Monday, August 11, 2008

Galway Wrap-up

GCFR is over for another year. I'm really happy with our performance: in his first rally in a four-wheel drive car, Matt Barnes drove us to a fourth place overall finish.

Things were great on stage: Matt drove a quick and clean rally. The notes we had made worked well and it didn't take long for our in-car communication to "click".

Off-stage, though, there were some hiccups. At the turnaround at the end of the first stage, when we went to start the car... nothing. The engine wouldn't turn over. A quick check showed 8 V at the battery, so a group of volunteers from other teams and some of the folks at the quarry (thank you, BTW), tried to push start us to no avail. Finally, Bryn Epp from MLRC brought his truck over, and someone grabbed a set of booster cables from somewhere, and we got the car re-fired. The whole episode lasted a few very tense minutes. After that, we kept the car running, just in case.

The weather was damp without being completely soggy, and it seems like this made the stage road quite a bit quicker than previous years; the old stage record time was broken by several cars.

Several photographers have already posted photos from the event. We're in car 8, a black and red Eagle Talon:

Evan Holt
Andrew Harvey
Tom Hayston
Robert Roaldi

Great rally, great road. Thanks to the organizers and all the volunteers.

Jeff

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