Big offs hurt. Physically sometimes, confidence wise always. The only way to overcome is to get back on stage at the first chance.

Following our Olympus wreck, our crew chief, Mark Richard, and pro-from-Dover (Wales), Graham “Whiskers” Evans, worked their tails off to get us back in the game for Oregon. The damage was extensive, but with new glass, fenders, quarter panels, hood, roof, floor, motor mount, lights, bumper, cage bars and hundreds of hours of work we were ready.

Despite a three week time crunch, Mr. Mark and Whiskers got us back in the game a full week before Oregon, giving us a chance to run Nemadji Trail in Minnesota as a shakedown. As a tulip instead of stage note based regional, Dillon and I didn’t fully open the car up. We just wanted to make sure the car was mechanically sound and that we were focused and ready to push out west when it would count.

The road was good, but my odometer didn’t work, causing me to sit through most of the stage and look at trees. Dillon was bored too, wanting to open up the throttle on every corner. A new-found-since-Washington sense of maturity kept his foot light on the gas and the Focus on the road. We placed first in class, but would have preferred to have been fighting for an overall win. It was a successful shakedown none the less.

Before heading to Oregon we also got a new wrap. The freshest of Terra Firma wraps in fact. The only requirement for the design was more orange, and more is what we got.

With a successful shakedown and a clean new look we were ready to push. We recce’d with purpose, looking for any opportunity to gain a second. We stayed calm, clear and ready.

Thursday press activities went well. Pioneer square was a busy environment filled with Rally fans, interested locals and street kids. Practice runs at Portland International Raceway were key, allowing Dillon to fully push the car for the first time since sailing off a mountain three weeks prior. The only bit of drama through the day was a busted drive belt on the car, which was better than on race day.

Friday started well. PIR stages aren’t at all like the forest, but they have their merits. Lots of fans, a mixed surface and a fun atmosphere. We pushed within reason but kept focused. Oregon Trail can’t be won on day one, but it sure as heck can be lost. We took a few stages, lost a few seconds on others, but left the day with a 3.7 second lead. Although small, any amount of a lead helped to boost our confidence.

Saturday morning followed the good mood of PIR. Stages five and six were both solid wins, each putting another forty five seconds between us and our competition. We decided to give the car a break and maintained our pace while our competition sped up on repeat runs over seven and eight. We kept a decent lead heading to the prairie stages near Dufur. This is where the balance tipped out of our favor.

Dust. Dust is the only word to describe the remainder of our event. Everyone had to contend with hanging dust from other cars, we were possibly the only car that couldn’t see out of our own windows. During the repairs from Olympus several holes were missed in the Focus’ chassis. There just wasn’t the time needed to fill them. Over each stage the dust in the car got worse and worse. Dillon was able to keep his mind on the game, but I could hardly choke out stage notes while I coughed up black mucus. We wore tea towels like makeshift bandito masks for the final leg, but they became more of a hindrance to me than a help.

After Stage 11 I could hardly think. I was coughing and hacking, and the trapped moisture in my face mask was causing me to hyperventilate. I missed a transit call, causing us to get hit with a 30 second penalty. The final stage didn’t go so well either. Although we kept pace with the competition, I had to bail at the finish line to keep from up-chucking in the car.

We were down by 1.2 natural seconds heading into Sunday, 31.2 counting our penalty. The only option was to do our best on the first loop. Over the first leg we eked a few seconds back from our competition, despite the car misfiring for several miles following a water crossing. With one loop of three stages left we had to make our presence known.

Stage 13 was ours. It’s where the event turned. The notes were perfect, my calls were perfect, Dillon’s drive was perfect. We won the stage and took the lead back. Our main competition also suffered some major issues, giving us a wide berth through the final two stages. Our new found maturity came into play again.

Not wanting to risk another Olympus style last minute error we didn’t risk anything on the penultimate stage. Our only goal was to finish. When we crossed the final time control we had it, we won Oregon Trail by two minutes and MaxAttack! by one. Olympus’ bad juju was behind us.

Being the determined rally fans that we are, we weren’t going to let that stop us from enjoying the event as if we were there. So we created this uber-Twitter-rally-mashup which allows the user to quickly search popular #hastags for various rally series. Be sure to check it out and make sure you’re tagging your tweets!

Using these rally feeds, we found out big news such as ACP’s engine catastrophe (Watch the video on the left), Pastrana’s broken link and flat tire at the Super Special, and Ken Block’s narrow win over Antoine. We were also able to hear from competitors, service crew, and Rally America official news right as it happened.

We’re happy to report that Dillon Van Way and Ben Slocum of Team 600 scored 2nd place in 2wd in their Ford Focus after a consistently fast weekend. They were beat by the frighteningly-fast 1990 VW of Duplessis/Woods and were trailed by Conley/Rudolph.

Other interesting things from the weekend

• Privateers William Bacon and Peter Watt in a 2006 EVO proved that Sno*Drift was no joke, making their second podium in as many rallies.
• Because of Pastrana’s mechanical DNF, the podium was Ford, Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi which was the first National Podium without a Subaru in 5 years, according to the rally gurus @WorldRallySport
• http://www.stagetrack.net/ was launched and was supposedly tracking the rally somehow, and more specifically Dave Mirra. We’re not sure if it’s meant for organizers, competitors, fans, or somewhere in-between, but we like the potential.
• The weather was nice for once. Now we’re really mad we didn’t make it.
• Hanson and Hanson in their ’07 STI had a dominating performance taking 1st place in the SP class for the 2nd rally in a row.
• Most of all, I think we missed The Roadhouse, hungover SuperSonic burritos and awesome Ozark sightings.

For more pics & vids than you can shake a sway bar at, click here:  http://www.100aw.org/media.html

Unexpectations isn’t a word, but I just used it and you knew what I meant. So now YOU just had an unexpectation. You just learned a new nonword. You unexpected that. Ok, let’s get back on stage.

These podium changes are what rally is all about in my opinion. Unexpectations. Yes, of course it’s a shame when mechanical issues and offs happen, but it’s all part of the sport! It made for such an exciting event. I can’t remember the last time there was such a buzz in the service park because of the leader board shake ups!

There were other unexpectations too. Like everytime I saw someone wearing a snowmobile jacket, stone-washed jeans & sporting a mullet, I was expecting to hear a Minnesota or Yooper accent. (I’m from the midwest, I can stereotype) But what came out of their mouth was French. That blew my mind about 13 times before I got used to it.

WorldRallySport.com caught up with the Zedril’s during the 2nd service. Hear what they had to say below.

Another unexpectation is what a difference the tires made. Some teams had “tractionized” tires which gave loads of grip on the ice. Snow tires are tractionized by running them on a roller filled with pins for a period of time which creates micro-abrasions throughout the treadblocks. This creates a gummy tire which can stick to the ice. The drawback to this is they burn up very, very quickly and can be quite squirmish and unstable on sealed surfaces.

Zedril Rallysport unfortunately didn’t have the tractionized tires. They were holding 2nd in G2 until stage 4 where the DUBÉ/LAVIGNE 1990 VW Golf passed them. From stage 4 to 13 all was well until the Zedrils Lancer came to a ‘Left 4 Over Crest’ and went over a snowbank losing minutes. This dropped the #708 Zedrils from 16th to 22nd, but despite the off were able to stay in 3rd in G2 on stage 13. The 95 VW Golf of hotshoe NICHOLS/SCHENK took home the G2 overall win by 5 minutes.

If you haven’t been to this rally, you need to go next year. The locals are awesome, scenery is epic, and the stage roads are some of the best I’ve driven in North America.

Terra Firma was uber-excited for the event because it was:

1. The first RA event of the season
2. All THREE of the Terra Firma teams would be racing
3. We were just as excited as any other fan boy to see and hear Ken Block’s new Fiesta.

Let’s cut to the chase. By event’s end, Jan & Jody of Zedril Rally Sport, had driven their Lancer to a 2nd place podium finish in Friday’s Sno Regional G2 class. Even better than that result was Saturday’s finish where the Zedril brothers achieved 3rd overall in the Drift Regional and 1st in G2! Congrats guys. The #708 also achieved 3rd place in the Sno*Attack 2 Wheel Drive Challenge, which pits all 2wd competitors against each other for a wad of cash, regardless of class. The Zedrils continue to amaze everyone with their consistent podiums! The brothers are heading to Perce Neige next weekend so we’ll see them (and you!) there!

the best shape and preparation its ever been inDillon Van Way, Ben Slocum and Team 600 took home 3rd overall in 2wd National, and 5th in the Sno*Attack 2 Wheel Drive Challenge. Co-Driver Ben “The Pirate” Slocum reported the Focus to be in “the best shape and preparation its ever been in.” Team 600′s had an impressive result considering all the talented 2wd drivers, and it being Dillon’s 2nd time out on snow and ice. Dillon told us his plan for the event was to be mistake free and wait for others to slip up. It looked like it worked for the most part, however a few more people needed to slip! Congrats guys, we’ll see you at 100 Acre Wood in Missouri!

Paul Koll and Tim Knorr of Barefoot Racing had an admittedly tough weekend. A new Japanese spec, high-compression 16v motor was sourced and installed in the Golf with custom Mega Squirt fuel management days before the event. The team got it running ‘well enough’ just hours before the race start. Next, the recce car blew a water pump. Friday plauged the team with popped tires and spending 40 minutes dislodging the car from a ditch.

On Saturday the team was “Hell bent on doing well and making up for the unfortunate Friday events.” The team pushed hard from stage one until they blew another tire! Hell bent on doing well and making up for the unfortunate Friday events This caused the #744 Golf to fall down the leaderboard, but a late push gained Koll/Knorr 1.75 minutes and clinched 3rd place in the G2 Drift Regional! Barefoot racing took the “Press On Regardless” attitude to heart this weekend. You wouldn’t know they were having problems by the constant laughing you hear coming from their service area.

Also be sure to check out Barefoot Racing’s Official Report on their blog.

TERRA FIRMA

Grab the .zip file below to download the whole set. Or click each background to save individual files.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Once you click there, you’ll want to go into the “preferences” section and set the timezone. There will be dead spots, but, the Zedril’s location will be updated whenever there is a significant change in speed or direction and are within 100km of a repeater/tower.

The Zedrils have typically only given this information to family and friends, but they agreed to share it with us so we could track their progress through-out the weekend and share it with the rally community.

the rally community is like family anyway, so, please post the tracking on terrafirmaclothing.com, I’m sure a lot of people will find it cool

We’d have to agree. I’m sure teams use APRS to monitor their drivers, but as far as I know, there isn’t a team that made it public. That’s just awesome.

In regards to the conditions, the Zedrils had the following to say:

“As for PFR (Pacific Forest Rally), the weather is going to be nasty and we’ve taken every single tire we own…Nokian ice tires, A034 snow tires, soft gravels, hard gravels, etc.”

The Zedrils said they are planning to push hard right from the start (as long as traction is there) and gain a lead right away, similar to what they did at Defi. However, for this event, they said they have no choice but to push.

Zedril Rally Sport basically has the Group2 title wrapped-up; however, it’s the 2wd national championship that is up for grabs. It gets a little confusing here, so bare with us. The Zedril’s DNF at Rocky really hurt their title chase because only 2 events from the East and 2 events from thehowever, it’s the 2wd national championship that is up for grabs West count towards the 2wd championship and seeing they DNF’d Rocky (and only earned 1-point at the event), PFR will be the only real western point scoring event for Zedril Rally Sport. In a nutshell, Jan & Jody HAVE to finish 1st or 2nd in 2wd and Eric/Leanne have to finish behind them. Assuming we’re correct on our math, if Zedrils finish 2nd and Eric/Leanne finish 3rd, there will be a tie in points; however, the Zedril’s will win based on the number of wins they have compiled…that is, unless Eric/Leanne decide to go to Tall Pines, which, they’ve already stated they will not be attending. Although they are the only other team that can grab the title away from the Zedrils, the competition will be intense with Zebe/Tomasz and their G5 monster, and also Gord Olsen who is a previous Group2 champion himself.

With only 15 km of racing on Friday in the Montreal area, competitors were pushing hard to keep or gain positions and were all seconds apart on the leaderboard. Jan & Jody Zedril’s Mitsubishi had a 9 second lead over the Suzuki of Kocandrle\Brandt after stage one and grew that margin to 24 seconds by the end of the night.

Ken Block in his freshly-built uber-custom Mk2 Escort went off with a mechanical issue (wheel stopped when it hit the fender or “wheel bite”), then had to retire after continuing problems including a bad fuel pump. Here is a video of his off on stage 1

Update Ken Block in car video from above crash.

Overall leaders after day one are Richard/Ockwell, L’Estage/Richard and Comrie-Picard (ACP)/Durant.

Competitors without cars to repair had a good chance of getting, at most, 6 hours of sleep before the start of the grueling day 2 bsed out of Montpellier. The longest stages of the rally are in the morning so teams have to bring their A-game, because the afternoon stages are shorter and therefore harder to make up lost time.

Chevreuil, the third stage of day two, is nearly as long as the combined competitive stage total from day 1. After this stage, the Zedrils Lancer is holding its 2wd lead and have increased their margin over the Switf of Kocandrle\Brandt to over one minute, and nearly 4 minutes over trailing 3rd place 2wd team of Grochowski/Junnila in the VW Golf.

Check out the Zedril’s team page here

Image from http://www.flatovercrest.com

Update

11:00 EST:

An unofficial source (@reachdean) says Pat Richard is out with a broken gearbox, ACP is out with oil system issues, and Leo had brake problems and lost a lot of time. #cdnrally

The results after stage 12 show that Richard and ACP are out of the rally

The race for 2wd continues, as Grochowski/Junnila in the VW post a stage win on EC 12, Montpellier. However, their winning margin was a matter of seconds, which won’t take much out of their defecit to the Zedril’s which is now over 7 minutes.

Standings after stage 12 for overall: L’Estage/Richard, Henderson/Murphy (-2:45), Henderson/Murphy (-4:00). If L’Estage can keep his wits about him and avoid mechanical issues, it looks like the rally could be his. The same goes for the Zedrils going for the 2wd win!

Check out the Zedril’s team page here

After Stage 13, the song remains the same. L’Estage, Hendersen, Besner are the top 3 overall. However the 2wd race for 2nd place just got MUCH tighter. For an unknown reason, Kocandrle/Brandt in the Suzuki posted a 9:00 time (must have been stuck on stage for a while) for Stage 12, losing over 6 minutes. This dropped them to 3rd in 2wd giving up 2nd place to Grochowski/Junnila in the Golf. Because of what happened on stage 12, Kocandrle/Brandt is now 24 seconds behind Grochowski/Junnila.

This battle for 2nd place in 2wd will be the battle to watch as the rally continues!

Results have been posted for stages 14-17. The 2nd place battle for 2wd continues with Kocandrle reeling in Grochowski, stage by stage. On stage 14, Kocandrle had Grochowski by 1 second, and on stage 15 they had the exact same time of 2:28! (+3 sec on Zedrils) Kocandrle’s Suzuki gained 10 seconds on the Golf of Grochowski on stage 16, and another 8 seconds on stage 17, bringing him within FIVE seconds of the VW. There are four stages left, and it should be an amazing race to the finish!

Zedril Rally Sport’s Lancer doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all. They blazing the fastest 2wd times stage after stage, opening their lead to over 9 minutes.

After Jarnac Est (1), the top 3 overall haven’t changed much. L’Estage isn’t slowing down, and has increased his window to a 3 minute lead over Hendersen, and 4 minutes over Besner.

Update

5:13 EST:

Unofficial report from @cwoods87: No Besner on stage ss20 #cdnrally

That means 3rd place is up for grabs for either Losier (+6:37) or Hobbs (+6:41) or even Urlichich (+6:47)

L’Estage Wins at Rallye Defi!!

L’Estage/Richard were able to hold their lead for the remainder of Day 2, with Henderson/Murphey coming in 2nd overall. It was looking like Besner was going to take 3rd, until he retired with turbo problems after stage 19. Hobbs/Tremblay were able to take 3rd place overall as a result.

The Zedril’s ran an AMAZING event and held the lead in 2wd from beginning to end. Kocandrle/Brandt in the Suzuki Swift slowly but steadily were catching Grochowski/Junnila’s VW Golf and were eventually able to take 2nd place from them on stage 19.

In the PS class, Wright/Wright took 1st, followed by Deans/Burke and Ouellette/Ouellette. In PGT, it appears Schmidtke/Vokes were the only to finish, giving them 1st.

What a 2wd battle today! Time to go celebrate for the Zedril’s win!! Great job guys!

Check out the Zedril’s team page here

On top of that, Paul is locked in a tight battle for the Rally America Central Region Championship with Chad Eixenburger and Chris Greenhouse. A good finish here would move the Barefoot Racing team up in the standings heading into the final rally of the season, LSPR, and could earn the team some welcomed MaxAttack! money.

Thursday kicked off with a few runs down the practice stage to get accustomed to the notes and get linked up with Heath. The first few runs were slow, but Paul and Heath were meshing well, so everything was going well. However, luck was on Barefoot Racing’s sideOn the last pass they decided to push a bit to feel out the grip and try to find the limit. They found the limit on a right six long, tightens resulting in a “puckering fishtail” that ended with one broken finish board and almost ended the rally, before it even began. However, luck was on their side and the #744 VW Golf was promptly loaded back on the trailer and the team was headed to Bemidji to get ready for the real deal.

Friday started late in the afternoon, leaving plenty of time to look over the car, freak out about problems that didn’t really exist, and prepare for the long night ahead. The weather was uncommonly cool and clear which brought a huge turnout to the Bemidji Speedway. The Barefoot Racing team kicked off the event with a decent run around the super special stage with no problems. Off to the forest.

The first real stages were dusty but Paul and Heath were determined to push hard right from the get-go in hopes of staying within grasp of the top guys, being close enough to capitalize on any mistakes.

Paul felt like he was able to push hard because of his H30 Polarized sunglasses that really cut through the glare of the dust, illuminated by the evening sun.

However, Paul didn’t have the confidence to run flat-out in some of the really fast sections, partly because of a poor ECU choice leaving the engine down on power and which didn’t allow the D-Squared VW Golf to run to its full potential.

SS2 In-car

At the first service, the Barefoot Racing crew was sitting in 5th in class and a ways out of the paying places in MaxAttack! but sitting in a good position to start picking off a few leading cars. Len worked hard to check over the car and change the ECU. He had us off for the night stages without a hitch. Paul and Heath were excited to get back out and start clawing back the time they lost during the day. The first stage after service was a long 22 miles and would surely be the deciding factor in Friday’s regional rally. The first stage after service was a long 22 miles
and would surely be the deciding factorRunning hard, Paul and Heath had a miss-communication leading to a missed junction and a little ditch diving, but luckily nothing was hiding in the long grass and they came out unscathed. A little shaken up, Paul unintentionally backed off a bit and finished the stage off the pace. The last two Friday stages were much better and the Barefoot Racing duo were back at a more competitive pace, finishing the night 3rd in class after a blown axle by Chad Eixenburger and Ben Slocum, and an unfortunate false start penalty for Chris Greenhouse and Don DeRose.

SS6 In-car

SS7 In-car

SS8 In-car

Barefoot Racing Spectator Video Clips

Saturday began at the Bemidji Tech College where Barefoot Racing was able to meet up with the Terra Firma crew and pick up some sweet t-shirts and swag. Terra Firma is a new clothing line developed by a few long-time rally fans, designing original rally apparel and posters. After chatting with fans and a little lunch, the crew was off to begin the second day and hopefully improve their standings in MaxAttack!

Heath pushed Paul hard right from the start and the duo felt like they were running much faster than the first day. As the day progressed, more confidence lead to even more speed as Paul was able to stay flat out in the fast 5’s and 6’s. The car was running perfect, and at the first service little was needed but pounding out dents in the rims from the unforgiving rocks, a signature of the Northern Minnesota roads.

SS15 In-car

The second leg of day two was fast and flowing and the Barefoot Racing crew ran hard having a lot of fun running to 3rd in class behind the Canadian team of brothers Jan and Jody Zedril and Chris Greenhouse and Don DeRose. forcing him to shift without the use of the clutch most of the dayThe Zedrils lead both regional rallies from start to finish and Paul was never concerned with trying to keep up with them. It was a little frustrating that they could not keep pace with Chris Greenhouse’s ailing Plymouth Neon that was suffering from a faulty clutch cable, forcing him to shift without the use of the clutch most of the day. Chris and Don must have been pushing hard and put in an amazing drive to put the troublesome car on the podium.

At the finish, Barefoot Racing was able to peddle the VW to two 3rd place finishes in class, a 5th overall on Saturday, and 6th in MaxAttack!, just one place out of the money, again. Barefoot Racing closed the championship gap to a mere 58 points out of first and with 100 points available at LSPR, they are in a good position heading into the last race of the season. Len did an awesome job crewing by himself all weekend and allowed Paul and Heath to focus on driving. Heath, again, did an amazing job co-driving, helping to put Barefoot Racing on the podium.

Thanks to Doug of DavenportRacingUSA.com for graciously lending the team a Hidja 300 Rally Computer, the thing was AWESOME. Thanks again to H30 Polarized sunglasses for their help, the glasses were really amazing, cutting through the sun and dust of the Ojibwe Forest stages. Thanks to Eric and Bill of Terra Firma for their support and supplying the crew with fresh threads for the awards banquet. Barefoot Racing is excited to see this new company blowup in the future. Thanks to Tony of DevneyDesigns.com for painstakingly maintaining the website and going above and beyond, attending the rally to take photographs and be part of the camaraderie. And, as always, thanks to all the great workers and the organizers who make this sport possible.

See you all in 5 weeks for the Lake Superior Pro Rally!

Links and Credits

barefoot-racing.com
devneydesigns.com
H30Polarized.com Use Promo Code “Barefoot 09″ for $10 off!
http://www.davenportracingusa.com/

]]> http://www.terrafirmaclothing.com/team/barefoot-racing-wrap-up/feed/ 0 http://www.terrafirmaclothing.com/team/tf-zedril-rally-sport/ http://www.terrafirmaclothing.com/team/tf-zedril-rally-sport/#comments Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:10:33 +0000 terrafirma http://www.terrafirmaclothing.com/?p=289 Terra Firma is very excited to announce they just secured a sponsorship of Zedril Rally Sport today. Hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba, brothers Jan and Jody Zedril consider the sport of rally the only thing that really matters.

 

…rally is it for us and is all we have a desire for

Zedril Rally Sport has been campaigning a 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer RS for the last few years, and has stepped-up from the production class to the heavily contested G2 class. The car is now running an LSD, a 2008 4B11 powerplant and many other trick racing components to give them an edge on their competition. They are currently the 2009 Canadian National 2wd points’ leader, and will be competing for the final round of the Max Attack! Triple Crown this weekend at Ojibwe, which they consider their “home” event.

Check out their team page here for more info and a great story of their past results, and their future goals. (DAKAR!!)

Credits

Original title photo of #708 by White Knuckle Photography
Above photo courtesy of Zedril Rally Sport

]]> http://www.terrafirmaclothing.com/team/tf-zedril-rally-sport/feed/ 2 http://www.terrafirmaclothing.com/team/tf-barefoot-racing/ http://www.terrafirmaclothing.com/team/tf-barefoot-racing/#comments Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:17:00 +0000 terrafirma http://www.terrafirmaclothing.com/?p=281 Terra Firma is Totally Freakin’ jonesin’ about the partnership they just struck with Barefoot Racing #744!  Terra Firma will be backing the Barefoot Racing VW Golf for the remaining rallies of 2009.

Driver Paul Koll and Co-Driver Heath Nunnemacher of Barefoot Racing are in the hunt for both a Central Region G2 and Overall podium finish this year. The MaxAttack! Triple Crown Race Series has it’s final race this weekend, with Barefoot Racing in contest for a podium and some cold, hard, cash!

The Barefoot Racing crew knows they have to prepare a perfect car

Check out their team page: 744

Official website: barefoot-racing.com

Credits

Team photo by Devney Designs
Original title photo of #744 by ComicOzzie Rally Sport Photography

]]> http://www.terrafirmaclothing.com/team/tf-barefoot-racing/feed/ 0