Lockwood Lake Rally School & Coefficient II Divisional

Rally Review posted to Rally-L

Date: Monday, 16 June 1997, 11:43 PM

Just returned from Henry Joy's place in Atlanta, Michigan. Still don't have the dust out of my lungs.

Had a GREAT time!! This is why we do it (stage rally, that is). Wish we could do it on a more regular basis.

Thanks must go out to Mike Bodnar, Henry Joy IV (and V, and Mrs. Joy), the Rednars, the Krolikowskis, Tad Otake, Bruce Weiman (who was that lady with you? The famous B Ann B?), the "Maklenburgs", all the other workers and organizers (whose names I have forgotten, or don't know personally). The school and rally were well run and well received. (Sorry about all the mis-spelled names).

The event was an SCCA sanctioned coefficient 2 PRO Rally, preceeded by a rally school on the father's day weekend. Saturday was devoted to classroom sessions and some good "road time" out on the "ranch". Henry K, Henry J, and Tad would jump in and out of student's cars throughout the day on Saturday to offer advise and, otherwise help to tutor the drivers. Cindy K and Barb S conducted a navvy school about the same time. Sunday was slated for the rally proper.

An interesting thing happened to us, on the way to the start. As we (myself, and nav Albert - in the service vehicle) transitted to the start (about 8:30 AM) a bear ran across the highway, just in front of me. Now, I don't know enough about bears to tell you what type of bear this was, but am sure it was one of those friendly, "Yogi Bear" types. Only thing is, this bear was about half the size of the Colt (1000 lbs?), and would surely have ruined our day, had he decided to cross the road one second later. As Albert said later; "some times you get the bear, and some times the bear gets you".

And this is in Michigan's Elk country.

The rally was a blast!! We were fortunate enough to draw 4th on the road of the 13 entered. Ahead of us were, Hurst/Harty in Mike's immaculate 911, the Cyzios in Chris's Eclipse and Mark (rally-l subscriber) Utech's GLH Turbo. (Again, please excuse the misspelling of names). It was obvious from Saturday's session that Mark did not need much instruction.

The roads were a mixed bag of fast, wide, hard-packed gravel; deep sand and rough two-track forest roads. The only thing these roads shared (except the rough two-tracks - only because there was enough green stuff to hold the dust down) was the insesent dust. (No freeway here, eh, Mark?)

After two stages we rolled (oops, bad choice of words for a rally story) into the service area, although no service was permitted. The Porsche of Hurst and Harty was being readied for the trailer. It seemed the fuel injection had come-up lame and was forcing the Zuffenhausenmillenderenginhousing to run a bit lean. Even I know, that's not a good thing.

We had our own fuel problems. On the way to the start, I tried to see how fast the old Colt would go. (Not on public roads of course). The "calibrated" (by the driver - ha!) Alfa, indicated top speed at 87 mph. This would not do. It was obvious something was wrong.

After arriving at the service area, on HBJ(IV)'s ranch, I proceeded to check the jets in the old Mikunis. I have been aware of a rich condition for some time, but I was not prepared for what I found. The main jet on the #4 cylinder had fallen out! (This is a new condition - the 165 that had been there was a bit too big, but this was too ridiculous). Unable to fish-out the lost jet, it was decided to put another one in and hope that the whole assembly could be screwed in and not interfere with the one that come loose. Mike Hurst gave us some jets which he no longer needed, and we almost used them. Not sure what size they were, as he said, they were drilled out 150s, I put in a 155 that I had brought along.

Running for so long at full throttle, to determine terminal velocity had no doubt, taken a toll on the amount of fuel left in the tank. This would come back to haunt us at the start of stage 5. The end of stage four had been particularly rough and bouncy. The fuel pick-up, no doubt, had collected some air and the fuel pump needed to be burped. A short service was permitted and we dumped in about 3 gallons of petrol.

Upon starting the engine to go on to the start of stage 5, I heard the fuel pump straining to get fuel (that hollow clacking sound - you know). As we approached the start line the engine stumbled and stuttered. I could not get the engine to respond to throttle input! Al said "Let's go", "We're due", etc. I said "I trying, we have a fuel problem".

Instinctively, I thought: all we need is a hammer. "I'll just run back to the truck and get one". I'll grab a screwdriver too, just in case. Got the hammer. Then when I checked the screwdriver I had grabbed, it turned out to be a nutdriver (what the hell good would a nutdriver do?) Threw that back and got the proper, full size, Craftsman slotted screwdriver that any man would be proud to carry at his side. Ran at full speed to get to the car so I could start pounding on the fuel pump. Just happened to step on an uneven bit of terrain and twist my ankle in a very unnatural way. After moaning and groaning in the dirt for a minute or two I decided to crawl under the car and try to manually burp the fuel pump. All the, while our out-time had come and gone.

After loosening the feed line from the pump, and getting nicely soaked with aviation fuel, I suggested that Al should switch the key off. Well now we should have action. The pump was properly primed and the engine would likely run. Bad part is we just lost 10 to 12 minutes on the field for servicing in an unapproved area.

We were happy to be back in the rally, but we knew that, should we finish, we would most likely be last. We raced on and hoped just to do that - finish. Luckily, we were reseeded 3rd on the road after stage 6, as only the stage times of 1 and 2 were used to determine the restart order. Still, we knew we were not in the running. But we didn't let that get in the way of the fun. We charged on - mainly just to finish.

Turns out it was a good strategy. Attrition began to rear its ugly head.

Cars which were in our class and had off-road excursions or other mechanical woes conspired to move us up the ranks. At one point, we congratulated our friends Scott and Marlena for their obvious class (U2) win in their Colt. All the other U2 competitors had had misfortune come their way, and we (the two Colts) were the only cars left in the class.

After stage 8 (of 9) the organizers polled the competitors on whether to continue at a two minute gap, between cars (due to dust) and/or throw the last stage (due too the deep ruts which we were creating). All competitors seemed to be in favor of stopping after 8 stages. Thus the rally was called, a few miles short of the advertised distance.

Scores were posted; and as I scanned, from the bottom up, to find #17, I was amazed to find it listed in 3rd place. I knew our stage times would have placed us about third or fourth, but surely our road points would kill us.

Somehow they did not. Albert and myself are happy, and proud, to claim 3rd overall and first in U2 at the Lockwood Lake "Summer" Rally. Of the two remaining cars seeded ahead of us they claimed the O4 and O2 classes in convincing manner. We however, were closely pursued and even overtaken, at times, for the class win. Our best wishes for a speedy recovery go out to the driver of the Honda, who hit an embankment at speed. Marv, Art and Colin, sorry for your misfortune as well.

Attrition and a lot of luck helped us place as well as we did. The students who came to the school will be capable competitors in the future, especially if they have such luck as we had at this event. For Scott and Marlena - nice run! Sorry you didn't get the class win, in your first try; it would have been a bit of a "Cinderella story" eh? None the less a good run for the first time out. Congratulations.

It is interesting, as I sit with my ankle, swollen to the size of a softball, that I felt little pain when racing on, to finish the rally after our fuel problem. As I remarked to several competitors, who saw me limping about after my spill, it was a good thing it was only my throttle, and brake foot that was injured.

Unfortunately, I don't have any listing of competitors or their times, etc, but I hope we will see a posting, before too long. Again, thanks to all those who made it an enjoyable event. We will be back.

By the way, the car did over 100 (not on public roads, of course) on the way back from the rally, in a relatively short length of time. Amazing what a difference a single (carb) jet makes.

Scott Harvey, Jr
Team Harco Motorsports
"Win on Sunday, Sleep on Monday"