TeamD at OTR 2012 (Part 1)

28
Jul
2012

Oregon Trail Rally (OTR) 2012 was a three day event. Friday evening stages were at Portland International Raceway and were more of a shakedown / fan appreciation thing and not much of a rally. Saturday and Sunday are the meat of the event. Little TeamD in the corner with a white pickup felt somewhat out of place.

But then people started showing up. Spectators. People that paid $10 to come see the show. And a few of them even came by and talked to us. And were amazed. “What is that?” “Is that an RX?” “Does it run?” and similar quotes. Sincere wishes of good luck came our way. And then Antoine L’Estage came by. Team Mitsubishi and leading the Canadian Rally Championship. And he loved the little RX. His crew were impressed (the ones that knew what it was). And TeamD felt a bit better.

2:00pm Novice Driver’s Meeting
5:30pm Parade Lap
6:00pm Parc Expose
6:15pm Mandatory Driver’s Meeting
6:59pm Massive nervous attack
7:00pm first car out.

There were four stages on Friday evening. Stages 1 and 3, identical, started on the track. The course headed down the main straight, with a right hairpin at the end, coming back up the other side of the barrier, then a left onto a service road, hard right out around the perimeter of the property, onto gravel, around some curves, back onto tarmac, and around to the finish. Stages 2 and 4 had more gravel and “sod” as they wound around and through the motocross park. At least that was the plan. The parade lap proved that the sporadic rain during the day had turned the motocross park into mud soup and some of the sod had turned to mush so they changed the course after the parade lap (and after they towed a car that got stuck in the muck on the parade lap) and redirected around the bad portions.

The PIR stages were run reverse order, meaning the slowest cars went first. Luckily I was not “first”. But as I lined up for the start of Stage 1, and as Kathryn attempted to roll up her window after getting the time card, well, the window would not roll up. This would cause problems as regulations state the window has to be open no more than 1/2 inch. So the seconds tick down and I start on time and we’re trying to get the window rolled up and it won’t move and perhaps the motor has died or the switch has died and it’s my first stage and I am trying to go fast but it is a real distraction and here comes the hairpin and I didn’t get to the speed I wanted and it feels sooo slow and we turn and then I remember something and turn the window lock off (it had been hit accidentally) and the window comes up and we can concentrate and boy that was crazy and whoa I’m supposed to be turning left into the service road….

Breath. It’s Ok. Just go.

And we did. Stage 1 complete. No longer a stage rally virgin.

Stage 2 had an uphill into a Left 2 and what Kathryn noted as a “tidy” left. I told here there was no way that left was going to be tidy and I was right. It’s on video. I’m all over the place and I am going to blame it on the choice to run our most worn tires to save the “better” ones for gravel. But still, ugh. At least I didn’t put the car into a pond. That happened to the Audi 90. There are great photos.

Stage 3 was a repeat of stage 1 but with no window issue. So I felt pretty good about it. And we floored it down the straight and around the back through the gravel but now I see in front of me a Saab 96 and I catch them on the gravel and end up following them down the final tarmac S turns and my time is slower this time because I caught the Saab but could not pass it.

Stage 4 was abbreviated and changed from the original course and from the parade lap. And we got lost.

One Response to “TeamD at OTR 2012 (Part 1)”

  1. Brandon Says:

    I didn’t see you guys at my SS10 start location…there must be a “rest of the story”?!