Last weekend was Mike’s (my co-driver) and my first rally of the season. I had two cars in this event so I had more than the usual amount of preparation to do. Mike and I are still racing the Fiero, but I bought a used Mazda 323 rally car earlier this year to use as a rental car. Its renter came up from California and rented my car because his isn’t done yet.
Mike, Melissa, and I headed down to Hoquiam, WA on Friday afternoon so we could be at registration when they opened at 6pm. We were second in line for registration and first in line for scrutineering (tech inspection). Being early enough to be first in line at
anything is a pretty unique experience for me.
Alan, my crew chief, joined us later that evening.
The first stage on Saturday went well and I was driving faster and looser than I usually do on the first stage of the day, especially the first stage after a long break. Stage two was a one mile paved stage and my autocross experience helped here. I also have lots of experience spinning out at autocrosses and I put this experience to good use, too. Still, we put in a respectable time and beat a surprising number of people who kept their cars pointed in the right direction.
Stage three was a good road and I was finally starting to find my groove. A couple miles before the end of the stage I caught the car in front of us. That’s always exciting, and fortunately there was no dust and very little spray from his tires so running right behind him didn’t hurt visibility.
We had noticed on the first few stages that our oil was getting really hot (300 – 310 degrees) and so our oil pressure was down to about 38psi. We swapped the oil out for some 20W-50 at service.
Stage four and five went without incident. The thicker oil got us about 5psi more pressure at 310 degrees. Looks like we need an oil cooler before next time.
Saturday’s results: Overall: 16th of 44. Group 2: 4th of 12.
Sunday was even more fun than Saturday. There were three different roads and we ran each of them in both directions for a total of six stages. Despite the weather predictions of overcast and cloudy, it was raining on and off all day. Rallying in the rain really isn’t that bad, but working on the car in the rain pretty much sucks. Fortunately our work on the car that day was limited to filling it up with gas and keeping the mud cleaned off the numbers.
Sunday was as uneventful as Saturday. Our only real issue that day was that because of the way the heater controls are set up we could run either the radiator fan or the windshield defrost fan, but not both. In addition to reading the notes, Mike had to keep his eye on the water temp and the windshield and toggle between the two fans.
Two of the stages this day were very fast, like floored in 4th gear for a long time fast. The road was slimy in spots and this made me nervous so I slowed down and lost some time on these stages. I don't like to have to work hard to keep the car pointed straight down a muddy road at 80+. Things happen too fast at that speed and anything that happens is going to be expensive.
Sunday’s results: Overall: 17th of 37. Group 2: 5th of 10.
The Mazda 323 didn’t fare as well. It had an electrical problem on Saturday so it DNF’d. We got that repaired and then on Sunday it would experience a power loss after a few miles of heavy throttle. I think this is related to the catalytic converter we’re required to run this year.
All in all it was a fun event. My times this year were better than last year despite worse road conditions, so my driving is improving.
The next race is June 7-8.
Saturday results:
http://www.nwr-scca.org/rally/results/03/doowop3_03.htm Sunday results:
http://www.nwr-scca.org/rally/results/03/doowop3_03.htm Here are some pictures. Please use the links and don't post them to the thread. I don't want to violate anybody's copyrights.
http://www.prorallypix.com/doowop03/dw3/page4.html http://www.pdxsports.com/photos/showindex.asp?folder=2003_doowop34 pictures of the Fiero on pages 2, 4, & 6.
http://www.subiegal.com/images/RALLIES/Doo%20Wop%203-4%202003/doowop4.htm row 2 picture 5 and row 3 pictures 6-7.
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Doug Chase
'88 Fiero Formula 5-spd (autocrosser)
'88 Fiero GT 5-spd (daily driver)
'85 Fiero GT 5-spd (rally car)
Custom roll cage fabrication available
Custom exhaust fabrication available
[edited for formatting]
[This message has been edited by Doug Chase (edited 03-06-2003).]
