SiF Motorsports NEFR Recap

2point5RS_Dan

HATER DAN
I should probably do my full write up for NEFR. Just trying to get my head screwed on and get back to civilian life the last few days.

The week before was spent scrambling for everything, fire extinguishers, cage foam, spill kit, etc.

Wednesday

Before the event we were fabricating fender liners and taking care of misc little issues. I leave at 4:30 to head to check into the condo and for Recce.

I get a phone call on the way up. Service team test drove the car and it has no speedo. The problem with that is, subaru ECU goes into limp mode if it has no speedo signal. Crew works on it, gives up and loads the car and heads up to the event.

I have a replacement gauge cluster located and being brought in the next day. Spare VSS from gearboxes was also thrown around.

Thursday

Recce. Car was now service's problem. They did afternoon tech inspection + worked on the speedo issue.

We did the 400+ miles in my friends caged booked car behind David Higgins:

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The day was uneventful except for me having to pee in the woods every three seconds. We practiced some techniques during recce and I got used to being in the office again after an extended time away.

We get back to the headquarters at 6pm. Service Crew has passed tech. Car still has no speedo. Prepping to run 4k redline all weekend, I head off to my novice meeting. I get a text saying it is fixed. Replaced gauge cluster, vss, wiring, and fuse.

We bring the car up to the service park to reserve our spot next to team monster energy Ken Block:

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FRIDAY

Alternator swap then park expose

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Pulling into the first timing control:

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Off we go:

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SS1:

Concord Pond is it, the big mac daddy of roads. Of course this is my first stage, not a super special to warm up. I had planned just to run the car in 3rd and keep it around 60mph. Feel things out, play it safe. Crashing on SS1 is a stupid way to lose. Saw two cars stopped with triangles. .5 miles in the left rear strut tophat starts knocking. Accidentally left the AC on, temp jumped up to the second tick mark. Finished the stage no worse for wear.

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SSS2:

Short .5 mile spectator stage at the ski mountain. Highlighted by a huge straight away into a 90 degree turn onto pavement with guardrails. Hitting the guardrails is a stupid way to lose. We held some speed but tried to keep it clean first of all.

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We just don't have the big power or predictable suspension to put on shows like the big boys, but still got some sideways:

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In for the only service of the day.

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SS3:

Icicle Brooke in. 16 miles of stage. Open wide dirt roads into skinny fast mountain goat trails back into wide dirt roads again. Plenty of rough spots and places to make mistakes. Used both 3rd and 4th on the stage and set a good pace. There is one long straight and on recce my co driver said "think long and hard before you go to grab 5th gear". Played it safe and wound out 4th. Got the car airborn a few times. Towards the end of the stage I was getting tired. Ended up out running the codrivers notes and we soft off'd into the shrubbery. We reverse out and keep going. Saw 3 sets of triangles out, but finished the stage.

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Damage report. Cage plates separating from near the top strut mounts. Rear left top hat is clunking worse. Strut top bolts are no longer centered in the circle.

SS4:

Icicle Brooke out and the last stage of the day. In had kind of spooked me. Things didn't feel "right". Planned to just keep a good pace and finish day 1. On the line. 3.2.1. Go. Off and moving. 1 mile in triangles. Civic in the ditch, OK sign out. Rob in my ear "are we towing them." fudge YES WE ARE. Team SiF all about being friends with everyone and helping out. Slam on the brakes. Slam car in reverse. They hook up. Co driver gives clear. Pop them out. Slack the line. Whats going on whats going on are they clear are they clear I don't know okay hes clear go go go go.

We take off. We get around 10 miles into the stage. Headlights in the rear view. I do not like this. We lost time with the tow and the car behind us caught up. I do not like people on my tail, I get anxious. If they're having a good run I don't want to cock block them either. I make the call to try and set a good pace until we hit an opening then let them by. We turn into a downhill L2. Full on drift across the intersection out wide. Look up in the wink mirror and see the 555 impreza sliding across each pane of mirror behind us. I blinker on and slow down and let them by. What the didn't expect was for me to give chase and keep pace.

Kept up with them the rest of the stage and have some drama in the last R4 into L3.



They went wide into the L3, we went in tight and crossed up to scrub off speed + show boat.

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We finish the stage. 555 Impreza blew a window out. We pull into timing behind them. Rallymaster goes: "is that your tow strap?"..... NO

We towed the civics strap behind us for 14 miles of stage.

We pack up and head back to the service area to check into timing control. Day 1 DONE.

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Had to weld the strut towers back together. I went around and asked every team for a spring compressor to swap a rear tophat, but no one had one. (later I remembered we could have done it without one).

The right rear strut was blown after 40 stage miles. The left rear still damped but had a bad tophat.

End of day 1.

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Day 2 Post

Park Expose exhausted from the day before. Day 2 is 80 + miles, 9 stages. Co driver says Friday is fun, Saturday feels like work. The first stage was a spectator stage, so I was happy to be able to feel the car out and have something nice and easy to start the day.

The cage plates near the top of the strut towers were welded up, it was just a unibody seam that was separating. The rear struts were in a sad state of affairs. The right had no damping and the left tophat was knocking bad. We were going to change it but ended up not. In the morning we put on the dust caps for the rear strut towers, reasoning is if we blow a strut tophat we can get a quarter of a mile of stage or a full transit with the strut shaft banging the dust cover. Co driver and I decided to take on fresh tires and try and do a strut at the first service.


SS5:

Sunday River spectator stage. .5 Miles. managed to keep it clean and not hit the guardrails again. It felt slower but I think we went faster. First section is real torn up after 100 cars on gravels.

SS6:

Transit to the NH lakes stages. 6 is Lost Weekend Clockwise. About 8 miles of road. The first section is a raised section of road with huge ditches on the side. They used lots of tiny rocks to build up the road. It felt like driving on marbles on some sections. On the way in we saw the triangles of someone but no sign of the car, just triangles and OK sign. Kept going. Later on we found out it was Burke and he had rolled the car down into a ravine but they were ok. Rest of the stage the worn tires and blown struts are really starting to show their wear.

We get to the last part of the stage. R5 which was more like an R4 I think? We end up cooking through the turn way to hot into a ditch. The back end of the car goes up into the air about 4 or 5 feet but we stayed on the gas and were able to drive the car out of the ditch and across the finish line. Only one small dent on the rear unibody behind the door.

SS7:

Hampshire Hills CCW. This stage is a blast. Nice tight section at the end and smooth roads in the beginning. The landing on the last stage murdered the already poorly damping struts in the rear. Any turn we took the car would over rotate too much. Ended up slowing down because of this, there was just no way to safely slide the car and have it react consistently. We finish with little issue and proceed to the first service.

Service 1:

First service is before Sturdevant Pond, 18 miles, half of it a rough car ruiner. We have 20 minutes. We spend the first 13 minutes of service trying to get the car in the air due to jack stand failures. LDR's crew comes and helps. We get the car in the air with 7 minutes left and I turned to one of our service guys and say "you and me, strut change, can we do it" "yup". We start on the left rear to throw in a spare Tokico. We get it swappped out in 5 minutes. Load the fresh tires on the car and we are on our way to timing control and Sturdevant.

SS8:

This is it. The stage of day 2. Recce was rough and we were crawling at points. The second half of the stage opens up into faster sections.

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On the transit back we see a car pulled over. We pull next to them and they are asking for a jack. We tell them to pop the trunk and take our jack and impact gun and give it back at service. We take off. yay teamwork.

Service 2:

We finish Sturdevant Pond with little issue. Car got hot towards the end so I just shut AC off for a little bit :smug:.

Pull into service and plan to change the right rear strut so we can have full rear damping again. Take on water and food and inspect everything. Out the door for another 3 rounds in the ring. NH lakes stages + sturdevant again.

SS9:

Hampshire Hills clockwise. Nothing much to report. Car is sliding weird but we just keep going. Driving stages is getting routine at this point. Car is getting hot and AC isn't working as well. Shut it off and sweat out the last 2 miles.

SS10:

Lost Weekend counter-clockwise. They shortened the stage due to there being a logging trailer still parked on stage. The rough section was at the end which I didn't like because that's when I start getting tired. We take off, noting the ditch I drove through last time. Do most of the stage without issue. Car is sliding but just keep powering through it.

Transition onto the raised tables and big ditches. Setting a good pace in 3rd gear, but the car is getting hot. Shut the AC off and just safe drive it to finish. As we hit one crest the car comes down hard and bottoms out in the center. Exhaust broke. Keep driving as it hasn't pole vaulted us yet.

We finish and the exhaust isn't hanging. Press on.

SS11:

Sturdevant Pond 2. The right rear strut we took on in service was making more noise. I was tired and feeling like fried hell. Waiting in line I had the AC on and the windows up trying to cool off but it was still too hot. Through some shenanigans we end up with 555 behind us again. We start the stage and see more and more cars off or broken.

We make it through the first rough section. I am crawling just trying to save the car and myself. We've come to far to DNF.

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The first smooth section opens up and we set a decent pace but nothing to write home about.

Second rough section. Half way through. Headlights in the rear view. NOPE. fudge YOU WE ARE NOT DOING THIS AGAIN.

Foot to the floor. All in. Bomb through the two miles of rough section. The road opens. Carmina Burana can be heard being played by choirs of angels. We. Are. Moving. 4th Gear foot to the floor over 100mph through a series of R and L 6's. It was terrifying. The most amazing dance of controlled chaos I have ever experienced.

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Coming into the tighter spectator area which is a roller coaster of 3's and 4's. Shut the AC off and hammer down ringing the car for all its worth. Temp gauge is creeping but I stay in it as there is only a little bit of stage left. Cross the line foot to the floor and pucker a little bit as we make the last turn barely. Turn the heat on, cool the car off, finish time control and put the AC back on and start transit.

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We did it. We did the hardest longest stage left in the day. All we had to do was transit back and finish two 3 mile stages.

13 miles from service. Codriver "that strut we put in is getting louder" Me: "yup"

10 miles from service. *BANG* "Did the tophat just explode" "yup"

Welcome to the Jungle starts playing on the radio.

We turn it up. Laugh. And keep driving.

Service 3:

Get to timing control early and start undoing the suspension in prep for service. We were going to load in the blown STi strut to do the last 6 miles of stages. The tophat died. The strut came out and was bouncing around wearing the threads off. The assembly was taken out in pieces during service. We stand around and then pile in for the last run.

SS12:

3 mile stretch of Hampshire Hills. The short twisty section. Road is really beat up and the car isn't 100% what with the rear suspension. We press on with every left turn swinging the ass end out wide. Finish the stage.

SS13:

North Road. This is it. The last 3 miles. I love this road. I got to drive it in the RS last year multiple times as a worker. I am familiar with it, I know where I can hang the ass out wide and where I need to not cut in order to clip boulders. We run the stage at a good pace but nothing too risky and finish.

This is it. We've done it. All stages complete. We just have to get back to Sunday River and hand in our time card.

Windows down. Stereo up. Cruising. Yes yes yes.

The road towards timing.

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We pull into timing and hand in our card. Done. NEFR. Done. First stage rally. Done. No DNF. I can't even think.

We pull out of timing control and our friends are their with mini firework poppers for us.

Pull into impound. Done.

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We made it.

Thank you to everyone who helped build the car, service, everyone who came out to spectate. NEFR would not have happened with out all of you.

So much Love to each and every single one of you.

We will be back next year..... with real suspension.

 
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05RSKID

Guest
great right up and congrats again for a finish and no real issues to cause you to no finish.  See ya there next year. 

 

ReZPunK

New member
I will be there next year...but I will be competing against Dan...that nice little white impreza we ran for recce is mine, and I'm balls deep in the FWD to AWD conversion.

It was a great experience! This was my most challenging year at NEFR to date. We overcame our fair share of mechanical difficulties to finish this event. And it's true, he out ran my notes on a certain fast section, I don't often slip up, but we made it through.

I am SO glad I suggested to put the dust caps on the rears, it may have saved our rally on the transit back to service 2 on day 2.

Keep building, keep developing and keep that right foot down Dan, you can only go faster from here!

 

flat4awd

Owl's Auto JDM
Awesome writeup Dan, was a cool experience helping out and being on this side of it, as opposed to spectating. I would like to give another thanks to everyone who helps out, and sacrifices to make these events possible.

 

MMMayo

New member
This write up makes me very excite. When do you want to meet up for lunch to discuss next years plans? :)

 

Stein

Stein
Awesome write-up, thanks Dan! Congrats you all of ya'll.

2point5RS_Dan, on 14 Aug 2013 - 08:20, said:

Service 2:

We finish Sturdevant Pond with little issue. Car got hot towards the end so I just shut AC off for a little bit :smug:.
trololol
2point5RS_Dan, on 14 Aug 2013 - 08:20, said:

We will be back next year..... with real suspension.
At first glance I thought that said Feal. Close enough
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Rmayo

New member
Awesome job Dan! Glad I could help some, and I'm very happy you finished and enjoyed yourself while you were at it. you've got the right attitude to get the most out of rally.

 

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