Terra Firma » Rally America

The Road to Oregon

terrafirma — Fri, 28 May 2010 02:53:35 +0000

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.

100 Acre Wood: Wrap Up

terrafirma — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:30:50 +0000

Unfortunately for Terra Firma, and Terra Firma fans, we didn’t make it to 100 Acre Wood because of a series of unfortunate events which included separated shoulders and broken ribs.

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.

@WorldRallySport caught up with Team 600′s @MrVanWay at Day 1 service at 100 Acre Wood.

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

Credits

Post & Background Image: University of Texas Libraries
Article Photos: World Rally Sport

Sno*Drift: Wrap Up

terrafirma — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:00:54 +0000

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

The first RA event of the season
All THREE of the Terra Firma teams would be racing
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

On day one, the first thing we did was stop by the HQ to donate some TF gear to the worker raffle. If you haven’t volunteered to work at a rally, you NEED to! It’s the best way to get closer to the action, cars, drivers and learn how rallies work. Also, there’s a good chance you’ll go home with a shirt, hat, and some other goodies. The Best part might be the free warm meals each day! (Sign up to work at 100 Acre Wood next month)

Next we set up at the Parc Expose, where all the rally cars are parked in downtown Lewiston, MI. This is the place to go to see all the cars at once and get some autographs from the drivers.

After we tore down our booth for the day, we set off into the dark & cold abyss to catch a night stage. The anticipation of Ken Block & the new Monster World Rally Team’s Ford Fiesta ripping around the hairpin reminded me of the excited school-boy feeling I had at my first rally. Check out the video to the right I caught of Ken ripping through the corner like somehow he wasn’t on glare ice. The video isn’t great, but that audio sure is.

On Saturday, we set up at the Parc Expose, Hungry 5 Spectator Stage, both super specials, and the final service point. Rally America is doing a great job at getting super specials at most National Events, which allows spectators to see the cars race an entire (short) stage while eating some refreshments and picking up some rally merchandise. There were even buses to cart spectators from nearby towns of Lewiston and Atlanta for a the same price as a footlong from Subway.

It was great to meet some new rally fans, Twitter friends, and old friends. We can’t wait for what’s ahead this season! Check out our 2010 preview.

Thanks to Rally America for putting on a great event, all the volunteer workers, and all the people we saw rockin’ Terra Firma gear throughout the weekend!

See you at Perce Neige and 100 Acre Wood!

Credits

Post & Article Photos: World Rally Sport
Team #600 Photo: Jay Luikart

LSPR: Wrap Up

terrafirma — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:00:35 +0000

Lake Superior Pro Rally (LSPR) 2009 will be a race to remember. That’s what we said last Wednesday. Yet somehow it all went by so fast, I hardly remember anything, remember? Luckily we had our cameras with to capture our behind-the-scenes craziness.

We have to apologize for the lack of live coverage this weekend. We hope you were able to find it elsewhere.

It wasn’t because we didn’t want to, or felt lazy. It was mainly because of lack of cell service or wireless ANYWHERE, and also mainly because we were talking to so many people and selling our new products and also mainly because, well, you’ll see in the pictures. Things got a lil’ nuts both nights. Luckily, other rally coverage experts such as World Rally Sport were there to capture the event in greater detail.

Team

Terra Firma had two cars competing in this years Lake Superior Pro Rally so we were, as usual, very excited.

#600: First off, we had Dillon Van Way and Ben “The Pirate” Slocum. Arriving after one of the best displays of the Press On Regardless motto that the rally community has seen in years (See Rally Colorado: day 2). Their car may be broken, but definitely not their spirits. Coming into the rally, all Van Way needed was 1 point, which he easily nabbed, to place first in the National 2WD Championship Season. Not bad for the youngsters rookie year.

#744: Also racing this weekend was the #744 Barefoot racing car driven by none other Paul Koll and co-driven by Timothy Knorr. These guys fought hard and finished the weekend in 2nd place behind Chris Greenhouse and Don DeRose.

Photos

Here are some pics from Anthony Devney. A full event gallery can also be seen online. We urge you to check it out, as well as past events, at his website: D Squared

Check out our gallery of LSPR behind-the-scenes action.

Videos

I was at LSPR this weekend, filming for two great teams. I put together this little ditty using a few clips that didn’t make the initial cut on those projects. It’s about a minuteHere’s a wicked video, amazingly posted a day after the event. Whipped into shape by driver, designer and all around devoted rally fan. Matt Johnston. I can’t wait to see the rest. Here’s what he said about it.

Terra Firma News

The event went really well for Terra Firma. We had a lot of fans and competitors come and introduce themselves to us. If we were mutually lucky, they walked away with some fresh gear, and we learned something from them.

We also launched a few new shirts designs / re-designs and garment options. Be sure to check out the shop to see for yourselves.

Credits

Header Photo: Anthony Devney of D Squared

Photos by: ComicOzzie

LSPR: Preview

terrafirma — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:41:13 +0000

Lake Superior Pro Rally (LSPR) 2009 will be a race to remember. The traditional fall colors seen at LSPR will be muted by snow this year; something rare at LSPR. Word on the street is, the last time there was this much snow on the ground at this event, was in 1982. Correct us if we’re wrong, but that’s a long time.

Photo from jamesbialas via specialstage.com

What we’re looking forward to

ONE. Who is going to get 2nd and 3rd in the overall points race? K.Bizzles? A-man? ACP? They’re all within striking distance of 2nd and 3rd depending on how they finish. Throw L’Estage into the street-fight, and standings will mean even more to these gents. Pas-T has had the championship secured for what seems like forever, so we’re just pleading with him to throw-down some spectacular drifts at every spectator corner. I’m a Block fan, so I’m hoping he gets 2nd, and doesn’t ball it up again. Hopefully the “Solberg Effect” allows him to keep the pace without offing it.

TWO. G2 Central Regional Championship: Our boy Paul Koll of Barefoot Racing is only 25 points behind 2nd place Chad Eixenbergersonschwartzberg. In the regional events, teams can score a max of 60 points each day, so anything can happen here. Matt Bushore could also catch up if all others have epic fails.

THREE. DVW needs ONE point. This one precious point will secure his national 2wd championship in his ROOKIE season! Check out their awesome spectator guide below. It’s really all you need for the rally.

FOUR. The LSPR Experience. An LSPR virgin might think otherwise, but Houghton/Hancock, MI, eh, is just an epic area for a rally for a number of reasons. First is the scenery. You’ll see. Second is the scenery. You’ll see. Third is the downtown ‘experience.’ There are some great eats down there, and also a great nightlife when the rally (or school) is in town. Still don’t believe me? Well I point to Ex-zip-it A, the LSPR 5-PAGE DINING GUIDE I’m pretty sure other rallies can’t claim a dining guide to their name. Correct me if I’m wrong. I’ve only been to LSPR. kidding.

FIVE. The Delaware Delta. The Delaware Delta is a short stage on day 2 which is often run 2 or 3 times in various directions. It is the most famous spectating spot for the weekend because of it’s high visibility and amazing action. Here’s my 6th year anniversary intro to rally in 2003. Keep in mind I imported this off of a FILM video camera, on a mac with OS 10.0, with iMovie v.-1.0. Just watch for those awesome transitions.

Gary Grahn sent us this pic of the prepped National Guard car ready for action. Driver Mark Fox is in the running for a rookie of the year title. Gary is the crew chief for White Oak Rally, as well as the White Frog Entertainment STi. He’ll have his hands full. Good luck to Gary and both teams!

SIX. New Terra Firma Gear. Last but definitely not least, we’ll have some new designs at the event. Shortly after, said designs will be online. We’re looking forward to hearing and seeing what ya’ll think of our new stylings.

Follow #ra9 on Twitter and check back on our site for updates, photos and videos.

Useful Links

Team 600 Spectator Guide

Colorado: Day 2

terrafirma — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 15:49:36 +0000

Well here we are at the second and final day of Rally Colorado. We’ve had ups, we’ve had downs, but most importantly is that we all had fun racing, spectating and meeting tons of new people.

Information

Travis Pastrana has dropped into 8th place overall due to penalties on the last stage of day 1 (SS10).

John Conley is starting the day in 1st with Dillon Van Way following in close second. This should turn out to be one heck of a battle for 2WD.

Top 5 Overall:
Andrew Comrie-Picard / Jeremy Wimpey – #20 – 2007 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution – 57:13.7
Andi Mancin / Maciej Wislawski – #176 – 2007 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution – 58:34.4
Ken Block / Alessandro Gelsomino – #43 – 2009 Subaru Impreza WRX STI – 59:13.4
Nathan Conley / Todd Moberly – #116 – 2004 Subaru Impreza – 1:01:10.0
Mark Fox / Jake Blattner – #54 – 2004 Subaru Impreza – 1:01:32.3

Updates

8:40 am: Dillon Van Way is very optimistic for the start of Day 2 Rally Colorado.
via @MrVanWay

well we are starting the day off 3.6 seconds behind. We still have no turbo, but we arent giving up yet

9:00 am: Travis Pastrana, after being penalized into 8th place, has withdrawn from Rally Colorado to preserve the car for Round 9 Lake Superior Pro Rally

9:27 am: Co-driver Jeremy “Worm” Wimpey says he’s enjoying the ride with ACP. It’s their first time racing together and they’re doing well.
via @ACPRally

12:13 pm: Car 970 – Helton/Butler – has withdrawn from the rally due to mechanical issues. The team came in to service on a tow rope.
* The rain is picking up. Some of this afternoon’s stages may be too muddy to be passable; organizers are considering alternate routing.
via @Rally_America

12:26 pm: Car #47 Rooney/O’Hanlon’s run at Rally Colorado is done, smacked a bank on last turn of SS13, broke LR upper control arm
via @SoCalRally

12:50 pm: Dillon Van Way tweetin’ out at service:

in to service, its been a battle every stage with Conley. We got the lead but quickly switched back over

via @MrVanWay

*Rally organizers have officially declared Rally Colorado’s Stages 15 and 18 cancelled — too muddy.

1:06 pm: Car 408 – Matthew Leavitt/Brooks Freehill – are out of the rally. Looks mechanical. They just came in to service on a flatbed.
via @Rally_America

2:02 pm: Rally cars are heading out to run two more stages today: SS 17, then SS 16. They will return to Steamboat Springs after that for the finish. It is expected the delay will mean that the podium will be later than originally scheduled. Expect cars at around 6 p.m.
update from rallyamerica.com

3:26 pm: Preliminary reports that Block is stopped on course — mechanical?
*Update: More news on Ken Block: reports he’s off the course with a triangle. Could be engine trouble. Doesn’t look like he’ll finish.
*Update: Ken Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino are confirmed out of the rally with mechanical problems. The car was smoking and the engine may have expired on the 15th stage of the rally.
via @Rally_America and rally-america.com

4:34 pm: Reports Dillon Van Way/Ben Slocum (car 600) rolled half-way on the second-last stage, but were able to right the vehicle and keep going…
via @Rally_America
*Update:Van way came by us with heavy damage and his boot lid strapped to hood. Fifth gear roll apparently. via @granthughes

5:54 pm: Provisional results for Rally Colorado: ACP, Mancin & Conley, with more stage wins, takes third over Fox. via @Rally_America

Photos

Videos

Ken Block on SS#8 Rally Colorado. Video from FocSrallyX

ACP talks about what it’s like to drive in the rainy muddy conditions of the second day of Rally Colorado. Video from Rally America

Ken Block talks about some more differences of driving the slower, less powerful super production car instead of his open class car. Video from Rally America

Current Standings

source: rally-america.com

Colorado: Day 1

terrafirma — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:23:36 +0000

Welcome to day one of Rally Colorado. This event, due to the high altitudes and flowing roads, provides the drivers & cars with an extreme challenge. Due to the altitude and lack of oxygen cars struggle to reach their full power potential, but oddly enough Rally Colorado features some of the fastest sections in the series.

Information

Ken Block is Driving Dave Mirra’s Super Production Class Subaru Impreza WRX STI, it should be quite a different experience from their Open class especially at these altitudes.

Also as we stated in the preview (but we have to mention it again) Dillon Van Way and Ben Slocom have a wicked new Plaid car wrap designed exclusively by Terra Firma

Updates

10:42 am: Already today we have carnage as car 450 in the Open Light class 1990 Audi Quattro 90 Driven by, Gus Bergstralh and co-driver Kevin Bahus has rolled at the first spectator stage. They are confirmed to be OK.

1:04 pm: Car 466: Brian Gottlieb/Rebecca Ruston is reported out on SS2 with a broken axle. Also car 419: Brian McGuire/Jennifer Kraus is reported to have crashed on SS2. Few details but no injuries.
Crash updates provided by @rally_america

5 Leaders after Special Stage 6:
Pastrana – 32:29.5
ACP – 32:54.6
Block – 33:18.5
Mancin – 33:39.8
Conley – 34:27.9

2:24 pm: Conley broke a drive shaft putting Dillon Van Way and Ben Slocom 11.5 seconds ahead. Talking to Dillon and Ben after 6 stages here is what they had to say:

building back confidence behind the wheel, brake and cooking issues, we are wingless by choice

3:00 pm: Cars are heading to the final 3 stages of day 1.
Car #413 Schmidt / Schnell is out after super special with a problem that he says is “not mechanical.” Schmidt, who is running this event in an E85-powered Subaru, says he’s not sure exactly what is wrong but it might be an issue with the alternative fuel. The veteran isn’t giving up, though. He’s expected to get the car working and re-enter Sunday’s regional event. via rally-america.com

3:34 pm: Ken Block started today in the SP class — ended SS9 in 2WD… Driveshaft went and they finished 9 in front-wheel drive. Will be fixed!
Battle shaping up for third overall. Block’s ahead of Mancin but the Polish driver is picking up the pace.
Pastrana vs ACP for first. ACP lost some time to mechanical issues earlier and with stage times this close it’ll be hard to catch up.
Updates provided by @rally_america

4:40 pm: We caught up with Lucy Block (Ken Blocks wife) who is driving alongside co-driver Chrissie Beavis in car #430 a 1988 VW Golf in Group 2. Here is what she had to say about the end of day one at her second Rally.

its my second rally, the first where I’m driving the whole event. Chrissie and I took turns driving at Maine. The Roads are fast and fun, but you have to keep it tidy. There’s not much room for error as several have found out

5:50 pm: The racing portion of day one is officially over as cars are heading into the parc ferme in downtown Steamboat Springs, CO. However this doesn’t mean we’re done. We will be adding more updates, photos and videos as we organize our assets and relax for a bit. Check back soon

6:34 pm: In some crazy turn of events Travis Pastrana took some huge penalties for hitting some chicane elements dropping him into an unbelievable 8th place. Dillon Van Way was also penalized for hitting a cone on the final stage costing him 3 minutes and dropping him to second behind John Conley in 2WD.
updates via @ACPRally and @MrVanWay

8:11 pm: Day 1 Standings

Open	Super Production	2WD	Light
ACP	Ken Block	John Conley	Tyler Patik
Andi Mancin	Patrick Moro	Dillon Van Way	Andrew Morton
Nathan Conley	Jimmy Keeney	Matthew Leavitt	Aaron McConnell
Mark Fox	Don Conley	Victor Fagan	Peter Olenick

9:54 pm: You didn’t think we were done yet did you? We caught up with Jake Blattner and Dillon Van Way before parc expose ended, here is what they had to say about day 1 and their plans for tomorrow:

Jake Blattner:

having a great time at CO, fun atmosphere great roads. We’re just Keeping it in the middle, same plan for tomorrow.
We’d like to thank Terra Firma for the interview, WRS, National Guard for the keeping our freedom to rally alive, White Oak and the service crew

Dillon Van Way:

altitude is a killer here. As long as the roads are twisty and have rhythym, we’re good. As soon as we lose that, we lose time.
We’re looking forward to day 2. Its cool being really close in times and swapping back and fourth and congratulating each other

10:49 pm: A special thanks to Chris and Zach from Denver for being the Terra Firma Super Fans of the night. Check out the pictures of them sporting TF gear and chillin’ in Dillon Van Way’s car in the photo section below.
Come on out to the Tap House in downtown Steamboat Springs, CO and have a couple drinks with us and discuss the day in review.

Photos

Videos

Interview with Christopher Moore #608 – Group 5 – 1977 Dodge Colt

Interview with Aaron Helton #970 – Group 2 – 1983 VW GTI

Interview with Jeremy Brown #825 – Group 2 – 1992 Toyota MR2

Super Special Stage oval track with ACP and the ever awesome Master of Rally Ceremonies Will Mattox video from Rally America

Ken Block discusses what it’s like to switch from his open car to Dave Mirra’s Super Production car
video from Rally America

Current Standings

source: rally-america.com

Keep checking back and hitting that refresh button because we will be updating with content, pictures and videos all day long.

Colorado: Preview

terrafirma — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:25:32 +0000

Welcome to another exciting installment of RALLY!! We will be providing coverage from Steamboat Springs, Colorado all weekend as the events, stages and shenanigans unfold.

Be sure to check back frequently as we will be updating all weekend long. This should prove to be another exciting Rally weekend. Who knows what the Colorado roads have in-store for the nations top drivers.

All of us here at Terra Firma are extremely excited for our sophomore appearance at a National Rally Event. This is our first time attending the Colorado Rally and figured what better reason than to promote our newly launched (see TF launch) apparel company and help the grassroots motor-sports grow in the U.S. of A.

Rally Colorado 2009 will be held in the beautiful year-around resort community of Steamboat Springs over the long weekend of September 17-20. Rally Colorado 2009 will be held in the beautiful year-around resort community of Steamboat Springs The national level event will be the eighth round of the nine event Rally America National Rally Championship and will include approximately 108.37 stage miles on Saturday and Sunday. The Middle Cog-1 Rally America Regional Rally, a Coefficient 3 event, will be held on Saturday and will include approximately 67.61 stage miles. The Middle Cog-2 Rally America Regional Rally, a Coefficient 2 event, will be held on Sunday and will include approximately 40.76 stage miles. Both of these Regional Rallies with be points events for both the Central and Western Rally America Regional Championships and for the Southwest Rally Cup Series as well as the Colorado Rally Cup.
- www.rallycolorado.org

Plaid Pevails

Check out Van Way & Slocum’s Ford Focus #600 new car wrap designed by us here at Terra Firma. Who ever thought Plaid could look so sexy? Love it? Hate it? Feel free to let us know with your comments below.

As far as Rally Colorado goes for Van Way & Slocum here is what they had to say this morning.

Recce went well, they’re new roads for both Dillon and I so we’re in for a challenge this weekend, especially considering the lack of a turbo at this altitude

Dillon Van Way and Ben Slocum are 2 points behind Mark Fox from being awarded the Rookie of the Year Trophy. This is quite impressive as Mark Fox and Co-Driver Jake Blattner are in an open class Subaru!

expect another reliable performance by newcomer Dillon Van Way from Carencro, LA.
– rally-america.com

They are also 26 points ahead of second place John Conley and with a win in Colorado will seal the deal on their 2009 Rookie Season 2WD National Championship.

Top Standings

Travis Pastrana – 128 pts
Andi Mancin – 78 pts
Ken Block - 65 pts
Andrew Comrie-Picard – 63 pts
Tanner Foust – 62 pts
William Bacon – 48 pts
Arkadiusz Gruszka – 33 pts
Piotr Wiktorczyk – 30 pts
Mark Fox – 29 pts

Useful Links

Rally Colorado Spectator Guide (866 B)

Rally Colorado Supplemental Regulations (1.64 MB)

OFPR: Wrap Up

terrafirma — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 01:29:57 +0000

We at Terra Firma wish we could hop in a DeLorean and travel back to Thursday so we could re-live the weekend. Plus, it would just be cool to have a ride in a DeLorean.

From the second we smelled that sweet, sweet aroma of race-gas, to the end of the day Saturday when our lenses were covered in Cham-pahn-ya, we had a blast, as far as we can recall. It went so fast, and was such a blur. “We can’t remember anything, remember?”

Luckily, our cameras weren’t ruined by the champagne, so we are able to live through our weekend frame by frame.

Day 1 Highlights

Seeing car #628 of Dan Adamson & Jeremiah Schubitzke hit the Super Special Jump in their 1996 Saturn SL, which earned them the “Terra Firma / Max Attack Big Air” award. Here is Dan showing off his Terra Firma prize package:

We were a few corners away from Ken Block’s roll on SS3. We were able to hear the engine abruptly stop, so we knew something happened. We were able to hear the engine abruptly stop, so we knew something happenedWe were pretty bummed, as we were pulling for someone else to win other than Pas-T, and KB was the best hope. We are glad they are OK. As soon as the stage was cleared, we cruised down the stage to see what happened. His car was still there, so we snapped some pics. The fact that Ken and Alex are OK really shows how important all of the required safety equipment is.

Jan & Jody Zedril, finished 3rd overall in Paul Bunyan’s ride, which is the regional event for Friday. This was an amazing finish for them, surpassing many of the more powerful G5 and O cars. Check out their Team Section.
Photo by Jeremey Olson

Barefoot Racing #744 Koll/Nunnemonster edged out a 3rd place finish in G2 over #319 Greenhouse/DeRose. See if you can spot the Terra Firma logo. Thanks for rockin’ it guys. Check out their Team Section.

More Day 1 Photos

Day 2 Highlights

Again! Zedril Rally Sport places 3rd overall in the regional 10,000 Lakes Rally. the Zedrils have a tradition of volunteering on Sunday at every rally event to take down banner tape These are amazing guys in every aspect of the word. Their consistency earned them 4th place in the MaxAttack! Cup and a wad of cash. Did you know they have a tradition of volunteering on Sunday at every rally event to take down banner tape?!? As far as we know, they are the only competitors to do this. Maybe it’s why they’re so fast??? We’re so proud to have our stickers on their car.

We were interviewed about our Terra Firma launch weekend by Frank at worldrallysport.com (video coming soon) He allowed us to showcase some products to the rally community out there in the inter-web. I didn’t know what to do with my hands.

We happened to be at SS 11 on Saturday when #12 Babcock / Penley rolled their car a handful of times at SS 11 spectator stage. Glad they are ok. It was a spectacle to see. The WRS lense-man Andrew Snucins had the best/worst angle:

Koll & Nunnemonster of car 744 Barefoot Racing placed 3rd in G2 again, showing their consistency over the weekend.

Duplessis turned on the hyper-jets on Saturday and found himself at the top of the podium in the regional event, and 3rd place in the MaxAttack! Cup, winning many thousands of green people from history times. Chris also gets the most creative applications of Terra Firma Stickers.

More Day 2 Photos

Terra Firma Launch

The Ojibwe Event was our official launch and our “Testing the Waters” phase. Well it turns out the water is just the right temp for an important announcement…..CANNONBALL! We’re not going to necessarily dive in head-first, but we’re definitely going to jump in, which means we’ll try to be at as many events as we physically can. Our next planned event was going to be LSPR, but because of the positive response we received at Ojibwe, we’re thinking about heading out to Colorado as well.

We’re also going to keep designing and working on the freshest rally apparel to come out of the states, and quite possibly the world. If you have any comments on our current gear, or have something you’d like to see, leave a comment below or let us know thru email.

because of the positive response we received at Ojibwe, we’re thinking about heading out to Colorado

We gave out some worker prizes at the banquet, and also had a free raffle. All winners have been contacted, so watch your mailbox, because free Terra Firma gear is on it’s way! Except one…Abby Thomas won a prize, and wasn’t at the banquet, so if you know Abby Thomas, tell her to get in touch with us!

- See you on the stages

The Terra Firma Team

THANKS!

To Will Mattox for plugging Terra Firma at the Expose, Spectator Stages, Banquet, and to every man, woman, and child he encountered via sticker plastering.
To Beryl Ann at RallyAmerica for helping us get set up at the various locations, and answering my countless inquisitive emails.
To Frank at World Rally Sport for the interview on Saturday.
To Zedril Rally Sport and Barefoot Racing for rocking our gear and ridiculously large, but incredibly goood looking stickers on their cars.
To TheRallyBlog.com who helped promote the our launch for free!
To Eric Burmeister for coming up with the idea for the additional Max Attack prize for biggest air.
To all the workers for making the event possible.
To everyone who came over and said hi, and let us know they liked what we were doing.

Congrats to all the finishers, especially O’Sullivan, and Markut for some amazing driving, and Utecht for bringing the heat with the screaming V8 sound we are learning to love.

Congrats again to O’Sullivan/Wagner, Knox/Headland, Duplessis/Woods, Zedril/Zedril, and Bushore/DeMotte for their Max Attack finishes!

Credits

#628 Dan Adamson & Jeremiah Schubitzke photo by Carlton McMillan
Zedril Rally Sport photo by Jeremey Olson
http://www.ojibweforestrally.com/
http://rally-america.com/events/2009/OFPR/

OFPR: Podium

terrafirma — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 02:56:57 +0000

Podium & Banquet Photos from Ojibwe Forest Rally 2009

Overall Winners: Pastrana, Mancin, Merkut!

OFPR: Day 2

terrafirma — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 21:32:17 +0000

Day two of Ojibwe Forest Rally kept us on our toes. With Ken Block’s crash easily taking the win for most discussed event at the end of day one. Babcock’s roll was was definitely our day two highlight. Be sure to check out the videos of the roll below (Different angles).

Video

Babcock roll on SS11 Cty 135: This video came from 9-yr old Lilly, who was videotaping for Robyn Mattila of Blaine, MN. Thanks for letting us post it to our site!

Another angle of the crash courtesy of www.worldrallysport.com

They aren’t happy to be on the microphone, but they are right now with Will Mattox. The team is OK, the driver admitted to coming in a little hot and is NOT blaming the co-driver.

Photos

More pics on the way….stay tuned.

A huge yell from the crowd as Utecht jumped the roadside camera while sliding

Eixenberger sliding his way through the spectator stage

Zedril Rally Sport took the corner clean and fast

Buschores doin’ the Finnish flick

Parc Expose

Famous Rally Personality sporting some fresh TF Gear

Zedril Rally Sport on the dyno. The new engine’s numbers show the motor-swap was definitely worth it.

O’Sullivan getting interviewed by Rally America Master of Ceremonies WILL MATTOX

OFPR: Day 1

terrafirma — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 06:45:37 +0000

Day 1 photos & videos from Ojibwe Forest Rally. Here’s what we and others captured during day 1 of Ojibwe Forest Rally.

Ken Block provided us with plenty to talk about after his crash late on day 1. More photos of his crash site further down the page.

Videos

Eixenberger #687 hanging it out, most impressive 2wd corner we saw

Koll/Nunnemacher of #744 Barefoot Racing / Terra Firma Clothing

Zedril Rally Sport #708 / Terra Firma Clothing

#70 Duplessis

Photos

Wagon Power!!11

OFPR: Practice

terrafirma — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:51:54 +0000

We got to Ojibwe a bit early so we decided to check out the practice session. Below are some of the photos we captured.

VanWay had some slight cosmetic damage

The green monster, ready for action tomorrow.

The new gearbox on the 744 Barefoot Racing VW seems to be working well, although 5th gear is about 2 feet to the right, and 1 foot up for engagement

This was the first time I heard this car with the DSG. Can’t wait to hear it on stage. Those lightning-fast shifts will be sure to put them in the running for the MaxAttack! race.

Whisker’s couldn’t wait to buy a Terra Firma shirt, so he just made his own

The Ojibwe Rain God left for the night, and WILL NOT BE BACK FRIDAY!

OFPR: Preview

terrafirma — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:00:38 +0000

Round 7 of the Rally America National Championship is the Ojibwe Forests Rally this weekend in the north woods of Minnesota. We are extremely excited to be going to this event for a plethora of reasons.

The first of course is that we’re launching our Terra Firma Clothing line at the event, which I’m guessing you’ve heard of by now. We’ll be at Rally HQ at the Curling Club, Park Exposes, the Bemidji Speedway, Spectator Stages D, C, E and F and we’re definitely not missing the banquet. We’ll also be giving out some gear at the worker raffle, and we’ll be having a raffle of our own.

So stop by and say hello and at least get some free stickers and enter the raffle!

The second reason we’re so pumped like a Ninja, is that the Max Attack! Race series has their final race this weekend. Contestants in 2WD cars will be hauling their cars from all across North America to Bemidji for bragging rights and a pile of cash! Any number of drivers could take the event win, and the 2009 title. We’re pulling for Barefoot Racing and Zedril Rally Sport to finish 1-2 in Max Attack (in any order!)

There is an amazingly tight race for second place in the National Championship between KB, ACP, Tanner Foust, and Andi Mancin. There’s speculation that Foust won’t make the trip to MN, which will earn him -27 cool points if he doesn’t show. So that leaves a 3-way race for 2nd place in the series, with only two events left. Who will prevail and who will perish? Who is going to upset Pas-T’s three-peat at Ojibwe? There are also some ties and heated battles going on in the Central Regional Series too, so we’ll be keeping our eye on that.

Hopefully the weather forecast shapes up and the bugs decide to sleep through the weekend. But if not, who cares, it’s RALLY TIME!

Useful Links:

OjibweForestRally.com | Rally-America.com