outofideas327
15+ Year Contributor
- 36
- 0
- Dec 30, 2003
-
North canton,
Ohio
The first weekend in June was the Susquehannock Trail Pro Rally in Wellsboro PA. STPR is the 5th national Rally-America event of the 2007 season and brought just over 50 entries to the fast and unforgiving logging roads of Tioga County. Dave Johnson and I were crewing for the Don Jacobs Subaru/ NunneMonster Racing #686 PGT WRX, occupied by driver Heath Nunnemacher and co-driver Heidi Nunnemacher. STPR is a tough rally, mostly due to the high speeds, close trees, and a clay base that when wet is quite slick. What the whole team needs is the most service experience/seat time possible, therefore the goal was to run smooth and finish.
Friday morning we headed out to tech at the airport. A set of lightly used Hankooks and the light pods were thrown on then we took the car through tech. After tightening up the seats a bit, and mounting some new, stiffer roll cage padding the car was signed off. We then picked up our barrel of 104 unleaded from the fuel supplier. Back to the house to change the gearbox fluid and it was on to the practice stage. Checked the gearbox fluid again after the drive to the stage and found it was overfilled. I attempted to drain a small amount, but when the hot fluid hit my arm I dropped the drain plug and lost all the fresh lube
. Luckily Heath had a 5-gallon bucket of fluid, so we refilled the trans, mounted a set of fresh Hankooks and finally got the car down and let it go to the practice stage. They ran the stage a couple of times and came back in. The report: car was SLOW. Checked the wastegate, vacuum lines, throttle linkage, pulled the intercooler to look for ripped couplers, hoses, and found nothing. We closed the hood without a proper diagnosis, and attributed the power-loss to the hot ambient air and possibly a flaky O2 sensor. While the car was still up on stands we tossed on a new set of front rotors/pads as it poured on us (which officially made it STPR). The rest of the night was spent at the pizza shop and movie theatre.
Saturday morning we showed up at The Green around 9:30am for Park Expose. The Green is the center of the small town of Wellsboro. There was quite a large crowed spread throughout the town that morning, which is always great to see. At that point I grabbed my camera and got some pictures while the cars were still all in one piece, and watched the cars roll out. First service was 15min at the airport, after running three stages. A quick check through the car, refuel and re-attaching a corner of a skidplate, then it was back out to run SS4 (Subaru Splash) followed by another service. Heath and Heidi were running clean, which kept this service simple. The brakes were checked thoroughly for any damage from the creek crossing, and everything looked up to par. After that everyone had a lunch break/park expose #2 back at the green. We wired up the new fog lights, and attached the upper light pods equipped with some new PIAA HIDs (what a difference!). Cars left the green again to start the night stages. Then hurry up and wait at Germania for the 45min service. Here's some pictures from Park Expose and service:
The crowd:
The new Coralba rally computer:
From www.flatovercrest.com
I sat at the truck listening to net control while holding an entry list. I must have crossed out about 7-8 cars who had DNFd before the leaders started trickling into service at about 9:00pm. There were lots of delays, so we decided setting up the generator and lights was a smart thing to do. When Heath arrived at Germania service, we found out that the fuel supplied at the event was actually 110 leaded instead of 104 unleaded! Not good for our O2 sensors or cat. Nothing like having 55 gallons of the wrong fuel, but at least we had an answer for the power loss. Once checked in to service we began work on the car. After tightening the shock mount bolts up in the rear, I noticed the front left rotor had a big ole crack in it, most likely an after-effect of the water crossing. I changed the rotor out with a spare while Dave went through the rest of the car. We finished up with time to spare and watched as car 686 went on to start the last leg of stages at 10:15ish.
After packing up at service it was back to the airport to wait at the finish. Pancakes, eggs, and juice were provided in one of the hangers, which helped to pass the time. After watching Pinker, Ramana, and Pastrana do their champagne spray (~1:30am) we starting looking for our car to roll in. The car that started behind us came in, but no sign of Heath and Heidi. A couple more cars come in, and then more, and more. Eventually Dave finds out that one of the teams saw #686 on its roof on the last stage but everyone was ok. While frantically trying to find out where they are and if they need us to fetch them, around the corner they came, what a relief. They had got the car flipped back over, and were able to continue on (although the ~20min lost put us last in our class). At ~2:00am the Nunnemachers checked in at the airport, and we had officially finished the rally.
At least 15 cars DNFd, so just to finish was an accomplishment. We ran towards the back of the PGT pack throughout the day, mostly due to the fact that the car was making no power. Apparently off the start line and exiting hairpins the car was just horribly slow. Times from SS5 show a lot of potential, and there is much to improve upon throughout the team, especially in service since Subarus our fairly new to me. Huge thanks to Tom and the rest of Hansons crew who have given us a hand on several occasions. As for the car damage, the roof will need replaced and the driver rear fender is pretty banged up, but not too bad. Here are the overall results:http://www.rally-america.com/event.STPR.2007.php?section=results_overall You can also look at each stage individually. More pictures below.
-Chris
Friday morning we headed out to tech at the airport. A set of lightly used Hankooks and the light pods were thrown on then we took the car through tech. After tightening up the seats a bit, and mounting some new, stiffer roll cage padding the car was signed off. We then picked up our barrel of 104 unleaded from the fuel supplier. Back to the house to change the gearbox fluid and it was on to the practice stage. Checked the gearbox fluid again after the drive to the stage and found it was overfilled. I attempted to drain a small amount, but when the hot fluid hit my arm I dropped the drain plug and lost all the fresh lube
. Luckily Heath had a 5-gallon bucket of fluid, so we refilled the trans, mounted a set of fresh Hankooks and finally got the car down and let it go to the practice stage. They ran the stage a couple of times and came back in. The report: car was SLOW. Checked the wastegate, vacuum lines, throttle linkage, pulled the intercooler to look for ripped couplers, hoses, and found nothing. We closed the hood without a proper diagnosis, and attributed the power-loss to the hot ambient air and possibly a flaky O2 sensor. While the car was still up on stands we tossed on a new set of front rotors/pads as it poured on us (which officially made it STPR). The rest of the night was spent at the pizza shop and movie theatre.Saturday morning we showed up at The Green around 9:30am for Park Expose. The Green is the center of the small town of Wellsboro. There was quite a large crowed spread throughout the town that morning, which is always great to see. At that point I grabbed my camera and got some pictures while the cars were still all in one piece, and watched the cars roll out. First service was 15min at the airport, after running three stages. A quick check through the car, refuel and re-attaching a corner of a skidplate, then it was back out to run SS4 (Subaru Splash) followed by another service. Heath and Heidi were running clean, which kept this service simple. The brakes were checked thoroughly for any damage from the creek crossing, and everything looked up to par. After that everyone had a lunch break/park expose #2 back at the green. We wired up the new fog lights, and attached the upper light pods equipped with some new PIAA HIDs (what a difference!). Cars left the green again to start the night stages. Then hurry up and wait at Germania for the 45min service. Here's some pictures from Park Expose and service:
The crowd:
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The new Coralba rally computer:
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From www.flatovercrest.com
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You must be logged in to view this image or video.
I sat at the truck listening to net control while holding an entry list. I must have crossed out about 7-8 cars who had DNFd before the leaders started trickling into service at about 9:00pm. There were lots of delays, so we decided setting up the generator and lights was a smart thing to do. When Heath arrived at Germania service, we found out that the fuel supplied at the event was actually 110 leaded instead of 104 unleaded! Not good for our O2 sensors or cat. Nothing like having 55 gallons of the wrong fuel, but at least we had an answer for the power loss. Once checked in to service we began work on the car. After tightening the shock mount bolts up in the rear, I noticed the front left rotor had a big ole crack in it, most likely an after-effect of the water crossing. I changed the rotor out with a spare while Dave went through the rest of the car. We finished up with time to spare and watched as car 686 went on to start the last leg of stages at 10:15ish.
After packing up at service it was back to the airport to wait at the finish. Pancakes, eggs, and juice were provided in one of the hangers, which helped to pass the time. After watching Pinker, Ramana, and Pastrana do their champagne spray (~1:30am) we starting looking for our car to roll in. The car that started behind us came in, but no sign of Heath and Heidi. A couple more cars come in, and then more, and more. Eventually Dave finds out that one of the teams saw #686 on its roof on the last stage but everyone was ok. While frantically trying to find out where they are and if they need us to fetch them, around the corner they came, what a relief. They had got the car flipped back over, and were able to continue on (although the ~20min lost put us last in our class). At ~2:00am the Nunnemachers checked in at the airport, and we had officially finished the rally.
At least 15 cars DNFd, so just to finish was an accomplishment. We ran towards the back of the PGT pack throughout the day, mostly due to the fact that the car was making no power. Apparently off the start line and exiting hairpins the car was just horribly slow. Times from SS5 show a lot of potential, and there is much to improve upon throughout the team, especially in service since Subarus our fairly new to me. Huge thanks to Tom and the rest of Hansons crew who have given us a hand on several occasions. As for the car damage, the roof will need replaced and the driver rear fender is pretty banged up, but not too bad. Here are the overall results:http://www.rally-america.com/event.STPR.2007.php?section=results_overall You can also look at each stage individually. More pictures below.
-Chris
