First and last race of the season

[Penasack, Tim]

Finally here is a report for the first race for the 4kq.  The rally was the
Defi Sainte-Agathe north of Montreal.

Friday-
 - We got to Montreal on time, the car passed tech inspection and we checked
into the hotel.

- We where all set to go for the start of the night stages when 2 minutes
before our start time the accelerator cable disconnected from the pedal.
After a frantic quick repair I got it together and we started albeit 1
minute late. The bushing on the accelerator cable is worn out. Of course I
hadn't had any problems with it previous to this incident.

 - Later that night we ran through a couple of stages with only some minor
incidents until the last stage of the night. We pulled into the time control
zone, got our start time and the car shut down.  Finally got it running 12
minutes later and started on the stage. The fuse for the fuel pump blew - it
took me some time to diagnose it and then after I replaced it the car still
wouldn't start. In desperation I let it roll back to see if I could start it
by pooping the clutch and it worked.

- The net result for the night stages was 28.5 minutes of lateness (at 30
you are disqualified) - (it resets to 0 the next day luckily!)

Saturday Morning-
- Next morning we started on time and got through the first 2 stages with no
real problems. At the end of the 3rd stage that day we got disorientated and
lost about 6 minutes of time.

- We reached the start of the next special stage 2 seconds late but the time
steward let it slip.

- We then moved straight into starting the next Special Stage  - no time to
relax. We got a decent start and where halfway through this stage when Steve
called for a sweeping left turn (as opposed to a hard left turn - like 90
degrees).  I setup for a sweeping left turn and entered at a good rate of
speed.  As soon as I hit the apex of the turn I realized that this was a
hard left turn and it was to late.  The car drifted right until it hit a
ditch, traveled down the ditch a little then was stopped by a tree. The end
results are on the website listed below.
http://www.geocities.com/adl00tim/1.html?1000079788624
If you want to look at another website that shows a GTI going off on the
same turn that we did take a look:
http://public.fotki.com/morgie/rallye_ste-agathe/1151518_img.html

- The pictures look bad but I could still drive the car. The alignment was
off but the engine still ran. The real problem is a major drivability issue
where I can't get the rpm over about 3200.  It only happens when the engine
gets warmed up and then not all the time.  This problem came on very
significantly and that really ended the race for me.

This years season is over (I was only planning to run one more race anyway).
This winters project is to fix the nose and swap in a turbo engine.

Stand by for a lot of questions and need for assistance is dropping the MC
in.

-Tim