RASC - Wishbone Alley Gazette

Rainier Auto Sports Club

The Wishbone Alley Gazette

Armageddon Rally: You missed a good 'un. Ken and Sue Lingbloom know how to put together a good rally, and the Chuckanut club supported them with enough workers. The rally revolved around Cristo's restaurant (which is also where the club has it's meetings). The first half went north, the rest was south, with a long lunch break dividing the two, made longer when real customers slowed dinner service. How about that! Although the scores looked mightily suspicious, it was a lovely evening. Ken thinks rallies should be a challenge, even in the Touring Rally format, so while the turns had excellent mileages, the speed changes were unmilaged. My unpracticed navigator caught most of them anyway. Even more sporting were some turns with the road name given, but said sign edge-on until the action point. This tends to make navigators throw up. Maybe the signs were easier to see in daylight.

Cristy Report: The Lingblooms, rallymasters for this yr's Armageddon Rally, couldn't have ordered more beautiful weather if they tried. Mostly clear & sunny, it was a perfect fall day. We were early, but not the first ones there. As the place filled up, I saw a lot of familiar faces. Everyone was in high spirits; reflecting the beautiful weather and adventure ahead. Most of the roads were paved, although they did manage to find a few good gravel sections. First car out was 1:00, then a dinner break at 6 with posting of first half scores, and then back to it until about 11PM, and the final scores and awards presentation. It did seem like Armageddon watching the scores go up on the board. First there was that zero, right there in the first square, that lured us in. Hey, look at that! Then it went downhill from there. A few single-digit scores followed, then that big hit. I didn't know just how big a hit it was going to be, and it was painful when it hit. Ouch! 18 points, then 21, then 22, Ouch! Ouch! Then another 21? There were FOUR checkpoints after the missed speed change?! Ouch ! This was the first rally we'd run that had most speed changes without any mileage reference. The first time I missed one it was obvious right away. I mean, there's no way the speed limit on this twisty gravel road was over 40. That meant the sign was right at that corner that Jim took way too fast and almost killed us. Piece of cake! "I can fix this, but you'll have to stop the car." Back the mileage up, put the speed change in, run the mileage forward, and voila! there you are! And since we'd been running at about twice rally speed, he was still up when I got done doing that navigator thang. But the 2nd one I missed, I had no clue where it might've been, so we just plain messed that one up. We were puzzled at the scores though. Even with minor errors there was no way we could have accrued so many points while my box showed 0's. Slowly I became aware of the ruckus in the room. There were a lot of points on the board, and a lot of experienced rallyists who obviously felt as we did. Only they were more convinced of their invulnerability than we. Some folks were quite unhappy and left after making their feelings known. Loudly. To any one who would listen. The Lingblooms provided calcs for the checkpoints and I'm sure some folks will be dry-labbing this. I did and really didn't find anything worth being unpleasant over. We had fun running the rally, and seeing all our friends. We'd like to thank the rallymasters & workers for volunteering to do this. WITHOUT YOU, RALLIES DON'T HAPPEN! Thank You!!

Club News: It's election time again. Last minute nominations at the November meeting, then we'll vote. The RASC method is to vote for Board members. The new Board meets and divvies up the positions, sometimes based on who leaves the meeting room... Gordon Cady has left for Illinois.

Trivia: Rod Johnson bought two Volvo 122S's at the junkyard, and will be putting the "kit" together for Theresa (daughter). She'll be getting her driver's license about the time the car is done.

The winter driving season has arrived, with the proper packing of the car for the dreaded "weather". Nolte's yearly reminders: *Kitty litter in the trunk adds "road hugging weight", plus breaking open the bag will provide useful traction when/if required. You can always use kitty litter- like after changing car fluids and dripping them onto the floor (ahem...) *Don't start the Jeep with the defroster on full-blast, then go back into the house for another cuppa. Glass cracks when one side is 140o and the other is frozen. Besides the $275 for the windshield, it may take two tries to seal it water tight. (ahem...) *Four studded tires will provide superb braking as you follow the yuppie who can't handle the slippery stuff. *Cell phones are wonderful things, especially when stuck behind someone creeping along at their "comfortable speed". Unlike the "wired" phones, the cell companies don't have a lot of reserve capacity, hence you may not be able to use your mobile when the snow hits. *If you turn on the windshield wipers while they are frozen to the windshield, the fuse may blow. (ahem...) *Adding "gas dryer" with every fillup is supposed to keep ice from forming in the gas lines. The cheaper solution is just to keep the gas tank topped up. The less moisture-laden air that gets into the gas tank, the less likely you are to wish you'd added the dryer. *If you have gloves, a cap, and a warm coat in the car, you won't need them. Take them out for even one evening and you'll bring on a big freeze (Murphy's Law). Same for carrying chains. *If you lock a warm, wet car, and things freeze up thereafter, not only will the locks not function, but the door seals will bond themselves to the door frames. A variation of this happens when the parking brake is applied. Pumping the locks full of WD-40 may help the locks, and Armorall on the door seal may keep the doors from "bonding". *Regardless of the circumstances, the cops ticket the car with the damaged front bumper. Tailgating is a no-win situation. (ahem...) *AT&T discovered decades ago that driving with the lights on prevents accidents. Even if you trash most of your electrical system by driving with the lights on (extremely unlikely), its far cheaper than an accident. And make sure the taillights are visible.

Roy put 4 studded Hakka's on his Chebby, along with new mags. It used to look like something a security agency would drive, hence no speeding tickets. The wheels may change that.

Nolte has the new garage under construction. Gerald Hawley is doing the electrical work- mostly cleaning up after a certain amateur botches the job. When finances allow (far, far in the future) a large air compressor will have to be found and installed.

The Breazeales have new Brother PPP 300 CJ (personal desktop publisher) and a color ink-jet printer. Cristy says its fax and Internet-ready, if they get into that.

Wayne Moddison is cleaning up his garage. Sympathy cards may be sent to 16646 SE 134th St., Renton, WA 98059. If you don't "get" this, picture Fibber McGee's closet. He is also rebuilding a trailer, suitable for his new tractor, or even a car.

Ed Millman finally had a "heartbreak" with his vintage racing Cortina. A valve got loose ten minutes into a race, which then holed a piston, knocked a cam follower through the water jacket, trashing the head and mixing coolant with the oil. He will be able to reuse two pushrods.