After 2-3 seconds of starting to pull out of the corner, the car stopped dead! I thought maybe the tranny had popped out of gear, as it has done in the past on very rough sections, not a big deal, put it in gear and go! 1st gear - Nothing! 2nd gear - Nothing! Reverse - Nothing! Oh oh! Shelley is telling me to put it in gear as she thought it had popped out of gear! I had to break it to her that it IS in gear! After pushing it off to the side and seeing it bleed behind as we pushed it, I knew it was bad. Ken was nice enough to tow us back to the hotel where we had seen a 2" crack in the tranny housing. After trying frantically to get another tranny (to no avail) it was terminal. We had to drop out. Our first Pro-rally only to go out on the second stage!. Given the circumstances, Shelley went off to spectate and I had Volenteered to serivce for Mark and Ken again. Thankfully for the stellar driving of Mark, His Subaru finsihed unscathed and they offered to tow our stricken Swift back to Vancouver! After getting home and taking it apart, it was discovered that the differnetial had exploded by what appeared to be a shock load. I had spun through the slippy mud to the ultra grippy dirt in the corner and it was too much for the car to handle. We will have to try to be more wary of that in the future!
After installing another tranny, we were ready to go again! We were helping out at Mountain Trials rally, so I was able to 'excersise' the car to make sure nothing else had come loose! After coming home unscathed, it was time to prepeare for Pacific Forest! This time out taking the extra time to rent a trailer, we towed the car up to Cache Creek for PFR. After teching and a good day of rallying, we finished 5th overall and 1st in Novice class! With the exception of wildlife venturing on the road on the last stage, (the avoidance maneuver to miss the cow slashed a valve stem on the rear tire) Lucky for us that it was a slow leak and didn't discover the flat until the next day on the trailer.
The car is still in service, due to a scheduling conflicts this year, the car is going to be primarily used for local TSD rallies and have some upgrades down for the next rally season! Thanks to our sponsors that helped us out!. We will be back to Spend Our Last Dollar racing!