WOW! WE WIN G2!

Jim and Steve won the Saturday regional portion of the Sno*Drift rally weekend, the Drift rally in the Group 2 class.

Film at 11 ( well, just wait, we will have some updates).   In an unimagined surprise, the old school Mitsubishi came home first, mainly by keeping on the road on the quite slippery stages.  in a reversal of last year, where we spent tons of time off the road digging out, we never had to pop out of the car to do any heavy lifting, while others struggled and either crashed out or slipped up and down the leader board.  Believe this_we BACKED out of this one unscathed! 

Photo by Evan Gill

More updates to come, in the mean time.....

http://www.rally-america.com/events/2013/DRIFT/results

Going Back, Going Forward

Whilst (love that little st thing) taking a break from getting the vintage motor car prepared for another crack at Sno*Drift, we were thinking back at some of the car oddities in rallying that you just don't get today.  Among current model vehicles. there are just a small handful of brands, and within those brands, an even slimmer choice of models that seem to hit the forest trails.  So just for fun, I felt the urge to throw this classic out there, a nice photo from my archive that I would like to share.

This is from the Marquette 1000 rally in da UP, 1976.  This was a scouting trip to see what the hell was going on in the woods, as it was my first rally to watch and spectate at, after working the El Diablo rally in Green Bay a month or two earlier.  From this experience, a vortex opened the money pit in my live called rallying.  Ain't it G R A N D!

Preparations for Sno*Drift

With the new +Rally America season nearly upon us, the Nowicki Brandt Rally team will once again contest the first rally of the year, +Sno*Drift in Atlanta/Lewiston, Michigan. One year older, three rallies more seasoned, the 1980 Fire Arrow won't have many of the planned updates due to some technical and scheduling issues, but that won't curtail the fun in the north woods. What better is there to do in late January other than some winter mountain biking or vintage rear wheel drive rallying?

Here are our two rigs for winter fun

We have been training hard for this years event, no doubt, and even have a few car improvements to roll out as well.  But as fate would have it, some are going to be last minute additions and won't have the time to be proven or tested before the big event, January 25 and 26th.  A few things got in the way, not the least a nasty stuck in bed virus over the Christmas break (generally a great time to head to the shop for tweaks and maintenance). 

 

Rally testing for Sno*Drift

 

We have been doing some testing nonetheless.  Last year it was duly noted that we could have ridden our bikes faster on some parts of the stages than the one wheel drive Fire Arrow was traveling.  Not Anymore.

We have a secret weapon, two actually.  Two wheels driven with a welded differential whereas we had to use an open diff last year.

Damn this is going to be fun this year!