Alcan RallyLog

More Photos

More photos from Dan's camera. These are shots from Day 8 (Ice Hotel), Day 9 (Big Lake Slalom and the awards) as well as some nice pics from the dash home.

Right now I'm hosting the pics on my web site. Perhaps we'll consolidate them here soon. For now you can find them at http://www.comdens.com/rally/alcan/Alcan8-End/

The Long Road Home

As Steve said, TeamD is back home. After just over three days, Car #11 left the freeway 2284 miles from Anchorage.

A quick recap of the last few days:

Friday (Day 10) meant sleeping in after the banquet and festivities of the previous evening.
Our day: much-needed laundry was addressed, shopping in Anchorage for some souvenirs, and then we were back on the road. We made tracks over the Glenn Highway to Tok, then just squeaked over the AK/YT border before finding the great roadhouse at Beaver Creek (See the Beaver Pad entry earlier). Canadian customs gave us an official stamp in our passports as well!

We arose the next morning, nabbed a hearty truckers breakfast and retraced our route south on
the Alaska Highway with fuel stops in Destruction Bay, Whitehorse and Teslin. Before we reached the turn south on the Cassiar near Watson Lake, the front differential on the BMW started acting cranky. Eric quickly diagnosed low lubricant and some oil was located and inserted. At Watson Lake, proper gear oil was found and during the dinner stop the shiny metallic oil was replaced with nice new clean oil. Whew.

The first bit of driving down the Cassiar was pretty spectacular, even at night. With a full moon lighting the way, the icy roads and peaks on either side were quite a sight. A wise call ahead to the motel at Dease Lake meant that the owner was still awake to let us in to lay our weary heads.

Refueling bodies and cars was performed the next morning at the village of Iskut, about fifty miles south of Dease Lake . The Cassiar is really an amazing road -- some say it's more like the old days of the Alcan highway. Stops are few and far between and traffic is light this time of year. About 15% of it remains unpaved. During the winter season, the gravel sections are smoother than the pavement and also seem the safest.

Pressing on towards Prince George on the Yellowhead Highway, we found the first real heavy traffic -- meaning that we needed to pass cars and trucks every fifteen to thirty minutes. Quite a shock after the loneliness of the previous day's driving. Entertaining radio chatter led by Nick in Car #6 kept us alert and chortling along the way. We ended the night back in Quesnel -- site of the first night's stay of the rally. Pull tabs and paralyzers brought the evening to a close.

And today was the final push -- straight down 97, through Cache Creek and back on fairly familiar roads. This was the first time most of us had done this segment southbound in daylight. The Fraser River Canyon is also amazing scenery. We crossed the border at Sumas without incident and rejoined traffic on Interstate 5 as if we'd never been away. The only difference between our cars and others was the pockmarked film of grime and dust blanketing our vehicles.

Oh -- for those who asked. Buzz Lightyear made the entire trip on the top of the WRX. . Not only is he merely dirty, but most of his buttons work and he still talks, as do all the members of all the cars.

Ah, it's good to be home! But we're already talking about 2008...

TeamD In Anchorage

All three cars from TeamD have completed the 2004 Alcan Winter Rally and are ensconced at the Millenium Hotel in Anchorage, Alaska.

After two TSD sections and an ice slalom between Fairbanks and the finish, we received an excellent reception at Continental Subaru in Anchorage. Many thanks to the friendly folks there (and for the alternator help as well).

We'll be off to the awards banquet in a few moments and will report on the final results when they're in. Stay tuned!

Photo Gallery and update

Today we are in Fairbanks. Though we didn't cover as many miles as previous days, we had two TSD sections. Most of the TeamD cars think they did well. We should get scores later tonight.

During today's drive I put together a gallery of photos I've taken so far. Too much trouble to get them onto the site. You can find them at this place

Nighty night from the Captain Bartlett Inn located in brisk Fairbanks, AK!

Day 7 - We're On The Charge Again

This morning Jim and I piled into the red Sweep truck for the trip back to Dawson City. They would drop us and the alternator loaned by the Challenge Driving Subaru team to see if we could get our act back on the road. Ohio and Ken did a great job piloting the big ol' Dodge through the snow, ruts and morning flat light. A diversion near the end of the road -- we rounded a corner to find car #13, Paul and Paul's Mitsubishi Montero on its side in the right hand ditch. We quickly piled out of the car to find navigator Paul's head pop out of the right hand door.

They were unharmed and had wisely taken time to don their cold weather gear and figure out how to unstrap without landing on each other before exiting the vehicle. A couple of tugs with Ohio's pickup and they were going again. Seemingly unharmed except for a dented driver's door, the hardy Montero unfortunately gave up its automotive ghost another 250 miles down the road -- an oil problem, sounded like.. Looks like they will finish out the rally riding with a sweep vehicle. Great competitors, the both of them and we're quite sorry to see them unable to drive to the finish.

But I get ahead of the story, don't I? Ohio and Ken dropped us in Dawson City at the same shop that helped the BMW team switch tie rods on their cars two days ago. Though the loaned alternator had a dented pulley, the great folks at Northern Superior Mechanical had us charging normally and bolting down the highway, only a couple of hours behind the rest of the rally. This is a long day for most of the teams -- close to 700 miles, I think, but we're a bit fresher than most because we didn't have to pilot the first 230 mile stretch out of Eagle Plains. When I say "fresh" I mean only our level of fatigue. After three days in the same clothing, there's no way I can use that word in any other sense. As I type this, we are 11 miles from the one and only DIY TSD for the day. I'll end this for now and hopefully get a chance to post later tonight in Destruction Bay.

Oh -- about car #12 (the third BMW). When we were getting the alternator replaced/fixed in Dawson, the owner of the shop asked us to take a couple of pieces of the BMW that had been cannibalized down to Whitehorse. We dropped the tie rod cap and bolt at the shop in a nice used Beef Jerky bag with a kind note from Car #11.

Rolling in to Destruction Bay. Photos cropped & sized. Should be online soon.

On The Beaufort With The Baron

Day 6 report -- a day late.

Too much happened on Days 5 and 6 to get much out on the Web site. You've heard about alternator problems and the subsequent team spirit that got us to the End Of The Road on Day 5. Again, many thanks to Rob and Nick and Steve and Eric for putting up with the two large boys from Car #11.

The Baron's Audi S4 lacked a co-driver for the day's trip to Tuktoyaktuk so he asked me to fill in. After a quick breakfast, I joined him in his red ride for the trip up the ice road. "I don't read too well -- I'm dyslexic -- and lazy" were his first comments to me that morning. I didn't think it would be too tough to follow the route -- take a right from the hotel down onto the river, turn right on the ice, and drive until the road ends.

In a nutshell, that's how things went. But -- what a morning! The gray light of dawn rose to a fantastic sunrise as we pushed along atop the frozen Mackenzie. We're in the delta region here, so there were plenty of islands and distractions along the way. Along with the natural wonders were the antics of a particular car not-to-be named that made a few off-course excursions that morning. The Baron and I pulled them from high atop a snowbank once and we saw them do a hard off a bit later that they drove out from. Have I mentioned yet that we were finally seeing some seriously cold temps? Though unseasonably "warm" for the area, the few minutes I spent helping with the tow rope without the big coat and warm hat were quite a morning eye-opener.

As we made the gradual right turn out onto the Beaufort Sea we saw our first sun dogs -- rainbow-like atmospheric events bracketing the sun. Incredible. They followed us for about 1/3 of the approx. 100 mile trip to Tuk.

Car 6 (Rob and Nick's Mazda) unfortunately found a serious divot in the river ice and blew two tires simultaneously. Eric and Steve helped them put on the two spares so they could get back to Inuvik to find some replacements. That's three done-in tires for TeamD so far. Does the "D" stand for Destruction?

Tuktoyaktuk is only accessible via autos in the winter. It's home to about 980 people with a variety of ethnicities and jobs. Since we needed to be leaving Inuvik by 1pm at the latest, we spent little time there, took a few photos, met up with most of the other cars and then the Baron handed me the keys for the drive back to Inuvik.

The S4 is a great car. I would like one for Christmas. Rene (the Baron) has raced it in a few One Lap events and it's set up nicely for two people. Smooth and powerful, I almost forgot that it was running unstudded Blizzak tires rather than the studded Nokians I've become used to over the last few thousand miles. We only had a single brief excursion into a snowbank while I got things sorted out in the first few miles (enough momentum to drive out, much to the following Car 7's enjoyment). Amazing torque, comfy ride -- it's obvious this would be a great replacement for the rally Blazer. Now to find that deep pockets sponsor for a longer-term ride in one of these babies...

Had a wonderul time riding and driving with the Baron. Quite an interesting fellow, with a great sense of humor and zest for life. Perhaps he had a bit too much zest the night before, as he napped during much of the drive back from Tuk.

Back in Inuvik, I handed the keys back to the Baron and joined Jim in the rallymaster's Excursion for the jaunt to Eagle Plains, halfway back to pavement on the Dempster. Other cars had some tire damage as well on the ice road -- I believe Car 10 had to replace two and the scoring car did as well. Somewhere along the day the S4 picked up a nail. How that was done on the river I can't say -- perhaps it was from the day before or during our brief jaunt around Tuk.

Just outside Inuvik we spotted what look like volcanic cinder cones -- they're a terrain feature called a pingo -- an area where ice is forming under the earth and pushing it skyward. Pretty cool.

The 240 mile drive back over the Richardson Range to Eagle Plains was a partial reverse of the previous day -- ice bridges at the Mackenzie and Peel rivers (didn't get good photos from the back seat but Jim shot some video). Riding with Jerry and Bill and Gary was a hoot as they relived rallies and driving experiences of past years. Buy them a beer some time and ask them about some of their trailer-towing sagas.

The weather was a tad more rugged on our drive south than the day before. We caught up to some more sun dogs on the way. Blowing snow, the odd oncoming semi truck but at least the road was freshly graded. We pulled in to the lodge/gas/food stop at Eagle Plains glad to stretch our legs and quaff a much-relished malt beverage. Eagle Plains is the only place for fuel and food for most of the Dempster and served as the work camp during the time the highway was built in the 1970s. The current manager has been there since it opened and seemed glad to have the noisy, gregarious Alcan rallyists at his roadhouse.

The evening was capped by a pretty spectacular display of the northern lights. A hardy group of rallyists spent quite a bit of time in the cold -- I think it was -20F or so-- clear air to ogle the shifting glowing coulds in the sky. I'd only observed this phenomenon from a jet before, so it was an extra treat. Should be interesting to see if some of the photos will come out. I didn't attempt pics with my camera's limited feature set.

Sun dogs, pingos and the aurora borealis. My oh my, what a day!

Fortunes Change

So the story is out on Car 11's ill-fated attempt to make the Arctic Circle. Sadly disappointed, we were quickly cheered up by our teammate's willingness to take us on board so that we could at least make the ultimate journey north.

The scenery here is difficult to describe and the photos can't do it justice. I kept trying to compare what I was seeing from the front seat of Car 6 (a spacious Mazda 323) to anything I'd eyeballed before, but came up short.

A wonderful ride up in the Mazda was followed by a delicious dinner in the Mackenzie Hotel. Fortunes changed, as I was asked by the Baron to ride with him to Tuk tomorrow. Since he gave me the key to the Audi S4, it should be an interesting day...

From Dawson -- Fresh and Hot!

Here's how much things have changed on the Alcan: TeamD and Friends writing, editing, and sharing photos in the El Dorado Bar just two minutes ago:

Klondike Kars

Moving further into the Yukon, we are now in the town of Dawson City, site of the big gold rush in the late 1800's.

Started the day with a short TSD outside of Whitehorse, then off to a new location for a slalom on a lake outside of town. The event on the Yukon was cancelled due to lack of freezure. (is that a word). Anyway, the ice on Fish Lake was quite froze, and very very slippy. Imagine an ice rink after it's been zamboni'ed and you'll have an idea.

We had a great time trying to get around the single lap with some amount of grace and style. Style points were available for nearly every car and we had some good hoots and hollers on the last sharp corner before the finish line. Ask to see Jim's in-car video some time.
We don't know yet if we'll have to decide to take the penalty points or pony up cash to avoid the points for the tug from the snowbank...
Scores are in now, and Car 11 maxed the slalom (i.e. too slow). Car 6 got best time of the unstudded cars and Eric managed 3rd fastest in the BMW in the studded entries. Yesterday's scores will soon be posted by Eric (if they're not already there). Jim and Dan moved up a spot in overall, Eric and Steve continue to lead Class I and Rob and Nick are poised to make a move as well.

Drive up along the Yukon and Klondike Rivers today was fantastic -- sun was out and the roads were just a little slimy. Once past Carmacks (named for the guy who pretty much discovered the gold that started the Klondike Gold Rush), we saw quickly dropping temps and more snow on the road. The surface was pretty nice, though, and the drivin' was good. Cars 6 (Rob and Nick), 7 (Eric and Steve) and 11 (Jim and Dan) did the convoy thing and had a great time chatting over the radio and keeping each other safe. We drove with Car 13, a Mitsubishi Montero, for a while

It's amazing the amount of infrastructure and work that goes into keeping a road up here in drivable condition. Consider that we're well north, in (usually) very intense weather conditions with little population. yet the roads remain in nice shape, well signed, and lost of fun to drive. We're loving it!

Here's a parting shot of Eric looking over the hamlet of Pelly Crossing, where the Pelly River joins the Yukon:

And, of course, what he was looking at:

Photos from Rob

Here are some pics from the last few days from Rob in Car #6:

The Tropical North

Grimy is the road to Whitehorse, especially when the temps are well above freezing. Today's early start at 0600 in Ft. St. John seemed like it would stay cold, but it didn't last. A nice long TSD section on some interesting roads, paved and unpaved, had rallyists scratching their heads over the advisability of passing on uphill hairpin turns. From the sounds of it, most selected safety over a good checkpoint time. It will be interesting to see if that part of the section is scored later as the amount of traffic on that section of road affected quite a few cars. The rest was great, though.

Oh -- a quick recap of last night. We didn't do well on the last TSD. It was a DIY (Do It Yourself) section which was something new for us. The idea behind this kind of section is that it can be run by having the teams compute their perfect times and they can only do so by driving the course and getting the best measurements they can. I thought I had the calculations figured out, and these can be easy if you take the time to get good measurements and don't make mistakes. Unfortunately I made a major screwup and wrote down an entirely wrong time which gave us a gigantic score on the last three DIY checkpoints of the six total. Disappointing because we had zeroed the first three. We did well on the TSD by the school earlier that day as well, scoring better than some of the very experienced teams. We also didn't max our score at the slalom, meaning we weren't *completely* outclassed. But my mistake last night will be hard to overcome over the remainder of the event. Eric and Steve did fantastic on the first DIY, and were the only team to score an impressive zero total for the section.

Like I said, today's morning TSD was great fun. Afterward we made tracks further north, heading up the Alaska Highway. Fairly heavily travelled at this point, the section to Fort Nelson saw dropping temps -- to about 9 degrees in town when we arrived for gas and lunch. But temps quickly climbed over the freezing point after we left town, and the rest of the daylight hours were spent squirting washer fluid and squinting at the road ahead. Everyone marveled at the nice weather. After Fort Nelson, traffic lightened considerably.

By the time we hit Liard Hot Springs at around the 400 mile mark, the site of the 2nd TSD and the first DIY for the day, quite a few of us felt it wasn't cold enough to dunk our bods in the hot springs. Eric and Steve and a select few others made the effort, though. After all, if you've come this far, might as well take the plunge!

The short DIY TSD up the highway was uneventful, except for passing quite close to a couple of groups of bison. What does one call a group of bison anyway? A blunder of bison? A bamboozle of buffalo?

Another 100 miles or so and we left British Columbia for the Yukon Territory. Of course we had to stop for photos but it didn't seem too dramatic to stand there in our shirtsleeves so we dug out the cold weather coats for that extra look of authenticity. The border sign location is actually the fifth (out of seven) place where we crossed between the two provinces but this is the "official" one and is just outside of Watson Lake. We met up with some of the BMW and Challenge Driving teams here as well and shared in the photo opportunity.

Home of the famous Signpost Forest, Watson Lake seems like a pretty quiet place. We had a very short DIY TSD here, which wound through the side streets of the town before dropping us off back on the highway to continue north. Some gossip was exchanged with some of the experienced teams -- perhaps an interesting outcome will be aired tomorrow. But first, another gas and washroom stop, and another chance to scrape some of the muck from lights, glass and sponsor decals. We then saddled up for the nearly 300 mile last push to our hotel in Whitehorse.

I started typing this not long after departing Watson Lake. As I was transferring the day's photos to the computer, we noticed a semi truck/trailer off the side of the road with the marker lights on. We stopped to see if help was needed and it didn't look good. But we found a well-worn path from the wreck up to the road so we determined that whatever aid had already been and gone. The semi left the road and was airborne for quite a distance (later reports said 70 feet). A sobering picture as we restarted our drive in the dark north.

A few of my friends and family have asked about safety -- don't worry. We're with a well supported group of very able folks and having the radios increases both the general safety as well as the alertness level of everyone. I should also comment about the cameraderie and general good nature of this group. When you get a group of people from all over the country involved in something like this event, it really brings home that one of the best parts of doing rally, even something as "outside" as this, is just as much about the fun and friends as it is the competition and challenge.

Day two partial report

This is a test. This is only a test.

That's what I had to tell myself while rounding the back turn of the Gold Pan race course in Quesnel this morning. The track conditions were very bumpy hard snow, and going off course here wouldn't be nearly as forgiving as our our practice runs last month on the frozen lake. Snowbanks were window-high on the car here, and the course was pretty narrow.

I made it through fairly tentatively. Jim did much better on his first run. The other cars were a kick to watch as well, with some fancy driving being done in car #2 by Jake and car #4 by Paul. TeamD entries were happy to have an exhilarating spin around the course, though Steve couldn't get enough excitement and decided to slightly alter the appearance of the BMW. I'll let him or Eric tell that story. Anyway, Jim and I ended up with nearly the same fastest time for our car -- within 1/1000th of each other. I tell, ya, the fun you can have in the WRX is incredible.

Anyhow, few teams needed the assistance of the sweep vehicle to get towed from being high-centered, though one of the BMW X3 entries managed to hang it up right before the timing point. The crowd hooted and hollered for anyone getting sideways or, in one or two cases, backways. The touring class entry even did a lap pulling their small trailer.

After the excitement of the race course, we headed off to our first TSD outside of Quesnel. The start point was right at an elementary school and Jerry (the rallymaster) arranged for us to park in the lot there during lunch recess so the kids could swarm the cars. Trinkets from Subaru were a big hit, passed out by the Challenge Driving team, and we even had a handful of requests for autographs. The Buzz Lightyear on top of the WRX was a hit for some of the kids as well.

Our first TSD of the day got off to a spastic start, with me somehow mucking up our time by two minutes. Fortunately we got it straightened out a mere thirty seconds before the start. Even with a slightly wrong turn, we had decent times with some very challenging checkpoint locations. TSD may sound easy, but maintaining an average speed when you don't know where the checkpoints are located, and you come around a 30 KPH snow and mud covered downhill hairpin turn trying to maintain 30 *M*PH is one of the most challenging things one can do in a car. Even when you're sitting in the right hand seat!

We recorded the entire section on Jim's video camera -- the slalom we did through cattle on the road will be entertaining to watch later. From the Quesnel TSD we had to make some miles to Dawson Creek, official start of the Alaska Highway. Fortunately the temps continued to stay mostly above freezing and though the roads weren't dry, at least they were clear. A passage control and photo op at Dawson Creek was quick, then we headed off for the final TSD of the day on the old Alaska Highway on our way to Fort St. John.

Tomorrow is our longest day. We will drive nearly the distance we've travelled in two days in just one -- 830 miles or so. An early start is in the cards so I'll sign off now.

We don't have scores yet -- maybe tomorrow!

Gold Pan Photos

WRX fun:

Car 7 starts:

We didn't wear shorts

Soggy Start, Tired Finish

Soggy was the start of our first day. The drive to Kirkland was brief but after a late night getting the last few essentials into the car, we were feeling as if we'd been going for hours. The prospect of embarking on this rally had us excited, though. The start location at the Silver Cloud Inn showed us a parking lot packed with rally and support vehicles anxious to get going. Family and friends of TeamD were on hand to cheer and pass out homemade cookies (greatly appreciated). Cars departed on their number/minute after 0800. We went against the flow of rush hour traffic and quickly made the 90 miles to the beginning of the first scored TSD section with plenty of time to spare. The section we drove was reminiscent of the rally we just did last month -- in fact it was identical if memory serves. At least, some of the checkpoint locations seemed familiar. We had no problems crossing hte border; our favorite Canadian Customs question was "Are you carrying more than $10,00 cash?" TeamD has a lof of support, but not to that level. Yet.

It was another 400 miles to our next scored section just north of Williams Lake, BC. A brief moment of panic was experienced on the long transit when the computer's odometer quit rolling its numbers. A loose conneciton was quickly located and fixed. The temperature sensor, on the other hand, is apparently a lost cause. We were hoping to be able to have a good display of outside temps but the relocation of some other wires or a possible short in the sensor wire was showing tropical temps outside. I don't think it's quite 90 degrees out here! Even more odd was the fact that transmitting on the ham radios seemed to make the temp display increase. Now -- we know there are some hot air bags in the car but this is a bit much.

A seemingly mandatory stop for the rally crews was at Chuck's Auto Parts in Williams Lake to pick up last minute supplies of winter wiper blades and Canadian-quality windshield fluid. One rallyist had in his hands the last battery blanket to be found in the store. We're glad we spent so much time in prep! They didn't have a temp sensor but we later located a replacement in Quesnel.

Though we have been up this far north on previous BC rally events, this was a new road for the TeamD WRX crew. Confusion early in a referenced instruction had me experiencing a moment of navigator panic until I remembred that with the Timewise computer, I have lots of control. The scores we saw later tonight confirmed my fears, though... my mistake cost us some points. It was quite warm for this section -- right around 40F, which meant the road was very sloppy. Most of this section was unpaved and Jim's WRX with its Nokian tires had unquestioned grip on the slimy surface. A large number of checkpoints and speed changes kept things busy in the right hand side of the car.

Can't forget the scenery. We've done the drive up as far north as Cache Creek during daylight hours only once. The trip up the Fraser River Canyon is quite nice. Even better was seeing the stretch up to Williams Lake -- something we've only done in the dark before.

Quesnel is home to about 10,000 people. Named for one of Simon Fraser's lieutenants on his historic voyage, it was also a jumpoff point for some of the local gold rushes in the late 1800s. We're staying at the new Sandman Inn -- sure to be a regular stop on future Alcan events.

Tomorrow we start out the day at the Goldpan Raceway in Quesnel -- a 3/8 mile oval track that has been plowed for us. Should be fun!

No time to post pictures -- we may get some out tomorrow. Eric's turn now.

Inspected -- Not Rejected

Driver's meeting and Tech Inspection was held today in Bothell. All 16 teams were on hand to hear advice, rules, stories of Alcan rallies past and to have their vehicles inspected to ensure safety and compliance.
Car numbers aren't passed out until the paperwork (licenses, registration and insurance) is checked and verified. Tech inspection makes sure that there are no loose items in the engine compartment and no obvious flaws with the vehicle as well as ensuring that safety items like triangles and a tow strap are present and that there's an installed radio that will work on the official event frequency. Turns out there are quite a few ham radio folks in the event so that will give us gabby types more to do on the long transits.

Of course, we had no problems and neither did the Horst/Willey BMW. Rob and Nick are going to have some extra work tonight, mostly installing a stereo. We're finishing packing the car and have had visits and phone calls from friends wishing us luck. Now if we can get a good night's sleep, we're off at 8 am tomorrow!

This is a Stick Up!

Two TeamD cars spent some quality indoor time today in the TeamD Vinyl Tech Application Center (V-TAC) in Lake Forest Park, Washington. Thanks to our great sponsors we had a difficult time choosing where decals would be applied as well as getting back in practice for getting the dang things to line up properly and not get messed up.

Steve contemplates his options.

We have stickers from 180, Yakima, McNamara Signs, and Wrangler Power Products. Of course the event itself has vinyl that we're required to use. We also had a few other decals we felt it important to apply as well. Many test arrangements were made and pondered.

The weather wasn't great when we began so being indoors was nice. After a few hours we were able to move outside for the last applications on the WRX. We took a bit longer due to our indecision and inexperience, but thanks to the vets we were able to get finished. Lack of sun didn't make for great photographs however, so you'll have to wait a day or two for those. In the meantime, here's a shot of the ix all purtied up:

RallyTech: Computer

Some of the technically inclined may be interested in all the equipment we use in the cars to stay on perfect time. Both the BMW and the WRX use the same equipment in this quest.

Rally Computer
For the competitive TSD (Time-Speed-Distance) sections which will be scored on our accuracy, we'll be concentrating entirely on the official route instructions and our Timewise 798A rally computer . The Timewise allows us to approach staying on perfect time by taking a signal from an odometer input, using the target speed (What we call the CAST -- an acronym for Change Average Speed To) and displays our error between perfect time and actual time at any point during a scored section. It's slightly complicated to learn and use if you're unfamiliar with the goal of TSD rallying, but it really does a great job when it's handled correctly. Basically it does a tremendous number of those good old time/speed/distance math problems you may recall from junior high school and displays those calculations in a way that is useful feedback for the driver and navigator. We each get our own display -- the driver has a small box in front of him that displays the error, while the navigator gets all of that and more to control.

The Timewise can use two odometer inputs. We've installed connections for both in the WRX. The stock odometer in the dash is not precise enough or accurate enough for our pursuit of the perfect time. Most stock odometers read anywhere between 2-10% faster/longer than actual distance traveled -- stock speedometers have a similar error. The WRX's primary odometer sensor is a Hall Effect sensor mounted on a bracket attached to the rear differential and two magnets epoxied to the axle. As the axle turns, the magnets are exposed to the sensor which generates an electronic pulse that is relayed to the computer. The backup odo sensor is the stock VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor) which provides the signal from the transmission to a variety of devices, including the stock odo. The BMW uses Hall effect sensors as well, one on each of the front drive axles. The Timewise allows us to tweak our odo readings to match whatever the rallymaster's odometer used to measure the rally. It can get a little more complicated, with different tweaks for different kinds of road surfaces and tires, but I won't go into that, mostly because I'm not good enough with the computer yet. It can be incredibly accurate. As for precision, the Timewise is able to display to a resolution of 0.001 miles. Usually rallys are measured and calculated to a hundredth of a mile. That extra digit allows for incredible precision if we're using the equipment correctly.

As the navigator, it's important to understand how to use the rally computer so that the driver gets good information as to whether he's on time, early or late. If we don't do everything correctly, including remembering to zero the odometer (see the Last (real) Practice blog entry) it means we aren't starting with data that the computer requires. If we miss hitting the CAST switch at just the right location in the mileage, the calculations will be wrong, and the computer won't display the error correctly, meaning that it's impossible for it to tell us if we're on time or not. During a scored section we need to pay attention to the official mileage in the route instructions and figure out if our odometer is displaying different numbers. If there's a mismatch (usually due to wheel slip in gravel or on snow), we need to be able to correct both the odometer and the calculated time. The Timewise makes much of this easy, but we need to be quick and efficient in its operation. Also, we need to slap the driver's hand if he reaches over and tries to fiddle with any of the switches.

And the driver? All he has to do is look at his display and go faster or slower.

Last (real) Practice

This was it: our last chance to practice with the computer on a rally even remotely resembling the kind of scoring we’ll see on the Alcan. Chuckanut Sports Car Club put on the Armageddon XXII Redux rally on January 25. This event was rescheduled from last

November due to excessive flood damage on forest roads that comprised the planned route. Now it would be almost all paved instead of the gravel we crave but regardless, we looked forward to it for the valuable seat time in a competitive setting. After all, it’s been many weeks since we had to try and stay on time during the Totem Rally in British Columbia last November...

Jim was over on Saturday doing random wiring and re-wiring and installing of additional gadgets. (My youngest son’s comment: “you again?!” – already a wiseass at the age of four). I worked on some stuff for this web site that will be revealed later. We got the GPS multiplexer mostly working, installed the rally computer and planned on a 7:30 departure for Bellingham. I programmed the coffee maker and my alarm clock for our wake up and Jim fretted about a last-minute problem report from his nest of computers at work. The fact that I didn’t push all the right buttons on the alarm clock was foreshadowing that I failed to heed. Fortunately the sound of the coffee maker squeezing out its last drops of human starting fluid woke Jim and we got on the road a mere 30 minutes late for our jaunt north to sign in.

We love getting our car number, and we really love getting car #13. There was a whole lotta love for us in the silver WRX but we were unfazed. Perhaps I should’ve done a fazing practice, or read a fazing manual. But who the heck knows what being fazed actually means? Hindsight is brilliant in its clarity...
Eric and Steve got lucky #7 so we knew we wouldn’t see them much, if at all, during the event. Six minutes is a long time when it comes to hanging out before a scored regularity section begins.

First car out was 10:01 and we weren’t far behind for the very brief odometer check. No wrong turns is a Good Thing when it comes to matching up our odometer signal to what the rallymaster used to measure the course and this was our first success of the day. I had our speed programmed, the odometer factor calculated, speed changes highlighted in the route book... what else was there to do? Our start time approached, I said “hit it” to Jim, and then realized that a significant task had been left undone. Setting the odometer to zero is kind of important when beginning a rally. It’s vital, in fact. I quickly scrambled my limited resources to come up with a plan to get our odometer on the right number and while I was congratulating myself on solving that problem I managed to miss a speed change. I tried to fudge it and gave Jim a variety of instructions to adjust his speed: “Faster!” “No, slower!” “Ummm” – Perhaps it was that last utterance that clued him in to the fact that his navigator was ... fazed?

So we did not love the first section. The rest of the rally went pretty well. Long story short, it was a great touring rally on some interesting roads. Snow was not really a factor though we saw some slush on one section but with the surefooted Subaru it was never a worry and the organizers had plenty of provisional plans in place in the event of too much slippy stuff. We were running the GPS as a curiosity and one of the sections had us getting (literally) within spitting distance of the U.S./Canada border. The built-in map for the GPS showed us making a brief foray over the border but we never left the road and the laser guns on the camera towers never lit up so I figure it was a glitch in that piece of technology that provided plenty of in-car speculation/entertainment.

The event ended at a restaurant in Bellingham and before scores were released Jim and I decided we needed to head home. We were able to get the details from Steve over the phone later and found that my fears about our result on the first section were well founded. We placed OK in the event, but were around 30 seconds in error for the three or so checkpoints in the first section resulting in around 100 points of error, putting us well out of contention for a low score. Other sections sounded like they went well for us (plenty of one and zero scores for checkpoints) and we look forward to seeing the details when they’re published. Steve told us we placed fourth in class and fifth overall.

Eric and Steve in car #7 did a fantastic job and placed 2nd, within one point of the first place finishers. 16 points (i.e. 16 seconds) of error over more than 100 miles bodes well for our team’s Alcan effort.

Question of the day: Should I have “RESET ODO” tattooed on the back of my left hand or will I remember this important detail before we head north?

There is one Friday Night rally the week before we leave, but I will have to give that one a miss in order to go skiing with my oldest. Those events are completely different, though, so probably not much help.

A Weekend of Wiring by Dan

This past weekend (January 10-11) we spent a few hours crawling through and around the WRX. Here's a recap of everything we did:

• Replaced battery with new Optima blue top. Installed battery blanket.
• Rewired accessory power cable with new 80 amp fuse block and fabbed a mounting plate to go over the top of the battery to hold the block.
• Temp/altimeter/compass display: pulled power and ran sensor cable to right side B pillar door jamb.
• Replaced under-seat fuse block on driver's side.
• Installed control head for 2nd ham radio in headliner, pulled cable to slated location under right seat. Pulled speaker wire to right rear of car.
• Pulled antenna feeds for both radios to rear of car. (Replaced cable for radio #1)
• Pulled switch wire for rear fog lights to passenger side front dash.
• Installed GPS multiplexer on mounting plate under driver's seat. This will take the GPS signal and feed it to radio #1 for GPRS as well as to the laptop. Pulled cable for GPS power and signal from top of dash to this location too.
• Sealed subwoofer enclosure, re-ran control cable.
• Pulled power cable for laptop.

Here's a view of the interior with all the seats out. Radio #2 is sitting on the temporary piece of plywood. Lookit all the wires!

Here's what the under-seat radio (#1), fuse block and GPS mux look like with the driver's seat out:

I probably forgot one or two things that we did. We still have to add some bits but we're pretty much done pulling wire through and under things. I hope. This should be the last time we have all the seats out of the car, anyway, except to complete the install for radio #2.

When you see Jim, congratulate him on his ability to shoehorn yet more gadgets into the WRX.