Alba Rallysport

Twitters

2012-01-25T20:45:00.001-05:00

Look out for updates from Sno*Drift this weekend on Twitter.
@albarallysport

Fingers Crossed

2012-01-24T22:18:00.002-05:00

We got the car on the ground tonight and put 20 miles on it. The new Kaaz diff from TIM feels great. The additional grip will be much needed at the Sno*Drift rally this weekend where we are probably going to be faced with plenty of ice after a rainstorm at the weekend and now subzero temperatures.

T minus 3 days

2012-01-22T21:16:00.002-05:00

We leave for Atlanta, MI in 3 days. Less than 3 actually because we need to be up there and registered for recce by Wednesday night. It would be great if we had the car off the stands and running. A test drive after over a year off would be smart. This is the most last minute I've prepared for the rally. It may have something to do with the fact we just decided to enter Sno*Drift in December, then Christmas happened followed by a trip overseas and suddenly we are less than a week away from the event.
The gearbox is the hold up. The rest of the car is ready but what started off as a simple gearbox check and LSD install has turned into a month long affair and it's getting old. After pulling a late night this past Friday Tommy Knight (Travis Hanson's crew guy) had the backlash tuned to spec but it just didnt feel right. We opened, closed the box countless times until we gave up and I dropped the box off to Lenger Racing just down the road on Saturday. Ryan used to crew for Otis Dimiters so is all too familiar with Subarus. Turns out we didn't align the main shaft assembly properly and punched a locator pin through the housing causing the bind. Lesson learnt.
Fingers crossed we get the gearbox back on Monday so we can get it in the car during the night and take it for a test drive. The extra traction better be worth it!

Stay tuned...

BRAID USA Audi Quattro

2012-01-19T00:34:00.002-05:00

Sadly this isn't my car but it looks great with the BRAID rally wheels.

Bobble

2012-01-17T14:39:00.001-05:00

A Christmas gift from some colleagues...

Gears and Diffs

2012-01-17T14:28:00.004-05:00

How many times have you seen a WRX 5sp gearbox that doesn't have a chewed up 2nd gear? well this box has 50k+ miles and 10 events so I'm pretty happy at its condition. For a little more traction this year we are installing a KAAZ front diff from Team Illuminata Motorsport. Stay tuned as we prep for the Sno*Drift rally in Atlanta, Michigan at the end of the month.

WE'RE BACK!

2011-12-21T22:07:00.004-05:00

It's official, Alba Rallysport is back and we're heading up north to Atlanta next month for the Rally America Sno*Drift rally. It's been over a year since we've had the WRX on the stages and I can't wait to get behind the wheel again. It's been a great year off with the family and focusing on getting back into shape. I've really enjoyed spending time on the bike. Life is about balance isn't it? I even had a go at Adventure Racing earlier this month which is somewhat like rallying only more exhausting. Car prep begins over the Christmas holiday. Let's hope the temperatures drop and we get some snow in the next few weeks. It's unseasonably warm.

Barry-Roubaix Recce

2011-12-20T11:47:00.004-05:00

There is a bike race in March held just south of Grand Rapids called the Barry-Roubaix. It's modelled on the Paris-Roubaix race where cyclists ride road bikes over mud covered cobbled streets. With historic cobbles somewhat lacking in Michigan the Barry-Roubaix route (named after Barry County in which the race is held) covers 35 miles through the Yankee Spring recreational area most of the roads being gravel. With this race in mind we rode the course even though we woke up to find a dusting of the white stuff.

December Chilly Adventure Race

2011-12-20T11:38:00.002-05:00

The race went quite well, I thought, considering my rather lacking level of preparation. But I (we) did not really know quite what to expect going into the race.

The December Chill 2011 adventure race was made up of 42 CheckPoints, spread out over 3 disciplines (mountain biking, canoeing & hiking/orienteering). Some CPs were mandatory and needed to be found in a particular order. Others were optional and could be found in any order. But to obtain a maximum score and be eligible for the overall win, you basically needed to find all of the CPs.

We started with the biking at 9am (34°F). Brrrrrrr. But 5 minutes into it, internal heat was more than sufficient. With a mass start of 100+ riders, it was a bit chaotic at first. Less than a mile into the ride, we all had to funnel down from a 2-lane road to a 1 lane (~ 4ft wide) bridge which really strung out the pack a bit. But Team P.O.R (David Allen & I), got off to a decent start (~ top 25% of the field).

Expecting to excel on the bike portion, I found myself working hard to keep up with David's quick pace. But this was so much more than just mountain biking. We had to navigate using a topo map of the park & surrounding area to find CheckPoints marked on the map. But many of these CPs were not just sitting alongside the trail. We had to drop the bikes and go searching in the woods for some of them.

At one point, we were going after a CP that was on the opposite bank of a swamp/marsh area. David suggested we try crossing the area on foot. The ground LOOKED firm enough, but after only a few steps in, we were up to our ankles in water...thanks to the 2+ inches of rain that fell on the preceding Wed.. So we retreated and found another, dryer way around.

Here I have to give a lot of credit to David who managed, quite well I'd say, to ride a mountain bike on unfamiliar, snow covered 2-track & single track trails while at the same time reading/navigating from a topo map...without crashing...and leaving me in the "dust" at times. Well done!!!

After bashing around a couple different parks (Proud Lake State Rec. Area & Milford Mntn Bike Trail), we were working on wrapping up the ~17 mile bike leg. At CP20, David noticed that the two furthest CPs for the upcoming canoe section were only about 100 yards from our current location. While standing near a couple other teams, David whispers, "Have you read anything in the rules prohibiting going to CPs out of order that are in other Legs?" Me: "No, I've read everything I could and saw nothing about this in the supp's/rules." So we waited for the other teams to move on and we collected the CPs at the nearby river. We were not the only ones to figure out this loop hole. And it saved us over 1 mile of canoeing.

The end of the bike section was back at the start point/HQ. In this "Transition Zone" we were allowed to go to our cars, change our gear, leave the bikes and head down to the river for the next leg. We both took a rather lax approach to this TZ and spent way to much time changing clothes, warming our feet, etc. In hind sight, it likely cost us a position or two in the final results. But we're learning.

At then end of the bike leg we were in 17th overall (out of 66 teams) and 10th in our Male, 2-person class (out of 30).

As we made our way to the canoe "put in" my legs were looking forward to the upcoming rest. The first half of the canoeing went very well. Heading down river, we made good time with David steering us around a number of obstacles. As we pulled up to CP22, a solo competitor was attempting to pull himself and his kayak up onto the shore. He had split the bottom of the hull and was taking on water...FAST! But he was OK. We pressed on. After CP23 (the turn around), we had to paddle back up river ~ 0.75 miles. Thanks to all of the previously mentioned rainfall, the water level was very high and the current was quite fast. As a result, the return trip was not fun! If we both stopped paddling for even a moment, our forward progress ceased almost immediately. My arms felt like they might fall off at any moment (see attached picture). I was SO done with paddling, but David kept motivating me and we pressed on.

Back on land, after traveling ~ 1.5 miles, we had set the 5th fastest time (59 min.) on the water leg and we'd moved up to a 3-way tie for 7th in the overall (3rd in class!!!) despite my complete lack of upper body strength. ...Boy were my arms looking forward to a "restful" hike!

The final leg, Trekking/Orienteering, consisted of 16 CPs that could be reached in any order. These CPs were loosely placed near/around two separate sets of hiking trails. As David continued with his role as navigator, he wisely opted to tackle the larger trail loop first. The value of this would become apparent later on.

By this time, the temperature had climbed into the mid 40's. This was quite comfortable given the level of energy that we were exerting.

Often times the quickest way from one CP to another was to follow the trail. But other times we would head straight through the woods to cut off large sections of the trail. And because it was more or less a free-for-all out there in the woods, we really had no idea how we were doing compared to the other teams.

Before starting this section, I expected our pace would be a brisk hike. But after only a few short minutes into the leg, it became apparent that we would need to jog whenever possible in order to stay competitive with the other teams. I was not prepared for this. My training consisted of zip, zero, zilch, nada, no running/jogging. And on top of that, I was carrying way more in my back pack than I really needed (once again in hind sight).

With many words of encouragement from David, I jogged as far and as often as I could, but with frequent periods of "fast" walking in between. But we cleared the CPs, one by one.

Then shortly after starting the final, smaller loop which had 6 CPs to track down, we came across a sign that said "Trail Closed". This was a marshy area with a number of boardwalks that made up the trail. We were told before the start that this closure was because of some missing planks on the boardwalks. "No problem" we told ourselves as we leapt over the missing pieces of lumber.

But...... then we rounded a corner only to find a 10+ foot section of boardwalk completely under 4-6 inches of icy water. The only way passed this frigid obstacle was to walk/run straight through it. There was no way to avoid completely soaking our feet/shoes. It was quite a shock at first. But fortunately this came near the end of the race.

Once we had made it beyond this soggy surprise, it wasn't long before this uncomfortable feeling was all but forgotten. This was due to the burning sensation in my thighs which took over my thoughts as I squeezed the last bits of strength from them.

David kept on trucking through the final miles of the course and I gave it all I had just to try to keep up. When we arrived at the finish, I was completely wiped out. The hiking leg ended up being ~ 6 miles which we coved in just under 2 hours. So the total distance covered by Team P.O.R. was about 25 miles in 5hr 12min. This was good enough for 11th place overall and 6th in class. Not too shabby for the first time out. And we were only 1min 43sec away from a top ten finish which basically came down to the time lost during our "relaxed" Transition Zone after the bike leg. Oh well!!

The overall winning team finished with a time of 4hrs 23min., a cool 49min. faster than us. But this gives us something to work towards in the future.

We had a great time. It was certainly quite an experience. A big thanks goes to David who expertly handled the navigation throughout the race and who managed to keep me motivated in order to press on regardless and make it to the end.

Paul Fernandez, Team POR

WTF is Cyclocross?

2011-11-13T21:15:00.004-05:00

For some strange reason I gave cyclocross racing a go this autumn. Cyclocross is very popular in Euroland where eons ago road racers started using it to stay fit during the winter. It's now it's own sport. Cyclocross is kind of like rallying whereby competitors race machines that aren't made for off-road use, off-road. I quite like it.

There is a great series of races in and around Grand Rapids run by kisscross.com. I managed to get out to a few events and so far have had a pretty good time. Today sucked a little due to some pre-winter flu crap I have but it was still a good course. The courses are between 1-2 miles long usually so these are sprint type events where lap counts can be anywhere from 3-8. The general idea is to go hard and try not to throw up.

If you can ride a bike, it's worth coming out on a Sunday and giving it a go. The last event of this season is on November 27th.

December Chill

2011-11-04T06:36:00.004-04:00

For many, December is a time for reflecting on the past 12 months, spending quality time with the family in front of the fire and enjoying a finely prepared hot Christmas dinner. I ask myself then, why am I heading out into the Michigan woods to compete in a 7hr adventure race that involves mountain biking, canoeing and running whilst navigating with a map and compass?
The truth is, the 12hr endure mountain bike race at Hanson Hills was the motivation to get out and compete in a multi-sport race, it just so happened that the next one was in December! Biking, canoeing, trekking and navigation aren’t new to me. Long before I held a drivers license this is how I spent my time. I even used to do orienteering as a kid. A driver who can navigate? Imagine the shock and horror of it all. With that said, what with GPS and Smartphones these days it’s been many years since I pulled out a map and compass and I still can’t run to save myself so this should be interesting. Honestly, I have no idea what we are in for and as I roped Paul Fernandez (12hr endure team mate) into this we’re committed to it. He's a co-driver so I'm hoping we don't get lost.
As of today we are on the entry list of 27, 17 of us make up the class we are in and we are eagerly anticipating a racer’s update (supps!) in a couple of weeks. Hopefully that will shed some light on this winter madness.
You can find out more about the event at http://www.infiterrasports.com/events/2011/december-chill/ and follow updates of our team aptly named ‘POR’ here at albarallysport.com

With a few minor modifications (saddle bag with tube, air and multi-tool, a bottle cage and grippy Schwalbe tyres) the bike is ready for winter adventure racing.

12hrs of Hanson Hills

2011-09-23T09:23:00.002-04:00

Race weekend arrived all too quickly. For some reason this crazy idea to race our bikes for 12hrs at the Hanson Hills enduro maybe wasn’t a smart one, I thought to myself. I probably wasn’t the only one in team Quattro that was asking himself, “Have I put enough miles in over the last 2 months?” Perhaps I was.
Our departure planning was terrible. Tammy and I arrived in Grayling, MI with the two kiddies around 10pm. Not a smart move. We finally got them settled down and asleep but we had a crappy night’s rest.
Rise and shine at 6:30am to start ‘fueling’ and ‘regular fluid checks’ for the day ahead. A healthy Big Boy breakfast followed by constant water intake got us fired up and by 8am Paul and his friend Joe and I headed over to the race to set up service at the base of the Hanson Hills ski area. There we met the fourth member of the team, Jake who I work with. It was a cloudless day but nippy. The race in principle was fairly straight forward. Starting at 10am we had to race as many laps as possible in 12hrs. The course was mostly tight, twisty single track with the occasionally sand trap where you had to keep your wits about you to avoid the trees that were right on the edge of the trail. They weren’t going to move if you came too close and we hadn’t fitted rollcages to our bikes and the helmets didn’t have HANS posts. There was even a Caution! on one descent.
Paul and Joe had raced this event before so Paul drew the short straw and started first. I was keen to put a night lap in but went second, then Jake then Joe. This proved to be a great starting order. Going into this event, in my mind we were going to do about 12 laps. Jake and I had visited Hanson Hills a couple of months prior and while the race course wasn’t marked out we got a feel for the terrain and it was pretty tough. I was thinking 55mins-1hr laps plus a changeover between riders. Paul set a blistering first lap at 51m 45s, our relay style handover was smooth and I took off on the trail. It started out on two track gravel then changed into hard packed sand and a single track climb. The first 1.5 miles climbed up into the woods and then flattened out and snaked down into a ravine. There was no chance to rest and with tight turns the focus was on maintaining momentum by not braking. Keep the speed, bank the turns and rail the side of the trail.
Don’t look off to the side or those magnetic trees would get you. I was glad I had a new bike. It’s a carbon 29er with lock on the fly suspension forks, very light and super fast on this terrain. I zig-zagged through the woods, the air was a little chilly with the low morning sun. The last climb was a killer; two track gravel with sand at the top, almost designed to zap the last ounce of power you had in your legs. It climbed the back of the ski hill but once up there the traverse through the woods was fast into a tight left and down a rocky chute over a crest and down the ski hill to the finish line 10.5 miles later and another 52mins lap. It felt as though we were flying and it was fun.
Jake was up next and he powered off at the changeover coming back around in another 52mins lap then Joe was up and smoked us all with 48mins. The ‘old’ guy in the team schooled us all. With that inspiration we got into a groove and got used to resting, refueling between laps. Allister helped with service and almost stabbed my tyre with a screwdriver, Ryan chilled out in his car seat, eating mostly, and Isla slept pretty much the whole day in the sun. Happy kids. Happy parents.
The trick with endurance cycling is to remember to drink and eat and while we couldn’t stomach a 3 course meal we scoffed cereal bars, fruit, yoghurt and a bunch of other tasty high calorie snacks. As the day went on we became more familiar with the trail, hitting 25-27mph on the descents and consistently averaging 12mph with each lap which meant we quickly realized that we might actually be able to do more laps than we thought. As I finished my 3rd lap with the Wee Man screaming, “Go Daddy Go!” (by far the coolest part of my day by the way) I could smell the grill from the finish line. Tammy had returned after taking the kids for a nap at the hotel and the burgers and brats were grilling away. It was a cool atmosphere hanging out watching the other racers and just talking crap whilst eating and waiting. We even had time to visit the play park and play on swings, a rather odd scenario mid race.
As the sun went down the temperatures dropped from the mid 60’s into the 40-50’s. We fired up the generator and floodlights then we started setting up the lights on helmets and handlebars. The rules state that you need to have lights on the bike from 7pm onwards and a flashing red light at the rear. I lost mine somewhere in the woods. It just exploded and fell off. That’s the story I’m sticking to. Joe finished his 3 lap, and Paul headed out on lap 13. We all got a little anxious when the hour passed and he wasn’t back. Anything could happen out there in the pitch black. Thankfully he made it back flying through the finish line and I headed out for lap 14. It was cold by this time so I just wanted to get around and make it back. Food, warmth and sleep are great physical and mental motivators. There were a few stragglers out there that could obviously see the lights coming up behind them and they jumped off the side of the trail to let me by.
There was some wildlife out there to so my mind started playing tricks on me imagining flying around a corner into a deer or something big and furry. Suddenly a black cat shot across the trail, yikes. It must have been a sign that the stinking hill at the end was coming up. It kicked my arse but once at the top it was a cruise to the finish and we had done it. 14 laps or 148 miles in 12hrs 13mins 15seconds. Brilliant.

Now, a little perspective. The top 2 person team did 15 laps in less time than we did. The winner of the solo 24hr race did 20 laps.

We were still pretty happy with ourselves but clearly a loooong way to go in this game.

July 2011 already?

2011-07-28T20:21:00.005-04:00

It's been a long time since we sat in the rally car. Due to a very busy year, our rallying has been on hold. During the second half of the year we plan to get back into the garage and prepare the car for the 2012 season so stay posted!

Alba Rallysport is a twit. Yes, we are on twitter and you can follow our updates on car prep, up and coming rallies, driving madness and the odd biking outing thrown in for training.

We havent been completely car free this year and did have the chance to test drive a Tesla Roadster which completely changed my perception of EV's. That thing is a missle. The torque and overall performance is incredible. Now, I just need a spare $150,000...

LSPR 2010

2010-11-03T21:55:00.004-04:00

With LSPR off the national calendar and a switch to a single day rather than the usual two day event there were rumours that it wouldn't draw enough interest to go ahead. How wrong the skeptics were. With 40 entries, national competitors filling the top ten and the final round of MaxAttack! the event was arguably the most exciting regional event of the 2010 season.
We started out on Thursday morning from Grand Rapids to head north into Michigan’s UP. John Atsma isn’t new to co-driving but this was the first time we had paired up in the WRX so we planned to take things easy. With AlbaRallysport expecting their second junior crew member in the spring Tammy was out of action and somewhat happy to relax at home after a week of business travel.
Arriving in good time on Thursday evening in the college town of Houghton we were up and out on Friday morning to unload the rally car, give it the once over, head up to registration then to scrutineering. That sounded all very straight forward until we identified an electrical glitch that took a couple of hours of noodling to rectify. Thanks to Greg Mankin who was servicing for the 555 Sierra Motorsports team without whom, we wouldn’t of had lights.
Tech was a breeze and back at the motel we met up with Graham Evans who had arrived with a truck load of new DMack Grippa rally tyres. We were eager to give them a go so in true WRC fashion had 8 installed on the BRAID Acropolis wheels right there in the car park. Late in the afternoon we headed up to the local practice stage where we took a few laps, loose, rocky gravel just to test our stage note rhythm and check all the various settings and systems on the car. All good although there was some knocking from the rear which we later diagnosed as the struts, nothing serious.
Friday night we headed along to the Pilgrim steakhouse. Brilliant.
We woke to another crisp clear morning on Saturday and carried out a few more checks on the car, again, nothing major but we did remove the footrest to give John more legroom. We setup the in-car video cam, checked tyre pressures and left for Parc Expose which drew a number of locals eager to see some rally action. We set off 14th on the road SS1 and 2 a repeat quarry stage where John got up to speed pretty quickly on the notes with us driving at 80-90% rather than the 70% during shakedown the night before. Being so close to town these are popular spectator stages so we kept it neat and tidy preferring to look boring than go off before the real forest stages began. Sorry guys!
The first true stage was Herman, renowned for being a car killer and sure enough the first pass through claimed few victims. This is a great stage and although our times weren’t so competitive, sitting just within the first half of the field, we really enjoyed the twisty technical road, zero damage was a bonus. I’m really looking forward to Herman again next year.
After service in L’Anse we headed out onto SS4 Menge which was a sandy stage, very different from the hard packed wet road just completed. This started out as a wider, open road that favoured the higher horsepower cars but it tightened up towards the end which almost caught us out as we clipped a bank. Funnily enough on the same corner our West MI rally friends did same thing in the XR8. Perhaps there was a magnetic rock in there somewhere…
SS5 we headed back to Herman and again, with thoughts of ending the rally due to the various ‘off stories’ we took it easy but improved our speed taking over 20 seconds off the previous time and we managed to make up a couple of spots overall.
Passmore, SS6, was one stage I had really been looking forward to on the run up to this event. The last time I competed at LSPR was in 2007 in a Golf Gti and I recalled the long fast sections of this 17 mile stage and just not having the power (or balls) to go fast enough. Now, in the WRX it was a different story and wow, what an amazing stage. With an average speed over 65mph we were in triple digits more than once. Absolutely fantastic. It’s very hard to put into words the feeling of flying through the woods at that speed and I’m glad we got to run this stage twice. Surprisingly we were only a few seconds down on the second pass and that was run in the dark.
SS7 FarPoint was just the opposite of the previous stage in that it was extremely dusty and with such terrible visibility it made for really nerve racking driving. Later we were surprised to learn, despite the conditions we achieved our best overall position up to that point! Perhaps all those years skiing in Scottish blizzards paid off. Onto SS8 and Bob Lake which is where we had the incident. Everything had been going smoothly, perhaps too smoothly and as we came into a tight section of the stage I misheard a note that called for a right turn to tighten. We carried too much speed into the turn and with a tree on the outside had to make the quick decision to either clip it with the rear corner of the car or switch directions and stuff it into the ditch. Well, I chose to avoid the tree and go offroad. Amazingly we found 1st gear, kept the momentum going, jumped over a few clumps of dirt/rocks/stumps, hung a right around the tree and jumped back onto the stage Dukes of Hazzard style. Regardless, this was our best stage result with a 9th place overall. Yeee haaa!
Arriving at service we were eager for the crew to give the car a thorough check. All fine underneath, tyres still looked good, brakes were warped but still in one piece. Two more stages to go, hold on!
SS9 we tackled Passmore again. 105+mph….WOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO!
The final stage was Far Point 2 a 12 mile sprint to the finish. With a clear lead in the PGT class and sitting in 12th overall we weren’t going to give up the fight even though I usually back off towards the end of a rally. This time we had a 2 minute dust window (usually 1min gaps between cars) and boy did we make use of it as we pushed right to the finish stealing 11th place from Matt and Andrew Bushore who gave us one hell of a battle in a 25 year old G2 VW no less, an impressive drive by them.
I love LSPR. To me it’s the rally of rallies here in the US and whether it’s the time of year, the beautiful scenery or incredible roads it somehow reminds me of watching the RAC as a kid.

A huge thanks to our partners Team Illuminata Motorsport, rcmvinyl.com and our crew Paul Eddleston, Brian Burroughs and of course co-driver John Atsma.

Got in. Got out. Brought home prizes.

2010-08-12T13:39:00.008-04:00

With a multi-national crack team of 3 we jumped the border into Canada and headed to Catchacoma for a short single day rally. With 2 pass recce on a wide, fast sweeping 8km road, what's not to like? We had a driver as a crew guy, a first timer in the silly seat and I hadn't been on gravel for 8 months. It could have gone terribly wrong. Surprisingly we maintained stage times in the 5m 20s range all day moving from a start position of 9th up into 4th and bringing home the PGT victory. Sufficed to say we were fair chuffed.
GCFR is a great wee event on a fun road organised by long time enthusiasts who have what it takes to execute a safe and reliable rally. I highly recommend it.

The video tells the rest of the story...

Photos by Keith Hamilton and Bruce. Video by Alba Rallysport.

Back to Canada!

2010-07-26T13:34:00.005-04:00

3 years ago we headed over to Ontario with a Gp2 Gti to compete in a short rally called Galway Cavendish. That was our first stage rally together and clearly we were both hooked. It's such a great wee event that we're making the tow back there next month, this time with slightly faster machinery and 2 extra driven wheels. The stage is a wonderfully smooth road, wide with fast sweeping corners and a couple of nice jumps. Hopefully photographer Andrew Harvey will catch us in action again as he did in 2007...

Alba Rallysport splits 4 wheels into 2

2010-07-18T17:12:00.005-04:00

With the Scottish Hillrally cancelled due to lack of entries my brother Cam and I took a blast around the A and B roads of Scotland on the bikes. It's been years since I rode and to ride around the Cairngorms was just brilliant!

On a brighter note!

2010-06-27T13:23:00.005-04:00

I got my new helmet back from the painter last month and had some time to shoot a few photos before it's first outing.

Thanks to West Michigan painter Jeff Kruizenga of Imagine That Graphics for working with me to put this unique design together. Contact Jeff at; www.jeffsairbrush.com.

Also thanks to local photographer, Justin Bruursema. If you need photo work or even a surfboard, he does it all. Check him out here on Blogger; www.burlysurfboards.blogspot.com

Just not our year....

2010-06-27T13:11:00.002-04:00

Two bits of bad news for Alba Rallysport this month.

First, a stomach bug meant we weren't able to attend NASA's Hyperfest Rallysprint at Summit Point. The event was a success however with over 100 rides given to aspiring rally drivers.

The second dump of bad news is that the Scottish Hillrally has been cancelled due to lack of entries. Quite honestly, I'm gutted. We've spent the better part of a year planning for this event. We even skipped rallies on the our own calander to be able to attend. It seems the UK economy is also having an impact on motorsport. Regardless, these things do happen and while all involved are disappointed there are hopes of a strong return in 2011.

HyperFest 10

2010-05-16T20:04:00.007-04:00

This NASA event held at Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia on June 19th-20th is a blend of road racing, drifting and a last minute addition, RALLY! Oh, and there's a Daisy Duke contest thrown in there if you are looking for more than just fast, loud, hot looking cars.

Albarallysport will be there ripping up the gravel stage so stop by, shout "Where's TIM?" and you may just get a few feebies or for a lucky few, a shotgun ride in our SP class Subaru WRX.

For more information drift your way to http://www.hyper-fest.com/

Ice or Mud?

2010-05-16T19:51:00.004-04:00

I think I'll take ice over mud given the difference in cleaning time required afterwards...

More ice?

2010-04-21T00:17:00.004-04:00

Sno*Drift was icy. Turk Lake probably had more grip the following weekend. For some reason I hadn't had enough of sliding around on the ice but at least there was no risk of hitting solid objects.

The local West Michigan Furrin group lay on some great winter speed events.

Ice Ice Baby

2010-04-20T23:57:00.004-04:00

Sno*Drift, Atlanta, MI. Round 1 of the 2010 Rally America championship. It was one hell of a rally. We entered the 2 day regional and crawled our way through the Michigan woods on a couple inches of clear ice. We slid and spun alot but avoided trees. We were up to 4th overall in the regional I think on Friday until we spun on an uphill in the Ranch stage, wedged the car across the road and when we jumped out to get a tow rope and triangle out Tammy slipped on the ice a couple of times eventually popping her knee to the point she couldn't stand. Don Conley and Vio showed up, tugged us free and I strapped Tammy back into the car and we completed the stage. Before the penultimate stage we packed Tammy's knee with some ice (plenty of that around) and pressed on through the last two stages to the final MTC.

The EMT's checked her out then we rushed her straight to the ER in Gaylord. Rally over, she was on crutches and meds. I wasn't too disappointed. The roads were slick and it was only a matter of time before I stuffed it into the trees anyway. Braking from 100mph on a crowned road of ice is a little hairy. I learnt alot and we should go back next year as it was the most challenging rally I've never finished!

Team Illuminata Motorsport/Alba Rallysport 2010 Schedule Announced

2010-02-19T22:33:00.006-05:00

With a limited schedule for 2010 the Michigan rally team are focused on preparing, physically and mentally for the Scottish Hillrally in July. Based in Perth, Scotland the team will be driving an FIA spec rally raid vehicle prepared by Maxtraction.

"It's been many years since I've had the chance to be part of the hillrally so it's exciting to be going back home to race. I'm a little nervous!" said David, team driver who continues, "We have the best in the business behind us with support from John Cockburn owner of Maxtraction and a former hillrally champion."
Stay tuned as the team prepare for this epic off-road rally event, said to be the toughest off-road rally in the UK.

maxtraction.co.uk

Team Illuminata Motorsport/Alba Rallysport 2010 Schedule

January 29-30th, Rally America, Sno*Drift, Atlanta, MI
June 4-6th, Rally America, Susquehannock Trial Rally, Wellsboro, PA
July 16-17th, SHRC, Scottish Hillrally, Perth, Scotland
October 15-16th, Rally America, LSPR, Houghton, MI

Border Raid

2010-02-19T21:41:00.007-05:00

Still on a high from Black River Stages and having missed Rally West Virginia due to the event being cancelled I needed another gravel fix before the end of the year. It didn't take much to convince Ben Slocum to apply for a passport and join us on the road trip to Rally of the Tall Pines in Canada.

Tall Pines is one of those classic rallies. Held at the end of November north east of Toronto the weather is anything but predicable. We packed all the tyres we could get hold of, 22 in total from snow and ice to gravel and 15 BRAID wheels. Tall Pines is a long 1 day rally with the day prior spent on 2 pass recce. Paul from Team Illuminata Motorsport was on hand in service along with Corey. TIM provided the 4x4 recce vehicle which came in handy because there had been so much rain during the week the stages were muddy and washed out, more suited to off-road vehicles than rally cars.

We had very little car prep to do following BRS and with new tyres we attacked on the first stage. Perhaps we pushed a little too hard because on SS3 we overshot a L2 going off the road. Coming in far too fast I locked the wheels up on the slippery bridge causing us to lose over 9 minutes. Thanks go to the US crew of Andrew Frick and Ryan Scott for towing us out.

Some of the stages were seriously rough, Peanut and Avery Lake being two of the more notable. This turned the event into a rally of attrition and with nothing to loose Ben and I really pushed the car occassionally posting top ten stage times. Not bad for our first time at a Canadian national event.

With the stages becoming more and more chewed up with each pass we slashed two tyres, thankfully making it into service before then needed changed. We also discovered a snapped spring on the front right strut. The car was taking an incredible amount of abuse. Without a replacement we double ziptied the spring together and pressed on to complete the last 4 stages of the event.

The stages were incredible. Rough, bumpy and fast. Often so fast we re-wrote the crests on the notes as jumps. On more than one occassion we flew higher and further than we felt comfortable about! Having said that I loved the tight, twisty, rocky sections and was amazed that the Alba Rallysport prepared WRX withstood what we threw at it.

Despite an issue on the final stage that left many competitors with the same time we made it and through shear perseverance took 1st in PGT and 15th overall. The roads are tough and the competition is fierce in Canada and because of that we'll be back.

Black River Stages - Take 2

2010-02-19T20:16:00.008-05:00

In 2008 Jimmy and I failed to finished the final round of NASAs Atlantic Rally Cup, Black River Stages, in 2009 not only did we finish we brought home a 4th place overall, my highest place to date as a driver but it wasn't without drama. Here is the story...

I set out on Friday morning with Tommy, the Team Illuminata Motorsport WRC in tow, to pick up Jimmy and Brad (the young 'un) en route. The enclosed trailer and extra boxes of spares were heavy. In 2008 we DNF'd due to mechanical failure so I brought every spare part I had.

The truck was struggling. The tow to Harrisville, NY was expected to be around 12hrs. Having passed through Ohio and Pennsilvania we stopped for fuel for the 3rd or 4th time. I noticed the trailer wheel was smoking. The hub was destroyed. We crossed the street to the TA Centre but all they had we semi parts. It was 3:30pm on a Friday, we were 30 miles from a trailer service shop with a wheel hanging off. We unloaded the rally car and crawled to the garage in the hope they would have the parts needed to repair the hub. Remarkably they did and replaced the entire axle as the spindle was no longer straight. The father/som team did a brilliant job to get us back on the road, albeit 9pm and 5 hrs later. After a detour thanks to Miss Magellan we finally arrived at the roadhouse at 1am, something out of the Stephen King movie. It had been a 20 hr tow.

On Saturday morning we headed out to registration and tech, fueled up the car and cans and found a suitable spot in the service park. The ground was soft and as the guys gave the car a quick check it literally fell over in the sand. Thankfully nobody was underneath. A couple of the Irish lads came over and helped us lift it up again to get a jack underneath. Tommy went looking for another more suitable spot to work on the car.

In the afternoon we headed out the Parc Expose, chit chatted with the other competitors then onto the first stage. We took it steady getting used to the car again after a year away from gravel. The car was stiff as hell and I was thinking I should have softened it up more since the tarmac of Tennessee. The second stage saw a major incident involving one of the front runners and despite not having discussed an emergency plan Jimmy and I just seemed to kick into action and did what we had to do. The car was a write off but the crew have since made a good recovery. It could have been far more serious.

Onto SS3 and we actually ran the stage without a problem although a little shaky having witnessed what can happen to a rally car when it goes from 60-0mph in a few feet. Into service and Travis Hanson was with Tommy and Brad and helped adjust the suspension. We checked tyres, brakes and oil. All fine. Lights were fitted and off we went to run the same 3 stages. The suspension was still too stiff but we soldiered on with slower times than earlier. The mist was settling in the dips in the woods which made it difficult to commit to some corners. We weren't alone and on SS4 we had a 3 way tie. Due to delays the last 3 stages were cancelled. We adjusted the suspension again and headed to the haunted roadhouse for some sleep.

Sunday, this would be the day I said. Again, beautiful weather for late September in upstate New York, nippy but sunny and it warmed up nicely. Perfect weather for a rally. SS10/11 Goose Pond was rediculous. Jumps galore and it certainly woke us up with continuous rhythm changes. I missed an R3 and spun into some poor guy's garden but we got back on stage and enjoyed the many crests and jumps that twisted through the woods. The reverse stage saw us take a good 15 seconds off our time on the way in. We pressed onto SS12, Jayville. This was a fantastic stage that narrowed towards the end and was incredibly rough. There was no room for error with trees lining the stage and melon sized rocks on the road. With the temperatures rising I adjusted tyre pressures at the turn around and this paid off on the way back out seeing us take 13 seconds off the previous stage.

At service the guys switched the BRAID wheels front to back, reduced the camber on the front, checked the oil and cleaned the windscreen. We poured some fuel in the tank and headed out for the last 3 stages of the event. I felt we were on it. Jimmy was calling the notes perfectly, the car was fantastic and everything felt great. I just wanted to keep going and going. I had no idea what the gaps were between us and the other competitors and the navvies weren't telling so I felt comfortable pushing a little on each stage. We tied again with Billy and Jeremy in the Broken Motorsports WRX on SS15. We were having fun, laughing like school children. It wasn't until the end I realised how much time we were chewing out of the other guys in the last two stages. As eeryone was winding it down we pushed to the end. Ignoring Danny O'Brians times (who had technically DNF'd) we took fastest stage times on the last two.

The car was in one piece, barely dirty and only 4 tyres used all weekend although the rear suspension bushes needed replaced due to all the jumps. The tow home was as rubbish as the drive there. 2 hrs in and the rear brakes on the truck started to squeal so we stopped, unloaded and Tommy tore them down and repaired the parking brake which had seized on. Arriving back at Alba Rallysport HQ around 11:30pm we were exhausted but still buzzing from the fantastic stages and great competition.

A huge thanks to Jimmy, Tommy and Brad. A tow to forget but a flawless rally.

BRS or Bust!

2009-09-07T17:11:00.004-04:00

2008 was a great season despite crashing out on SS3 at Black River Stages, the final round of the Atlantic Rally Cup. This year we'll be back again with Jimmy Brandt calling the notes (I felt bad that he didn't get a proper run last year, because he doesn't do that many rallies!) and with a truck load of spares.
The car is just about ready and gravel testing is planned for this coming weekend. It's not been the year for events as we had planned. Although we snatched a 5th place OA and class win in Tennessee back in May, August saw the cancellation of Rally WV due to lack of entries. My trip to Scotland to compete in the Scottish Cross Country Championship last month was foiled by licensing issues so I'm really looking forward to making the trip to New York state in two weeks time.
With luck we'll finish and work pending (work has been nuts this year!) hopefully sneak another event in before the end of the year.

Owner of Team Illuminata Motorsport, Paul sits in the silly seat at a local track day. Photo by Josh Gant www.gantphoto.com

2009-08-25T09:16:00.001-04:00

Tennessee Tarmac

2009-06-03T07:57:00.004-04:00

Here are a few photos from the event that I meant to post back in June.

Fowlerville Rallycross

2009-03-24T13:17:00.005-04:00

No major drama just sideways action. Dry and dusty in Michigan in March?
This is the first time we've had on-car video so I'll let the footage speak for itself.

Photo by Greg Woodside

Future Rally Champion

2009-03-07T16:26:00.003-05:00

Technically he's already completed his first rally (NASA Rally WV, Aug '08) but Allister could not wait to get his hands on the steering wheel! With excellent hand/foot coordination at only 5 days old he's definitely a driver.

I'll have a TIM-On-Ice...

2009-02-08T12:06:00.002-05:00

The best cure for winter cabin fever is to get out on a frozen lake and give the car some wellie!

Design-A-TIM!

2009-02-06T06:58:00.003-05:00

Here is your chance to design the 2009 graphics on the TIM/Alba Rallysport rally car. We are excited to have a new sponsor this year and that demands a new look so we're inviting all you budding designers and Photoshop gurus out there to create outstanding graphic concepts. The design that best captures the TIM spirit of rally will be proudly displayed throughout the year, you'll even get your name on the car. Designed by ?

Vinyling tips.

Thanks to our partner rcmvinyl.com, the graphics will be vinyl cut so no printing, painting or wraps.

How to enter.

Register your name and address with Paul at Team Illuminata Motorsport, paul@teamilluminata.com and he will send you a file pack that includes images of the car and the sponsors logos. There are no limits on the number of entries per person.

The Deadline.

All designs should be submitted via e-mail to Paul at Team Illuminata Motorsport by 9pm on March 9th. Include 'Design-A-TIM' in the e-mail subject line. The winner will be announced on Friday March 13th throughout the web world!

Good luck everyone!

2009 Schedule Released!

2008-12-12T08:20:00.003-05:00

Stay tuned for updates and photos throughout the winter season.
Merry Christmas and a Happy Hogmanay from Alba Rallysport!

2008 Season

2008-12-10T07:18:00.018-05:00

January - The WRX went under the knife and began it's transformation from street car to stage rally machine. March - The chassis was completed and the build continued...
May - Final touches were made to the car at Rally Tennessee and we took 2nd in class and 8th overall on this fast and twisty tarmac rally. Not bad for the car's first event.

June/July - The car was prepared for gravel events and tested.

August - To finish first, first you must finish. Rally West Virginia was a rally of attrition. We hung in there and finished 1st in class and 5th overall.

The car was on display at Delta Subaru during the 4th annual 28th Street Metro Cruise.
September - We worked controls at the POR rally in Michigan then stuffed the car off the road whilst sitting in 2nd overall at Black River Stages in New York. Despite the off, we landed 1st in Super Stock class and 5th overall in the NASA Atlantic Rally Cup.

November - Somewhat frustrated at not finishing BRS I stole Tammy's car and went rallycrossing, taking the Prepared AWD class win and Fastest Time of the Day. Sometimes frustration pays off!

Tammy and I would like to say a huge thank you to all our supporters and crew this season. We couldn't have done it without your help. We're looking forward to 2009!

Paul at Team Illuminata Motorsport teamilluminata.com

Chad @ Racecraft Engineering

Jan @ Speed Industry

Colin McCleery, Brian Burroughs, Tommy Knight, Corey Franklin, Dmitriy Martynov, Jimmy Brandt and rest of the RCM gang.

MudCross

2008-11-22T08:03:00.005-05:00

After a very short stage rally in New York due to meeting a tree stump in the dark I really needed to race. Life happens and I hadn’t had time to repair the WRX since September. In fact it’s still in the garage in pieces but that didn’t stop me putting the rally wheels on Tammy’s Forester and heading out to Bob’s Family Raceway to take on the guys in PA class. After two days of rain, it was muddy, really muddy. This event was a day/night rallycross and we love to race in the dark, even though I couldn’t see a thing with dirty headlights and no driving lights! I threw the car into 2nd gear and matted it on every run for the entire day. The auto box was superb and somehow the car had enough traction in the wet conditions to take the class win and FTD. I was a little stunned to be honest as the competition in PA has really stepped up this year. I put it down to new Hankook tyres and a little bit of luck. The course was great though. During the day it was long and the rhythm was fantastic, pitching the car into each corner and being perfectly setup for the next, speeds where constant. I think this is where time was really gained. It certainly wasn’t because of the ability to accelerate or brake in what only can be described as slop!

I had the opportunity to chair this event and that was pretty cool seeing it from another perspective. There’s a lot that goes into organizing a rallycross and it requires a team of people. Despite the crap weather I think it went well, people had fun but I learned some things and if asked again I’ll be better prepared.

What’s next for Alba Rallysport?
The final round of the DRSCCA rallycross season is on December 6th in Capac, MI. Next month I'll write up a 2008 rally season review so please logon for that. I’m looking forward to some snow/ice rallycross over the winter with the new secret weapons and of course we'll continue to develop (read: repair) the rally car for the 2009 season.

Photos by Kyle Treder and Kenneth Tsang. Event trophy photos by chrisamosphotography.com

Lessons Learnt at Black River Stages

2008-10-26T09:54:00.003-04:00

NASA Black River Stages, September 26th – 27th, did not go quite as planned for the TIM/Alba Rallysport team.
The team was on a high, entering the final round of the Atlantic Rally Cup leading the Super Stock class having taken 2nd place in class in Tennessee and 1st in class at West Virginia. Sadly for the rookie team, luck ran out in New York.

BRS did not reap the result that the team wanted to end the season with. With regular co-driver Tammy sitting it out at home, the team recruited rally legend Jimmy Brandt to fill the silly seat. The rally comprised of 14 stages over 2 days and with a late change in the weather forecast it was a dreech* weekend. Despite a late start on Friday evening the rally got underway and the team were positioned 2nd on the road entering the 8-mile, Jerden Falls 1 stage,
“The first stage was very slippery, sand and mud mixed with some surface water. I’ve never run this close to the front so it was a new experience having to break the ground.” commented David.
Even though they had never competed together before the crew weren’t completely off the pace, taking 2nd on the first stage. Onto stage 2 and Texas Road was a long awaited new stage for 2008.
“What a fantastic stage!” exclaimed David, “I think I got lost in the notes at one point as the instructions were coming at me so fast but it didn’t matter, we were having a lot of fun.”
The crew snatched the stage win by just a second over the Burke/Holter crew in car #3. With times so close, it was set to be an exciting event.

Stage 3 unraveled that momentary thought. Tidd 1 was a 3.5-mile technical stage followed by a 20 min service. “I might have been pushing pretty hard but it wasn’t a big off.” said David who continued, “Towards the end of the stage we came into a R5 with logs on the outside, down a hill and didn’t make the L4. We just slid off the road, hit a stump and bent the control arm. I should have known that where there are log piles there is usually mud on the road.”
With open diffs the car was stuck but luckily TIM teammates Sladovich/Westcott in car #4 were on hand to tow the WRX out.
With no spares, the service crew dug in and did all they could to try and source a spare and when none could be found they tried to fix the broken part but to no avail. All this with assistance from the service crew of Burke/Holter, this is what makes rally so great. In spite of their efforts the team retired having learnt a hard lesson. “It was just so frustrating. For the sake of a $50 part we were out of the rally. Stupid.” summed up David.

Regardless of the retirement at BRS the team wrapped up the Super Stock class win in the Atlantic Rally Cup and finished 5th overall, a result not to be scoffed at for the first season in a new car. Paul from Team Illuminata Motorsports, “We’re really happy. We’ve had great fun this year, met great people and learnt a lot. We’ll be back in 2009!”

* Dreech: Scots for wet, misty, dull, typical Scottish weather

2008 Atlantic Rally Cup Standings

http://www.nasarallysport.com/esrc/points/ARC-Points-2008-after-BRS-C.pdf

The TIM/Alba Rallysport team would like to thank Corey and Dmitriy for crewing in far from ideal conditions. Also; Racecraft Engineering, speedindustry.biz, Delta Subaru of Grand Rapids.

teamilluminata.com
albarallysport.blogspot.com
rcmvinyl.com
dirtyimpreza.com

Action photography by Pete Kuncis @ onalimbracing

Bound for Black River Stages

2008-09-23T06:19:00.002-04:00

This weekend, TIM/Alba Rallysport will tackle the 4th and final round of NASA’s Atlantic Rally Cup (ARC) at the Black River Stages rally in Harrisville, NY.
In spite of missing the first round of the championship in February, the team has enjoyed a fantastic rookie year in their 2004 WRX and will start the final rally of the season leading the Super Stock class. Sadly, co-driver Tammy will not be competing in this event due to medical reasons as the husband and wife team are expecting a new addition to their crew early next year. “We’re so excited at the prospect of becoming parents but I’m really going to miss co-driving in the rally car. Don’t get too comfortable Jimmy, I’ll be back in 2009!” says Tammy.
Renowned co-driver Jimmy Brandt will be occupying the right seat in New York and David remarks; “While I’ll miss not having Tammy in the car I’m thrilled that Jimmy has agreed to ride along. With his wealth of rally knowledge I’m sure I will learn a great deal this weekend.”

Despite the team’s current position in the championship they are still very much focused on finishing and building experience. “Every rally is new to us so my aim is still to play it safe, have fun and improve my driving skills.” said David who continues, “The Subaru WRX has been great all year. We have tweaked a couple of things for this event but nothing major and we’re looking forward to the stages in New York.”
As always, Paul Eddleston of Team Illuminata Motorsport will be on hand in the service area, “We are really looking forward to this one as it’s the final event of the season and we may come out on top in the class championship.”

The NASA Atlantic Rally Cup is comprised of 4 stage rally events throughout the year with road surfaces that include sand, tarmac and gravel.

teamilluminata.com
albarallysport.blogspot.com
rcmvinyl.com
nasarallysport.com

POR 2008

2008-09-08T07:46:00.003-04:00

What a great rally. The toughest and meanest TSD by far. Tammy and I switched seats and worked controls 6, 16 and 28 on the Saturday leg of the two day event. Yes indeed, I sat on the right side of the car preferring good old fashioned map reading to the stage notes Tammy is used to which brought back memories of skipping last class on Fridays to enter nav rallies in beat up old VWs. We headed north from rally HQ towards Luzerne where we stopped with 2hrs to spare before our first control had to open. The Sloppy Joe's and Slurpies at the Luzerne Express were great and as we sat and ate, a local shared stories of how you could buy a horse for $300 because the price of feed has gone up so much. Having leafed through the route instructions we took off to find control 6. I've always enjoyed working rallies. Part of the fun is finding the most obscure (read fun) route to your given control, of which there is only tape or such identifying it. Finding the location of control 6 wasn't a problem and we set up. Tammy was grinning, finally having the chance to take her own line behind the wheel of the Forester. On the way there we met a group of horse riders and stopped to let them safely by. As most organizers will tell you, friendly PR is always a big part of a road rally. Once Bruce and Mitch passed through and calibrated our clock, cars began filtering into the control and being the first one after a rest stop everyone arrived in order and without problems. We packed up and took off for control 16. We followed the rally route for part of the way and could tell people were trying hard to stay on time! Control 16 was located along a twisty 2 track just off Evans Road, which would make a great closed stage by the way! We set up and had some dinner as it was already 7:30pm. Tom and David came by in the 0 car, giggling and rubbing it in that I would love the previous twisty sections, all 2nd and 3rd gear driving. Tom mentioned that they hit something pretty hard and as I looked down at the right front wheel it was pretty dinged up but still holding air. They pressed on. Cars began arriving but there had obviously been some tricky roads as quite a few were out of order. We waited and waited for car #8 our TIM buddies Slick and Steve. They eventually came by in the Sweep Jeep having killed the alternator on the Talon. Good shake down guys but now you have 3 weeks to get it fixed and running before Black River Stages! We packed up and headed to control 28, our last one of the night.

On the way to control 28 we picked up a strawberry shake and a couple of hot apple pies. Not only did Bruce find some great roads but made sure they passed some good eateries along the way! Rallying is hungry work after all. As it was late, we made our way along the main road out of Luzerne and we entered the section from reverse rally direction. It took us a couple of passes to find the exact location of the marker and as we were setting up, a local stopped alongside us. “What are you doing?” he barked. After a brief explanation, he was satisfied that we weren’t causing trouble, a good thing because he was a big lad and I wouldn’t have wanted to argue with him! As the cars began intermittently rolling in we realized this must have been a challenging section. The drivers were tired but most still grinning and glad to be pressing on. We packed up and headed back to rally HQ, this time I took the wheel as Tammy was pretty exhausted having done most of the driving all night.
The award gathering was very well done. Congratulations to eveyone involved. We had a great time and were glad to hear the competitors did also.

TIM/Alba Rallysport at Delta Imports

2008-08-24T07:41:00.003-04:00

The 4th Annual 28th Street cruise in Grand Rapids was quite something this year. I don't think I've seen such a variety of cars on one street before. Cars ranging from American Muscle to British Classics, Custom Hotrods to Import Tuners; and the people, there were thousands of people. It was quite something.
We had the rally car on display at Delta Imports for most of the day where people stopped by so excited to talk rally and find out more about the car and the sport. We joined in the fun and took an hour to drive along 28th Street where we made a few heads turn. Naturally, it was the younger kids who connected with the car having seen similar versions on computer games or TV. It was pretty cool to have them run up to the side of the road and shout "Colin McRae Rally Car!" as we drove by. We handed out TIM stickers and postcards which made them smile even more. Who knows, perhaps we'll see some of those kids out stage rallying in 10 years. It was a great day.

2008-08-17T12:15:00.000-04:00

Michigan Super Rally

2008-08-13T07:29:00.005-04:00

This weekend TIM/Alba Rallysport will compete in a first of it's kind event in the Midwest. Auto City Speedway in Clio, MI will host the first mixed tarmac/gravel rallycross with two cars on the track at once battling it out for a share of $2500.
Still on a high from our recent success in West Virginia we've had to make some slight changes to the car setup to stay competitive and to have a hope in winning some of the prize money. It's a knock out style of racing where the winner progresses to the next round and with $1000 going to 1st place we'll be driving flat out from the start!
This is very much an experimental event but one we hope to see more of in the future.
More information can be found at misupermoto.com

Astonishing Appalachian Success

2008-08-04T19:46:00.003-04:00

NASA Rally West Virginia, August 1st -2nd, was the first gravel rally for the TIM/Alba Rallysport crew in their Super Stock WRX.
In the weeks running up to the 2 day event the team prepared the car for the 19 twisty, rocky stages throughout the hills above the town of Elkins. The prep time paid dividends with many cars literally being torn apart by rocks and trees that lined the narrow stages. There was no room for error and of the 33 entries only 21 finished the event, many cars succumbed to the unpredictable, sharp turns and endless drop offs. Despite the carnage and starting 13th on the road (unlucky for some) TIM/Alba Rallysport achieved a remarkable 1st in class and 5th overall. “Our goal was simply to finish the rally by driving cautiously along the middle of the road” stated co-driver Tammy at the end of two long days in the car. “I can’t believe it!” exclaimed driver David when he heard the final result early Sunday morning, “It’s a shame our class competitors Scott Wilburn and Jimmy Brandt went out so early with mechanical failure. We were really looking forward to seeing how our times compared on gravel. Next time…”

During day 1 the husband and wife crew traded times with car #10 but the #28 car of Eixenberger/Slocum was snapping at the WRX’s rear bumper until an unfortunate puncture moved them back down the order. “We had great fun swapping seconds with the O’Leary lads in the #10 Evo but they were consistently faster than us on Saturday.” said David. Following heavy rain on Saturday morning the second day’s 10 stages (2 were dropped due to delays) proved a challenge for the crew who decided that a calmer-calmer strategy was in order. “I’m amazed the car took the abuse it did.” stated David who quietly admits to giggling uncontrollably on the fast, smooth 6.6 mile Boney Turk stage, “SS9 was the first time we had the chance to open the car up properly. It’s got some grunt in it and that stage is bloody fantastic.”

As usual, Paul Eddleston, Team Illuminata Motorsport owner was on hand in the service parks with Mark Buskirk. “It was a bit boring actually. We just swapped the Team Dynamics wheels front to rear once and checked the oil level a couple of times.” jested Paul who continued, “The most mechanical work we did all weekend was on the tow rig on Sunday morning as it needed new brake pads before the drive back to Michigan. I consider that a successful weekend’s rallying.”

Photos curtesy of James Shoulders.

The TIM/Alba Rallysport team would like to thank;
Chad @ Racecraft Engineering
Jan and Tony @ speedindustry.biz
Stan @ Delta Subaru of Grand Rapids

teamilluminata.com
rcmvinyl.com
nasarallysport.com

Heading for the Hills of West Virginia

2008-07-29T21:34:00.004-04:00

This weekend, TIM/Alba Rallysport will face the challenging gravel stages of NASA Rally West Virginia, the 3rd round of the Atlantic Rally Cup (ARC).
Following a successful first outing to Tennessee in May where the husband and wife crew achieved a pleasantly surprising 2nd place in class, the rocky forest roads around Elkins, WV will require quite a different driving strategy.
“I grew up driving twisty tarmac roads in the highlands of Scotland so I felt quite at home on the stages in Tennessee.” said driver David Allan who continues, “Gravel is a completely different game. There’s a lot more that can go badly wrong and we have a great deal to learn. Suffice to say, we’ll be treading very lightly among the other 36 cars.”
In the first year with a 2004 Super Stock Subaru WRX the team are focused on finishing events, building experience and continuously developing the car. Over the past few weeks the car has been transformed from tarmac to gravel spec. TIM owner Paul Eddleston, “It’s important to have a strong reliable wheel and tyre package for gravel events and what better combination than Team Dynamics wheels and Hankook tyres?”

Co-driver Tammy gets the last word, “Finish, finish finish. This is our goal. It will be a long, two-day event and with no recce we plan to take it easy, become familiar with the stages and learn from the other crews.”
TIM/Alba Rallysport extend their thanks to Chad Klungle from Racecraft, Stan in the parts department at Delta Subaru of Grand Rapids and of course friends and family who have contributed or put up with the long hours spent preparing the rally car.

teamilluminata.com
albarallysport.blogspot.com
rcmvinyl.com
nasarallysport.com

Car setup, crap times!

2008-07-26T09:59:00.003-04:00

The fifth round of the 2008 Detroit SCCA rallycross presented by Team Illuminata Motorsport was the first chance we had to take the WRX out to play locally. Here's how it went...

Although the prior week had been extremely dry, the morning of July 12th saw torrential rain resulting in conditions more akin to off-road racing, not rallycross. I was in two minds whether to get the car dirty...oh come on, this is a rally car not a Shine and Show trailer queen.

Photo by Chris Amos - chrisamosphotography.com

We loaded up and headed out on the epic 20 minute drive to Clarksville. Coming off the back of a successful first outing in Tennessee our goal was to see how the car handled on dirt. Since the addition of the Racecraft cage and legit gravel suspension the car was a totally different machine and I'm finding that I'm having to re-learn how to drive it. We set the chassis up to turn in well but not to be too twitchy, the last thing you want at 60-70mph flying through the forest. As a result we discovered that the car understeered too much on the tight rallycross course although that was also partly due to the fact I hadn't driven hard on gravel for 6 month. I was a little rusty. The first couple of runs weren't the smoothest and upon inspection under the car I discovered the rear sway bar end link bolts had worked loose, probably contributing to the understeer. As the day progressed I explored several cornering techniques, some which worked better than others. I learned a great deal from the 14+ runs and we've tweaked the chassis considerably since then and will be testing this weekend. Hopefully we'll see some improvements in both the car and and driver!

5 days until we leave for West Virginia...

Rally withdrawal...

2008-06-29T13:18:00.007-04:00

It's been 5 weeks since Rally Tennessee and we're getting really restless. After tearing the car down to check out the wear and tear we were surprised to find very little wrong with it. Of course the tyres and pads look like they've seen some abuse but nothing out of the ordinary. We raised Tammy's seat a little so she could see over the dash and she'll test it out at the next rallycross in 2 weeks time.
We need to get the Terratrip fixed or replaced as it stopped working before it's very first MTC! It most certainly is a faulty unit so should be under warranty.

Some new Team Dynamics Pro Rally 1 wheels are on order thanks to Team Illuminata Motorsport so we'll get the Hankook's mounted as soon as they arrive.
We're hoping the roof vent arrives before August so as to keep the cabin a little cooler. I need to rewire the light pod harness for no other reason that it looks untidy and annoys me! Change the oil and fluids and we'll be ready for the next stage rally, round 3 of the NASA Atlantic Rally Cup, Rally West Virginia on August 1-2nd.
August will be a busy month what with the very first Super Rally event in Michigan on the 16th; details can be found at misupermoto.com. The following weekend sees the 4th annual 28th St Cruise in Grand Rapids so bring the family out to see some cool classic cars and keep your eyes peeled for a few rally cars during the weekend!

A Memorable Memorial Day Weekend in Tennessee

2008-05-30T10:51:00.011-04:00

NASA Rally Tennessee, May 24th, was a rally to remember for the TIM/Alba Rallysport team.
It truly was a rally of firsts for the new team. First time on tarmac, first event using stage notes and the first rally in the freshly built Super Stock class WRX. “We aimed for nothing more than a finish and to bring the car back in one piece”, said driver David Allan who continued, “Our crew did an outstanding job putting the final touches on the car right before scrutineering on Friday. It wouldn’t be rallying if it wasn’t last minute!”
With modest goals for the weekend the team was overjoyed at being awarded 2nd place in SS class and 8th overall out of 22 entries. “We’re speechless”, commented co-driver Tammy, “We made some small mistakes during the day but generally we just took it easy and kept the car on the road. Forgetting to switch the intercom on for the long 8 mile Hohenwald stage was the biggest hiccup and that caused us to overshoot the L1 about 6 miles in”. With a non-functioning computer the crew was glad they had the opportunity to complete recce.

To the relief of the service crew there was very little drama during the day although for the car crew the lengthened transit mileage in the latter stages made getting to the next stage on time somewhat entertaining. The team attributes a successful first event to car preparation, “The Speed Industry tuned engine was superb right from the start and the Hankook tyres held up well on the twisty, high temperature, coarse road surface”, said David with a grin.
Team Illuminata Motorsport owner, Paul Eddleston, summarizes the weekend, “It was a great experience working with Tammy, Dave and the experienced service crew. It is amazing they finished so well up in the rankings considering how carefully they were driving, a testament to their skill and the well built, superb looking vehicle; a work of art. We are very proud to be associated with this team and look forward to more fantastic experiences in the future."
The car is still in the early phases of development and the team identified some areas for improvement but nothing that can’t be resolved before the next event in West Virginia on August 2nd, which is the third round of the Atlantic Rally Cup.

Photo by Judson Bartlett @ Square Spot Design

The TIM/Alba Rallysport team would like to thank;
Chad @ Racecraft Engineering
Jan and Tony @ speedindustry.biz
Stan @ Delta Subaru of Grand Rapids

teamilluminata.com
albarallysport.blogspot.com
rcmvinyl.com
nasarallysport.com/arc.php

Time to Tackle the Tarmac of Tennessee

2008-05-16T07:03:00.001-04:00

Next weekend, NASA Rally Tennessee will be the first event for the TIM/Alba Rallysport team in their freshly built Subaru WRX. The joint partnership between Michigan based Team Illuminata Motorsport and Alba Rallysport began with local Detroit SCCA rallycross and TSD events. “Stage rallying, it’s the obvious next step ain’t it?” stated TIM owner Paul Eddleston. The team has set themselves modest goals in their first stage rally together, “We are looking to learn but equally important is getting out there and having some fun.” said driver, David Allan who continues, “I’ve been around rallying since I was a wee lad so although it’s great to finally have the opportunity to drive we’ll be happy just sitting at the back of the pack, biding our time and doing our best to keep the car on the road.”
Since completing two rallies in 2007, Galway-Cavendish and LSPR, the husband and wife crew have been eager to get back out on the stages; the team has 3-4 events on the calendar for 2008. Team co-driver, Tammy, clarifies the crew’s strategy, “What happens in the car stays in the car! We had a couple of heated moments at LSPR but are better for it and now we’re looking forward to this season in the new car. As long as my driver keeps his mouth shut and does as he’s told we’ll be fine.”
The last 4 months have been filled with long hours and late nights in preparation for the TIM/Alba Rallysport trip to Linden, Tennessee. David highlights, “Paul at TIM has been instrumental in getting us up on all four wheels so to speak. He’s supplied many of the parts required in putting together a safe, reliable package from brakes to seats and harnesses, even Team Dynamics wheels.”Paul enthuses, “Team Illuminata Motorsport is very excited to be involved with Alba Rallysport in their campaign to participate in Rally Tennessee and other rally events throughout 2008. We are looking forward to great challenges, great fun, great camaraderie and great feedback on our performance products.”

The TIM/Alba Rallysport team extends their thanks to Chad Klungle from Racecraft for a cage that is quite simply a work of safety engineered art. Thanks also go to Stan in the parts department at Delta Subaru of Grand Rapids for sourcing many of the OEM spares. Of course a huge thanks to the whole RCM gang, you know who you are!

teamilluminata.com
rcmvinyl.com

Update...

2008-05-12T07:58:00.006-04:00

After being apart for the last few months the car is suddenly coming together, and quickly. It's matter of bolting everything back on now, putting in new fluids and firing her up...sounds easy, right?!

Dash back in place for wiring

RS&SP coilovers and Brembo discs

32mm turbo restrictor (prototype 1)

2 weeks to go!

2008-05-08T07:26:00.003-04:00

It's been a while, but we've been rather busy over the last few weeks. We've had a few issues with the turbo restrictor fitment and as a result have to machine our own. Minor setback but nothing we can't handle.The underside of the car is complete and we just picked it up last night from Racecraft where the stainless exhaust was fabricated to mate up with the Injen downpipe from Team Illuminata Motorsport.

It's coming together and looks fantastic. This weekend we hope to have the car running after finishing the wiring; rally computer, intercom, cut off switch etc. Then we’ll install the dash, seats and harnesses. Finally the graphics will be applied before we trailer the car to Detroit next weekend to have it dyno tuned...2 weeks until we leave for Rally Tennessee!
Nervous?
Very.

Christmas at Alba Rallysport

2008-04-12T15:07:00.004-04:00

Two of the key design goals with this project from the start have been to build a safe and reliable car. We want to be sure that if, when, we go off the stage we reduce the risk of harm to ourselves. To that end we enlisted the help of Chad at Racecraft to build a fantastic cage to a specification well beyond the basic requirements of all sanctioning bodies in North America. Secondly, with today's entry fees we want to complete all stage miles and get the most value for money. How frustrating is it when you DNF because of a mechanical failure? That would just p!ss me off.
Of course you can achieve both these goals and add to that a healthy turn of speed if you have a healthy cheque book. Sadly that's not reality so we've been selective in what to spend our hard earned cash on. A recent post I read on a Subaru forum highlighted that some people don't recognize what it takes to turn a regular road car into a safe, reliable rally car. The photo below shows just some of the parts we decided were vital to that goal.
Thanks go to our primary team partner Team Illuminata Motorsport (teamilluminata.com) for stepping up and helping out with sourcing many of the parts required.

Moving along

2008-04-11T07:41:00.009-04:00

In the past couple of weeks after getting the car back from McCleery's paint shop, Zeeland we dropped the drivetrain and rear suspension destroying a few recip saw blades in the process. Two winters of MI roads pretty much seized up all the important bolts under the car. After a quick call to my friendly parts guy at Delta Subaru in GR I had a whole new set to replace the old corroded ones. Although it's been a huge PITA project I'd rather swap the bolts out in the dry warmth of the garage than in the middle of the night at a remote service somewhere. It'll pay off.

Once the gearbox was out we fitted an Exedy stage 1 clutch. The gearbox hadn't been removed since the car left the assembly line in 2004 so it took a large chisel, a mallet and some creative swearing to get it off. Again, better here than at a rally. We gave the underside of the car a good cleaning, washing off several pounds of dirt and clay from the last two years of rallycrossing. We painted her up real purdy too! ;o)

As you can see, the engine compartment now has a few blank spaces where parts used to be. The AC compressor and condenser are now gone, and the stock downpipe will be replaced with a performance piece. The turbo just arrived last night having been machine fitted with a 32mm restrictor.
We've test fitted the seats and positioned drivers and navvie footrests, map lights etc. so now it's just a matter of bolting it all back together, doing some wiring and firing her up...sounds easy right?!

No brakes!

2008-04-04T23:14:00.004-04:00

So we've just completed a last minute brake install on the Forester XT. They were pretty bad. Unfortunately we sheared the lower bolt on the front caliper hanger. Luckily we managed to get the whole assembly apart then installed a hanger from the WRX. The pads and rotors have been bed in and now we're ready to rock tomorrow. Stay tuned for an event report and WRX rally car build update soon...

Yet more progress…

2008-03-17T07:31:00.012-04:00

It’s been a tiring couple of weeks working on the Alba Rallysport WRX rally car, often working late into the night. Progress isn’t moving along as fast as I’d like and we’re about 2 weeks behind schedule. Little things like life and work always get in the way don’t they?After the cage was completed we labeled all the wiring harness connections before removing some of it for shell prep. It’s helpful to have a complete service shop manual on DVD. As this will be a production class car the wiring harness will be reinstalled. We wire wheeled the seam sealer and stitch welded all the major seams. We also removed the sound deadening material using dry ice (from your local Meijer!) and an electric scraper (sold by Bosch in Europe). Many people will tell you this is a nightmare task but it took two of us less than an hour. It’s handy when you have the right power tools! After test fitting the seats and steering wheel (making broom broom noises of course) we pulled them back out along with the tail lights and taped up all the areas that we didn’t want to paint. We used a lot of tape. This week, we’ll paint the entire interior with white enamel. Stay tuned.

Buffing seams with a Craftsman Professional 20v Lithium-Ion drill.

More progress...

2008-02-26T05:34:00.005-05:00

The cage is near completion. Most of the major tubes are in place. The door bars have been bent and will be welded up this week, with gussets. We test fitted the seat location and like a tailored suit the car now fits perfectly around us. Built beyond RA and NASA requirements we're confident this cage will keep us safe. After all, I’ll have the most important person to me sitting along side as we fly through the forests.
Next step, paint.

Open Season

2008-02-24T10:06:00.004-05:00

We were all hoping for a great season opener but nobody expected what turned out to be the best snow & ice event we’ve had to date. The Detroit Region SCCA Team Illuminata Motorsport rallycross season got underway in spectacular style under sunny skies.
Granted, temperatures were well below freezing but this didn’t prevent 46 cars from competing against each other over 8 runs. With many new competitors in attendance word of the successful 2007 season had obviously spread.
For Alba Rallysport, the time had come for co-driver Tammy to exercise her skills behind the wheel. With the WRX out of action the team’s Subaru Forester XT recce car was brought in to contend with a 14 strong SA (Stock AWD) class. Equipped with sump and diff guards the only thing it lacked was a set of snow/ice tyres, however the BFG T/As performed better than expected.
The first two runs were taken with caution to get the feel for the course and the varying surface conditions yet managing to fend off the #77 Sti. We pushed hard on run 3 then backed off for a few runs until run 7 where Tammy achieved her fastest time of the day. It wasn’t quite enough however and we dropped a position on the final run after a spin. Not entirely the driver’s fault, I did shout for her to get on the gas just a little too early coming out of the first turn causing the car to over rotate and hit a snow bank. Refusing to check her times after every run was the tactic of the day and it paid off, taking only 1 cone penalty (better than any of my events last year!) and a well-driven 12th place. Consistency was the goal for this first event and with that in mind we consider it a resounding success.
See you in Fowlerville on March 15th!

Photo by chrisamosphotography.com

Progress...

2008-02-21T07:17:00.004-05:00

Just a quick short post to update the rally car build. Most of the cage tubes have been bent and tacked in place. We've positioned the seats, wheel and harness so that the seat tubes can be tacked in. We should have the shell complete by the end of the month.

Off season? Nah…

2008-02-04T07:02:00.001-05:00

Since the final round of the 2007 rallycross season it’s been all go at Alba Rallysport. With a short break over Christmas and New Year we jumped on a plane and visited our sibling team Alba Motorsport in Perth, Scotland. The weather was somewhat wet and windy, normal for December. Sadly we didn’t have the chance to test drive the team Land Rover, a rather special vehicle. Recently completed in 2007 and purpose built for off-road challenge events, the coil sprung 90” truck cab chassis features a 2” lift. Powered by a 3.5L Rover V8 it’s equipped with an external roll cage, Warn winch, auxiliary lights and a host of recovery equipment. RCMVinyl.com of course supplied the graphics.

Upon returning to Michigan on New Years Day we started a major rally project for 2008. The WRX interior was stripped out in readiness for stage rally preparation. This project is expected to last the next 4 months and will include a full custom-built roll cage, various chassis strengthening modifications, all the necessary safety additions and a wide range of under body protection. Check back for updates as the project progresses.

January was a busy month for Alba Rallysport and naturally we attended the Detroit SCCA annual awards banquet. Despite the cold, snowy weather, the food, drink and company was warming. Having the chance to celebrate and congratulate all the class winners of the 2007 season is a wonderful thing. The region’s rallycross program has come a long way and we were honoured to receive the 1st place award for the Rally Prepared AWD (PA) class from Paul at Team Illuminata Motorsport. Congratulations to all the other rallycross class winners and runners up. I’m sure the 2008 season will be an even greater challenge.

Photo by Chris Amos, chrisamosphotography.com

The last weekend in January saw the season opener of the Rally America Championship, Sno*Drift based in Atlanta, MI. It was a freezing weekend in the ‘Tip of the Mitt’ but I spent two days in one of the 000 lead cars, this time in the unusual position of co-driver. An incredible amount of work and effort goes into organizing and running a stage rally and having the chance to experience it from a different perspective makes me appreciate the dedication of the workers that allows us competitors to partake in a sport we love.

Sno*Drift winners Antoine L'Estage & Nathalie Richard, photo by Uwe Reher

The Grand Finale

2007-12-11T07:42:00.000-05:00

The ninth and final round of the Detroit SCCA Rallycross Championship, presented by Team Illuminata Motorsport, was held at an old favourite site, Fowlerville Fairgrounds. Going into the final round of the PA championship, Alba Rallysport had a large enough points lead that allowed the freedom to have more fun than usual. However, with a field of 8 cars the outcome could have been quite different. It was a bitterly cold day as we jumped out of the car to register. We were there to battle it out for 2007 PA (Prepared AWD) class bragging rights with regular RS twins Dmitriy (#42) and Jennifer (#64). Fowlerville isn’t one of Dmitriy’s favourite events with a history of vehicle carnage and bad luck so needless to say he remained somewhat restrained. The rest of the class comprised of long lost faces Micah (#88), James (#3) and Todd (#33) and rallycross newcomers Billy (#555) and Brandon (#1555). The recent arctic temperatures had reduced the track to conditions that resembled a snow-covered ice field but the day was to reveal constantly changing driving surfaces. Our favoured multi-lap format was the order of the day with 5 runs, 2 laps each. On the road trip to the event we had decided it was all or nothing. I wanted to go out with a bang and we were on the hunt for FTD and the Primitive Rally $25! I did, however, try to take it easy on the first run. Much of the snow had been swept away by the modified cars so we searched for traction on the polished ice. We didn’t find much but did find about 10 cones. Although it wasn’t a good start I felt we’d found the best turn in points so on run 2 we kept the car tight to the inside and crossed the finish line with a fast clean time. The secret in rally driving is to set the car up for each corner and turn in early. This is particularly important when faced with a sequence of tight turns. It’s a similar technique taught in ski racing where rhythm is crucial. We lost that rhythm on the first lap of run 3 where we tore down the back straight carrying far too much speed. Not finding enough grip on the icy, muddy slush to slow the car for the series of chicanes we lost it and went off course picking up 12 cones on the way. Despite having to stop and get back on course our raw time was still fast so we knew FTD was in our grasp. For now, Doug Harvey held the honours. After a short break, a well-earned sandwich and a wee chuckle at Billy Connolly talking about childhood holidays by the beach we headed out for the final two runs of the day. The course was reversed and the surface was quite different to the morning, hard packed with only a smidgen of ice. Naturally, we attacked. It was a quick run but I felt we’d slowed at two points on the course that I just didn’t have to lift for. This was it, the final run of the day and the 2007 rallycross season. Nick the starter waved us off and we literally pinned the right pedal into the carpet all the way around the first series of turns, Tammy shouted at me to slow it up as we approached a tricky chicane. We made it through clean. As we ripped down the straight I didn’t lift as we entered the long left sweeper at the end. YEEEE HAAAAA! The WRX was popping off the limiter as I balanced the car around the corner, my left foot dabbing the brake as the surface changed from sand to ice to sand to ice again. One last icy jog to the right and we nailed the throttle over the finish line struggling to slow the car down in time for turning off the course and through the timing truck gate. Our run was clean, and ridiculously fast, but while we had plenty of safety run off after the finish we missed the gate at the timing truck, which landed us with a time penalty. Aaaarg! FTD had eluded us and was taken by Steve Baumbach in the PF class, an impressive drive. We’ve had fantastic fun, both on the day and throughout the season. Congratulations to Jennifer (#64) for taking the PA class win. Impressively consistent times and very little cone carnage! Dmitriy, as always had a clean day of driving but perhaps those gremlins were in the back of his mind all day. Micah is one to watch for 2008 so hopefully we’ll see him out on a regular basis. Thanks to all the organizers, workers, land owners and competitors for a great year. We’re looking forward to the 2008 season and hope to see the regulars and more newbs out there sliding around on the gravel/mud/sand/grass/snow/ice! Photos by Alba Rallysport and Chris Amos http://www.chrisamosphotography.com/

The penultimate round

2007-11-19T07:46:00.000-05:00

The eighth round of the Detroit SCCA Rallycross Championship, presented by Team Illuminata Motorsport, was held at Bob’s Family Raceway in Clarksville. With eight Subaru drivers in the Prepared AWD class the Alba Rallysport team had some challenging competition. It was a chilly, overcast midday as we headed out on the short drive to Bob’s. Team co-driver Tammy was taking the day off due to illness and in her place was a friend of ours from Kampala, Uganda who was more used to seeing rally greats like Kankunen and Waldergard speeding through East Africa. As we cruised along I-96 a bank of flashing lights appeared in my rear view mirror, the unmistakable Subaru rallycross stars from Chicagoland. After refusing to ‘street race’ a crudely modified Chevy Cavalier the four rallycross prepped AWD cars turned off towards Clarksville to begin our day of proper competition. With a 2pm start eight runs were planned for the day, three of those being after dark. The course had some tighter sections than usual which demanded a shift in driving pace as well as some well-chosen gear changes. The weather brightened by the afternoon and we were ready for the first run. I took it easy but still managed to pick up two cone penalties. Rob (#86) turned in virtually the same time but with only one cone penalty. On run 2 we dropped our time dramatically but sill picked up a cone penalty. This wasn’t quite going to plan. I knew with Dmitriy (#42) snapping at my heels at every event, and in terms of championship points, I had to keep clean. The third run was ugly. I missed a gear change at the forest chicane and clipped a cone with the very back of the WRX as we sped down the slalom on the sand drag. Rob turned in a fast, clean run. Unfortunately for the #42 driver, although smooth and clean as always, the Impreza RS just didn’t have the power to keep up with the WRX and Sti. With the pressure on, Dmitriy made a rare mistake on run 4 and gained two cone penalties; the only two of the day I might add! I clipped a cone also but Rob was clean and with a blistering time, FTD up to this point. I pushed harder on run 5 and Rob started to feel the pressure picking up ten cone penalties (How did you manage that Rob?). I hit the same cone, not managing one single clean run all day. After a short pizza break we went into the night portion of the event. We fitted the new Hella lamps to front of the Alba Rallysport WRX and prepared for after dark battle. With some slight modifications to the course we prepared for run 6. Bam! A clean run but Rob had a clean run too and two thousandths of a minute faster. That’s 0.12 seconds! Run 7 saw the mist sink into the dips on the course creating a stage rally atmosphere. Pushing to get below the 0.9 min. mark that same cone on the back section of the course interfered with my rear bumper again. By this point I had my eye on FTD and the $25 Primitive Racing prize money. I was trying to gauge the speed of the M4 class cars that were laying down consistently faster times. Last run of the night and a time of 0.889 minutes, clean, no cones. Fantastic, that will do it I thought, until Scott Harvey Jr (#13) turned in the same time on his last run. We later found out that Ryan (#92) took FTD with a clean run and 0.887 minutes, and the overall M4 class win. FTD wasn’t to be, however, my Ugandan co-driver and I took the PA class win and 20 championship points, barely 10 seconds faster than the #42 Impreza RS that gave us a very close race. The driver of the #86 Sti will be one to watch at future events.
The final round will be held at Fowlerville on December 8th followed by an end of season gathering. See you there!
Photos by Chris Amos, http://www.chrisamosphotography.com/

LSPR 2007

2007-11-07T07:38:00.000-05:00

In 2005, Tammy and I spectated at LSPR. It was her first rally and she was so very bored. On the way home we vowed never to go back to that rally unless we entered. Fast forward to October 26th 2007 and with some help from rally friends we found ourselves sitting in car 525, a yellow G2 Golf GTi about to check out of the first MTC.
We left Grand Rapids early on Thursday morning with a borrowed truck, trailer and rally car. Corey, one of our crew rode with us while Mark and Sharon left later that morning. The ten-hour tow up to Houghton in Michigan’s UP was uneventful (thankfully) and beautiful. The colours of the trees and the wonder of the lakeshore never cease to amaze me and to top it off it was a blue-sky day. We arrived at the motel and set about unloading the rally car and truck then made our way to registration. Rally to me has always been about ‘family’, ever since I was a wee lad when my dad first took me to see Group B cars competing in the Lombard RAC rally (now Rally GB) near our home in Edinburgh. When we walked into registration that evening we were greeted by the familiar, welcoming faces of Mary and Jerry Shiloff, two of the rally family. Registration went smoothly thanks to meticulous preparation by Tammy and we retired to the luxury of the motel for some sleep.
A crisp Friday morning dawned and the crew headed down to tech with the car while we attended rally school. The novice school was taught by Mark Williams, a well-known name in US rallying, and was highly beneficial to us as newcomers. Mark confirmed that we were on the right track and not completely clueless about what we were doing. Back at the motel the crew reported a couple issues with tech. Small oversights on my part but it they were resolved and we headed out to Parc Expose to meet many familiar faces and a few new ones.
We were warned about stage 1, Green Acres. It was as rough as everyone said. About a tenth of a mile in I wished we were in a Land Rover. The rocks looked big enough to disintegrate the wee Volkswagen. We took it easy, we didn’t break anything and we finished the stage. A quick ten-minute service and we were off to Herman.
Stage 2, Herman, was going very well until we hit a water splash just over half way in. We were in fifth gear at the time and the car didn’t like it. It spluttered to the end of the stage in third. We checked into the FTC and the engine died. After we jumped started it out of the control zone I opened the hood and poured water out of the distributor cap. A swab from the first aid kit helped dry up the remaining moisture (remember a shop rag next time!) and we fired it up and took off towards stage 3, Bob Lake; which ended up being cancelled due to safety concerns.
Stage 4, Echo Lake, was a little rough. No, wait. It was ridiculously rough! Never have I spent so much time in the air in a car since racing Land Rovers across the Scottish hills! It was hard on the car so we made sure to slow down for the major jumps and holes remembering that our main goal for the weekend was to finish.
Stage 5, Passmore, was the polar opposite of Echo Lake, smoother and faster. Quite obviously there were some competitors that were pushing the limits as we passed one car submerged in a small pond. On most of the straights we topped out in fifth gear. The higher speeds will take us some time to get used to but what a fun stage. We headed back to service in Kenton where our crew had hot pasties and beverages waiting. Excellent! A quick check over the car, wheel nuts tightened and we were off to Bob Lake again.
The first pass through Bob Lake was a transit (we treated it like a recce!) so having the opportunity to run it a second time, as stage 6, was great. By this time Tammy and I had found our rhythm and the in-car nerves and tension had eased. I should re-phrase that and say, I had relaxed a little, kept my month shut and let Tammy focus on co-driving, which she did an excellent job of. What a fun stage.
We were back to Echo Lake for stage 6 and it was even rougher than the first time through. Made worst by the persistent rain and one of the disadvantages of running at the back! Perhaps we had too much fun on Bob Lake 2 because we started hearing unhealthy knocking noises from the rear suspension. After one large jump followed by a waterhole the wee Golf stopped complaining so we pushed on towards stage 8, Passmore2.
I guess we like running at night. We were exactly 18 seconds faster on Passmore 2, flying by three stranded cars and a limping Neon (with most of the back end missing) co-driven by Tammy’s rally hero, Bob Martin.
Back at service the crew were happy to see us and we them. We loaded up and hit the road for the long drive back to Houghton and well earned sleep.
We were up early on Saturday. The air was clear and fresh. It was going to be a beautiful sunny day. Our crew had already filled the car up with gas and given it the once over but had bad news. Remember that clattering noise on Echo Lake? Well, it turns out the right rear strut had pulled itself clean out the top mount (hence the noise) then punched through the turret sheet metal and lodged itself solid (hence no more noise!). We had driven all 17 miles of Passmore 2 and the 40+ mile transit back to Houghton like this. We were very lucky. Without hesitation we jumped in the car and headed up to Parc Expose in Calumet to avoid late penalties while Corey ‘procured’ top mount rubbers (thanks Chad and Jay!). The next hour was spent on the main street of Calumet hammering and re-locating the rear strut back into its rightful place. Our out time came around and after a few autographs (no joke, kids who know no better!) we took off towards the infamous Gratiot Lake stage.
I was a little nervous at the start of stage 9, Gratiot Lake. I’d heard stories of car destruction. The stage was wet so we avoided waterholes for fear of killing the engine. My nerves were unwarranted however. Gratiot was fantastic and one of my favourite stages of the whole rally. I love tight, twisty tests. Nearing the end of the stage we came around a corner to see Carl and Ben in their Golf who had a brush with the scenery. They allowed us through after almost swapping wing mirrors and followed closely behind for the rest of the stage amused at the way the 525 GTi was hopping and skipping through the woods. Half a mile into stage 10, Delaware, we realized that perhaps we hadn’t avoided all the water on Gratiot. We were stuck at 3500rpm in fifth gear, about 55mph. With the top boys doing well over 100mph this wasn’t the stage to suffer a lack of power. Due to my frustration we came into the infamous Delaware Delta much to fast and over rotated, missing the tight left. We got it together and finished the stage but we weren’t happy with our performance. We would have likely been faster in Tammy’s Forester with a couple bikes on the roof!

While waiting at the start of stage 11, Burma, we dried out the distributor again. Burma is such a great stage and Tammy called out the tulip notes with military precision. It was spot on. Enough said. We headed into Copper Harbor for service where it was announced that there had been an accident on Brockway Mountain so stages 12 & 13 were cancelled. I like tarmac stages but I was quietly relieved, as the GTi is a little skittish on a sealed surface with gravel tyres.
After a long service and a brief five-minute hailstorm we headed out to stage 14, Burma 2. This is a driver’s stage. It’s tight and twisty and has a great rhythm to it. Although the sun had not yet set apparently there were a few full moons along the way. We didn’t see a thing.
Arriving at stage 15, Delaware 2, we saw a few people frantically trying to get the ‘Subaru Guy’s’ car 536 ready. The glass we saw on Burma 2 was a result of their roll and they needed to fit a window net before being allowed to start. They managed in time and we entered the ATC ready for Delaware. 3,2,1 and we took off, moving up through the gears the wee 16v engine screaming. Delaware is almost straight and the road is so smooth and wide. What catches you out is the Delta, which goes against the whole character of the rest of the stage. Again we entered too fast, this time in forth gear, the car over rotated and we spun. Slow is definitely faster, something I should know from rallycrossing. During the spin we clipped a rock in a ditch and once we got up to speed it felt like we were loosing air out of the rear tyre. Knowing we still had Gratiot Lake 2 to run, which was probably very rough by now, we took it easy. As it turns out the tyre was ok and frustrated that I’d slowed down so much we pressed on to the final stage of the rally, which turned out to be cancelled due to a rolled vehicle. We transited stage 16 and thankfully so. It was very wet and very rough. We met our service crew for a quick once over the car then made our way briskly back to Houghton for the final MTC in. Our rally was over. We had made it through one of the toughest rallies in North America. We had no major offs, no punctures and bonded in only a way that husband and wife can bond in a rally car. We finished 17th out of 32 on Friday and 20th out of 29 on Saturday. It was a great weekend. Thanks to the whole RCM gang for their support. Thanks to all the marshals, workers and spectators and of course Rally America for organizing a great event. We hope to be back next year!

We missed you!

2007-10-31T16:41:00.000-04:00

Due to business commitments the Alba Rallysport team unfortunately had to miss the seventh round of the Detroit Region SCCA Rallycross Championship held at Fowlerville Fairgrounds on October 13th.
In addition to the regional championship this event was also part of the Great Lakes Divisional Championship which meant contingency money. We were a little disappointed that we didn’t have the chance to fight for a portion of the considerable amount of cash put forward by Subaru and other manufacturers; this, on top of contingencies arranged by Paul at Team Illuminata.
PA class had only 4 competitors, two of which shared car #88 owned and run by Orion Fairman of the Ohio region. Sadly, Detroit region’s own Dmitriy (#42) had mechanical issues that led to him dropping out. I’m sure it would have been a good fight to the end. Orion took the PA class win followed by Jennifer (#188) and Mark (#117) in 2nd and 3rd place respectively.
Well done to all and see you on November 10th.

Chalk one up for the McRaes

2007-09-24T07:06:00.000-04:00

The sixth round of the Detroit SCCA Rallycross Championship, presented by Team Illuminata Motorsport, was held at Lenawee Fairgrounds in Adrian. It’s not over until it’s over and with a class field of 4 and a tight, tricky course the Alba Rallysport team had to keep the pressure on from the start to gain vital championship points.
It was an unusually warm sunny day for the end of September. We’ve competed at this venue before and we didn’t fair too well so getting the first run of the day over with was our first priority. It was a very well groomed oval dirt track, sandier than Fowlerville or Bob’s so in the wet there is actually more grip than when dry. The run format was similar to the previous event in August in that we competed in 4 sets of 2.5 laps. Not only did this provide a great deal of seat time but was made all the more challenging by course designer Scott Harvey Jr.
The first half of the course was open and fast, the second half tight and twisty. This called for a high degree of driver restraint. It was all too easy to enter the chicanes with too much speed and pick up several cone penalties, something we managed during the afternoon. It was good to see Dmitriy (#42) back having missed the last event and having won here in April he wasn’t going to give us an easy time. Jennifer (#64) and Rob (#86) were the other two contenders, the smooth, power demanding course suiting the #86 Sti.
Run 1, let’s keep it clean my co-driver told me, 3…2…1 GO! We were off, a 90 degree right turn, into a wide slalom, a long sweeping right hander and into the back straight which was followed by some incredibly tight turns as we came around to the start again. Having recently sorted some of our fueling issues this tighter section felt better than on previous courses, the WRX pulling well in 2nd gear even at low RPMs. This was good. Another lap and a half and the first run was complete with only 1 cone penalty. We were happy with that for the first one of the day. Dmitriy (#42) as ever, drove a clean run. This wasn’t going to be easy and we couldn’t afford to pick up cone penalties with him racking off quick, clean times. Jennifer (#64) was also driving a clean race. Run 2, we were more focused. The advantage of running more than one lap at a time is that you get to feel out where to make speed and where to take it easy. This time we kept it clean and laid down the FTD challenge for the morning. Alas, it didn’t hold up thanks to Harvey Jr.! Dmitriy kept it clean, again and although Rob (#86) was fast in the Sti he was eating cones for lunch. He’ll be one to watch though and it’s only a matter of time before he’s racking up fast, clean runs.
Runs 3 and 4 were on a reversed course and it evened up the times in PA class drastically. The afternoon course was a completely different animal and we just couldn’t nail the tighter section in a smooth manner. The WRX was overly tail-happy in the loose sandy surface, which made for a lot of fun but also a great deal of cone destruction. We took out 3 and 4 cones respectively.
I put it down to a little luck, or perhaps Colin an Johnny McRae were looking down on us that day but we took the PA class win and 20 points towards the championship. With only 3 more events in the season we’ll take it where we can get it!

End of an era

2007-09-17T07:07:00.000-04:00

On Saturday 15th of September I lost my rally hero.

Keep it up

2007-08-21T22:33:00.000-04:00

The fifth round of the Detroit SCCA Rallycross Championship, presented by Team Illuminata Motorsport, took place at Bob’s Family Raceway in Clarksville. Having taken the PA class win at round four the Alba Rallysport team aimed to keep up the pace and build on championship points. Recently returning from a successful stage rally debut in Canada the team’s co-driving star Tammy Allan was unable to attend the event due to work commitments overseas. Driver, David Allan, was let off the leash (a dangerous prospect) and as this was the season halfway mark the final standings were far from decided. Anything could happen.
It was a sunny but cool day, which made a change from the heat wave of recent weeks. Dust was going to be an issue without a doubt. PA class was looking desperately sparse as I stood on the start line awaiting the M4 class cars to finish tearing up the twisty track. There were only four cars entered, Jennifer Glass (#64) and I were the regulars. Mark Bates (#4) moved up from SA class in his WRX wagon and returning competitor Rob Backis (#7) in the Subaru Sti had driven all the way from Illinois. True dedication.
I like the track at Bob’s. Not just because we’ve won there in the past, which undoubtedly gives a psychological edge that should not be underestimated, but it’s very close to Alba Rallysport HQ! It’s the only event where we don’t have to get up before 8am to make registration and I like that. There was a new format to this event and one that turned out to work very well; 3 runs, 5 laps each. Run 1 was clean and it was nice to be back behind the wheel of the AWD Subaru WRX. There wasn’t much of a gap between runs to compare times but I had to step it up, as dark horse Backis (#7) in the Sti was only 0.005min off the pace and snapping at my heels. I rolled up to the start line for run 2 with only one goal in mind; forge a large enough gap that couldn’t be recoverable. This is why I like the 3 run format. It’s all or nothing from the start. You can’t afford to spend time warming up; the pressure is there immediately. I made the choice to take the corners wider and faster staying in 2nd gear rather than slowing down to shift. It paid off and resulted in FTD. We went into the lunch break knowing that there was only one run left that could make or break it but I would have rather been chasing than leading. There was everything to lose in the championship point race. The final run was somewhat sloppy. The dusty conditions had called for the watering truck although there was a little more water dumped on the course than we bargained for. With a marginal lead over 2nd place contender Rob Backis (#7) I took off from the start line hoping the gravel tyres would give me the advantage I needed.

The first lap was slippery and I took out a cone on a left hairpin as I tried to keep to the driest, tightest line. We fought it out over the remaining 5 laps and incredibly finished with exactly the same time, 2.856min. and 1 cone penalty each! A mere 11.8sec. separated 1st and 2nd place overall after 15 laps, remarkable considering the Sti is shod with wide 17” snow tyres. Jennifer (#64) achieved a well deserved 3rd place having struggled with less than ideal gear ratios on the tight track and Mark (#4) finished with a respectable time in 4th place on his first outing in PA class. With luck we’ll see more of the regular PA competitors at the next event in September. See you on the gravel! Photo by Team Illuminata Motorsport.

Special Stage Success

2007-08-14T22:19:00.000-04:00

August 11th was an unforgettable day for the Alba Rallysport team. On the build up to their stage rally debut a great amount of effort was focused on simply finishing the Galway-Cavendish Forest Rally organized by the Peterborough Motor Sports Club, in Ontario, Canada. Little did the team know, they would do more than just finish the event. We had been recommended this event by many long time rallyists and it made good sense. Round four of the Ontario rally championship consisted of a single 5 mile road, 6 stages during the day and a 2 pass recce. It was the perfect first rally. Our three goals for this event were simple; Learn, have fun and FINISH!
Tammy (co-driver, team CFO, DJ and my beloved soul mate), Mark (rally car owner and crew chief) and I set out early Friday morning for the 500+ mile tow over to Peterborough, Ontario. Upon arrival we met up with Jeff and Deb Secor who were also crewing for us. Saturday morning was an early start as we headed up to rally HQ in Catchacoma. We had prepared all we could. The car had been tested, broken and the axle rebuilt by Brian Burroughs a week earlier. Tammy had learnt all the stage rally co-driving skills she could in a classroom environment and I had been brushing up on keeping the car on the road at local rallycross events. We just needed (read, wanted!) to race...right NOW!
There were 18 cars entered on the day and we were Car #15 on the road in the 3 strong Group 2 class. The well built Golf Gti passed tech without problems, the crew meeting was short and sweet and recce was complete. Suddenly we were in the car driving through our first MTC to begin the event. We were both a little nervous. Jeff, Deb and Mark wished us good luck and we were checked out onto the short transit towards the first stage. Due to the nature of this single road stage rally there were two turn around points at either end of the closed road creating two stages. Each stage would be run three times with a service after Stage 4. We checked into the ATC on our calculated minute and were sitting in line for the start behind Car #14, a Mazda 323. It was hot. Temperatures were in the high 80’s but it felt hotter in what Tammy describes as one-piece oven mitts. Due to the huge amount of dust, we were separated by 2 minute intervals and the clock ticked by quickly. We checked harnesses, helmets and intercoms. Everything was as it should be. Car #14 took off, leaving a plume of dust. We slowly rolled up to the start line and presented our time card to the starter. The 1 minute countdown began…30 seconds…10 seconds…5, 4…I had a brief flashback of all the advice I had been given from various seasoned rally drivers. Keep it smooth and steady and don’t drive at 100%...3, 2, 1, GO! We took off up a short hill into our first corner, the 1.8 16v engine pulled magnificently in 3rd and 4th gear into a long straight with 3 consecutive jumps…brilliant! I could hear yelps and giggling through the intercom. The nervousness was gone and we were having fun. The stage was a beautiful winding road with cambered corners and Tammy was calling the notes right on cue. About half way through the stage we came into a Left 3 Uphill corner when we saw frantic waving hands and Car #14 stopped at the side of the road, spoiler hanging off the roof. The car was damaged. We slowed down and then stopped alongside the car to ensure the crew was ok. We got the thumbs up so took off again on our way to the end of our first rally stage. The exhilaration was incredible and we couldn’t believe we actually made it through without incident. The surface was very loose gravel but after a few passes this would quickly change. For the first two stages we had planned to hold back a little until I was comfortable with the feel of the car at higher speeds. The VW Golf handled wonderfully. Over-steer was extremely predictable and the Quaife diff pulled us out of corners and up hills with ease.
On Stage 3 we pushed a little harder finding a good rhythm that was just comfortably within our skill level. We passed stranded Car #3 of 2006 winners Vanos & Ockwell who sadly went out later in the day with electrical problems. We were half way through the rally heading into Stage 4 and what a stage it was, clocking our fastest time of the day and 11th position, close behind Group 2 Car #11, another Golf Gti. It was going to be all out for the last two stages but first, back to service. We left the stage and headed along the road to Catchacoma, helmets off, suits open and windows down. Unfortunately we later discovered that we miscalculated our arrival time and entered the MTC a minute too early resulting in a 1-minute penalty. It’s a learning process we told ourselves. C’est la vie! Mark and Jeff dusted off the car, checked the tyres and filled it with fuel. Not that we needed it! Off to Stage 5 and anything could happen. We were flat out through the stage, a little too flat out. The problem with running a stage more than once or twice is that you begin to think you know it. We could see the dust from Car #18 and in places visibility was pretty limited. At one point Tammy asked me if I could actually see where I was going. Politely translated, NO was the answer and I relied on her notes to keep us on the road. It was only a matter of time and towards the end we went far too fast into a Right 3 Over Crest, the car over rotated and we barely kept it out of the trees. We backed up and kept going, although noticeably a little slower. To our relief there was no mechanical damage and we looked forward to the final stage of the rally. Stage 6 was a blast. At one point we hit an uncovered rock with the left front wheel and feared a puncture but thankfully it wasn’t so. We weren’t quite as fast as we were on Stage 4 but after passing Car #18, a BMW 2002 that went out with a bent control arm, we took it as a sign and eased off for the last kilometer to ensure we came out of the stage in one piece. We crossed the finish line laughing and yelling our heads off. We had our time card marked and made our way quickly back to service. A rally isn’t over until you are through the final MTC and I was going to feel much better once I saw the car on the trailer in the service park! Tammy calculated our final in-time and requested it as she handed our timecard in. We were finished! It was a brilliant feeling. We finished 14th overall and brought home the 2nd place trophy for both Group 2 and the Classic Division. The result was totally unexpected but a perfect finish to a superb day of rallying. Thanks must go to Peter Watt and all the other Peterborough Motor Sport Club organizers and competitors for putting on a great event. We certainly hope to go back to Ontario in the future. All images courtesy of Performance Rally Images.

The shakedown shookout

2007-07-28T17:39:00.000-04:00

In preparation for their up and coming North American stage rally debut the Alba Rallysport team took to the dirt in a Golf Gti rally car. Driver David Allan, along with co-driver Tammy Allan, describe their day.
The goal of this shakedown test was two fold; 1) Evaluate the mechanical condition of the car under rally conditions and 2) Re-learn how to drive a fwd car after 7 years behind the wheel of awd cars. The car in question is a 1987 VW Golf Gti 16v Group 2 rally car and although it is a very well built machine it has not seen competitive rally action in several months. We therefore felt that is was sensible to shake out any old cobwebs and identify potential mechanical issues before we get into the forest. This will hopefully save time, money and a lot of frustration. We really want to finish our first event! Recently back from a successful Pikes Peak hill climb race, car owner Mark Buskirk and PPIHC driver Colin McCleery joined us for shakedown. Once we were fitted to our seats and belts and given a brief introduction to the car we headed out of the pits.
Session 1 - After a few easy laps we stepped up the pace and found the car just handled brilliantly in the dirt. It is incredibly well balanced and I could throw it into corners without worry. This is an extremely predictable car, just what we want for our first forest rally. Towards the end of the session we noticed the water temperature creeping up but this was more than likely due to the relatively slow course and high ambient temperature. Having been in 110% attack mode on the rallycross circuit for the last two years was obviously noticeable to the on looking crew. Colin greeted me as I took my helmet off wisely reminding me that forest stages are much longer and that I had to pace myself and drive at 85-90%, not flat out. The old adage, “To finish first, first you must finish” is highly apt at this point and this is something I’ll need to remind myself at the start of each stage. The fact that I am driving someone else’s car helps this cause greatly!

Session 2 – Again, we eased into the course, this time taking wider lines and smoothing the turns out, trying to replicate a forest stage, albeit a tight one. We seemed to be just as quick but without the drama and physical effort required to sustain a 110% attack mode driving style. Forest rallies last for hours so it can be as physically demanding as it is mentally. Pacing yourself and the car is great advice. As we came out of a long left turn I felt a shudder from the front wheels. Going into a tight left it got worse so I slowed the car down and took it off the course. As I pulled up to the pits I first thought I had steering issues until I slowly drove away and BANG, no drive. We had destroyed the left CV joint.
That was the end of our shakedown. The car went on the trailer and we’ll need to order new axle assemblies but we achieved what we set out to. We found the weak link and now we have two weeks to rebuild before we head out to Ontario. This is why we test. Look out for our event review from the 2007 Galway Cavendish Forest Rally on August 11th.

Finally!

2007-06-28T07:37:00.000-04:00

The fourth round of the Detroit SCCA Rallycross Championship, presented by Team Illuminata Motorsport, had been long anticipated. Sitting in fourth place in the championship the Alba Rallysport team was desperately needing points to move up the standings and it was on June 23rd that the team was awarded their first PA class win of the season, finally!
The 2007 season has been a tough battle so far and I can’t imagine that it’s going to get much easier what with the level of talent in the rally prepared AWD class. This is a class owned by Subaru and despite Sti drivers Justin (#77) and Dan (#177) being absent on the day Jennifer (#64) and Dmitriy (#42) were up for a fight to the bitter end. It was a warm, sunny day and the track had recently been graded with new gravel. With 8 runs and arguably the best course Scott Harvey Jr. has designed to date we were hungry for points and, plenty of sideways action. Run 1 felt great. I’m still trying to figure out where the 0.199 penalty came from but it had been a long, rough week and even at 11am I wasn’t quite awake. The Impreza RS twins of Jennifer and Dmitriy had clean runs. We clearly had to get our act together, and fast. We improved on run 2 but picked up a cone penalty. Car #42 caught a couple of cones also so we were in good shape. Lucky. Come on, take it easy and keep it clean my co-driver reminded me. Run 3 felt fantastic, clean and it was to be the fastest time of the morning session. Run 4, we just got down to business. Our times weren’t ideal but were becoming consistent, our primary goal this season. We went into the lunch break somewhat relieved. The course was reversed for the afternoon session where we had the option to go either left or right at the final hairpin. We spent some time watching the first cars out and argued the merits of each direction until finally the co-driver won suggesting we stay left to carry maximum speed into the turn. Drivers, always listen to your co-driver! We went flat out, pushing every bit of the way with run 5 matching the time to the thousandth of the previous run. Incredible. Dmitriy had an unlucky off, which resulted in a DNF, a 150% time penalty, and a battle scarred Impreza. On run 6 we almost had a major incident when we entered the infield section of the course far too fast and as the car over rotated for a moment I thought we were going to catch a rut on the left side and put it up on two wheels. Amazingly we kept the rubber side down and missed every single cone, managing a quick 360 to make it back through the gate. Our time was slower but clean. We were very lucky! The last two runs of the day were smooth and clean and oh so enjoyable! Run 8 was to be our fastest of the day at 0.899m and netted us the Primitive FTD Challenge win in addition to 20 championship points that moves us into 2nd place. Brilliant!

Considering the wide, open course favoured the turbo power of the Alba Rallysport WRX over the normally aspirated cars it was a great competition were everyone drove 110%. What more could you ask for?

Photos by Team Illuminata Motorsport

Pre-summer testing

2007-06-16T17:52:00.000-04:00

With nearly a 2-month break between events 3 & 4 the Alba Rallysport team were getting restless.
As with any motorsport it’s important to keep practicing. The key is seat time and some more seat time and when you think you’ve had enough, more seat time. There are very few things more important. To this end we headed to a local undisclosed location, owned by rally friend Mark Buskirk, where we carved out a short course for some training. The course was similar in length to what we’re used to but with a rough, grassy surface, similar to Coultard’s Farm for those who have competed there. We combined straights, long sweeping turns, slaloms and a hairpin that was extremely challenging; particularly for one vehicle that evening, a Jeep Cherokee that popped a tyre off the rim!
All in all it was a beneficial exercise with the added pleasure of receiving a few tips from stage rally driver Colin McCleery as he rode along with us.
Colin will be competing in the 2007 Pikes Peak International Hillclimb next month sporting new colours in his freshly re-built Ford XR8. John Atsma will be in the silly seat carrying out co-driving duties.
In addition to the driver training we also tested some new parts that were provided by Paul at Team Illuminata Motorsports. The anodized red aluminum Group A rear sway bar links not only look great but held up to the abuse of the bumpy twisty course providing improved rear end rotation compared to the stock plastic units.
See you on the gravel at Fowlerville!

Bring on the speed

2007-04-28T09:36:00.000-04:00

We had planned that the third round of the Detroit SCCA Rallycross Championship, presented by Team Illuminata Motorsport, was to be our turning point in terms of class point standings. We needed a first or second place finish, preferably first and 20 points. Like many situations in life, things don’t always go to plan.
The April 21st event was to be held at a new venue, Lenawee Fairgrounds in Adrian. Due to geographical location the Alba Rallysport co-driver wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of leaving before 6am on a Saturday morning. As a result, we prepared and packed the car on Friday night for the drive over to the east side of Michigan and stayed in a small hotel, just minutes from the event. With a few absentees, PA class was down to 6 entrants although this didn’t make the competition any easier. The weather was warm and dry. The new track was smooth but with a very loose gravel surface. The course also appeared to flow well on the walk through however the large amount of strategically placed cones meant that high penalty points may be the decider at the end of the day. 7 runs were planned, starting off with 4 in the morning.

Sitting on the start line we were mentally ready to take the win. The car had been running well and we’d had shown good speed at past events. Just keep it clean and this would be our day we told ourselves. 3, 2, 1, GO! We were off and through the first slalom and into a long sweeping right hander where the WRX laid down the power in a beautiful drift. The back straight slalom was fast, very fast and as we crossed the line our time was a good couple seconds faster than our closest rival, Garant #177. The timing official stepped up to our window, “You missed a gate”. I couldn’t believe it, my co-driver confirmed, we had indeed missed a slalom gate on the back straight, which accounted for it being so fast. Luckily for us the #177 car also missed the same gate taking the 10-second penalty. We couldn’t believe our luck. Run 2, a clean run and the fastest in class, although Kollien #77 had electrical throttle issues and his Sti went into safe mode. We were back in the game and in 2nd place behind Martynov in car #42. Just keep it together my co-driver told me. Run 3 was faster still but one cone penalty kept us in 2nd so on run 4 we went for it; a little too much. Clean through the slalom into the sweeping right hander we were too fast, much too fast. The car over rotated and although I held it from spinning we passed on the inside of two gates much to the disgust of the expletive shouting co-driver on my right. We were nailed with a 20-second penalty for two missed gates and an additional 2 seconds for a cone, just for good measure. This moved us down to last place. Lunch was tasteless to say the least and it wasn't just the soggy sandwich.
We did the calculations, worked out a plan and prepared for the afternoon. 4th place was within our reach, IF we kept it clean and kept the speed up to the level of the morning runs. It was a tall order but we always seem to achieve better results when we have nothing to loose. Run 5, WHAM, fastest run in class and clean. Run 6, KA-POW, fastest again, and clean. Run7, KA-BOOM, “Did we just pull FTD?” Confirmed, fastest time of the day and clean. Not only did we crawl back up to 4th place but also brought home $25 thanks to Primitive Rally. Martynov #42 took the win, proving power and speed are not always the answer rather, cone free consistency. Following car #42 were Kollien #77 and Garant #177.
As previously mentioned, many situations in life don’t always go to plan but sometimes those are the most fun and rewarding days.
Photos by Richard Worden

Down to business

2007-04-04T07:27:00.000-04:00

The second round of the Detroit SCCA Rallycross Championship, presented by Team Illuminata Motorsport, couldn’t come soon enough for the Alba Rallysport team. It had been 6 weeks since the last event due to a weather induced postponement and the team was eager to get back on the dirt and fight for points. The weather forecast did not look promising for Fowlerville Fairgrounds, MI on Saturday March 31st. Luckily, nothing came of the 30% chance of afternoon rain on the day and the competitors welcomed the dry, dusty and very fast conditions after the snow and ice the previous month. We went into the event hopeful of collecting badly needed championship points but it wasn’t going to be easy. PA class again had a record number of entries, 10 in all, and it was great to see some new faces join us in the fun. 7 runs were planned for the day with 3 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon. We had no option but maximum attack. After a brisk course walk there were a couple of chicanes that we took note of but after the first run of the day we realized just how fast the course actually was.

We came out of the start gate like a bat out of hell and once the times were in we realized how fast we were! Even though we took a cone penalty it was a good start. We just had to keep it together and fend off the Sti of Kollien and Garant. We calmed the speed a little on the second run to reduce the risk of over driving but the first run must have woken the two Sti drivers who were almost neck and neck, a good 4 seconds faster than us due to our cone penalty. We had to act and on run 3 we stole some time from the #177 car but it wasn’t enough and we went into the lunch break in 3rd place. On run 4 after lunch we came out fighting, perhaps a little too hard, taking our third cone penalty and a good 3 seconds off the pace of Kollien who was increasingly faster. Run 5 was clean and quick…it felt quick; as we came across the finish line more than a little sideways we were laughing our heads off. We were having a lot of fun and that run put a good dent in the gap between us, and the #177 car of Garant, who picked up a cone penalty. We gained 4 seconds back but it wasn’t enough to catch the #77 car driven by Kollien who was on fire. Not literally.
We made a small error on run 6, just clipping our fourth cone, although still 1/3 of a second quicker than the #177 car. 1st place was untouchable; we had to fight for 2nd. Kollien pulled more time out of nowhere to take FTD (fastest time of the day) beating us by just 0.72 seconds on the final run. We made it, 2nd place and badly needed 15 points. There were just 1.26 seconds separating Garant and us overall in one heck of a 7 run rallycross battle.

Photos by Nate VanderVeen

Choose your rubber

2007-02-27T18:53:00.000-05:00

Selecting the right tire can be tricky. Not only are they expensive, they also don’t seem to last long on the Alba Rallysport WRX. Here is a breakdown of the tires we use for various events.

Surface – snow
Event – winter rallycross/TSD
Tire – Winterforce

A softer compound rubber than a summer or gravel tire they bite well in a straight line and under braking. For rallycross events this winter we found that we had to groove the tire a little to give a more aggressive tread for deeper snow. This tire is a compromise. It doesn’t perform fantastically well on ice nor in deep snow but for all round winter driving it can’t be beat on price. With a 205 width we’d prefer a narrower tire for deep snow so next season we plan on using a 185 wide snow tire.

Surface - tarmac
Event - autocross/track days/tarmac stage rally
Tire – Falken

These 225/45/17 monsters are incredible on dry tarmac. The intermediate tread copes with damp conditions but can be overwhelmed in heavy rain. They can withstand a lot of abrasion and perform very well in high ambient temperatures. We ran an autocross in temperatures of 30-40deg and they were slippery to say the least but we did take the STX class win on them! We are looking forward to getting out on the track with these Falkens again in the spring.

Surface – gravel
Event - rallycross/TSD/gravel stage rally
Tire – Falken & Pirelli

The RS-01D tire is unfortunately no longer available in the US. These tires have proven themselves to us in rallycross and TSD events such as POR. Although they are fantastic on loose gravel they excel in mud and wet grass and are our choice over the Pirellis for that reason. Although a softer compound rubber we prefer to keep the Pirellis for gravel roads.

Slip Sliding Away

2007-02-23T07:48:00.000-05:00

The Detroit SCCA rallycross season opener, presented by Team Illuminata Motorsport, didn’t go quite as planned for the husband and wife Alba Rallysport team.
An overcast, snowy day didn’t dim our spirits for the first event of the season. The twisty course at Bob’s Family Raceway in Clarksville, MI was one we were familiar with, having competed there twice and won once. With that record we were confident that we could be competitive with the Sti of #177 and #77.

With 10 competitors in the PA (rally prepared AWD) class and 6 runs planned for the day, this was the largest PA field since early 2006. A quick course walk revealed hard packed snow with thick ice below the surface. Experience told us the snow wouldn’t last long and we’d soon be slip sliding away on the ice. We went into the event with high hopes of a podium position but close competition from cars #42, #17 and #23 forced us to step up the pace a little resulting in an off course excursion into a snow bank on run 3 due to ice induced driver error. For the record, my co-driver did warn me!
Luckily, several other PA competitors made the same mistake and this evened the field somewhat but meant we had to step up the pace in the afternoon yet keep the runs clean. On run 4 the stars were aligned and it felt fantastic. We were back in the running but on runs 5 and 6 we took cone penalties, which pushed us into a final position of 6th place and 4th in the Detroit SCCA rallycross championship with 10 points.
The next event is on March 17th in Fowlerville, a course we are more than familiar with. Let’s just hope the snow and ice melts and we can put the power down on some gravel!

Photos by Nate VanderVeen

2007 Team Dynamics Challenge

2007-02-14T12:57:00.000-05:00

With the first event of the Detroit Region SCCA 2007 Rallycross Championship in three days it was about time to sticker up the car. As part of the championship the 2007 Team Dynamics Challenge will allow competitors in each class to rally for the chance to win a set of Team Dynamics race proven wheels at the end of the season. A win in each class can net you up to four opportunities per event. The Alba Rallysport team will be proudly sporting Team Dynamics wheels and logos during the 2007 rallycross season.

Snowcross

2007-02-13T10:56:00.000-05:00

Saturday’s SVR rallycross at Crystal Speedway was a great opener to the 2007 season. As it wasn’t part of the Detroit Region Championship there was no points pressure on the Alba Rallysport team of one (the co-driver took the day off!). The goal was to test tires and suspension setup for the following event. The large site with fast sweeping turns was fantastic and the deep snow proved a challenge to many of the 2WD entries early on. With a field of 7 in the Rally Prepared class it quickly became evident that the #75 Alba Rallysport WRX was going to have a battle with the #77 & #177 WRX Sti, again.

After the second run I was already in 3rd place but the third run was flawless, 2nd fastest, and I was back up with the times run by the WRX Sti. On the forth and final run of the morning I was joined by a fellow countryman; the owner of Team Illuminata Motorsports. This didn’t prove at all helpful as I spun on turn three resulting in a time of 67.31. This would be impossible to gain back with only four runs remaining. It was clear after the morning session that a new face to the rallycross scene was one to be reckoned with; car #42.
The afternoon session again consisted of four runs. The course was run in reverse and the conditions had changed dramatically. Grass was now visible but after walking the course we all discovered that the surface was variable. Some areas were wet and soft, some areas sheet ice. It was going to be an unpredictable afternoon. Run five was not a good start, 5th. I had to pick the pace up considerably and runs six and seven showed that. Run eight was flawless and I posted the fastest time in class for the day, 46.084 but it was just too late. With the final positions declared, The Alba Rallysport team finished in 4th place in PA class behind the #77 WRX Sti, #177 WRX Sti and #42 Impreza RS.
I walked away with lessons learnt. The goal for the 2007 season is to build on consistency and repeatability. On such short courses with only 6-8 runs in a day it’s the only way to be competitive. The car has proved that it can compete with the WRX Sti, now the driver just has to prove it!
See you at the Detroit Region SCCA season opener when the Alba Rallysport team will be two again!
Bob’s Family Raceway, Clarksville
February 17th

Welcome to Alba Rallysport!

2007-02-13T10:52:00.000-05:00

With a motorsport history spanning the last 15 years, 2 of those in the US, this blog will follow the story of the Alba Rallysport team’s second full US rallycross season. 2006 was a successful year with the team taking 2nd place in the Rally Prepared AWD class of Detroit Region’s rallycross championship. 2007 is shaping up to be a challenging year with 10 rallycross events, 3 TSD rallies and 2 stage rallies on the calender. Stay tuned for event and technical reports.
See you on the gravel.