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| Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 |
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100 AW Navvie Notes.
Our 100 Acre Wood event began not with the rally itself, but rather with a test there earlier in the week. Basically a test is running the rally car under load after you have taken it apart and put it back together to see if anything will fail. I have seen instances where you can drive the rally car for days on normal roads with no issue but once driven under race conditions things promptly fail. Other than a faulty pump in the water injector tank, everything was a-OK. However, as we would learn, that pump was to come back to haunt us later on Friday night.
However, Friday night started with an intercom issue. We simply couldn’t hear each other over the din of the gravel striking the underside of the car. Lauchlin in essence had to drive the first stage of the day just by pretty much just reading the road which cost us 5-10 seconds. Do you ever wonder what difference stage notes make? To use an example, comparing driving on similar northern Minnesota roads in Headwaters last summer without notes…and then Ojibwe with notes…resulted in top speeds on similar stages in the low 90’s for Headwaters and 110-155 MPH for Ojibwe. Notes simply allow you to keep on the throttle longer when the next turn is a known item. Anyway, switching to the secondary intercom helped marginally as it was just a bit clearer than the main Peltor, but Lauchlin could still only hear me about half the time. This was a little hairy at times as we proceeded down the stage yelling at each other in unsuccessful attempts to communicate, with one situation in particular leaving a pointy thing on my seat.
Coming down a steep hill the call at the bottom was “R3 into L2 drop outside” and Lauchlin did not hear the call. Screaming down the hill all of a sudden the car is thrown 90 degrees in a desperate effort to slow it down. I distinctly remember as we were sliding sideways down the hill towards the corner thinking “we are way too hot- we are not going to make this..” As we approached the bottom Lauchlin rotated the car even more, stood on the gas and somehow we staggered around on the very outside of the corner.
Busy as I was admiring Lauchlin’s handiwork in getting through the corner, I was a wee bit late on the next call going into the L2, but at that point we were going slowly enough from the R3 that it didn’t really matter. I was pissed at myself for a second for not making the call when I should have, but at that point I thought that we were going over the bank anyway. Accelerating through the L2 we hit the water splash hard under full throttle, jumping up and out making our way down the rest of the stage without time to heave a sigh of relief. Whoop tee do in our Subaru.
After service we came out with the light pods on. Now, remember me mentioning the water injection pump? It was putting out water enthusiastically - so much so in fact that it was coming back up out of the rad pack and up hitting the windshield. Hitting the wipers just produced a smear, and hitting the washer to clean it all off produced temporary blindness as we were attempting to negotiate 5s and 6s at high speed. Lauchlin normally doesn’t swear, but this situation managed to produce a few expletives.
Saturday emerged cold and rainy, which helped quiet things a bit with big ass mud flaps and additional protection on the bottom of the car. TV2GO’s camera and intercom were now in the car which worked flawlessly for the first leg. I must have angered the intercom gods somewhere along the line though, as now we picked up an intermittent buzzing on the second leg which yours truly, the co-driver, found somewhat distracting. Somewhere we also hit a mud puddle just right forcing a massive amount of mud up and onto the air filter.
That caused the engine to start running rough and bucking, sometimes cutting out when Lauchlin would hit the gas going through a turn. That caused us to carve a much wider arc than we wanted coming out of the turns. The stuttering gradually disappeared, and in the next service when our crew chief Whiskers pulled the air filter it was caked with mud. Had that wonderful K&N filter not done its job the engine would have promptly shat itself.
Not all was brain damage however, as there were some truly splendid stage roads. One had an average stage speed of 80 MPH! Very fast and flowing, there is a particular nirvana in the right seat when paired with a great driver attacking the stage in his element. Going around the 4s sideways at high speed, throttle wide open, your spinning wheels keeping the car on the road with rooster tails of dirt shooting out the back, makes me realize what a lucky SOB am I! Unfortunately there is no time to savor the moment, for HiHo, Hiho, it’s off to the next corner we go.
On the second to last stage the shifter snapped half way up. Keep in mind this is a 6-speed STI shifter so you have a cable running up through the center of it so it is still attached and flopping around like a limp you-know-what. We could not figure out what caused it to fail in the first place, as Lauchlin is definitely not what you would call a hard shifter. Once again yours truly, the co-driver, found this somewhat distracting.
The last stage introduced fog to the equation. Normally when going down a stage I will look up periodically to check our progress and adjust the timing of my calls accordingly.
One has a fraction of a second to look up, determine the cars position and get back down into the notes. With my seating position in the car, I am so low that I cannot even see the ground in front of the vehicle, so, in this case I would look up and see only a blanket of white.. the fog was that thick. Had it been a little earlier in the day when I was feeling a bit sharper I could also have navigated literally by the seat of my pants.. in this case though fatigue and a common cold had put me into a slightly brain-impaired category, and I’ll leave it at that. So there we are cruising merrily down the final stage simply unable to see. What you end up doing though is working together down the stage with the driver calling out the turns as we went through them, me calculating the distances and the corners, and the both of us kind of groping our way through without letting up too much, even though we couldn’t see . We must of done something right though as we won that final stage outright.
The next event is Oregon, which is a narrower, twistier rally. Let’s see…late-April conditions in Oregon range from somewhat sunny and dry to temperate rain to freezing temps accompanied by snow. Predictable it is not. The last time I ran this event it ended with CPD1 doing a dying cockroach on the side of the road…but that is another story. |
| Scott Putnam on 10.03.07 @ 11:31 AM CST |
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| Friday, February 23rd, 2007 |
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It's Saturday night in Salem, Missouri and guess what I'm doing?
Sitting at a computer typing this of course, but I'm also on the Internet perusing the classifieds for a WRX STi. After my first rally experience at Sno*Drift I immediately came home thinking I needed 300 horsepower and all wheel drive and preferably in the same shade of blue my first Schwinn bike was. Of course the fact that my wife was out of town - even out of the country no less - made it a perfect time to take a test drive with my son at our local Subaru dealer. I know you can feel the expansion cracks and every last imperfection in the pavement, but you can also feel like a rally star planting all that power on the cloverleaf. Surefooted? Yeah. Capable of causing some consternation with your local constable? Right again.
In fact, I wish I had a WRX STi here in Salem as this area is full of the most amazing ribbons of two- lane highways with dozens of blind rises and drops and whoop-dee-doo's and off camber sweepers per mile. It's fun even in my Outback, but not as much fun as strapping my butt into a Sparco racing seat that happens to be bolted to the floorboard of a rally car. And that is how I started my day as they held some media ride-alongs at a "shakedown stage" about 15 miles outside of Salem. The Production Class Subaru I happened to be in of course couldn't match the power and speed of the Open Class cars, but who cares? It was an outright blast blasting through the ruts and the woods with these guys who really know about vehicle dynamics and car control.
The Parc Expose where all the rally cars are on display happened to be in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart. It wasn't the most picturesque backdrop in the world, but it was a convenient gathering spot for the locals to gawk at guys from Sweden, England, Ireland and Australia. I was speaking with Doug Havir, the owner of Rally America, following the day's first five stages, and we were just kind of awed at the combination of cultures that come together at these events. Certainly no other form of professional motorsport would ever visit a venue this size. The field at 100 Acre Wood certainly is sizable with 52 cars entered and probably 11 capable of winning the event. It's a testament to the growing interest in rallying in general, and Rally America in particular.
When that field assembled at 1:30 p.m. for the start the WR Blue Pearl car belonging to Ken Block of Subaru Rally Team USA was first on the road, and as it turned out he would be first after the first stage as well. And the second. And the third. And the fifth. Apparently the rather unique "reconnaissance" opportunity (a chance to drive the course at legal speeds in rental cars) afforded the competitiors on Thursday suited Block quite well.
The area's winding gravel roads and challenging water crossings known as "low-water bridges" agree with the K&N Engineering Subaru WRX STi of Lauchlin O'Sullivan and Scott Putnam quite well also. Although the pair battled intercom gremlins that made communication in the Prodrive-built CPD Racing 1 car difficult, the pair found rhythm - and speed - with each succesive stage. They were sixth overall after the initial stage and on the final 11-mile stage of Day One they came in third right behind behind Ken Block and defending Rally America Series Champion Travis Pastrana. So after the first five stages O'Sulivan and Putnam are fifth overall; an amazing performance I think when you look at how much money is being spent on the efforts of the guys in front of them.
The event is only one-third over though, as 10 stages are on tap for Saturday. And it could be quite a different rally indeed as thunderstorms and rain are predicted to be the order of the day. Who will best adapt their driving style to the changing conditions? Who will make the wisest tire choices amidst the dozens of compound, size and tread pattern variables? Who will be willing to risk their car - and their rally - as it rains on everyone's parade? The final chapter in the story of the 2007 100 Acre Wood Rally is destined to be an exciting one and the overall winner a worthy one. |
| Scott Putnam on 02.23.07 @ 10:34 PM CST |
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| Wednesday, January 31st, 2007 |
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Day 1 – Sno*Drift
Cool. Very cool. Way, way cool. As in below zero windchill, blowing snow and freezing rain cool. As in opposite lock, handbrake jammin,’ powerslidin’ through the trees cool.
This is rally racing, and it just came to lower northeastern Michigan (an area that has yet to get the global warming memo) for the aptly named Sno*Drift Rally; the first event of the 2007 Rally America Championship Series.
Please allow me to introduce myself as we hopefully will be spending some time together online this season.
I am new (relatively) to the sport of rallying but not new to motorsports.
While working for Nissan’s PR agency in Los Angeles back in the 80’s we did the motorsports publicity for Paul Newman’s IMSA GTO and SCCA TransAm programs. We also worked with Indy Driver Geoff Brabham when he was behind the wheel of the Nissan GTP ZX Turbo and Roger Mears who drove a Nissan truck in the SCORE and HDRA off-road races as well as the Mickey Thompson Stadium Series.
And as long as we’re talking about the past, I should say I was first was introduced to the sport of rallying decades ago through the pages of AutoWeek magazine as they wrote about the exploits of the legendary rally figure John Buffum and his pioneering Audi all-wheel-drive rally cars.
A little more recently I have been writing and producing the customer newsletters for Bloomington Acura Subaru located oddly enough in Bloomington, Minnesota.
It so happens that Scott Putnam, the co-driver of the yellow CPD Racing Subaru WRX STi rally race car that is familiar to many rally fans, is the Fleet Manager at Bloomington Acura Subaru.
I happened to casually drop the aforementioned John Buffum’s name in a conversation with Scott on one occasion, and soon I was off to the races – literally.
As you may have read, CPD Racing last week inked a deal with K&N Engineering, the world leader in performance filter technology.
The CPD 1 and CPD 2 rally race cars are now wrapped in K&N lava-like livery, as well as equipped with K&N High Flow Technology air and oil filters to help cope with the myriad of rally conditions ranging from the snow and cold of Michigan to the heat and choking dust of the California desert.
Now, after that brief commercial interruption, let’s get back to the action.
And there was plenty of it the first day of Sno*Drift. In fact, anything can happen and usually does.
Sorry about that line, I was just funnin’ ya.’ I have never actually said that – or written it – and thought I would try it. Hopefully the bulk of my writing will be a little (okay, a LOT) less clichéd than that.
This rally is unpredictable though. Just ask Lauchlin O’Sullivan and Scott Putnam, the driver and co-driver respectively of the K&N Engineering/CPD Racing Subaru.
Lauchlin, who has placed as high as 4th in this event while running as a factory driver for Mitsubishi USA, told me before it even started how important tire choice is – or was,, and that things “can go wrong in a hurry for your rally if you make the wrong choice.”
Unfortunately, that statement would prove to be very prophetic.
Like all the top tier teams, the K&N Engineering brought a wide assortment of mounted tires to contest the conditions, which could range from deep snow to a few inches of loose stuff to hardpack to ice and frozen gravel and dirt.
Day 1 of the event would bring 7 stages, all on public roads,, with the exception of a section that ran through some private land that was called “the ranch.”
Lauchlin decided to start the day on a pure snow tire, a tall, skinny piece of rubber with a decidedly delicate look to it, but a very small contact patch.
If you lined up all the tires the team had to choose from, and they did, visually speaking this would be the tire that would probably get picked last.
But choosing it first proved to be the right decision and the K&N guys started 5th on the road and had a great first stage.
As is usually the case in a pro rally, especially the season’s only winter event, things changed, and not for the better in this case.
Once they started running for a while behind the other Open-class Subarus driven by guys like Travis Pastrana and Tanner Foust, the loose snow that was on the road began to get gradually swept away, and the snowy conditions turned to icy conditions.
Breaking with the other top teams, Lauchlin decided to go with more of an ice tire, a beefy, chunky sturdy looking tire that would probably be the thing you and I would run by just looking at it.
And things went fine until they spent some time in the back 40 at the old ranch. Because the ranch was not public, as I mentioned, and as a result, the roads had not really been plowed.
Given the fact it snowed virtually the entire time we were there, this meant the teams would encounter some really deep snow, conditions very well suited for the team’s original snow tire, but not at all right for the ice tire that was now on the car.
In the course of that ranch stage, they slid wide in a corner, and the car died. It wasn’t terminal as it turned out, but the patient did flatline for a minute or so.
I guarantee Lauchlin and Scott’s hearts were racing though – even if their car wasn’t – and after about a minute that probably seemed like an hour they were able to resume.
By that time however, Seamus Burke – the 2004 Sno*Drift Open winner – had squeezed his Mitsubishi Evo past Lauchlin and Scott – and when they got their car to fire and rejoined, they were stuck behind Seamus.
So at the end of the first day, or 7 stages, the K&N guys were in 11th place; a little over a minute in arrears of leader – and defending Rally America series champ – Travis Pastrana.
Day 2 would be a longer day with 10 stages in all, as Mother Nature delivered more cold, some more fresh snow, and really flat light that a very competitive field of 50 cars would have to fight all the way through ‘til night.
This time the guys chose a jack-of-all trade tire that wouldn’t necessarily be the best in any one particular condition, but conversely wouldn’t hurt them too bad no matter what they encountered on a stage.
They later recounted that had they done this on the first day, they undoubtedly wouldn’t have found themselves so far back.
Still, there was a 25-mile long stage that offered the prospect of taking some time out of the competitors in front, and Lauchlin and Scott were starting to find their rhythm in the car.
What they actually needed to find was a doctor though, as both of them battled a lack of sleep, colds, coughs, and congestion in addition to the challenging conditions.
They soldiered on however and did in fact begin to make up some time.
And after all, in previous Sno*Drifts it seemed like half the field DNF’d or at least got delayed enough to put them well out of contention.
So the plan was to keep the car out of the snowbanks and trees (yes a car did launch into the forest last year and literally hung upside down in the trees) and off its roof.
For a while things did go according to plan, but an errant snowmobiler would change everything, and not just for Lauchlin and Scott.
On the 25-mile stage I told you about rally leader Travis Pastrana was first on the road in his factory-sponsored blue pearl WRX STi when co-driver Christian Edstrom noticed something alongside them…something literally along side them.
As the story goes, and the in-car video supports, a not-too-bright snowmobiler (is that an oxymoron?) decided he would challenge the Subaru rally car to a drag race down a long piece of road; with Travis and Christian on the road and the snowmobiler on a trail next to it.
At speeds approaching 80 to 90 miles-per-hour however the platform of a purpose-built all-wheel drive rally car being driven by one of the hottest hot-shoes in the world is a little more stable than a machine with two skis and a track being operated on a bumpy trail by a moron who just may be under the influence of alcohol.
So it shouldn’t surprise anyone to learn the snowmobile started to get a little squirrely.
Not knowing whether this guy was going to shoot out on to the road in front of them at any given time, Pastrana and Edstrom decided to slow their Subaru and throw out a red flag. Somewhere in the midst of this, the rider actually did pass in front of Travis’ Subaru. Instantly this turned this long, fast stage into a non-racing transit stage.
Further proving he is not exactly a Mensa candidate at the moment, the snowmobiler then slowed as well and turned around and rode up to the passenger’s side window of the Subaru Rally Team USA car which had stopped on the road.
Guess what he did next? Well, you’ll never guess so I’ll just tell you; the snowmobiler actually gave his name to a stunned Christian Edstrom, who no doubt had never experienced anything remotely like this at any rally events in his native Sweden.
Perhaps the snowmobiler thought this would be a funny way to attract the attention of the freestyle motocross legend who executed the first-ever double backflip in an X Games competition, or maybe he just wanted an autograph.
Last we heard the now-not-so-anonymous snowmobiler attracted the attention of the Montmorency, Michigan Country Sheriff and it was law enforcement who wanted the autograph of the snowmobiler – on a ticket.
To add to the drama of the day, Pastrana and Edstrom got a flat tire right about the time they were battling the snowmobile.
Had that stage remained a hot one, it could have cost them their eventual Sno*Drift Rally win but who knows? Second-place finisher Tanner Foust completed the event only a few seconds behind the defending series champion and he had a flat on this stage too.
Sno*Drift was the site of the first stage rally in America, back in 1973, and it has always had a reputation as being a unique event. That reputation was certainly cemented this past weekend.
So as it turned out the K&N Engineering Subaru lost the chance to make up some time when the longest, fastest stage turned into a Sunday – or in this case – Saturday drive.
Still though, the guys did move up a couple of places on the road thanks to a stretch where they had the K&N car up to 108 miles-per-hour – on the ice! – which Scott Putnam thought was a bit of a stretch.
He said everyone should experience what it’s like to travel that fast on a slick road, and have the car slide around as it lifts off the ground over rises and bumps and comes down more-than-slightly unsettled.
On second thought, DON’T try that home as we don’t want to bear the consequences – or the lawsuits – that might follow such attempts.
Needless to say, Lauchlin O’Sullivan is a trained professional, and you have seen his work not only in rallying, but also in commercials and feature films such as “The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift.”
From Tokyo Drift to Sno*Drift, where the K&N guys finished in 9th place when all was said and done.
Some wrong tire choices on the first day and some bad luck on the second, combined with a super-strong field that didn’t self-destruct in front of them kept them back further than either was happy with.
But they live to fight – and rally – another day, which happens to be Rally in the 100 Acre Wood in Salem, Missouri February 23-24.
As for me, the experience has spoiled me forever. I will never again be able to impress myself – or even my wife and kids for that matter – by sliding the family SUV around a snowy parking lot. I have seen the real masters of car control, and am inexorably humbled.
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| David Gee on 01.31.07 @ 01:51 PM CST |
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| Wednesday, November 30th, 2005 |
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| Welcome to the Subenet blog. |
| Andrew Mull on 11.30.05 @ 09:09 PM CST |
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