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2003 NoBM |
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I dreamt I was driving through a ball of cotton...by Dan ComdenOn October 4, the 2003 Night on Bald Mountain Rally changed venues from the Snoqualmie Pass area. Tonight we would be wending our way through the twists, turns (and fog) of Capitol Forest near Olympia. TeamD fielded three teams on the challenging NoBM event this year. Two-time defending champs Eric Horst and Steve Willey in the newly (partially) rebuilt BMW would be trying for a hat trick after their first place showings in 2001 and 2002. Dan Comden's Blazer made its third appearance in the event, this time in the competitive Unlimited class, with the help of capable navigator Marvin Crippen. The two previous years had seen less than stellar results with the big ugly beast in SOP and Equipped classes, so hopes were high for something better than last place. Jeff McMillen and Dave Carroll in a newly-shod Subaru WRX came to play with the Equipped crowd to round off the TeamD entries to this notable northwest rally event. Though Car #1 vets Horst and Willey in the BMW were stymied by a suicidal deer who took out a variety of stock and driving lights, they pressed on to turn in a very creditable score of 39 for 2nd place overall and 2nd in class. Occupants of the Big Ugly Blazer fared well, with a driver and navigator new to UNL class and a pig of a vehicle that refused to go into 4WD. Overcoming these obstacles netted Comden and Crippen 3rd in Unlimited and 3rd overall with a score of 50. The freakish right foot of McMillan combined with the stoic navigation of Carroll in the Subaru WRX were stellar. Undaunted by the conditions and the high level of competition in their class, they turned in a first in Equipped class and 7th overall result with a score of 69. Congratulations to 1st Unlimited and 1st overall winners Ben Bradley and Russ Kraushaar in a Mazda 323 GTX with a score of 31. In SOP class, Rick Griffith and Ryan Dolby nabbed first spot in their Subaru Impreza, shunning computers and calculators to turn in a respectable 286. Thanks to Dave Treen and his crew of workers for putting on a great event with some of the best roads we've seen. Or not seen, depending on the fog.
2003 Night on Bald Mountain or Animal Husbandry 101by Steve WilleyWe were first put on notice that the animal world was pissed at us before we left for Olympia, WA and the start of Night on Bald Mountain (http://www.teamhightower.com/nwrc/nobm/). NoBM is a kick ass gravel touring rally that begins before dark and ends in the late evening. It's put on by the good people of Olympic Rally Competition Association (ORCA http://www.olympicrally.org) and this year's rallymaster was Dave Treen. TeamD headed down with the three teams of Eric Horst and myself, Dan Comden and Marvin Crippen, and Jeff McMillen and David Carrol. Team Rainier Auto Sports Club (http://www.rainierautosports.com) had the above mentioned competitors plus Ron Sorem and Max Vaysburd with Mike and Gretchen Jones napping out in the woods waiting to time cars. This year we would be visiting the narrow windy roads of the Capitol Forest area with is just south and west of our Olympia, WA. This area is a traditional favourite of rallists and other recreational users. At times thick fog hung over the road and we were thankful for the night vision system that came standard on all late '80s BMWs. The rally had seven timed regularity sections with an almost equal number of brisk Monte Carlo sections and transits. Total mileage was 153 miles with a nice mid-rally gas/snack stop in the burg of Oakville. We were visiting the forest a week before hunting season and the animals knew it. Getting ready to leave for the rally I had difficulty rounding-up my small flock of chickens for the night. One became agitated with my herding method (an all-wheel-drive BMW) and decided to escape into the neighbour's yard. A human chasing a chicken is pure and simple comedy, we might hav bigger brains but their brain are optimised for strategic evasion. Eventually the chickens were secured we headed off for the rally. Our next encounter with the animal world was less comedic but we were very fortunate that it wasn't more tragic. Cruising thru one of the rallys many enjoyable Monte Carlo sections we hit a deer. Not a beer, a deer. The first thing I knew I was looking-up from my crossword puzzle to see a brown flash in the headlights followed by heavy thump. The deer was jumping from the bushes on the right directly into the path of our car. Eric was hard on the breaks when we hit it and had to be hard on the throttle immediately following impact to keep the car out of the ditch. The deer was thrown to the brush on the left and stood back up and kept running. Times like that make me very happy for the investment in harnesses, smashing the Timewise rally computer would hav hurt our chances of winning, and might hav hurt my head. Not having the deer ride-up on the hood and into the passenger compartment kept us out of the emergency room and we're very thankful for that. We lost some of the forward illumination on the car but pressed-on with less light and more trepidation. The roads winded on and our performance was solid throughout the event. Eric did a great job of weaving around the suspended water droplets and I knocked-off a few chapters of the latest Harry Potter book. The fog adds a touch of the surreal to any scene and one especially surreal scene was rounding a turn to find an abandoned Pro Rally car dark and lonely in the middle of the forest. Apparently the driver was out cruising the forest roads when his Subaru was disabled by a shredded tire. No forest inhabitants were implicated in the incident. Besides putting together a great rally Mr. Treen put on his artists hat and make the finest cover art for a rally that I've ever seen. This dramatic artwork is also used on the cool trophies that are wall clocks. Yes, real live, ticking, clocks. Cool. Despite our close encounter of the deer kind there were other cars that faired worse than ours. Punctures were in abundance with one car even getting one in the oil pan. Somehow Steve Perret and Kathryn Hansen got 17 flat tires. Greg and Nora Hightower didn't want to get left out and got two flat tires. Ben Bradley and Russ Krashaar ran another near-perfect rally and got the better of us by 8 points. We like to think that it was because we were running in front of them and cutting a hole in the fog :) The 3rd, 4th and 5th place unlimited cars were seperated by a piddly 4 points. Again proving that the competition in unlimited is very tight. I mis-speak when I say 'unlimited cars' since no one would mistake Dan Comden's Chevy Blazer for a car. The big red rally rig had broken four wheel drive (rumour is that only the wheels on the right were powered) but the wheels in Marvin Crippen's head were all engaging and their first time out with a Timewise 798A got them 3rd unlimited. An interesting trivia item is that the first three finishers all used Timewise rally computers as their (our) weapon of choice. Coincidence? Congratulations to SOP class winners Rick Griffith and Ryan Dolby with 286 points and and Jason Carter and Jered Carter taking second with 587 points. In Equipped class Jeff McMillen and David Carrol took 1st with 69 points and Vasco de Pinna and Kevin Mullins took 2nd with 96 points. Honourable mention goes to Casey Woodrum and Benson Miller who used a Curta to achieve a very respectable 4th equipped with 178 points, I keep telling them that they need a vintage car to go with their vintage calculator. Congrats to Russ Kraushaar and Ben Bradley (we don't mind trading-off NoBM victories with you guys:) for taking first overall and first unlimited with 31 points. Congrats to us for 2nd Overall and Unlimited with 39 points. As mentioned, Dan Comden and Marvin Crippen took 3rd Unlimited with 50 points. Ron Sorem and Max Vaysburd came in 5th unlimited with 53 points. We'd like to apologize to the frog world for the loss of one of their family. We know they weren't in league with the deer or chickens but simply fell victim to our charging Bavarian monster. With this we leave the forest to the animals, letting them rest until next time. Big TeamD congrats to all of the trophy winners and all of the competitors! Huge thanks to Dave Treen all the rest of the ORCAns for making such a great rally!
Steve Willey |
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