TeamD Adventures

The Crestline 2008 rally (formerly Coast to Coast) started out Saturday morning at Osoyoos, BC bound for Grand Forks.  After a social night of dignified wine and cheese tasting, 9 cars took to the roads more or less in good shape.  The same might not be said of the occupants of the cars as the definition of tasting is seemingly variable.

Day consisted of seven regularities over variable roads (from smoothly graded gravel to rough patches reminiscent of the legendary car-breaker on Vancouver Island).  Speeds were by and large aggressive with some hill climbs that made keeping cast difficult in the WRX (not to mention the 21 year old turbo sprint).

By the end of day 1 the rally had taken it’s toll on two competitors (Greg Hightower and Russ Kraushaar in car two developed what appears to be a blown head gasket in Greg’s 2.5 RS while Glenn Wallace and R. Dale Kraushaar blew a tire and wisely decided not to continue on their donut spare).  That’s a very respectable 23% kill rate for a first time event.

Marvin has already posted the day one scores so I will not repeat but I must extend my amazement to car 1, Brandon and Jason, who lead the pack with a score of 4 over 7 regularities with 2-3 checkpoints each.  That despite multiple pit stops between regularities to regroup after a night of particularly spirited wine tasting.  We lag 6 points behind with 10 (6 of which we gathered on Reg 1 due to a bad odo factor though I am pleased to note that we zeroed regs 4, 5,6, and 7) and fellow TeamD car 7 (Marinus and Renee) are hot on our heels with 11.

This weekend I am trying out a new in-car camera system.  It’s the V.I.O POV.1 which records from a bullet camera (connected to my harness bar) direct to SD.  The resolution is great and once I get over the codec issue I have, I will post some of the video collected this weekend.  I should have a great shot of the small brown bear that crossed in front of us and the bull blocking the road despite my incessant honking.

We are off on Day 2.  We have 4 regularities and car 1 ends at 1:00pm which gives us a good chance of being home in Seattle before 10pm.  We will post another update when the scores are in.