RE: We finished Prescott!!!

[Mark Nelson <mnelson@brls.com>]

Thanks Mike!!  It was a struggle the first night, but we made it over
the hurdle due to Paul's determination, and hopefully we'll have even
more success in this year's remaining events.  We're learning new things
along the way, but fortunately we seem to be learning quite quickly.  We
did really well on the stages that we had fun at, specifically stage 5,
which coincidentally was used in the last stage, stage 9, the same one
Henry Joy went off on.  I was impressed with Paul's driving, as I could
see he was learning how to drive the car better and better as we went
through each of the stages.  We just may make a rally driver out of this
guy yet ;-) ;-).

Anyway, it was very fun, and although frustrating and a little hairy at
times, I think that all this ended up leading to a very good time had by
all.  

cya!

-mark nelson

> ----------
> From: 	Mike
> Zamikhovsky[SMTP:"MikeZ755@sprintmail.com"@sprintmail.com]
> Sent: 	Monday, October 06, 1997 10:32 PM
> To: 	Mark Nelson
> Cc: 	Quattro List; 20V List
> Subject: 	Re: We finished Prescott!!!
> 
> Mark Nelson wrote:
> > 
> > Well, with several headaches, coolant burns, etc., in the beginning
> > stages, Paul Timmerman and I finished the Prescott Forest Rally,
> which
> > actually consisted of two divisional events.  I'll start from the
> > beginning...
> > 
> > Friday...we pull into Prescott with a car we feel *should not* have
> any
> > more overheating problems, and should be pretty much bulletproof.
> My
> > dad and I spent Friday afternoon, finishing up some last minute
> minor
> > details, such as installing a CHF radio (this would prove to save
> our
> > butts later on), and cleaning up some last minute items.  Since our
> > incident at Goreman Ridge, we've installed a new motor, a new
> oversized
> > radiator, a large diameter aluminum perma-cool fan, removed the
> > Thermostat, and done a few other things.  We got the car all running
> on
> > Monday night, and I went and pounded around in it, Monday and
> Wednesday
> > evenings.  It was hard to get the temperature above half-way...but
> keep
> > in mind that the temperature around Reno in the evenings can get
> pretty
> > cool...so that may have helped in keeping things cool.
> > 
> > Anyway, we start the first stage Friday night that's ~10 miles long
> > going up hill, on this really wide and smooth dirt road.  This stage
> > wielded quite a lot of dust, and a couple of rollovers.  It was one
> of
> > those types of stages where you can get a bit over-zealous and end
> up in
> > BIG trouble, as our fellow competitors found out.  The two rollovers
> > consisted of a Saab 90 and a mile up the road, Lee Shadbolt's Subaru
> > Impreza.  Both of the crews were fine.  About a mile or so from the
> top,
> > we started having some heating problems, and as we pull into the FTC
> > (Finish Time Control), we are smoking like crazy.  The route book
> > mistakenly gives us an incorrect distance to the service area, and
> we
> > end up going down the road about a mile.  The temp is pegged, and so
> we
> > pull over with smoke everywhere.  Paul pops the hood, and as soon as
> he
> > opens it, the upper radiator hose busts, and spews hot coolant all
> over
> > his face.  Paul didn't get burned too badly, but it was more than
> enough
> > to see that the car was going to fight us all the way.  This time we
> had
> > radios, so we were able to radio our service crew to come bail us
> out.
> > My dad and Suzy showed up, found that one of the brackets for our
> fan
> > had come loose, hit the fan blade, causing the blade to bend and
> stop
> > the fan.  We bent the blade back, filled the radiator back up, and
> were
> > on our way again.
> > 
> > On the second stage, we encountered the same problem, except the
> hose
> > didn't blow off this time.  We had a 75 minute wait, so we had time
> to
> > let the car cool off, and figure out what was wrong.  We found that
> > there were several holes in the radiator from where the fan blade
> had
> > hit it.  Whenever we would let off the throttle, pressure would
> build,
> > and coolant would spew out.  Several competitors and volunteers gave
> us
> > some AlumaSeal which helped somewhat, but we still had a major leak
> at
> > the seam.  We decided to take it easy on the third stage (which was
> the
> > second stage run backwards), and just make it to our service area.
> We
> > made it back, and several people including John Buffum (VERY cool
> guy!)
> > rushed over to see if they could help.  We ended up refilling the
> > missing coolant, and removing the troublesome bracket from the fan.
> We
> > managed to make it through the fourth stage (which was the first
> stage
> > run backwards) since it was downhill.  On the transit back to MTC
> (Main
> > Time Control) ~35 miles, we had to stop and refill the radiator 3
> times.
> > I forgot to mention that each time we had an overheating problem,
> the
> > turbo was GLOWING bright red!!!  Everything that could be hot on the
> car
> > was.  Anyway, we made it back and put the car to sleep.
> > 
> > Saturday...we pulled the fan and radiator, and Paul and Suzy found
> an
> > open radiator shop and took it over.  It turned out there were 14
> leaks
> > in the thing, and Paul figured the repair cost out to be ~$4 per
> leak
> > =).  In the meantime, my dad and I made a new bracket for the fan,
> > borrowed some tin snips from Carl Merrill's crew and trimmed an 1/8"
> off
> > each blade.  We moved the fan back from the radiator about 8mm, so
> this
> > time we would have plenty of clearance.  We got the car all back
> > together, and everything was hunky dory.  We didn't have any major
> heat
> > problems the rest of the day!!!  We only had two very minor other
> > problems.  The first being that the connector Mazda used for the Oxy
> > sensor was very winky, and would move around causing the car to run
> lean
> > when we didn't have a good connection...we still have to fix that.
> We
> > also had a minor problem with a rock jammed in the right rear
> caliper
> > (maybe due to Paul having all that fun with Pendulum turns ;-) and
> would
> > cause a nice squeaking noise every so often.
> > 
> > The worst party of the rally, came on the last stage, 9, when Henry
> Joy
> > in the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo II, who had been battling back and
> forth
> > with Paul Choinere through the whole rally, went 200 yards off a
> cliff,
> > 1.3 miles from the end, on a particularly narrow and rough section
> of
> > the course.  Henry was only 12 seconds behind Choinere starting that
> > stage and was trying to make up the gap.  Henry had some injuries,
> and
> > was taken to the hospital, but was conscious.  His co-driver Michael
> > Finnell came out of this fine.  Sam Bryan came upon them, and
> escorted
> > them to the FTC.  The stage was canceled as we found out, so we just
> > transited through.  Henry's car is apparently a total loss from what
> I
> > had heard, when I talked to the officials at the end of Stage 9.
> > 
> > Anyway, they gave us 108 minutes to transit through the 21 mile
> stage
> > and 35 mile 'regular' transit.  We made it to the MTC with 7 seconds
> to
> > spare, and the kicker was when they told us, "we aren't going to
> give
> > penalties for lateness"!!!!  It figures!!
> > 
> > Anyway, it was an interesting event...VERY rough in some stages, but
> we
> > made it!!  Paul can probably post some more details that I missed.
> BTW,
> > Rui didn't show up, as his car wasn't ready
> > 
> > cya!
> > 
> > -mark nelson
> > mailto:markn@brls.com
> > 
> > '90 s2 Quattro (Building for SCCA Pro Rally)
> > '85 4ktq (Finishing up the brakes and sway bars this week)
> > 
> > http://quattro.malebolge.com/audipics
> 
> 
> Good Show!!!!! Congratulations.
>     Mike Z
>