TeamD Adventures

The cars and people of TeamD had an impressive showing at the 2009 Thunderbird Rally in British Columbia. “TBird” as many call it is fairly called the biggest unpaved TSD rally in western North America. Overall kudos go to Satch Carlson and Russ Kraushaar, repeating their 2007 overall victory in the Historic class 1969 Saab Sonett with a finishing score of 6 — proving once again that AWD is not necessary to take the win on TBird’s challenging roads and conditions. Two additional classic Saabs were in the event, with Garth Ankeny and Ben Bradley piloting their red 1969 96 to an impressive top-ten overall finish and 2nd in Historic class. The other 96, a 1970 edition, was driven by John Vanlandingham and Adam Crane. Rules for the Savoia Aero Team prize precluded TeamD from competing in that arena — they needed to have entries in more than a single class. The team prize was awarded to Arctic Challengers.

Well, we got up this morning all beaten down and couldn’t decide whether to pack it in and head home to PDX or not. We ran the numbers to see what the cost to go home would be offset by cancelling the remaining hotel rooms and the POS rental car. Good enough for 4th overall. This is without a doubt the most difficult rally we’ve run in the UNLIMITED class, not because of the rally itself. But because of the compensation for the equipment. We did decide on one thing: no more rental cars.

Did a double take when we saw this while walking around NE Portland.

Posted by Renee Damm | Comments Off on Scene from Ashcroft