Video Highlights from the 2010 Rally in the 100 Acre Wood:

The Rally in the 100 Acre Wood, round two of the Rally America National Championship, recently took place on February 26th and 27th in the foothills of the Ozarks near Salem Missouri. This rally is a homecoming of sorts for the Huebbe RallyeSport team since we live not more than two hours from the stage roads. I had invited a lot of my family and friends to come and watch us, so I didn’t want to disappoint them with a poor finish. After packing up the truck and trailer on Thursday morning, with almost every tool and spare part that I own, we headed out for a short drive down I-44 to Salem. Once registration and tech inspection were complete we met our service crew chief Jason McDaniel for dinner afterwards.

Tech Inspection

Friday morning emerged under clear and cold blue skies with just a little bit of frost on the car. Apparently the Bug was mad at me for leaving it out in the cold because when I went to start it up the throttle cable was frozen solid inside of the Teflon lined housing. At that point I knew the rally gods were laughing at me because the one thing I left at home was my heat gun. John made a quick trip to the auto parts store and we then proceeded to defrost the housing. After that minor delay we were a bit late arriving to the practice stage south of Salem. We belted up and got in line for our first shakedown run and with about four cars ahead of us at the start line the alternator light came on. Panic now sets in and we drive back to our service crew to diagnose the problem. Jason finds and replaces a blown fuse for the fuel pump but when we turn the key over the pump sounds terrible. (The rally gods must be really angry at me because the one spare part that I didn’t bring was a fuel pump.) We decide to skip the practice stage and flat tow the car 15 miles back into town. Once back in the hotel parking lot John calls around to source a replacement pump and our crew, Jason and Aaron, go to work removing the bad pump. After almost two hours of wrenching on the car we finally got it back together and drove north to Steelville for the opening ceremony and start of the rally.

Friday Morning

The whole town of Steelville must have come out that afternoon because the crowds were huge at the City Park. After signing a few autographs, talking with fellow drivers and spectators, we left the start line and transited our way to the first stage (KP to Ollie). I was still a bit nervous, since we didn’t get to run the shakedown stage, so I took it a bit easy starting out. About three miles into the stage I scare myself pretty good. As we’re climbing up KP road, near the service crew spectator point, John calls one note just a tad late and I go a bit wide on exit and tag the right rear wheel on a large gravel berm. Once that happened my mind started to wander and think about wheel bearing damage or a loose axle nut. (Thinking about the car is not what you want to do when you need 100% of your concentration on absorbing the stage notes and driving the car.) We finished with a respectable time of 11m 22s, but we were down 22 seconds to our closest competitor. As we transit to the next stage my mind was playing tricks on me because I start to fabricate noises coming from the right rear of the car. The second stage (Pandora Westover) I start to shake the rust off and finally get into a rhythm but I screw up the hairpin turn at the spectator point in front of a very large crowd. I was concentrating too much on impressing the fans and not enough on setting up the car and getting into first gear quickly enough. We improved a bit and took 2 seconds off second place James Haas. The final stage before service is Berryman to County Line. It starts off fast but halfway through it became very twisty and technical, which I really enjoy and suits the car perfectly. Almost every turn is linked and the car drifts gracefully from one corner into the next. Near the end of the stage I notice vibrations coming through the steering wheel and think something must have loosened up on the steering rack. John and I finish with a fast pace (running in the dust of the car ahead of us) and then head back to Steelville for service.

     
Friday Spectator Point

Upon entering service our crew springs into action and starts to tear into the front end of the car. Jason finds a couple steering rack bracket attachment bolts had loosened up and the two inner tie rod heim bolts needed to be cinched down. John went to check scores and I had a quick bite to eat before we left for the last two stages. When John came back he told me we must have smoked the last stage because we now sat 5 seconds ahead of James Haas for 2nd place in Group 2 class.

Spectator Point – Friday evening

The last two stages that night were repeats of the first two afternoon stages and I was confident we could go faster the second time around. With only a few seconds over James I knew if I wanted to keep my podium position I couldn’t back down at all. Stage 4 was a short five miles and by the end we were catching dust from the team ahead of us. About a mile into Stage 5 we had to dodge an errant muffler that detached itself from one of the cars ahead of us and was lying in the middle of the road. For the next mile or so we ran along Ollie Coleman’s property (who the stage is named after) and saw loads of spectators, bonfires, and flashbulbs. With two miles to go I could see tail lights off in the distance and with a half mile remaining we were 50 yards back and running in heavy dust. At the end of the stage I thanked John for a job well done and we drove back to Salem for the final time control. After we finished prepping the car in the Holiday Inn parking lot we checked scores and found out we finished 2nd in our class for the Trespassers Wil rally.

Night stage jumps

John and I awoke Saturday morning, still a bit tired, and the first thing we did was check on the car to make sure the throttle cable hadn’t frozen like it did before. The dawn air was chilly and the sky had not a cloud in sight. Everything checked out fine on the car so we quickly had breakfast, gathered our things, and then drove the car a few blocks into the center of town for Parc Expose’. The crowds were at least three times larger as in years past. Out of a sea of Subarus the Bug definitely stands out and is a crowd favorite.

Saturday Morning – Parc Expose

Asbridge Hollow is the first stage of the day. It’s smooth, technical and has lots of loose gravel on the edge of the road. The first half mile is fast but then at almost a mile in I push a bit too hard on a slower left 4 into right 4 and get the car way over rotated and almost put it into the ditch. That really killed my confidence and it shows in my stage time. I finished sixth in class on that stage and lost more than 10 seconds to my competition.

First Stage – Saturday

The next stage, Loop Southern, is probably the roughest of the rally. The road is narrow and twisty, with lots of water crossings, dips and jumps. About two miles into the stage, just past the spectator point, I catch and pass fellow class competitor Matt Bushore. (His car stalled on stage at the spectator point.) I was a little nervous with Matt behind me but I knew I couldn’t let up and ran like hell for the remaining eight miles. We finish with a great stage time and are back to the pace of our class.

Passing Matt Bushore

Scotia East is the last stage before the mid day service and is fast, flowing and wide with patches of fresh loose gravel that the county road crews had just laid down. As we pull up to the arrival time control crew I see a huge crowd at the spectator point. The stage start line is 70 yards before the first turn and is right in front of a thousand spectators. I tell John I can’t screw this up and pull the belts tight. I rev the engine to 4500rpm and dump the clutch. Second gear comes up quick and I pitch the car into a huge drift never letting off of the gas. As we exit the turn the back end swings the other way, I grab third gear at 6500rpm and head up the hill away from the crowd. It was a huge rush and I was stoked for the rest of the stage.

Scotia Stage – Spectator Point

As we pull into the Viburnum service park I spot our crew waving us to our spot. Aaron and Jason quickly get the car up on jack stands and John goes to check the notice board. Service is pretty uneventful until five minutes before we’re scheduled to leave. When I start the car up and run for a bit John yells for me to turn it off as we have an oil leak. Jason crawls under the left rear of the car and tightens up a few oil line fittings and after running it for a minute or so we think the problem is solved. John hops in the car and we’re off to stage 9.

Service break

County Road 1 is a very short 2.6 mile stage just outside Viburnum. It’s wide and fast with lots of crests. After the first three stages we sit third in class, 13 seconds behind James Haas. I push pretty hard to make up time and finish 4.5 seconds faster than James. We then transit 36 miles northeast to Potosi for a mid day Parc Expose’ meet and greet with fans. When I get out of the car the first thing I check is if the oil leak had returned and it did. The whole mud flap was covered in oil. The only other spot oil could be leaking from was the oil hose at the barb fitting. I quickly got out the tool kit and stole a hose clamp from another part of the car to clamp over the oil line. I start the car up and have John keep an eye on the hose. We let it run for a few minutes and not a single drop comes out. I feel confident we’ve fixed the problem and then go visit with the fans.

Lions Park – Fixing oil leak

The crowd is huge at the Lions Park super special. We wait about an hour and then Travis Pastrana starts the super special stage. Travis is awesome and puts on a great show but he breaks the lower control arm sliding sideways into a deep rut. John tells me to take it easy in that corner and not try to impress the crowd. We can’t grab second place on this stage but we sure could DNF trying. At the start line I dump the clutch and modulate the throttle to keep the revs near 5000rpm to get a good launch. The course is very tight and twisty and the back end is constantly drifting left and right. At the final turn the engine is on the rev limiter and then at the finish line the oil pressing warning light and buzzer come on. Oh crap, did the oil line blow off? Fearing the worst we hop out of the car and look for what should be a massive oil leak. We examine the whole car and find nothing. I must have frightened the engine oil up into the valve covers and it took a long time to drain back into the case due to all of the tight turns. After waiting a couple of minutes we tried starting it again and the oil pressure returned. We belt up fast and leave Lions Park heading north.

Lions Park – Super Special Stage

The next three stages are Floyd Tower, Pigeon Roost and Hazel Creek. They are all wide, fast, smooth and very fun. James Haas beats me by one second on Floyd, I take it back on Pigeon Roost and I get another second on Hazel Creek. As we pull into service we sit 2.2 seconds back from second place. While the crew is working on the car Andrew “ACP” Comrie-Picard (NOS Energy Drink driver) comes over and gives me some nice complements on my driving at the Super Special. His words catch me a little off guard but stoke me to attack the last two stages.

Pigeon Roost Stage

We leave service and have a long transit under a full moon to the second to last stage of the rally. As we pull up to the arrival time control there is a long train of cars and the stage has yet to start. With each passing minute I fear they might cancel the stage and our chance to claw back time on James Haas would disappear. Finally after a 30 minute delay I pull up to the start line, flip on 300 watts of driving lights and tear into the stage hard. After a quarter mile John calls a “left 4 minus very long slippy”. I enter the turn just a bit too fast and in an instant we’re completely sideways and sliding right towards the outside ditch. I counter steer hard to the right and lay on the power. (Pucker factor 10) The rear tires kiss the edge of the road; the car hooks up and exists strong. John looks up and says “nice, keep pushing” and doesn’t miss a beat calling the next instruction. The remaining seven miles are very fast go by in a blur.

Scotia – Night Stage

The last stage is the longest and gnarliest of the rally at 10.8 miles. It’s very rough, twisty and has lots of hard dips and water crossings. John and I discuss and make a game plan to push hard where we can but take it easy on the couple real rough parts so we can secure a finish. The stage starts off very busy and everything is coming up fast. (Probably due to my inexperience in night stage driving) At 3.8 miles into the stage John calls “left 6 over small crest, slippy, 50, caution! dip water…” We are smoking fast over the crest and I totally misjudge my speed entering the water dip. I brake hard, let out a few expletives, and just before the dip nail the throttle to get the front end to come up. We hit it extremely hard and for a second think we could do some major damage. As we exit I check the oil pressure gauge and everything seems ok. The next three miles are very tight and tricky with lots of no cuts. With 3.9 miles to go we blast over a long low water bridge and water pours in through a few small holes in the firewall near our feet. I flip on the wipers and after a hundred yards the windows fog up and I can barely see out. I open the roof vent when I go to switch off the wipers the knob spins in my hand. We drive the rest of the stage with the wipers going and a half foggy windshield. At the end of the stage John and I are exhilarated after finishing our first National rally.

Water crossing – Stage 15

We drive back into Salem and park the car in front of the courthouse for the ceremonial finish. John gets out and checks the scores while I talk to my crew and thank them for all their hard work. After waiting for all of the time cards to come in John finally gets the scores and tells me that we made up 15 seconds on stage 14 and 41 seconds on the last stage over James Haas to capture second place in Group 2 class!

Finish Line (LT to RT – Mark, John, Aaron & Jason)

John and I want to thank our crew Jason McDaniel and Aaron Taylor for keeping the car together and our parents for supporting us the whole rally. Thanks to all of the stage workers and the whole 100 Acre Wood Rally committee for putting on a great event.

Leaving for the awards party

Video clips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpy6eNt_QmI
http://www.youtube.com/huebberally

In-Car videos from the 2010 Rally in the 100 Acre Wood.

We came in second place for both rallies! And won beer!

At awards. Waiting for results.

We finished the last stage, heading back to town. Maybe placed second in g2, will find out. Awesome event!

At our last service. Four stages to go. Currently tied with has s – ron e

Finished the rally. I think we are in second overall. Second in class. Only a bit behind of first.

Just finished second stage. Went a bit slow for good reason. Two cars off. Van way and fast. Both back on the road now.

At the service setting up. Great weather.

On our way to paris. Dinner last night at our uncles house was great. We hope to be in paris by 3 pm.

Made it half way to paris today. Stopped at my uncle mike’s house for thanksgiving dinner.

Rallye de paris – t minus 3 days. The bug is almost ready, still have an issue with the left carb. I think the idle jet is slightly clogged

The second event in the Huebbe RallyeSport season happened this past weekend back in Duquette Minnesota for the second Nemadji Trail rally.  The rally is a simple event, only one day of rallying, and part of the central region championship.  It consisted of two individual co-efficient 1 events run inside of the Nemadji State Forest.  For this second event a short spur road was included in the route and provided for a great change of pace. The rally included just over 44 miles of competition stages.

The weeks leading up to the start of the rally were fairly uneventful except for the weekend before.  Mark and I were invited to attend the St Louis European Auto show with our bug.  Very cool being next to such nice automobiles.

The car was in great shape after the first rally and we only had to do a few minor maintenance items to keep the bug in tip-top shape. After the first event we noticed that the left side carb was sticking so I took them off and Mark cleaned them up. This easily solved the problem.

Friday we headed up to MN through northern Missouri and Iowa and again we hit some thunderstorms but not as bad as last time. We made it in time for dinner with Mark and Mary and crashed at their place for the night.

Saturday morning we drove up to Duquette to setup our service area and check-in with the rally. In a few short hours we were hitting the stages!

This time we tried something different. I used my small Canon still camera to shoot some quick videos during the rally to come up with a video blog post.  I think this helped capture some of the rally moments as they unfolded.

We ended up finishing fourth in class and tenth overall for the first rally, and first in class and sixth overall in the second rally!

Check out all of the photos from the rally in the photo gallery

That’s it!

We finished! The 510 is out. Maybe engine trouble. Paul and his v w was out on stage four. Dave c and his v w was out on the last stage …

Done with drivers meeting. Rally time.

Setting up our service area now. Should be a good race.

Race day! Weather looks great, but there might be some dust.

Mark took a wrong turn on the highway.. About 40 miles out of the way

Iowa sure is a boring state to drive through. But should be worth it to run the rally in the bug!

Mark and i are on our way to the nemadji trail rally.

The Huebbe RallyeSport season kicked off this past weekend at the Nemadji Trail rally, held in Duquette Minnesota. The rally is low key and consists of two individual co-efficient 1 events run inside of the Nemadji State Forest. A smooth and twisty forest road is run twice in each direction for a total of just under 35 miles competition.

John and I had a tight timeline to get the car prepared before the registration deadline. We had sent our T1 4 speed off to Kevin at KCR transmissions in California to get re-geared and re-built. Our previous transmission was geared too short for the fast stages, so I had Kevin put in all new Weddle gears to give the Bug more top speed. After a shipping mix up with UPS, we only had about four days to get the engine and transmission back in the car, along with everything else on our to-do list, or we would miss the registration deadline. Luckily my father came over and gave us a hand and we had the Bug back on the road with a day to spare. I drove the Bug around town a bit and everything seemed fine. After our misfortunes at the last rally in Paris Texas I really hoped we had worked out all of the problems with the car.

We got the truck packed up and left town on a rainy Friday morning. It was an absolute horrible drive with hit and miss thunderstorms all the way from St. Louis Missouri to Owatonna Minnesota. (Normally the drive through Iowa is mildly infuriating but the rain made it worse) When we made it to St. Paul I called up my friend, and fellow competitor, Mark Utecht to let him know we were about to arrive at his house. I can’t thank Mark enough; he had opened up his house and graciously let us stay with him so that we could save a few bucks.

Saturday morning was nice and sunny, with some clouds moving in from the Northwest. The weather report called for a chance for rain in the afternoon and Mark told me the road normally gets real slick when wet. John and I got a quick bite to eat and headed up to Duquette to register and setup our service area. On the way we discussed our strategy and goals. We both agreed that I should drive with a moderate pace at 75-80% and aim for a respectable finish. Our primary goal was seat time and keeping the car in one piece. I’m still trying to understand how the Bug handles on gravel and what speed I can take certain turns. I hope in the next few events that I can increase my pace and start to challenge the other teams with their more modern cars. The rally had an eclectic mix of cars, ranging from the normal AWD Subarus and FWD VW MkI Golfs, all the way to a ground beating V8 Fox body Mustang and a 1975 Cosworth powered Ford Capri.

After a brief drivers meeting we jumped in the car and started to warm it up. Since we have never run a national rally we didn’t have a speed factor (which determines how fast you are relative to everyone else) and we were placed at the back of the field. We didn’t mind too much, seeing as the forest road had just opened up that weekend and all the cars ahead of us would be sweeping the road clean of loose gravel. The only problem we would have to contend with is dust from the competitors ahead of us.

As we transited to the stage I was a little nervous about the car and my driving. I kept running through things in my mind, wondering if I had tightened different bolts and worrying about the little noises coming from the engine. All of those concerns seemed to fade away as I pulled to the starting line and tightened my belts up. I revved the engine to 3500 and John called out “10 seconds… 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!” I dumped the clutch and the Bug jumped from the line with massive wheel spin and then quickly into second gear, more wheel spin and into third. The car felt amazing with the new gears. The stage road was dry and hard packed, with the driving line already forming on the road surface. Some of the turns had the loose gravel swept clean and a few of the tight ones were getting chewed up at the apex into the softer base. John was on top of the route book notes and had a bit of time to make notations to the spots that were fast or slow and where the surface conditions were changing. Near the end of the stage we started to see the dust trail from the car ahead of us but it didn’t affect our time. When we crossed the line I checked the gauges and all of the engine vitals were in top shape. Almost nine miles of stage went by in a blur and I couldn’t wait to do it again. We turned the car around and got back in line behind the other teams and parked the car. John talked to the other co-drivers asking for their stage times and I checked the car over.

When it got close to the reverse running of the stage John and I talked over our performance and suggested that I attack some of the slower turns and really toss the car in. I was also being conservative with shifting the car and not revving the engine too high. My plan for the second running was to start shifting past 6000 and quicken up my shifts. We started the stage with a bit more fury than the first and things were going well. I was getting the car to rotate with more throttle and my steering inputs were more subdued. I was steering with the gas pedal and more or less guiding the front end of the car along with the wheel. Things were going great up until about the fifth mile and all of a sudden I started to notice a little bit of bouncing from the rear of the car during tighter turns. With about three tenths (and two turns ) from the finish line I entered a tight right turn and started to rotate the car. Once I reached the apex I had the nose pointed to the inside with a good deal of counter steer put in. All of a sudden the rear of the car bounced up and the car shot off to the outside. I tried turning back to the right but it was too late and we quickly ended up in a muddy ditch. I tried driving out of it but our left rear wheel was axle deep in mud. I stalled the car several times and finally the starter gave up and wouldn’t engage the flywheel. Oh crap now how am I going to get the car fired up again? Our only hope was to have heavy sweep pull us out and hope that we didn’t damage anything. After about 10 minutes of waiting the sweep crew tugged us up out of the ditch and gave us a push start. We finished the stage about 13 minutes off pace.

After leaving the finish line I noticed a horrible metal banging noise coming from the right rear of the car. Fearing that the starter had broken off and was beating itself against the transmission I quickly pulled over and jacked up the car. The starter was ok so I looked under the rear and noticed that the lower shock bolt had worked loose and the shock wasn’t connected to the arm. John told me that must have been the reason the rear of the car was bouncing so badly and tossed me into the ditch. I took out our spare tool kit and hammered out the bolt and disconnected the shock. We transited back into service and quickly got the car on jack stands. John scrambled to locate a nut and some spacers and I checked the rest of the car over. I noticed that the front wheel bearings were just a bit on the loose side so I tightened up the nut about a 1/16 of a turn. John found a spare nut and we reattached the lower shock bolt. We got the car back on the ground with only a few minutes to spare before our assigned check-out time of service.

During the transit back out to the stage I listened intently to every little noise the car made trying to spot any other issues we may have missed. John told me not to worry about the car and just drive, but I was still upset with myself for going into the ditch. About half way through the stage I started to pick the pace up a bit but our stage time still suffered. When we pulled up to the finish control and John opened up his door to hand in our time card I instantly knew we had another problem. I could hear a slight exhaust leak and feared we knocked off the collector again. I left the car running and ran to the rear trying to find the source of the leak but ended up almost burning my hand when I pulled back the mud flap. The #3 exhaust pipe has a flange under the head and the gasket must have broken down and disintegrated. Hot gas was pouring out of a 1/16 inch gap between the flanges and onto the mud flap. Luckily the locking copper nuts were still on the bolts so it was a quick fix to tighten everything up. I got the wheel back on the car and John checked with the other teams to see if we had fallen back. John came back and told me we lost about 30-40 seconds from their times and that I should try and attack this last stage.

We rolled up to the start line, John counted me down and we were off. Things were going great on stage and I was attacking more of the turns. Half way through the stage there is a great rhythm section with a series of fast linked turns that flow brilliantly from one to another. The car felt like it was dancing left and right with the back end kicked out spitting gravel off into the woods. Nine minutes went by in an instant and we had finished the event. On the transit back into town John and I discussed what went right on stage and where I was giving up time and needed to push. I hope to use this information at the next Nemadji rally in June so that we can try and make our way up the leader board.

Overall I think the Nemadji rally was a success for our fledgling rally team. We found out about some new problems with the car that need to be fixed and determined that I’ve still got a way to go in attacking the stages. Hopefully luck will be on our side when we return to the Nemadji Stage Forest in four weeks.

http://www.HuebbeRally.com

I uploaded a few photos from the rally.

 Nemadji Trail Photos

More to come…

Finished the rally. But went off road on ss2. Got a 22 min stage time. Full write up later.

Got done with tech. I cant send photos from here with my phone, sketchy service. <John huebbe>

At service

Mark and I are staying with Mark Utecht for the weekend. We arrived around 7:30pm and caught the tail end of the rally committee making final preparations (route books, packets, etc…).  We went out to dinner with the group and everyone “bench raced”.  Tomorrow morning we’ll make our way up the tech and registration about 10am or so.  I can’t wait!

Driving thru iowa, originally uploaded by johnhuebbe.

Driving thru iowa to the nemadji rally