Rainier Auto Sports Club

The Wishbone Alley Gazette

November, 2001

Rally News

• Night on Bald Mountain, October 6.� The first thing you need to know is that Eric Horst/Steve Willey won the thing with 31 pts. Second place was Rebecca Rocks/Russ Kraushaar with 32 points. Not bad for 16 checkpoints!

Rallymaster Greg Hightower picked out some swoopy gravel roads, mostly south of Cle Elum.� Although the views of our lovely Cascades were distracting, the slow pre-hunting season traffic added an element usually reserved for Canadian rallys. Much safer at night.

Also like the Canadian TSD's, a car got totaled. A WRX took an off-road excursion in a very rare spot where there was something to land on within sight of the road. The car rode a stump for its length, and the chassis bent.

Kirk Simons mentioned that his big Dodge Ram filled up the road pretty good, a good way to get the attention of the other pickups on the road.� Tom Palidar volunteered to learn how to use Nolte's Timewise, and may be pretty good at it after 5-6 more rallys.� The WRX's headlight conversion kit jiggled loose on the washboard, such that the rally was completed on either fog lights or Hella 2000's!. Tom remained cool during the intermittent dark spells.

Good event, well planned, and scenic. ORCA tried their version of the "No reason needed" Time Declaration system- with a convenient little form for checking off how many minutes are declared.

21 entrants.� Good length- at 6 hours.

• Armageddon- Originally conceived as a challenging romp through the more exciting roads of the far NW corner of Washington, the rally has become a tame little tour.

This, probably the result of heavy economic pressure, when it is more profitable to have 100% finishers than leave various bits of bodywork about the countryside.� For a while, the tow truck people made vastly more profit than the organizers.

With heavy drizzle, the rally started in Arlington, did the LakeCavanaugh hillclimb, then wandered north to ClearLake and the farmlands.� Cross I-5 at Conway. Once on FirIsland, rallyists shared the byways with SUV's. Most notable is how the wandering SUV's regard the speed limits, resulting in the rally cars leading a parade of the SUV's, at one-minute intervals.

The rally ended at a quite civilized 3pm. 23 cars

Club News

• The 2002 Election process climaxes at the November meeting. The ballots are easy to complete.
• RASC will take possession of the Alcan Rally's Alfa Checkpoint clocks.
• "Any news from the Webmaster?" "Nuthin'"
• He lied! Go to http://www.rainierautosports.com/meeting-location.htm and view the map.

Trivia

• The November issue of Sports Compact Car magazine had an interesting column (you can read it on-line: http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/archives/technobabble/techno_1101.jsp)  Called the "Second Gear Conspiracy" Dave Coleman points out why cars have some gearing that is awkward for rallying.� In order to get good "stats", the engineers must get second gear to reach 62 mph!� A shift will slow the critical 0-60 time.� As he points out in the last paragraph, a car can be a joy to drive with other gearing.  When someone gets a "special" gearbox for their rally car, it may not be reinforced, stronger, or better engineered- it'll just have ratios appropriate to sport.�

FOR SALE

• Ed Millman got a '97 Taurus, wants to sell the '91 white Taurus wagon. 150K mi. $2000 (206) 361-7389
• Mike Jones still has the collection of parts in his garage that could make somebody a dandy Fire Arrow. Make an offer. (425) 823-8329
• Colleen wants a convertible.� The pearl white (with white 17" wheels and new tires)� '89 Corvette is offered at $9900
  '94 white Plymouth Grand Voyager LE, AWD, 3.8 motor, new transmission, seats 7, dual A/C, custom wheels, 140K miles. $4900
  Call Jerry or Colleen at (206) 227-6343 or (425) 823-6343.
• Two (2) Checkpoint Timing lights. These are "Pat Biggar Special" timing line tubes with the "delay" module so you don't get 4 flashes for 4 tires. I purchased them thinking RASC would upgrade timing techniques.� I'll keep one. $80 each- Mark Nolte, 425-652-3578
• '94 Suburban for sale. New rear differential, alternator, tires, A/C compressor, updated wheels, pw, ps, pdl, rear ac, 3^rd seat, recent brakes. Well kept truck and tow vehicle. $12,500 Contact Pete Shelton @206-783-5681

RASC Calendar

� Call the NWRC Hotline (206) 256-9627 for latest info on Puget Sound TSD events..

• 11/ 24-25 � Totem TSD (B.C.)
• Aug 16>24, 2002- Alcan 5000 : http://www.alcan5000.com/