We will be putting the car back together this weekend in preparation for the WICKED BIG MEET. The car has gone through a thorough cleaning/maintenance overhaul and is in top fighting condition. The next few weekends the car will be busy traveling from WBM to Burke hillclimb to New England Forest Rally in July. All well deserved after sitting on jack stands for the last 3 weeks!
The team will be sporting their brandy new team stickers !!
Since the car is out of service for at least another week as the transmission issue is being resolved. I figured why not post up the current standings that just came out.
We are currently sitting in third overall in both the United States Rally Championship and the New York Rally Championship. With our share of $12k to travel to Arizona for the Championship on the line. TEAM: Pin It To Win It looks to bring the heat at International Rally New York in September !
Click for USRC: http://unitedstatesrallychampionship…Cstandings.pdf
Click for NYRC: http://www.rallynewyork.net/2010standings.pdf
Hats off to Joe for holding down the 1st place points standing for Co-Drivers !!!
Well, with two rounds of the USRC in the bag it’s time to get the car up on jack stands and give her a little love. We’re in the process of stripping out some parts for preventative maintenance.
So the car is stripped of the suspension, pads, exhaust, intercooler, air filter for a good thorough cleaning and inspection
Be sure to visit us at the Wicked Big Meet in EFI Logics booth.
We recieved notice this morning that our waiver for our unrestricted RallyAmerica License was APPROVED!!!
This is great news for the Team as it allows us to compete on the highest stage for Rally in America!!
We will be making plans to debut at the New England Forest Rally – July 16-17th in Bethel Maine
This past weekend we participated in the second round of the United States Rally Championship at Rally New York USA. Coming off our unexpected podium finish in the winter rally in January we tried to get our heads out of the clouds and realize that miracles can happen and everyone once in a while gets lucky. We composed ourselves for the next challenge, high speed tarmac on the technical roads of Walton/Monticello New York.
We departed Thursday morning from our home base, giving ourselves enough time to tech, sticker the car and run through the days recce. With our chicken scratch in our notes, car all jazzed up with numbers we were ready for Fridays competition.
Friday started off rough as we incurred a 3 minute penalty, which we protested to no avail, giving us a very tough disadvantage. There was a confusion that wasn’t settled between the stewards and the seeded starting list. With that behind us, we erased that from out thoughts and focused on driving. We set up camp for the day in Monticello’s service park and got ready for the 6 stages of the day.
After two stages the rain started to come down. We moved up one spot, subtracting the 3 minute penalty, to 5th overall. As the rain came down, along with the lack of true rain tires, we slipped a spot back to sixth overall and ending the day. We managed to keep the car in one peice, but a miss shift at 115+ MPH, or what we think is the culprit, cost us reverse. The upside was you don’t need reverse in rally unless you spin so we needed to keep our nose clean for the Saturdays 12 stages.
After stage 4
A slippery R4 on stage 4
With a bright and early start to Saturdays action we found ourselves on the fastest stages of the event in the Mountains of Walton New York. It would consist of three different chunks totalling 84 miles each, making for a very long day in the car. The roads were warming up in the early sun and the straights warranted speeds +/- 125 MPH for us. The views were fantastic and the weather seemed to change like the wind. We did not just experience stints of sunshine but also a drizzle, a hail storm and periods of snow throughout the day making speed and braking choices a bit difficult. Taking a few stages to wake up, and with some luck, we found ourselves back to 5th overall and set the 4th fastest time on stage 8. The glory would be short lived as we ran into a moment on stage 9 that would cost us some seconds but kept our 5th place for the next few stages. After settleing into a groove and regrouping we continued to chug along batteling with Bill Petrow, trading stages which would continue to the end of the event.
As the day came to a close we managed to set the 2nd fastest times on SS15, SS16 and SS17 to finish up a fantastic event! Even with the 3 minute penalty we took 6th overall and even more rewarding was a 3rd place in Saturdays regional scoring!
Little OEM handbrake action on Steve Bogart SS
We would like to thank our supporters; EFI Logics for keeping the car running like a top and Voodoo Graphics (Sunshine Sign) for working with a short deadline to re-wrap the replaced parts from the last event. We’d also like to thank all our fans who follow our progress through our first year of rallying, we like to hear feedback and hang it sideways for you!
Lastly we’d like to thank our families and close friends who not only put up with us but help out whenever, wherever possible! We would not be here without you!
Our next event is tentatively New England Forest Rally where we will be competing in Rally America’s format against the big boys July 16-17th in Bethel Maine!
9 days until Rally New York USA and to say I’m excited would be an understatement. It has been 3 long months of no racing activity which is 3 months too long for this guy!
We’ll button up the car next week right before we leave and we will have our fingers crossed for sunny weather! In the mean time the Easter bunny dropped off some sticky rubber to help us through the tarmac stages of the rally! These will be mounted up next week on our two sets of wheels for the event.
We all know, if you didn’t then I will tell you, the New York Auto Show is about to open up this week. Everyone is awaiting the new design for the Subaru STi. Everyone at Subaru is tight-lipped about the project so little is known but for now all we’re given is this picture. Hopefully a monster to be, under wraps …
So the other weekend we got together for a good half day to work on the car. Pulling the suspension to clean the struts, realigning the struts to allow for the wider tires, all that fun stuff. While we had the car in the garage and up on jack stands we thought it’d be a smart idea to flush out some fluids, change the oil and other “regular” car things.
After that we buttoned her all up and took her for a test drive. She handles like a proper STi again. I have been driving her with soft, squishy and STUDDED tires for the last 3 months whenever I took her out. I almost forgot what a tarmac setup feels like. I managed to score a great deal on the tires that we will be using for the next event and subsequent hill climbs this year. They should be arriving here this week. I guess the Easter Bunny will be dropping them off with all the candy!
A pic of the tarmac setup (not our sticky rally rubber yet)
Here is a pic of the new front bumper all painted and unwrapped.
I finally get to pick the car up tomorrow. I had to travel which meant a delay on bringing her home but we’re back in business tomorrow. She’s all ready to go with the paint repairs from our meeting with the oak tree in WRNY. Next up is a Saturday of sunny weather and suspension cleaning. We’ll be taking the RSSP’s out to clean them up and lowering the car to tarmac specs. I’ll also go through the car and change the fluids of course for the next rally, which is only 3+ weeks away!
We might even take the car out into a fresh clearing for some gravel fun before pulling the suspension off, maybe make a little video for you guys…
Here are some cell phone pics of a bagged Rally car waiting for her ride home …
all the damage fixed and looking pretty good
OmG We’Re On FaCEBook!!!!
now if you’re wondering whats going on with the team and you’re too lazy or forgot the site for the Blog we have a facebook page. It will have similar stuff of the blog, pics, stories, events and soon coming TEAM: Pin It To Win It swag …
Check it out, become a fan, have your friends become fans and stay in touch with us at TEAM: Pin It To Win It through our Rally Season
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/TEAM-Pin-It-To-Win-It/352320258349?ref=ts
TEAM: Pin It to Win It 