'05 Sno*Drift ProRally - Official Thread

[Hybridizer]

Just got back and up from a nap. I think this year was in some suttle aspects better than the last SCCA sno drift. The champegne finish was a great +. I was there as service crew for #587. The white honda civic in G2. Although I drove some of the crew around in my white wrx to the spec. points.

I had a great time, and still am baffled by the local lewiston lack of hospitality.

Also this was my first rally driving my impreza to the event. I was overwhelmed with the friendly wave's from subaru owners. I loved it!

I'm sure I saw plenty of your rides parked at the spec. points. I'll make sure to check this board BEFORE I go to our next event.


Bullseye your crews car had a close one almost getting stuck solid on friday night in a spec. point. Man was my heart racing on that trying to get that out!!!!

Anyways I had a great weekend but man am I drained and happy to be home and warm.

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[nate49509]

What happen in Lewiston? Usally everyone's pretty cool. Sno Drift brings alot of money into that town.

[tooocool49723]

I'm curious as to what happened in lewiston too?? Everyone from there that I talked too (mostly gas station attendants) were friendly.

[Hybridizer]

Originally Posted by nate49509

What happen in Lewiston? Usally everyone's pretty cool. Sno Drift brings alot of money into that town.

As I agree with you and expected that. I held off making some assumptions but it's been two years in a row. Maybe it's just me getting a bad vibe, who knows. I'll refrain from any further slander. I have no real specfic points. Just the attiutudes we've gotten when there. Atlanta was great, maybe it's just my luck I don't know. The pizza shop was one of the focus spots the last two years I've just felt well un welcomed.

Rally America also did a much better job at least locally there marketing the event. I was really happy to see the many positive suttle changes.

[tooocool49723]

I just wish they would've had better signs to the spectator areas. I had to do 2 U-turns on Friday because it wasn't marked. After going through the first one I noticed that they had put up an orange barrel under the street sign??? After that stage, they had little (2'x2') signs but the signs were dark green and white, shows up really well on snow/trees.

Next year, if anyone reads this from RA, I suggest bright orange signs with black lettering and a black arrow. Make them reflective too. Place them at every intersection. This way people wont get lost.

Either that or the moose marhsall (I forget what his name is, charlie?). I saw him on stage 9 when they sent car 0 through.

I also like that they bent the rules a little, but not in a bad way. Like on stage 9, the spectator area was closer to the road/corner than the rules speced out (50' was the "rule", at least this is what the marshall told me). It wasn't in a bad way though because where it was was after the corner, but at an angle to the braking line, so the cars had to be under power to hit the spectators, and there were trees in the way so it was a safe location. I got some GREAT shots from there. I'm sure that if the SCCA was still going we'd have been the 50' back that we were supposed to be.

I as also happy with the condition of the roads to get to the spectator areas, VERY well plowed for up here in the middle of nowhere. Coulda used some sand, but overall pretty good.

Ok, i'll stop talking now

[nate49509]

After you've been to a few of the rallys you'll find it gets easier to find the spectator points. They rarely change them.

[runnyD]

all the action from the cops was exciting too

[mykrrrr]

Yeah there was really no change from the SCCA era Sno*Drifts except the rediculously long wait because of the G5/no red cross protest.

GNI Motorsports did pretty well despite the incident (snow covered dirt bank + ice = bent control arm (that's all I hope)) we had on Saturday causing us to DNF. JC drove smart and kept the car in one big piece. 2nd fastest OVERALL stage time on SS2 is pretty respectable in my book. I like to crew when all you have to do is remove the tyres, scrape the snow out, check the oil and then get back in the car to stay warm.

The Lewiston lodge plain rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11 I wish I could buy the place.

Hopefully next year SKUNKW3RX will be running a car up there.


-mykr.

[Safir]

There were a few rough edges (from an organizer's point of view) that will need to be smoothed out, but things went quite well overall - with the exception of the scoring "issues" we stayed "on-time" with few major delays for the competitors...

Thanks to everyone who came out and helped

[WRXbluJ]

The GF and I drove up from Orlando and overall we had a really good time! My brother and his wife have been going for a couple of years and even got turned around because of missed roads to spec. areas, but it was not bad finding our way around.
It got pretty hairy on Friday night when the WRX got hung up on the bank at night. We were standing directly across from him and the 15 spectators yelling "PUSH HIM, PULL HIM, DIG HIM, ROCK HIM.....CAR - GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY....." Then the Beetle nails the bank at the top of the hill while that is going on. Too many cars out of commission in one place w/ too many spectators on the course.... Glad everyone got on their way quickly and safely.

I have some pictures and short video clips, but I am going to wait to put them up when I get back into the world of broadband...

[Safir]

This is why spectators are NOT to help get cars out when they are stuck - it puts too many lives at risk, and is the kind of behavior that made SCCA drop rally - we dont require spectators to stay behind the banners to be jerks, we do it because we have to.

[JC_595]

Originally Posted by mykrrrr

Yeah there was really no change from the SCCA era Sno*Drifts except the rediculously long wait because of the G5/no red cross protest.

GNI Motorsports did pretty well despite the incident (snow covered dirt bank + ice = bent control arm (that's all I hope)) we had on Saturday causing us to DNF. JC drove smart and kept the car in one big piece. 2nd fastest OVERALL stage time on SS2 is pretty respectable in my book. I like to crew when all you have to do is remove the tyres, scrape the snow out, check the oil and then get back in the car to stay warm.

The Lewiston lodge plain rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11 I wish I could buy the place.

Hopefully next year SKUNKW3RX will be running a car up there.


-mykr.

Couple things-
-The lodge is the Northern Shore Lodge, in Hillman. YEs it's for sale. I wish I could buy it. IT rocks.
-The Lewiston pizza place next to the saloon... Yes, that woman was not happy to have us there. SHe was rather crappy to me when I ordered a mini pizza, in my drivers suit and asked how long, I only have a little time to eat, she said 15min. I sat there for 47mins, with here shooting me crappy glanced every once in a while. Only after my navvie came & got me & I told her I was leaving to go race did she pull out my pizza (that just happend to be over done at that very moment) & gave it to me. Other than her, everyone in Lewiston was way cool to us. Atlanta, Hillman too. I think she just didint want to be there then.

Oil well. Lewiston people are cool in general.

JC

[dwx]

You can try to keep spectators from pushing cars back onto the course but I'm going to say it's nearly impossible unless you have enough marshalls around that either they can do it or they can keep the spectators back. I heard of a couple times spectators pushed them back and witnessed it once when Himes car got stuck after doing a 360.

I've had okay luck with the A&W in Lewiston, never ordered a pizza there.

We stayed at a private residence in Atlanta and it was great. 3 nights for $200, heated garage (that we needed to fix the car Friday night), 4 bedrooms, 2 showers. The woman that owned the house was just staying a couple houses down from us and was great.

[Safir]

this is where the spectators need to show some restraint, or else they could ruin it for everyone, that's all there is to it. The marshalls should not have to MAKE the spectators stay back... and as a marshall i'll be damned if i'm goign to push a stuck car out - if the drive rand co-driver cannot free it themselves in a timely manner they should put out triangles, and if it is an unsafe situation the radio crew at that location will have the start held. Then, once all traffic has stopped on teh stage, assistance should be given.

At no time should anyone other than drivers/co-drivers be near the road while the stage is hot, and even they should show extreme caution about being too close when a car may be approaching.

In any case, I know it is impossible, but it is why spectating is only allowed at specified spectator areas, where we can minimize the danger to everyone.

I had a pizza at the pizza place in lewiston - i ordered my pizza, was told it would be about 30 minutes, sat down at a table, and fell asleep - they woke me when my pizza was ready, but i suspect it was closer to one hour - they were obviously swamped and probably doing the best they could. This does not excuse any bad attitude or nasty glances anyone got... OTOH, my pizza was excellent.

[Schwartz]

This was my first year going to Sno*Drift and it was awesome, a bit cold friday night but awesome the entire weekend. Will make it a yearly tradition from now on.

It was nice, felt right at home with all the other subaru's.

[nate49509]

Thats one of my favorite things about going to rallys. Seeing all the other Subarus.

[JC_595]

jeesh- it was downright BALMY this year! That's what made it so slick on Saturdays stages...

Yeah Safir- the pizza WAS good. I think. I ate mine while buckling back in the car & burned my mouth.

[wagonbeast]

yep yep, fun time, I'm impressed with the second fastest time on stage two. Good work. Sorry about day 2 but that's rallying. I'm back in bmore now. The first stoplight I pulled up to a cop pulls up next to me. Light turns green and he starts doing a burnout and is off. Gotta love baltimore.

Going to 100 aw JC?

Josh

[Hybridizer]

Originally Posted by Safir

This is why spectators are NOT to help get cars out when they are stuck - it puts too many lives at risk, and is the kind of behavior that made SCCA drop rally - we dont require spectators to stay behind the banners to be jerks, we do it because we have to.

I was waiting for this being in the thick and watching the whole thing this should be a focus for discussion I hope by R-A. The stewards in place were not ready for this. The spectators were not told to stay back and really we are lucky nothing more than a busted beatle and light pod came of this.

The co driver for that car has a poor placement of the triangle I felt to warn oncoming drivers. In his defense it was a bad spot for the indicent to happen. But made 300X worse by the spectators getting involved.

I sat up top and almost went down then used my head and was like your nuts.

Anyways was this brought up to RA at all. I felt this was a issue the stewards should work on, for things not to happen like next year.
My heart skipped several times as the mopar g5 neon flew through there pretty good, he seemed prepared for the incident but still that could have been ugly!

[Hybridizer]

Safir my remarks had nothing to do with actual service. THe pizza was great that I had last year there. I'm just dropping the post. I didn't know you were a organizer at this. Good to see and again I can't wait for next year.

PS: there was a heated game of Mrs. Pacman played in there on friday night as well.

[JC_595]

Originally Posted by wagonbeast

yep yep, fun time, I'm impressed with the second fastest time on stage two. Good work. Sorry about day 2 but that's rallying. I'm back in bmore now. The first stoplight I pulled up to a cop pulls up next to me. Light turns green and he starts doing a burnout and is off. Gotta love baltimore.

Going to 100 aw JC?

Josh

THanx. All I need at this point is to find a cheap STI RH control arm - I think. I am going to tear it apart tonite to verify. Usually they just break. I am surprised it just bent. Hope it aint something I havent thought of(Frame mount areas?) And we still need a couple new gravel tires...

So... Yeah, I think we'll be there.

edit-
-Y'know, the real wierd thing is that I slowed down on Saturday. Hitting that hard bank on ss12 wasnt becasue I was pushing at all. Just got caught out on a L5 tightens to 4- and the bank on the outside I thought was snow, wasnt. IT was solid.

Oh well..

[mykrrrr]

Mr. cool guy JC...call me in like 5 min.

-mykr.

[Safir]

Hybridizer - i'm not an organizer myself, but my father was the rallymaster

Spectator saftey is probably something that should be adressed more thoroughly, but will anyone actually listen? i'm pretty sure there were notes in multiple places on the spectator guide already, but like you said, something happens, and you're all excited, and don't think about such things.

[Hybridizer]

Originally Posted by tooocool49723

I do know (think) that everyone's favorite red WRX w/ the mopar stripe did not appear in the field on saturday I dont know what happened, but yeah.

YEah I noticed that. I saw him part of saturday I thought. But I saw him getting hauled off on a trailer later that night. ????


SAFIR- cool deal the world gets smaller everyday. Yeah how many times have we all been a spectator points and had guys yelling to get behind the lines. Or push the lines forward and so on and so forth. It's a constent force back and forth.

It was pure chaos. But in the end all is fine. And yes the spectator first page states all the DO NOT's on it.

[JC_595]

HEy guys- WE run the REd & Black WRX.
http://www.gnimotorsports.com

See the above posts (#121 in particular) with regards to what happened. Basically found a hard bank 1.8mi in to SS12 & bent a control arm back enough that we couldnt continue without damagim the car & I didnt want to do that on it's maiden voyage.

Had lots of fun on Friday, and on SS8, 9, 10, 11 on Sat before that though...

It was spiify to run toward the front with the big dawgs.
JC