Wednesday, July 06, 2005 - I'm pretty sure that there is no jump in the notes before the water splash. Someone could have told me about it. STPR was the best event in the RA series so far, The field was deep, competition was tough, and there were actualy droves of people spectating. Among them my mother, brother, girlfriend, and brother in law. My mother has been at Maine the last two years, but for the rest, their first rally expierience was the "Subaru Splash." I hope I did it justice.

In the first 90 on stage one something busted. I'm still trying to figure out if it was just a drive shaft, or my rear diff. Anyway, on acceleration the car jerked like hell and made a lot of noise. The water splash flattened a tire, pulled a second drive shaft apart, and pushed my radiatior into my alternator belt.

The first service wer very hectic, trying to get the car drivable again. I used a pry bar to get the radiaor off the pullys, Phil and Brian did all they could. We changed the front right driveshaft, thinking that that was the one that had gone, not knowing that the rear right was also toast, and possibly the rear diff.

So... the wam-bam-thunka noise, and jarred acceleration persisted through the next 4 stages. Also, the radiator fans were jammed, so at the start if the second stage we overheated. I figured that as soon as we got moving Dannii would cool down, but not before she had kicked into safe mode and shut down the ALS, powered down the boost, and cut my power in half. So it was a slow couple of stages.

At the next service, and through the lunch break on Wellsboro Green, Phil and Brian performed miracles, changing the rear diff, both rear shafts, the turbo and up-pipe. Jeff from Chaste Automotive (who serviced for us at Rim) helped out, and a couple of guys from the David Sutton Cars team took pitty and helped me rig a radiator fan to spin.

The rest of the rally was really relaxed. I wasn't about to try to close the 4 minute gap to Ken Block. At one point Otis Dimeters gained a minute on me over two stages, so going into the night stages I had to knock it up a notch, BAM! But that was about as exciting as it got.

It was nice to hold the lead in the RA championship for a little while. While I knew I would finish the season there, I hoped that maby I could hold on for one more race. Anyway, I'm looking foward to a rip-roaring Baie Des Chaleurs. Reccee Rocks my world. At STPR I felt blind not having recceed the roads.