Gopher Rally Racing

scheming/dreaming again

2011-03-03T07:37:00.000-08:00

Since selling my last rally car, I've been uncertain about what I would do next. Recently, I've found myself scheming and dreaming about my next rally car in a way that is reminiscint to years past (i.e. obsessively). I am lurking in the rally classifieds and car preparation forums again, looking for ideas. The funny thing is that I'm far from narrowing down my choices. On one hand, the golf was fun and relatively cheap to run, as would another 2wd car. On another hand, I've got a WRX sitting in the shop (and has been for a couple years now) that is pleading with me to be a rally car. And then yet, I also recognize that purchasing the right car that is already prepared often costs significantly less money (not to count time) than preparing one yourself.

What to do, what to do?

Maybe I'll just buy a boat.

Start Anew

2010-12-19T20:35:00.000-08:00

Is that how you spell anew ??

Well, to tell the truth..I'm still not sure that this will be my next rally car, as I'm starting to think about buying a car instead. I have one in mind, if fact... but I think for once I'd like to play the 'cloak and dagger' game and not say.

Regardless, I still have to fix this car to register it...before I take it apart again to turn it into a rally car (that's the way it works in Saskatchewan). So, here is what I'm starting with:

Obviously, the car was tagged on the rear door (the door was a write off), and there was a bit of body damage otherwise, but nothing too serious. Hopefully I'll get started working on it over the holidays, but I still have a bit of mudding to finish in the shop too.

SOLD

2010-10-27T10:56:00.000-07:00

Well, the VW rally car is sold. I hope it brings as much fun and friends to the new owner as it did to me.

So, the work towards constructing the new rally car begins. Well, sort of. I still have some yard work to finish this fall if the weather cooperates, and I have to work on finishing the basement at our new house too. But, I'm hoping I can occassionally steal some time away to work on the car/order new parts during that time. I really enjoy following a blog created by the brother-in-law of a good freind on his refurbishment of a bus (http://49clipper.blogspot.com/), so I think I'll do something similar here. I promised for a long time to get pictures up of the VW build, so I'll try to do better this time.

I miss rally

2010-09-29T11:40:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure many people are visiting this blog these days, but I was busy goofing off over the lunchhour at work and thought I'd post.

I have not yet sold the rally car, although have had a couple people express interest. Of course, I'm not trying very hard to sell it either. Besides the post on specialstage.com in the western canada forum, where I suggest I might be interested in selling, I've done no other advertisement. As I've stated before, if it doesn't sell then I'll keep rallying it. If it does sell, I'll build or buy again.

I've been so busy this summer with 'work' work, and yard work, that I've barely had time to think about rally. But watching posts on facebook where friends are talking about getting together, and the "looking forward to seeing you at PFR this coming weekend" statements, it sure makes me miss the sport. The people and the racing are definately what I miss most. But seeing as I'm a bit of a loner with my spare time, I really miss the garage time working on the car too.

But, that yardwork needs to get done and the bills need to get paid, so It will be a few months yet before I get to turn wrenches on the/a car again.

Sidenote: The above statement reminded me of a converstation with a co-worker I had a couple months ago (he also likes to tinker with cars). We were remarking that you're not really a home mechanic until you've caught yourself on fire. I thought this was kinda funny, since I remember at least 3 times I've done this.

So...good luck to everyone at PFR, say hello to Helmer for me (I love that road!)

Selling the G2 Golf

2010-01-29T09:10:00.000-08:00

I've decided to offer the G2 golf for sale. Some details are here: http://www.specialstage.com/forums/showthread.php?p=340010#post340010.

Don't worry. I have plans for another car, but not likely for the 2010 season (although I'm considering offering my services as a co-driver for the year).

Chad.

Winter work

2009-11-19T10:42:00.000-08:00

I've decided that I need to start a list of work I'll be doing to the car this winter to prepare for the 2010 season. I thought I would post it here, as I need to have a list anyways, I tend to lose paper lists I make, and I thought other people mind find it somewhat interesting. I don't know who makes up the 12,000+ visits I've had so far on this blog, but I'm guessing some may be interested to know what work goes into preparing the car. I'm also not into the 'cloak and dagger' secret race car strategy thing, ask me and I'll tell you what I did well and didn't do well. On a related note, I promised a long time ago to post pictures I took during the oringal building of the car, sorry to those who have occassionally asked for it....just haven't made the time yet.

So, I'll try to prioritize, but it's likely to change with time

Step 1: finish new workshop (not really car, but it's the first step. Only wiring and wallboard left before I can move tools and project cars in.
Step 2: repair new WRX daily driver (this is obviously for selfish reasons as I get to use this every day). Once this is done, there will also be more room to work on the rally car.
Step 3: Start Rally car repairs

- fix whatever was causing loss of all coolant during Kananaskis 2009
- replace control arm that is slightly bent
- rebuild transmission, consider upgrade clutch
- consider purchase of different final drive for transmission (currently 3.94).
- repair rear seal that is leaking
- repair flex-pipe on muffler that has developed a hole
- purchase softer springs for ice/snow rallies
- rebuild spare driveshafts
- repair rad fan sensor
- replace battery
- modify skid plate for better protection of water pump and ps pump.
- bleed brakes
- upgrade rear brake pads
- re-synchronize and tune carbs
- take car for dyno tuning (never done this, it's relatively inexpensive and might prove useful)
- (edit) move seat to more comfortable position

I'm sure I'll think of more.

Kananaskis Rally 2009

2009-11-10T10:48:00.000-08:00

The 2009 edition of the Kananaskis Rally took place on November 8, 2009. There were 11 cars entered for the rally, and the forecast was for unseasonable warm weather approaching the event. I was grateful that Christa Monasch agreed to join me as co-driver for the 3rd time in the last year.

Recce, registration and technical inspections occurred on Saturday, the day before the rally (Recce definition: we get 2 passes of the stages to prepare our stage notes; on the first pass the driver typically calls out the corners and the co-driver takes notes, on the 2nd pass the co-driver reads the notes back and the driver makes slight corrections). It was clear during recce that the event was going to be slippery, despite the forecast. I would guess that between 60 -80% of all stage kms were snow or ice covered to some degree.

The studded snow tires went on, and I started the rally on Sunday morning with the same3 goals as always: 1) Have fun; 2) Finish; and, 3) try to finish in a better position than my starting number. Our starting position was as Car #9.

The slippery conditions caught out a number of drivers throughout the day, and although there were winter road conditions, we still had summer ditches. We were fortunate to have no encounters with the ditch this year, and were able to keep the car on the road all day. However, about half way through the second last stage, the ‘low-coolant’ light began flashing and the car started overheating. We let off a bit and finished the stage. One 24km long stage and a 7km transit left to go, and the car has no coolant. Inspection reveals that coolant is leaking coolant from somewhere I can’t see on the water pump. There was a small creek near the start of the next stage and I filled the coolant reservoir right to the top, hoping we would get through the stage. We decided to just drive out the stage and not make the car work too hard. We were 8 kms into the stage when the low-coolant light started flashing at us again. We made it to the stage finish, and then finally back to the service area – the rally finish, although the car was starting to get pretty hot. Fortunately the weather was cool, because this VW was 'air-cooled' for about 23kms, just like the old bettles.

Only 7 cars ended up finishing the rally. We finished in 4th place, and had a great time so all goals were fulfilled. The car is going back to storage until I get my workshop finished, and then I’ll start looking at the problem with the water pump sometime this winter.
The next rally in western Canada is the Big White Rally near Kelowna. This is a brand-new event, and I’d love to be there, but it’s just a bit too far and at a really busy time of year. I’ll have to wait until Cochrane 2010 to rally again.

Long rally-free summer

2009-08-18T07:30:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to anyone who is starved for rally this summer like I am. I'm very much looking forward to Kananaskis...... in November 'sigh'. I've recently moved and my rally car is surrounded by boxes in my garage, and will be until my new shop is finished (concrete coming this week, weather depending).

2009-06-07T21:40:00.001-07:00

Almost ending our rally early.

Rocky Results

2009-06-04T08:08:00.000-07:00

Results from Rocky Mountain Rally can be found here:
http://www.rallybc.com/rmr/Rocky_Results/2009/results_main.html

We finished in 19th place Nationally, and 13th place Regionally.

The Friday stages weren't great for us. My car was running VERY rich with the high altitude and, therefore, wasn't running right. There is obviously some more work to do setting up the side draft carbs, as the car had significantly less power than my mk3 jetta daily driver (which is not modified at all and is supposed to make less power stock than the 16v). Despite being very slow on Fridays stages, we also had a bit of excitement with a small off. We slid wide on a left hand turn over a crest and skipped along in the ditch for about 20ft. We came close enough to hitting a tree that the tree folded in the passenger side mirror :o

Saturday's stages went better for us. The car seemed to run better with the lower altitude, but was still running very rich. The car seemingly ran better near the end of stages than at the beginning. We had no drama ourselves, but 3 stages ended up being cancelled due to a couple accidents that slowed the rally and a small grass fire that started along the stages. It was fortunate that the rally organizers were so prepared, and that the rally had good radio operators, as the fire was quickly dealt with. I was a bit sorry to see the 3 stages cancelled, as we were making up time on each stage on our nearest competitors, and ended up 5 seconds from 18th nationally, and 25 seconds (IIRC) from 17th. I think we likely would have made this up on 1 more stage. Oh well.

Our times improved throughout the day, and we had a great time. I'd like to thank the organizers and volunteers for all their hard work. I always feel guilty that I get to go out and have a fun time racing, and we all rely so heavily on the volunteers. THANKS AGAIN.

My next rally is likely Bighorn in August, but Christa is looking for a right seat to fill at Mt. Trials in Merritt in a couple weeks.

Chad

1 week until Rocky

2009-05-22T12:47:00.000-07:00

Excited!

Start list is up. 29 competitors, We're starting near the bottom :( That's ok, it's fun to see how much better you can finish compared to where you started.

2 weeks until Rocky

2009-05-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, finally... Just over 2 weeks until Rocky, and I'm excited!! After only racing at 1 event last year, the car is ready for the first event of 2009. I'm looking forward to the event, my favourite event of the year. The game-plan will "Fun" and "Finish", although perhaps "start" should be the plan, based upon the way both Rocky and Cochrane went last year.

Check out the event details at:
http://www.rockymountainrally.com/

April Update

2009-03-29T12:53:00.000-07:00

Was not able to compete at Cochrane this year, and really missed the opportunity to race. The Manitoba rally (Sunset rally) was canceled for 2009, so the next event is Rocky Mountain Rally at the end of May. Rocky is my favourite rally, and I am very much looking forward to it.

I recently purchased a 2002 WRX from Saskatchewan Salvage auction. I have a bit of bodywork to do to make this my new daily driver, but the cars eventual future may be as a rally car.

If you interested in purchasing my 88 Golf Rally car, plus a ton of wheels, tires, and spare parts, contact me. I will be rallying this car until I find someone to purchase it. The car is strong, safe, powerful, and cheap to rally. It is also capable of winning G2 with a better driver ;)

2009 is on the way!

2009-01-27T20:10:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post, since it's been awhile.

First, I'd like to extend best wishes to the Western Teams heading East for the first Canadian National Rally of the year, Rallye Perce-Neige in Maniwaki, QC. Particularly to Eric and Leanne since they've offered so much support and help throughout the years to me.

Second, I'm very much looking forward to Cochrane Rally on March 1, 2009, the first Western Canadian Rally of the year. The car has been sitting (neglected) in the garage since November after Kananaskis Rally, but was running very good when it was parked.

Take care,
Chad.

Kananaskis Video(s)

2008-11-24T04:44:00.001-08:00

cool youtube video of us at the spectators hairpin, not sure who the videographer was, so it was a nice find on youtube.

I've also added the in-car from SS2 to youtube, you'll see I had a bit more trouble with the hairpin on the 2nd pass, losing about 4 seconds at the corner, although faster on SS2 overall than on SS1. However, not pushing on both stages as it was the first time racing the car in a year (and icy conditions yet)

2008 Summary

2008-11-16T18:31:00.000-08:00

Well, 2008 was not the best year of racing!!

Kananaskis rally just finished up last weekend. The rally car was running good, we were just winding up the car, starting slowly since it has been a full year since I've raced the car. We made 2 passes of the Forest Loop spectators stage when one of the competitors behind us had a serious incident. The co-driver was seriously hurt and the ambulance we had contracted expended all their supplies caring for him while STARS air ambulance was on the way. Unfortunately, the ambulance could not be re-deployed for the remaining stages without supplies, and the rally was over :(. Obviously, the real dissappointment is one of our fellow competitors being hurt but the rally also ended much sooner than anyone anticipated.

So the car is parked for the winter, waiting for the 2009 Cochrane Rally.

Chad.

2008 Kananaskis Rally Preview

2008-11-05T12:11:00.001-08:00

Date: November 8 and 9th, 2008
Location: Kananaskis Country, AB
Weather forecast: snow flurries off and on up to the event, near freezing temps

The car is all ready for the trailer, for the ~8hour trip to Calgary. In fact, it's running better than it ever has, so now I'm almost scared to touch it. It looks like there are 15 teams entered which, I think, is about average for this event. It's a mix of fast competitors and even some people who are relatively new to the sport. Christa Monasch of Calgary, AB will be co-driving for me at this event, and I'm very thankful that she has agreed to join me. There have been no significant changes to the car over the summer (besides fixing the overheating problems I was having), although the car has not yet been raced since some significant improvements to the power of the car. However, with the forecast being for snow, power may not matter too much.

Check out the entries, team profiles and, eventually, results at:
www.kananaskisrally.com

Kananaskis 2008

2008-10-22T15:11:00.000-07:00

Quick Post: It's been a very busy summer and fall (still is), but I'm doing everything I can to get the car on the trailer for Kananaskis Rally on the November 8 and 9 weekend. Kananaskis rally 2007 was the last time the car was actually raced, so I hope I remember where everything is :)

Chad.

Rocky Summary

2008-05-26T11:33:00.000-07:00

Well, bad news again. I discovered what seems to be a cracked head on Wednesday night before the rally, 2 hours after I was supposed to have left for the event. I had an overheating problem develop a couple of weeks ago, and replaced virtually every cooling system component trying to resolve the problem. Too bad I'm not a better mechanic, or I may have diagnosed the real problem more quickly. I'm hoping it's not a cracked block, as I have spent a great deal of money on the block.

We had to withdraw from the rally again....2 rallies, 2 withdrawals...very dissapointing.

We left for Calgary anyhow as my family had made many plans for visiting. I hung around the rally for the weekend visiting with everyone and watching some of the action, and helping with scrutineering. Thanks to everyone who expressed concern and wishes that we were there competing.

The weather was quite difficult for the competitors, and extremely difficult for the volunteers at the event. I think they all deserve a HUGE thanks. Pat Richard won the event in his new 2008 Subaru Sti. Results are at www.rockymountainrally.com

I've got to take the summer off and develop our basement (buying more rally time from my wife). John will be competing with Brian Maplethorpe in the upcoming Mountain Trials Rally (www.rallyBC.com). I wish them the best of luck.

Rocky Preview

2008-05-13T10:08:00.001-07:00

10 days away from Rocky, and I'm getting excited. 36 cars entered so far, including Pat Richard who is supposed to be debuting a 2008 Subaru STi. Most mechanical issues with my car have been sorted...I've been working in the evenings to clean, check, re-check everything to try and eliminate potential problems during the race.

Rocky is a personal favorite event. This is the first event I ever attended (2004), and decided on the side of that dusty road that this was something I wanted to do myself. We are entered as national competitors this year so that we can run the Friday stages in Kananaskis. We won't be pushing on the Friday stages, however, as we don't want to risk breaking the car before the regional portion of the race begins. I'm hoping for warm dry conditions, as that is where I have performed best in the past (although I haven't been given a lot of opportunity as most rallies I've competed in have had snow and ice to deal with). Last year we finished 12th of ~28 regional competitors (iirc) and we were having mechanical issues that seriously limited power. This year we have more power and more experience, so I'm hoping for a top ten regionally.

Link to the event page:
http://www.rockymountainrally.com/

Take care all. I'll post stories, pictures and video (hopefully) following the event.
Chad.

Cochrane Results....

2008-03-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

....did not include us, except for a "DNS" at the bottom. We had ignition problems that ended our rally before it started. A HUGE thank-you to everyone who tried to help us, most of all to Colin Armstrong (who went on to win the rally, btw - some good karma perhaps?).

The car was running excellent after all the work done to over the winter and we were even planning on pushing a bit more at this rally to move us up the leaderboard. During recce, the car started missing and then quit all together. The distributor rotor had blown apart. No problem, right...just get a new distributor. So Colin provides us with his tow rig so that we can finish recce and tow the car back into Cochrane. He also offers up a distributor he has in his garage in Calgary. We had the car 'tech'd' on the trailer back in Cochrane, then I followed Colin to his place to pick up the new distributor. I put the new distributor in and the car starts right away. I tried to set the ignition timing, but the timing was all over the place and I couldn't find a spot where the car wanted to run right.

Sidenote: The tach is plugged into a pickup on the back of the MSD ignition box (my car runs dual sidedraft carbs now). When the car started missing, the tach started fluttering up around 10,000rpm (but the car was barely running).

So, when I'm trying to set the timing with the new distributor we check and the tach is doing that fluttering thing again. I get the car so that it's running ok, but the timing light tells me I'm wayyyyy off. I jump in the car to go for a quick spin and it dies again. I pop of the distributor cap and now this rotor is melted and in pieces. It turns out that the rotor was only a symptom of a problem with the msd box. So I have a new one coming (thanks ebay), and extensive testing will be done before Rocky.

It was a VERY dissappointing way to finish the weekend. While everyone else was racing, I was on the highway towing my car back to Saskatchewan. My biggest apologies go to John Hall, the teams co-driver. It was a weekend we both looked forward to for a long time, and it's my responsibility to keep the car running good....this time we didn't even make the start.

News from Feb 27, 2008

2008-02-27T07:22:00.000-08:00

Thought I would post a bit of news on the blog:

- 2.5 weeks to go to Cochrane rally 2008, I hope there's a huge turnout of competitors
- No "in-town" spectator stages at Cochrane this year :( , but exchanged with more stage distance and start and finish is at the service area - so it was a good trade. lots of good spots to spectate on the stages
- I've been spending 2-3 hours per weeknight working on the car, and as much time as I can get on the weekend
- Should have my car running this week (weekend?) as almost all mods are complete, but might be back on stock cams again due to setbacks during install of new cams.
- likely no new paint in time for Cochrane
- The rallywest homepage has been updated with a new look..I like it www.rallywest.com
- Almost 1000 visits to my blog...that's kinda cool
- Time to get back to work!

Welcome to 2008

2008-02-07T06:59:00.001-08:00

I'm taking a quick breath away from work for a moment to update the blog.

I am pleased with how the 2007 season went and am looking forward to 2008. 2007 really was a 'building' year as it was my first full year competing. I competed in 4 events during 2007 and the finish positions generally improved throughout the year. The car got a new engine and the team got a new co-driver (thanks John) over the summer break. I also put a video camera in the car half way through the year, so I now have some in-car vids to keep my blood warm on these cold Saskatchewan winter nights. A couple of the videos I'll post up on Youtube and put a link here for everyone else. I've also been working on the 'build gallery' that I've been promising, pretty much since I started this blog. I have all the pictures organized now, and just need to find some time to post them online.

I've been working on the car a bit recently. The car was feeling a bit neglected, as I parked it in the garage following Kananaskis in November and hadn't looked at it again until near the end of January (did I mention that work has been crazy). I've finally gotten around to putting the new cams in the car, and have also recently sourced some sidedraft carbs. The carbs are 'old-school', but the car will make more power with them than it was with the original VW fuel injection system. I'm hoping that the combination of the carbs and the new cams will really be noticeable. Now I just need to become a better driver!!

I've also decided to put a little more paint on the car. The plain white (it's actually light grey) just doesn't look enough like a race car. The painting, however, does not have priority over the engine work I am doing and will depend on my schedule between now and Cochrane in March.

Kananaskis Results

2007-11-13T10:29:00.000-08:00

We finished 9th of 17 cars that started the rally. Another ~mid-pack finish. I had hoped for a bit of a better finish, but I've still got some learning to do and I need bigger balls when it comes to trusting the notes. The car ran well for the event, but we couldn't match the speed of the other Group 2 cars that went 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in the event. Overall, I'm still very happy to have finished the event and not have many repairs to do to the car.

We had a couple of close calls during the rally but the car (and the occupants) were unharmed. This was the second event where we made our own pace notes. Our notes were better than our first attempt (at PFR) but there is still room for improvement - mostly in the way that I interpret the road and the notes I give to John. I think that the notes will also improve for subsequent passes of the same roads, since we'll be able to refine the notes rather than writing them from scratch.

So winter work begins on the car. The stock cams will finally come out, and the race cams will go in. I will also be installing a standalone engine management system to make the engine run better with the performance modifications the car has. I'd also like to paint the car again because, well...it's ugly. I'm really looking forward to the next season of racing.

Kananaskis Rally - TV Schedule

2007-11-04T20:02:00.000-08:00

The 2007 Kananaskis Rally is coming up on Rememberance day weekend. This is a regional event that is the last rally of the year. I've never competed or even spectated at this rally before, although I lived and worked in Kananaskis for 5 years (although never driven most of the roads used for this rally). I'm excited to go..the car is still running well.

Also announced this week is the TV schedule for the Canadian Rally Series. We competed at two of these rallies (Rocky and PFR) and are hoping for a bit of TV footage to come our way. The events are televised on CityTV and were very entertaining last year.

Chad.

2007 CRC Season Airing Schedule
***Subject to Change****
Intro./ Perce-Neige, Maniwaki
A-Channel BC Sat. Nov. 3rd 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Nov. 4th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Nov. 3rd 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Nov. 4th 4:30pm
Perce- Neige, Maniwaki
A-Channel BC Sat. Nov. 10th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Nov. 11th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Nov. 10th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Nov. 11th 4:30pm
Rocky Mountain Rally-Part One
A-Channel BC Sat. Nov. 17th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Nov. 18th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Nov.17th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Nov.18th 4:30pm

Rocky Mountiain Rally-Part Two
A-Channel BC Sat. Nov. 24th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Nov. 25th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Nov.24th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Nov.25th 4:30pm

Rallye Baie des Chaleurs- Part One
A-Channel BC Sat. Dec. 1st 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Dec. 2nd 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Dec. 1st 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Dec. 2nd 4:30pm

Rallye Baie des Chaleurs- Part Two
A-Channel BC Sat. Dec. 8th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Dec. 9th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Dec. 8th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Dec. 9th 4:30pm

Rallye Defi St. Agathe/ Duhamel - Part One
A-Channel BC Sat. Dec. 15th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Dec. 16th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Dec. 15th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Dec. 16th 4:30pm

Rallye Defi St. Agathe/ Duhamel - Part Two
A-Channel BC Sat. Dec. 22nd 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Dec. 23rd 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Dec. 22nd 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Dec. 23rd 4:30pm

Pacific Forest Rally- Part One
A-Channel BC Sat. Dec. 29th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Dec. 30th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Dec. 29th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Dec. 30th 4:30pm

Pacific Forest Rally- Part Two
A-Channel BC Sat. Jan. 5th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Jan. 6th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Jan. 5th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Jan. 6th 4:30pm

Rally of the Tall Pines- Part One
A-Channel BC Sat. Jan. 12th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Jan. 13th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Jan. 12th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Jan. 13th 4:30pm

Rally of the Tall Pines- Part Two
A-Channel BC Sat. Jan. 19th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Jan. 20th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Jan. 19th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Jan. 20th 4:30pm

TARGA
A-Channel BC Sat. Jan.26th 2:00pm
A-Channel-ON Sun. Jan.27th 5:30pm
City TV Edmonton & Calgary Sat. Jan.26th 1:30pm
City TV Winnipeg Sun. Jan.27th 4:30pm

PFR Results - Quick Summary

2007-10-21T21:50:00.001-07:00

Well...it was an intense event. A Blizzard rolled into the mountains and covered 3 of the stages in snow. 2 of the stages had to be cancelled since 3 competitors ended up going off the road during recce and no trucks could even get to them. We were able to finish Recce but had some hairy moments on the gravel tires (the only ones we brought with us).

We finished 14th of 26 regional competitors for the Friday night stages. I am pretty happy with that result since I've never ran those stages before, had a new co-driver, and were running on pace notes that we wrote (also a first for me) and, as a result, were not pushing. The Princeton Cutoff stages were CRAZY with huge exposures, ruts, and rocks (my skid plate has some new dents). Also, the Friday stages did not count towards the WCRC points, and were essentially ran for fun by the regional competitors so no point breaking the car. Something like 6-8 cars didn't finish the Friday stages (including 1 roll over).

Saturday went mostly well for us. Because 2 stages had been cancelled, the organizers decided to run the other snow covered stage an extra 2 times in the morning. We found out about this at 8:30 on Saturday morning. I ran into Canadian Tire when they opened at 9 and bought 4 Goodyear Nordic snow tires and 4 rims (I should have bought the ones available in the Classified forum before leaving). They had them mounted for me by 9:45, our start time was something like 10:24. Because we're relatively new to rally, we were seeded as 26 of 32 cars. Even though we took it easy on the first stage (covered in snow) we passed 3 cars over the 23kms. We knocked another 40 seconds off our time the 2nd time through. At that point we were running 9th of 26. We had 5 gravel stages through the afternoon and slipped to 12th. We gained back one position on the 2nd last stage (back onto the snow again) knocking a minute off our time from the first time through - but we had a puncture near the end of the stage. We got the tire changed and made it to the time control on time for the last stage. We decided on the start line not too push again and take our 11th place finish. About 5kms from the end we punctured another of the snow tires and had to finish the stage with the flat...losing about 2.5minutes from the previous time through. The tire was smoking when we got to the finish, I thought for a second that it might be on fire. We then had to wait for the next VW to come that had a spare for us to borrow so that we could get back to the finish control. We took 1m:10s in penalties for arriving late to the finish, bumping us to 14th.

So..it was a finish and the car isn't broken. 3rd finish of 4 rallies...not too bad, but I really would have liked that 11th place. Also, we were making good time on our last stage before the puncture, and a top 10 wasn't out of the question. I'm a bit dissapointed, but I guess that's what I get for using Goodyear Nordics in a rally. 4 new tires and rims, 2 punctures and 1 wrecked rim.

Lessons learned...1) when using cheap snow tires on 2 passes of a 23kms rough stage, take 2 spares. 2) We could have put snow tires on the front and gravels on the back for the last 2 passes through the snow stage. We knew that the stage was getting chewed up pretty good, and only the 1st half was snow (stage starts high and loses elevation).

I'll post more later...very tired now after 17hour drive home. I also had a video camera in the car this time and got some great footage, will post up some video when I get it edited and sorted.

Lastly...Thanks so much to John Hall, my co-driver for the event. John and I made a great team, I think, except he likes it really cold in the car and I like to run the heater non stop :). John did a great job with the pace notes, but more importantly he kept me grounded during the event, constantly reminding me to not take risks and finish the rally. As he put it "first learn to finish, then learn to finish first".

PFR 2 weeks away

2007-10-03T07:38:00.000-07:00

So, it is 2 weeks from today that I will be leaving for Merritt, via Edmonton to pick up John on the way to a weekend of racing at PFR. I know that the race must be getting close, since I had a nightmare last night (?only a nightmare to me perhaps?) that the car was still being put together the night before the rally. The dream isn't too far from reality, however, as I am still pulling together the last few 'critical path' items together. The new engine fired up for the first time the night before last. I quickly discovered a coolant leak from the front coolant flange that comes off the head. A new O-ring comes in today, so I intend to be running the first break-in session tonight. The exhaust went on last night even though I've got a touch of the flu, or a cold or something. I still have to install the driveshafts and make an adjustment to the throttle cable (also tonight). An alignment is scheduled for Friday, so I will have the whole long-weekend to practise with and tune the car. One unfortunate item is my cams have still not arrived, but I am assured that they are on the way (?). I will be breaking in the engine with the stock cams for now and won't be pushing the car too hard for the short term anyways. I anticipate that even with the stock cams, the car will feel much more torquey (Is that a word?).

There are also some other things I want to do with the car before PFR that are not on the 'critical path' (i.e. If they don't get done, I can still race the car). I've swapped out the manual steering rack for power steering and I have a steering quickener on the shelf that I hope to install. This will likely be a 4-hourish type of job, so I'm leaving it until I'm sure everything else is ok. I've also been trying to buy a minidv camera from ebay, but I'm so cheap that I've lost like 8 auctions in a row.

Overall, I'm suprised how similar this swap has been to the project management I do as part of my day-job. I have a due date for completion and getting all of the parts, etc together in time has been a challenge. That leads me to something I've been meaning to put into this BLOG. If you ever plan to build your own rally car out of a VW Golf or any other car, PLEASE TAKE THIS ADVISE: Buy a rally car that has already been built, or start with a platform that already has the engine you want. I think the only stock items left in my car are: 1) the shell; 2) the dash and some things below it; 3)the master cylinder (although other parts of the braking system have all be changed) and; 3) portions of the wiring harness. Granted, I have learned A LOT about this car by building it myself, but 1/2 of rally is about car preparation and maintenance. I think I would have learned almost as much by now if I had purchased a car already built.

If you're coming to PFR, then I look forward to seeing you there. If not, I'll put up links to pics as soon as I can.

New co-driver found (well, ok...he found me)

2007-08-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

I am very pleased to announce that Mr. John Hall will be co-driving for the Gopher Rally team at Pacific Forest Rally in October. John has significantly more rally experience that I do, so I hope I don't dissapoint him too horribly.

I've also been promising some pictures from Rocky Mountain Rally. The following pictures are property of flatovercrest.com (please support their website).

Shot at 2007-08-20

Shot at 2007-08-20

New Engine

2007-08-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I've finally decided to make the leap from the 1.8 8v to the 2.0 16v engine that nearly every other vw in my class is using. This will provide us with the power and torque that we have been lacking to be truly competive (as we found at Rocky, where our lack of hp was particularly noticable due to long flowing stages, even when the car was running right). As well as the new engine, I will be converting the car from a manual steering rack to a power rack with a steering quickener.

As a result, I have a number of 1.8 8v performance parts for sale here: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3395000.

Next event is Pacific Forest Rally in Merritt, BC held between October 18-20th. I am hoping that I will have all modifications to the car complete in time for the rallycross at the Sports Car Olympics in Regina (at the beginning of Oct, I believe) so that I can have a brief shakedown with the car before an actual event.

New Co-driver Required

2007-07-03T09:19:00.000-07:00

:( Heath is moving and cannot continue codriving for the team. :(

I will not have any events requiring a co-driver until fall 2007, but am hoping that someone is interested in the job.

I will be posting some pictures from Rocky shortly

Rocky Results

2007-05-29T07:46:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

We finished 12th of ~30 regional competitors at Rocky Mountain Rally this past weekend.

No drama on the stages besides some difficulty adjusting to Jemba style notes (for instance: "Heath, you really need to tell me about those 'R2's with exposure' a bit sooner!!"). Actually, Heath did an excellent job with the notes considering we're both very new to the sport. Some mechanical problems, including the fuel pump which was on its last legs and at some times wouldn't let me get up over 5000rpm. The car started overheating seriously (temp guage was off scale during some of the stages). The cooling fan wouldn't run continuously so I thought the thermo switch was busted. We hard wired the fan at service to run non-stop but that didn't really seem to help. Now I think there may be a blockage of some sort somewhere in the cooling system. Even though the car was overheating, we pushed it as hard as the fuel pump would let us. One of the microphones on our intercom also broke, leaving Heath yelling the notes to me for a couple of stages untill we could fix it. As we were coming into the final time control (finish) after about a 10km transit, the oil pressure warning light was coming on (but it seems to do that when running hot - vw mechanic says I've got the wrong sensors(??)). But, the car made it to the finish and we were happy with our result (whoo hoo 12th, Yahhh 12th !!! ....seems a bit funny )

The stages were long, fast and flowing. Lots of long uphills that really made me wish I had way more power. Some short tighter sections where the car behaved very good. I'll get some pictures up once I get some.

Take care,
Chad.

Looking forward to Rocky

2007-05-16T15:41:00.000-07:00

Rocky 2004 - My 1st time ever as a spectator at a Rally, sat on the side of a cold dusty road with Warren Currie's brother and decided that I need to do this rally thing for myself (as if I wasn't already addicted).

Rocky 2005 - Heath and I volunteer for the rally and work time control at service (both of us get severe sunburn!!).

Rocky 2006 - I was very disappointed to not have my car ready, as I had hoped this would be my first rally...had to wait until fall of 2006 to debut at Pacific Forest Rally in Merritt, BC (and then went ~14kms before I went off the road...lol). Turned out the weather did not cooperate anyways and many stages had to be cancelled as they were virtually impassable (sp?) due to mud.

Rocky 2007 - Finally going to the show with my own rally car. To say I'm excited is an understatement. Based upon the weather pattern for the last 3 years, I'm expecting sunny skies.

Apology

2007-03-27T21:34:00.000-07:00

WOW...just read through the post below and am I ever long-winded, boring, and full of excuses. Sorry (will do better next time).

Chad

Cochrane Rally 2007

2007-03-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit overdue for this update. We competed in the Cochrane Rally of the Ranchlands on March 17th, 2007. There was a record number of entries for the event at 25 teams. This rally included "recce", or in otherwords, we had the option to drive the roads before the event to make pace notes. We were also given the organizer supplied notes if we wanted to use them. Since we had no experience creating pace notes, and since this was essentially our first rally after our premature exit at PFR, we decided to do recce but use the organiser supplied notes (rather than creating our own from scratch). We also decided ahead of time that we were going to take it easy and finish the rally. The registration, recce, and the technical inspection was on Saturday and then the rally was on Sunday. Saturday was a beautiful day and there was lots of melting and mud on the stages. However, the day of the rally we had snow and freezing rain. Even before the start of the rally we had problems. Our service man (my good friend Todd from Calgary) came over to the rally car as we were about 2 minutes away from the start to tell me my truck wouldn't start. This was the truck that I had just purchased the weekend before the rally (used). So Todd was forced to unload all of my tools and equipment into his truck so he could have them ready for us at the service area approx. 70kms away. Unfortunately, having my truck not start really threw me off for the day. We had to abandon the truck in Cochrane for the day and we had no idea what was wrong with it (although Todd thought the starter quit). I kept thinking about the truck all day long. The funny thing is if it had been my old truck I would have thought "stupid truck" and that would have been it. Since I just got this one, it really struck me that I might have just purchased a lemon and, as I said above, I couldn't put it out of my mind all day.

Anyways.....We decided to REALLY take it easy since we didn't want to break the car and then have two vehicles out in Alberta that couldn't go anywhere. Despite this we were having grip issues right off the bat. I attributed this to the snow and ice, but after talking with some of the other competitors I realized they were setting considerably better times than us. We continued to struggle with grip and on SS5 (5th stage) we went off the road on a slow downhill left hander. I wasn't on the brakes at all and the car just wouldn't make the corner. We got high-centred on a snowbank and couldn't move the car. We had to wait for sweep to come yank us out of the snowbank. Fortunately, there was no damage to the car. There was significant damage to my confidence, however. We lost about 9.5 minutes on the stage (compared to the first time we went through this same stage in the same direction) and then took 3 minutes in penalties for arriving late to service.

Ok...here is where it gets kinda embarrassing. We get to service late and decide to rotate the tires front to back since the fronts have some wear (although not much). We go out on the stages and still have lots of grip problems on SS6 ans SS7. At the end of SS7 is a turn around and a relatively long wait for SS8. We check tire pressure and we're at 38psi. Ok..so it's my fault for not checking the tire pressure anytime between having the tires mounted and the end of SS7. So I check with a few other people and they're running 28 to 31psi. So all the steel studs on the tire are around the outside of the tire and when we were using too high of tire pressure only the centre of the tire makes contact with the ice (no studs). So we drop pressure to 29psi and the car feels WAY better on SS8 (although I'm still not feeling confident with the car due to our off, and my nerves were still being tested as I continue to wonder what's wrong with my new-to-me truck). We decided that we'd lost so much time with our offroad adventure that we weren't going to take any risks and just slowly finish our first rally.

So, we finished in 2nd last place of the cars that finished (20th of the 25 entered). The only team we beat spent twice as much time as us in the ditch (and we beat them by less than a minute, so they were way faster than us for the rest of the rally). I'm a bit dissappointed with our final position, but I am proud that we finished this time. We learned a lot at this rally, including checking tire pressure before being in the middle of the race. We missed most of the banquet at the finish since we were busy trying to figure out what was wrong with my truck. Fortunately it was a broken wire on the starter, so it didn't take us long to get it fixed, loaded up, hook up the trailer and take off back for Saskatchewan. I feel a little silly for stressing so much about it now. I apologized a few times to Heath and Todd for not being much fun to be around before we knew what was wrong with the truck.

Once again, we'd like to thank our supporters for this rally. If you need a new water well, don't hesitate to contact Lorne at Stauber Drilling. If you Geo-environmental consulting (ok..well maybe you don't need this often unless you're in the mining industry) call ME at MDH Engineered Solutions. If you need any photographic services, please contact Deb at Balance Photography. Also check out flatoutperformance.com if you're looking for aftermarket parts for your car.

I still plan on posting a build log for the race car. Check back if you're one of the 70-or-so people who've actually been to the site before.

My favourite picture from Cochrane Rally:

Thanks Stauber Drilling

2007-03-08T09:18:00.000-08:00

Hello all (or should I say "hello few" since this site is still very new - well we're working on increasing exposure). There is just over a week remaining until we leave for Cochrane Rally. I am very excited to get out there with the car, although our strategy/goal is to finish each stage without drama. We are going to drive quickly but not push anywhere near the limit due to reports of mixed surfaces (gravel, snow, glare ice)on the stages. I've been watching the weather forecast for Cochrane and I'm not sure how there is going to be any snow or ice left by the time we get there (highs in the double digits almost everyday). Oh well, I'm planning on bringing both the gravel and the studded winter tires. My hope is that if we can set "good" times on all stages, that we will move up the leaderboard as others have difficulties.

Also, I've finally sorted out about 50 pictures of building the rally car. I'm going to get them up onto some photo hosting site somewhere, and then put the link to it on this site. As mentioned in previous posts, I think this is almost a duty to the rally community since I spent countless hours reviewing other peoples sites to see "how they did it".

In other news, we are very pleased to announce that Stauber Drilling of Regina, SK has joined as a Sponsor to the Gopher Rally Racing Team. If you need any drilling done, water wells installed, etc., please give Lorne or Fred at call at 306 359 1959.

Ice racing video

2007-03-01T06:51:00.000-08:00

A bit of action this past weekend for the rally car. I went out to the local ice race track for a bit of a "shakedown" on the new winter tires.

Welcome to our Blog

2007-02-26T10:23:00.001-08:00

Well...here we are with a web presence. The purpose of this blog is to post information regarding the Gopher Rally Racing team. The team is made up of myself, Chad LePoudre (car owner and driver), Heath Hrappstead (co-driver, ballast, and all-around good guy), and various friends and family who take time out of their own schedules to come and assist us at events. We campaign a mk2 VW Golf in a modified 2wd class (Group 2) in the Western Canadian Rally Championship.

My hope is that there will be information regarding our recent events (racing or otherwise), photos, etc. I also hope to create a link to a photo gallery that has pictures during builiding of the race car. I consider this almost as a duty to the rally community since I relied so much on other peoples websites during the construction of my car.

One of my philosophies for our rally team is to get as much fun for the $$ as we can. That means that I bag lunch almost everyday, use Canadian tire money to its fullest potential, buy parts from ebay or wreckers, and rely on free web hosting space (thumbs up for blogspot). Since rally is a relatively expensive sport, we also have support from a few different companies and I like giving them as much credit as possible (within the constraints of the blogspot terms and conditions, of course).

Our next rally is coming up on us quickly. It is the Cochrane Rally of the Ranchlands held out of Cochrane, AB. I noticed this morning that our entry form is the first to arrive. It appears that there will be a relatively large field of competitors for this event (almost 20 have confirmed already).

A few links for those of you who land on this blog.

www.rallywest.com

www.mdhsolutions.com

http://www.cscc.ab.ca/cochrane/