LSPR 2023
Day 2
We towed out to L'Anse parc expose in the rain, and made a quick decision to swap tires- if there was ever a time to try out those MRFs I had cut up it was probably here. We changed them quickly the moment the car rolled off the trailer:
At parc expose, Al's car was on display, sporting signatures and messages from last year, where he tragically passed away the night before the event. I'm not sure I can adequately describe the combination of emotions this generated, and I'm sure everyone there was feeling different blends- this was the first time I'd encountered the car since Al's passing so it was certainly a powerful moment for me standing here on the shore in his hometown:
Eventually we were off again, to the fittingly named Al's Playground stage for SS9, a twisty gravel road with plenty of corner variety and crests to keep you on your toes. The car felt pretty good in the wet with the cut soft compound tires up front. We ran a decent time, fell back into a good rhythm very quickly, and although the pace was still leaving enough margin that I felt certain we'd make it through the day, it was clear that we'd reset from the funk of the night before and things were working again.
Next up was SS10 Menge Creek, arguably the best stage of the rally by traditional definitions, with a solid surface and seemingly endless linked corners- we did ok here but I wasn't throwing the car around enough to make some of the sequences work, with many of the tighter corners seemingly stuck between bouncing off the limiter in second gear and bogging in third, a problem which would've been solved with greater commitment to the notes and a little bit of "if we end up in the weeds it'll probably be ok," but it was still fun:
Back to Al's Playground again for SS11, where we had what was probably our best stage of the rally. I remembered sections of it from the first pass, pushed the car more, and committed to more of the blind crests and bumpy straights. We managed to put a small hole in the sidewall of one of our front tires, but still ran faster than the first time through:
On the next transit, that holed tire slowly leaked the rest of its' air out and made itself known, so it was impact gun time and we made short work of the tire change:
Up next was SS12, Villikissa, the real car destroyer of the rally- dodging the large embedded rocks and being alert for the more mobile non-embedded ones was the name of the game here, and apart from hanging the back of the car slightly off the road in one loose corner we were doing pretty well until I dodged around a large embedded rock to find a hidden one about the size of a cinderblock had been pushed onto the road behind it- I hit it with the right front wheel while gripping the steering wheel at an odd angle since we were already crossed up going around the bigger rock, and it popped my left shoulder out of its' socket for a moment. I have extremely loose joints so this isn't the first time my shoulder has been popped out, but it was certainly the first time on a rally stage and it still hurt and surprised me- I actually don't think we backed off all that much for the rest of the stage but I was careful for sure.
At the end of the stage, the road just outside the finish control was filled with cars hammering wheels straight, baling wiring pieces back on, applying zipties, etc. I checked the wheel which had hit the rock quickly and hopped back in the car- it had a little bend in the rim but was holding air and looked straight enough.
Next was Trouble for SS13, aptly named given that it's a muddy, rutted logging road where the runoff is mostly filled with log piles and felled trees. Shoulder throbbing, I tried to be as smooth as possible through the ruts and slop, and it generally worked although we found ourself tapping the outside berm in a corner which would later claim Adam Brock's Volvo, and we also passed the Downeys stuck on the side of the stage with a snapped control arm.
A quick visit back to service, then we were off to Trouble again- unsurprisingly, it was even sloppier, with the added features of a dead deer hit by another competitor, and a new fun burning smell as we caught the Crouch/Scott WRX which was running on a number of bent components and some very flat tires thanks to a little off course excursion. We were still carrying two spares, so after the finish it was impact gun to the rescue again as we bolted one of our spare wheels to their car to get them moving again:
There was a long transit to Mt. Marquette, which we were a bit concerned about making in time since we had not only stopped for another car but also to patch up some of our own minor underbody damage a bit- we made it with time to spare though. Although we technically had two stages to go, there were several attempts to recreate Al's traditional last stage selfie since there's no real gap between the last two stages here:
Oh yeah, Dylan and Ben there were down to only two remaining gears in their transmission at this point and had transited the whole way there in third. Kevin and Kyle were still in the rally because of a loaner spare wheel from the Olonas. Sean and Breandan were missing a crucial control arm bolt but still moving. Other Kevin and Jim were preparing to do shots of maple syrup as they crossed the finish. That guy in the orange hat is the one who hit the deer on Trouble. Somewhere nearby is Colin's car, which rolled the night before but was still in the rally; you get the idea, these people all rule.
The two stages at Mt. Marquette are a very steep service road thing, and then the actual freaking ski hill- we did the first one cleanly:
and then really let it fly, for the only time this event, on the second. I snapped off a skidplate bolt, and bashed the mirror on one of the piece of rebar marking the narrow ski hill course, but we made it!
We were greeted by friends at the finish, snagged some food, and waited for results. So how'd we do? Technically, not so bad- 2nd in regional L2wd, although first was WAY ahead of us as well as at least one national L2wd car. It's also worth mentioning that at this point we were a couple hours from 10/15, our anniversary- champagne is a good way to celebrate:
It turned out ok, but despite the decent result at finish we had learned something crucial- while we're great at driving a rally in "survival mode" it feels a little empty at this point, now that we've pushed faster at a few previous events. I'm really glad we finished this one, especially on the podium, but in the future I have to accept that we're going to need to roll the dice a bit more.
