Last Ditch Racing Blog

Well, it's all play really, but every day between now and Rallye Defi will involve some sort of work on T-4.

Tonight, I installed a new proximity probe for the rally computer. The probe creates a signal when something ferrous is in close proximity to it. We put a nut on the driver's axle with some metal based adhesion goo and then routed the wires up to the computer. We spun the wheels by hand and she works! :-)

Drew stopped by and we spent the rest of the evening removing items so that we can take the tranny out for a clutch change. For those of you changing clutches at home, don't forget the nice clutch fork rod, which lives in both Subaru 5 and 6 speed trannies! :-)

I'll pull the tranny tomorrow, install the new ACT 6 puck clutch and pressure plate and then put it all back together.

Bronson will show and work his magic fusing different types of metal and aluminum together. We're hoping to tie up some of the welding projects that need to be completed.

Some more brake system fittings ordered from California today. They'll arrive Tuesday and we leave Wednesday AM. Never enough time.....

Cheers! John

Fellow native and award winning photographer Mark Fleming is documenting our prep and journey to the upcoming Rallye Defi St. Agathe in Quebec in about a weeks' time.

His first pic is up on his blog. Check out Mark's fantastic work!

http://markfleming.pixyblog.com/

Cheers! John

Sorry everyone, but I sometimes get some tied up in working on the car, I forget to update you all!

The question I've been getting lately is, "How's the car coming?" Next popular is, "Will it be ready for Defi?" Answers are good and yes! :-)

More detailed updates below.

1.) Got the AN plumbing from, where else, anplumbing.com. Great folks at the Earl's Store in Cali. Got the bulkhead fittings installed. Dry fit all the lines to the master cylinders. Installed the residual pressure valves. These are important if the master cylinders are below the level of the calipers. Pedal box still not mounted yet, but that's the next step.

2.) Clutch slave cylinder. Had to put the new AN line on the clutch slave and had to open up the gap on the top of the slave to accept the wider diameter of the new line. While the clutch slave was out, I employed a common rally mod. The slave mounts to the tranny(both 5 and 6 speed) with two bolts. These are difficult to get out quickly with the starter in place.

So.....I found a bolt with the same thread as the stock one and placed it in the rear and cut the head off. In the front, I installed a stud with a nut. So, when/if the clutch slave needs replacing, then you remove a single nut off the front stud and pull it off. MUCH easier.

3.) The power to the rally driving lights comes off a couple of relays on the passenger side of the engine bay. Pretty standard stuff. Problem is, when the lights are connected, you can't open the hood. So, another standard rally mod is in the works. Bought two orange extension cords at Home Depot tonight and will wire those to the relays and then secure them to the bottom of the hood so that the pod lights won't restrict access to the service crew.

A small, simple, cheap modificaiton that could make a world of difference for the service crew and improve the reliability of the car.

Thanks for checking in and keeping up to date with the LDR crew!

Cheers! John

Don't worry, the X-Games write up will come-who knows when, but it'll come! :-)

Prepping T-4 for Rallye Defi St. Agathe.

Focus on the car varies between races, depending on what system needs improvement and what damage we've done at the last race!

Improvement has progressed steadily this season, and that's reflected in our finishes.

The brake system is our current focus, although no system in the car exists without affecting another.

So....I decided that we really needed to rectify my driving position. My seat was too far forward(and high) as we were using the stock, firewall mounted Subaru pedals. We had been using the stock master cylinder(without vacuum assist) to our Group N brake calipers.

To say that the system didn't work well would be a bit of an understatement. I mean, I could stop the car, but braking late and hard is the name of the game. In order to do that, we needed to re-engineer the whole system.

A couple of e-mails late and a floor mounted pedal box was on its way from England. A few more magical clicks on the internet and three new Wilwood compact master cylinders were on their way. Heating up the debit card a bit more resulted in a bunch of AN stainless plumbing heading across the US of A to Triple Caution Farm.

So, what else did we need to do?! The list only got longer. Floor mounted pedals meant that we could move my driver's seat back. Moving the seat rearward meant dropping the steering column a bit as well.

Removing the stock brake and clutch master cylinders meant some aluminum patches needed to be cut and riveted to the firewall to plug the holes. The remote reservoirs for the new dual brake master cylinders and the clutch master will be mounted in the engine compartment.

Each change to the car is made with specific concerns in mind; safety, speed, reliability.

The brake system/floor mounted pedals/changed driver's position result in numerous positives.

The position change of the seat allows me to enter and exit the car easier. This becomes even more crucial in an emergency situation. I am now sitting on level with the B-pillar, which puts more metal between me and the scenary. Never a bad thing!

The floor mounted pedals move some weight closer to the floor and further back in the car, helping to lower the center of gravity and change the polar moment of the car(moving my heft back does way more for this, but you get the idea!).

The dual master cylinders should allow for improved braking performance and the balance bar will enable me to change the bias from front to rear brakes as the conditions dictate.

What's the next system for an upgrade? Probably the turbo system, but that's a story for another day.

Stay tuned!

Cheers! John

Last time the LDR crew was in California was for the 2002 Rim of the World Rally. That was an epic adventure and we always said we'd come back.

Third in line(which is far back! ;-)) to win the wildcard invite to X-Games 14, we were really pumped with our performance for a bunch of locals working out of a barn/shop here Triple Caution Farm.

Anyway, I'm between jobs, and when we were talking about the X-Games, my wife suggested we go to spectate and take in the spectacle. Awesome! I love my wife! :-)

Unfortunately she and Cullen can't come, but John V and I, as well as past LDR co-driver and perpetual team member Erik Lee, will be flying out next Wednesday.

We'll be staying at the historic Biltmore hotel in downtown LA and are planning on having adventures every day! :-)

I'll try and post some blog updates from out there. We're hoping to hang with our rally friends and catch as much of the other events as possible. Of course, we're pulling for Dave Mirra to pull out the stops in his BMX events and will be rooting him on! :-)

Hmm, sushi? La Brea Tar Pits? Huntington Beach? Where to go and what to do. Three LDR dudes loose in LA for five days...we'll make some memories for sure! :-) Stay tuned!

Cheers! John

Hey everyone! Just finished putting together videos of a couple stages at the recent Rallye Baie Des Chaleurs. They're full stage videos, so enjoy! :-)

Just search for "Last Ditch Racing," on Youtube and subscribe to our video feed.

Cheers! John

For Immediate Release

July 16, 2008

Bangor, Maine USA

Last Ditch Racing, defending 2007 Rally America Eastern Open Class Champions, took the overall and Open Class wins in both the Mexico Regional Rally and the Berlin Regional Rally at last weekend New England Forest Rally. Their performance was enough to earn them a fifth place overall in the national portion of the event, after starting 16th. The team set several top 10 stage times and set personal team records on seven stages. The New England Forest Rally, held in Western Maine and parts of New Hampshire, is Round 6 of the 2008 Rally America National Championship and regarded as one of the roughest and difficult events in the Championship.

The team began 2008 by taking the overall win at the Team O'Neil Rally in New Hampshire in icy conditions. The team continued on their winning streak by taking an award for the longest jump at the recent Rallye Baie Des Chaleurs in Quebec and finishing 10th overall in the national event. The recent wins at the New England Forest Rally give the team a commanding lead in the Rally America Eastern Regional Rally Championship.

Driver John Cassidy and Co-Driver Dave Getchell drove a tidy and quick event and brought their 2003 Subaru Impreza WRX STi home relatively unscathed. Said Cassidy, "This result is the equivalent of a win for us. To be 5th overall after a past production car world rally champion and two series contenders is amazing. Maine is known as a rough event and this year was no exception. We kept out of the scenery and had only one puncture, with the tire going flat after we were done with the stage. Dave and I were at the top of our game and reached a new level of performance in the car. We were definitely pushing and this is an event we'll remember for a long time!"

Some not familiar with the team were surprised with their impressive finish, but Cassidy expects more of the same in their remaining events this season. "We really struggled with development of our current car early on, leading to some poor finishes and a season where we went from fourth in the Championship to not scoring any points at all. Since last fall, we've hit our stride with the car and recent additions to our service crew have bolstered our confidence."

The team had close battles with Dave Mirra and Jeff Moyle, both piloting Subaru STi's prepared by Vermont Sportscar. "The cars we were racing are quite advanced relative to ours. Our ace in the hole was our experience and perhaps our advancing age! Both Dave and Jeff were right there throughout the event and our ability to avoid drama put us in a position to take 5th. On the final stage, we caught two cars near the end and literally had to stop in the thick dust because we just couldn't see the road. Mirra told me when he came through he didn't have any dust to contend with and that made me worry that he had perhaps caught us. He took 30 seconds out of us, but it wasn't enough and we held station."

The Maine Forest Rally 1999 was Cassidy's first event in a Honda CRX. "The team has made obvious significant strides over the last 9 years. We've still got plenty of room for improvement, but our hard work over the years as a privateer team is starting to pay dividends when we achieve a result like this. To have our career best finish at home after such a long time in the sport is a dream come true. It definitely fuels us to strive for bigger things in the future. We've been asked recently if we'd consider a full US national schedule next year, and while we'd love to do that, we'd need far more external support to do it properly. TIme will tell!" The team's next event will be the Rallye Defi-St. Agathe in Quebec, Canada.

John and Dave would like to thank their crew for their hard work and support, both on and off event: Bronson Crothers, Duncan Matlack, Ken Anctil, Drew Simpson, John Cassidy V and Rob Sockalexis.

Last Ditch Racing would like to thank their 2008 Partners for their support:

Triple Caution, LLC, http://www.triplecaution.us
Hydra EMS, http://www.hydraems.com
Team O'Neil Rally School, http://www.teamoneil.com

For more information on Last Ditch Racing, please visit: http://www.lastditchracing.com
To Purchase Last Ditch Racing Gear, please visit: http://www.cafepress.com/lastditchracing
For more information on the New England Forest Rally, please visit: http://newenglandforestrally.com/
For more information on the Rallye Defi-St. Agathe, please visit: http://www.rallyedefi.com/

Wow, what an event! The LDR crew dug deep over the past two days and pulled out our best result of our career!

We won the Mexico Regional Rally yesterday and again won the regional event today. We climbed from our 16th or so starting position to finish 5th overall in the national event! We were the third Subaru to finish and the top all US crew to finish(that's Dave's co-driver spin! ;-)).

A HUGE thanks to the fans that came out and to our friend and family for their support.

The biggest thanks go to our crew for keeping T-4 together and looking sexy all weekend! Ken Anctil, Duncan Matlack, Mike Rademacher, Rob Sockalexis, John Cassidy V and Kevin Sennett.

Look for more speed and success from the LDR crew in the future! :-)

Cheers! John

It's nearly day 2, and we're just getting around to writing about day 1!

Dave and I pushed hard today, and were trading times with Jeff Moyle and Pat Moro.

We ended the day in 12th position in the overall classification in the national event. Up substantially from our start position.

A clean and tidy run saw us take the overall win in Friday's Mexico regional rally! A big thanks to the other regional teams for coming out and to our crew for keeping T-4 shiny and on the road.

Mood today was tense as our clutch is going away a bit. Without a spare, we're hoping to make it through Saturday's stages without any drama. Only 5 more stage starts! Hope she holds! :-)

On the way out to Concord Pond, we had some issues with the engine not running well. I had been fiddling with the ECU plugs and had managed to crimp the vacuum hose. A bit of digging in the dash and we made the ECU a bit more comfortable and all was well.

Our time on Concord Pond was a personal best for us. About 20 seconds quicker than Erik Lee and I had run it in 2006!

Mood remains tense. Saturday is a long day and we know the stages aren't forgiving if you loose focus(or cut a corner!). A few hours of sleep and we'll be back in our sweet smelling suits for another day in our rally office.

Thanks for all the well wishes and for checking on our progress!

Cheers! John

It's quiet. A bit unnerving actually. Co-driver Dave Getchell and myself are alone in the condo at Sunday River. I'm taking some time to center and Dave is working on the route books. We're both listening to the wind blow across the mountain.

Some distant echoes of rally car exhaust notes as the cars are being driven up to Parc Expose.

The crew has left for the service area and it's up to us to make it through the first couple of stages so that we can see them at our next planned service.

Everything has a schedule, and a rally weekend is lived minute-by-minute, making the weekend extremely long. Of course, it's punctuated by times in the car on stage that make you think someone with a big remote control is pressing the fast forward button! ;-)

The pressure palpable. Dave and I don't feel like eating. We're hydrating and I've got some energy bars for the car.

Dave has just finished his notes and we'll suit up and head up the mountain for Expose and the driver's meeting.

Rally is a sport where you try to control all the variables, but know that you can't control them all. The car is prepped, shiny and all the fluids are topped off. The tires are round, sticky and are holding air. Dave and I feel good, but edgy.

What happens after we pull up to the line? 3...2...1....GO!!!

Up at 06:00 on day 1 of the New England Forest Rally(we still like to call it the Maine Forest Rally, but we're biased! ;-)).

Co-driver Dave Getchell is busy with his books and the crew is attending to T-4, checking a few things and getting her perfect for the first super special stage. The stage happens to go right by our condo complex here at Sunday River! :-)

Not a large field this year, but the talent is very deep. Due to issues with an artificially low speed factor, the stewards have granted our request to start a bit further up the order and we hope we can reward their decision with a good turn of speed!

We're wishing all our competitors a fast and safe run over the next two days. We'll try and post some pictures on our flickr account, so check it out!

Thanks to the crew this weekend: Ken, Duncan, Rob, Drew, Rad and Kevin.

Cheers! John

Update from the road! The LDR crew arrived in Bethel tonight in preparation for the upcoming New England Forest Rally this weekend. Driver Cassidy and Co-Driver Getchell will spend all day Thursday in their street car doing recce.

Recce is short for reconnaissance and is where the crews drive the stages and either make pace notes or modify organizer provided notes. NEFR offers crews one pass recce where they can modify the organizer supplied JEMBA notes.

Recce is often more grueling for the crews than the actual race as it's a full day of concentration without much of a break.

The event starts officially on Friday and continues through Saturday. The team has been attending the Maine Forest Rally/NEFR since 1999 and considers it to be their home event.

Folks can follow our progress via our blog and via the Rally America website which is under our links section. Cheers! John

For Immediate Release

July 4, 2008

Bangor, Maine USA

Last Ditch Racing flew high and far at the recent Rallye Baie Des Chaleurs, in New Richmond Quebec. Round three of the Canadian Rally Championship, the event, is known for it's driver's stages, combining technical sections with fast flowing sections. Conditions this year were especially difficult due to recent rain.

Finishing 10th overall, the team set 8 top 10 times out of 17 stages. A record 46 competitors took the start of the event, 27 finished and 19 DNF'd, attesting to the difficulty of the stages.

The team took the DC Shoes sponsored, "Longest Jump Award," after flying their 2003 Subaru WRX STi 116 feet off the famous jump at the end of the Camp Brule stage. Said driver John Cassidy, "The first time through Brule, we had a flat on the rear so couldn't take the jump with any speed. We only had one more pass and wanted to give the fans something to remember, so took the jump in fifth gear!" The team landed hard, nearly knocking co-driver Dave Getchell unconscious. Said Getchell, "That's the biggest hit I've taken without crashing!" DC Shoes principal Ken Block, suggested the award and won the rally outright in his 2008 Subaru Impreza STi, driving for the Subaru USA Rally Team. Block's jump was 115 feet. "Ken has really progressed in his driving over the past few seasons and devoted himself to the sport. His progress has been impressive and I think we'll see a lot more of him in the years to come," said Cassidy.

The event was universally praised by the crews. "We've been coming to the Rallye Baie Des Chaleurs and have encouraged other US teams to do so. It's almost like one of those secrets you don't want to share with anyone, but we love the event and encourage all our fellow US teams to come up. It's clearly the top event in the North American calendar at the moment. We'll be back in 2009 and I'm sure more US teams will as well!"

The team's next event is their home event-The New England Forest Rally. Held in Rumford, Maine and based out of the Sunday River ski resort, the event is known for it's fast and flowing roads that are also filled with car breaking rocks. Said Cassidy, "This was our first event in 1999, and we've been there every year since. Because it's our home event, we tend to put a lot of pressure on ourselves. Coming so soon after Baie adds another degree of difficulty as there's car re-prep to do as well. The Fourth of July weekend will be a work weekend here at Triple Caution Farm!"

The team is hoping for a repeat of their 2006 10th place finish. "Erik and I finished 10th that year after a really clean run over the two days. We're hoping for a repeat and will do our best to give the home fans something to cheer about this year!"

Last Ditch Racing would like to thank their 2008 partners:
Triple Caution, LLC, http://www.triplecaution.us
Hydra EMS, http://www.hydraems.com
Team O'Neil Rally School, http://www.teamoneil.com

A special thanks to Planet Motorsport for their on site support at Rallye Baie Des Chaleurs. Thanks to Subaru Canada for their support of the Canadian Rally Championship in 2008.

Dave and John would like to thank their crew for the event: Duncan Matlack, Ken Anctil, John Cassidy and Drew Simpson

For more information on Last Ditch Racing, please visit: http://www.lastditchracing.com
To Purchase Last Ditch Racing Gear, please visit: http://www.cafepress.com/lastditchracing
For more information on the Rallye Baie Des Chaleurs, please visit: http://www.rallyebdc.com/
For more information on the New England Forest Rally, please visit: http://www.newenglandforestrally.com/

An update from the LDR crew in New Richmond, Quebec!

We arrived at about 01:00 after an 8 hour drive from Triple Caution Farm, LDR World Headquarters in Bangor, Maine.

Staying at the lovely Cascapedia Lodge in New Richmond. In spite of the late(or early) hour of our arrival, our host greeted us in his bathrobe and graciously showed us to our rooms.

Today, John and Dave(and John, John's son) did recce and found the stages muddy, wet, and very rough. After a 9-10 hour day on the stages making their own notes, the team hit the Bayou lounge at the Hotel Francis for some good food and networking with rally friends.

Duncan and Ken spent the day running errands and looking after gear and last minute details on the car.

Our new Dodge Sprinter van hauled the car and gear with aplomb and is a vast improvement over the Ford box truck we've hauled with for the last couple years. A big thanks to George at Bangor Chrysler/Dodge for getting a new turbo installed the morning of our trip! :-)

Another BIG, BIG thanks to Bronson, chief fabricator and pontificator, for getting the truck together with a push the day of our departure. The push saw John and Bronson turn the lights off in the shop at 04:30. The team could truly not perform at the level we do without Bronson's help and contributions!

Crew present at this rally include: Duncan Matlack, Ken Anctil, Drew Simpson, John Cassidy, Dave Getchell and John Cassidy V.

Up tomorrow AM for an early breakfast and setting up the service area. We know from the conditions of the stages, that there'll be carnage this weekend-we just hope it doesn't involve us! ;-)

Check the Rallye BDC site for results as the day progresses. http://www.rallyebdc.com

Cheers! The LDR crew

Been a bit quiet of late, but wanted folks to know that it's because we're working our butts off trying to get the team in shape for our rally in Quebec next weekend!

Our new Dodge Sprinter service vehicle is getting aluminum shelves, tool boxes, fuel drum holder, tire holder, air bag helper suspension, tow hitch, rear step, etc, etc! Of course, it's all custom, and taking more time that we had hoped, but we're doing it right and not cutting any corners!

T-4, our rally car is getting LOTS of attention. New front bumper cover, new rear wing, new windshield, intercooler water spray system, etc, etc.

In short, everything we own is getting a lot of attention and a thorough going-over!

We're starting 12th out of 50 or so cars at Rallye Baie Des Chaleurs, and we think that's a good place for use to be. We hope we end the rally a bit higher than that, but the event truly is a shakedown for the car and service rig in preparation for the New England Forest Rally, our home event.

Thanks for checking out the site and listening to our rants! :-) We hope we can put on a good show for those of you at Rallye BDC and NEFR! :-) If you can't make it to an event, we'll try and update you during the event via this site. Be sure and subscribe to the RSS feed! :-)

Cheers! John

Well, I finally realized that improved fitness might help me on the special stages, and certainly will help me with my every day wellness.

Got a membership to a local gym and convinced a trainer with a great Scandinavian name to torture me periodically! :-)

So, have only been going sporadically, but due to a change in work schedule, have been going more often the last couple of weeks.

Thought I'd share my experience from RPM class tonight. Started the day with a Body Combat class, and then decided to be brave and try the RPM class for the first time tonight.

Armed with my settings for the bike given to me earlier by my trainer(who teaches this particular class as well), I showed up early to make sure I got a bike. Apparently people enjoy the torture he dishes out in class as well.

Not wanting to be on the bike for the first time when class was full, I hopped on and tried to clip my cycling shoe into the pedal. I've had the shoes for awhile, but haven't used the clips on the mountain bike. Up on the bike I go, then tried to clip in-no joy. I get off the bike and take my shoe off and get down where I can see how everything meshes. Clip the shoe in, and then.....can't remove it.

One shoe on, one shoe off. Not wanting to look like more of an imbecile than I am, I take the other shoe off and head out to the main gym area and hope that Scott(said trainer) will show up a bit early and help me rescue my shoe, and my dignity.

Of course he laughs at my plight, then asks which bike I was set up on-then he replies, "Oh yeah, the one with the shoe hanging off of it." He's very supportive! ;-)

Scott gets me set up and class is about to begin. I had brought some padded gloves with me due to my carpal tunnel. I had bought them at Dick's Sporting Goods last year, and with my luck, they were two right hand gloves! Thinking they were my replacement gloves(which were anatomically correct for a person with one each of left and right hand), I brought the, "special gloves."

Strike two. This wasn't looking good! ;-) So, class begins and I'm muddling my way through, spinning the tension knob on the bike when Scott tells us too. More tension, less tension. He really can't seem to make up his mind. Why are my thighs and ass on fire?!

Get to the end of the 60 minutes and we're done. Some stretching on the bike and my right quad starts to cramp. Visions of my leg locking up and me dangling from my clipped in shoes appear in my head. Cramp passes. Scott tells us we can get off the bike when we're ready and do some stretching.

Oh yeah, don't know how to unclip, but have a vague idea. Spin for a bit more, trying to look like I'm just cooling down-wondering if I'll be spending the night on the back of a Lemond gym bike. Twist my ankles outward and the clips release. Thank the big guy!

Stretching and we're done. Scott asks how the class was and I tell him it was long....little does he know! :-)

As I've gotten a bit older, um, wiser, I've come to appreciate these types of experiences and find the humor in them. I'm feeling stronger and feeling fitter, but there's plenty of work to do yet. Year's of working out with my two trainers, Ben and Jerry, have given Scott lots to work with!

Cheers! John

Work continues at a furious pace here at Triple Caution Farm! We're outfitting our new(used) 2006 Dodge Sprinter cargo van with custom shelving and a seat for crew. We're fabbing everything out of aluminum and it should be a sweet ride once it's done! :-)

Moving from one rally service vehicle to another is almost like moving from one house to another. The tow rig is our, "mothership," and has to be our home away from home, and even our lifeboat if need be.

T-4 is also getting some love prior to our next event in about 3 weeks.

Wicked hot working today(about 90) and Bronson was working up a sweat with the welder in the shop.

We'll be hard at it between now and Baie, making sure everything's as perfect as it can be!

Cheers! John

After a few weeks of negotiating, we closed the deal for a 2006 Dodge Sprinter 3500, 158" wheelbase. This truck will replace our 2002 Ford E-450 box truck as LDR-1UH(UH=ultra heavy). Since the Sprinter is made by Mercedes, we like to call the new truck, LDR-1 Uber Heavy! ;-)

We'll be working on making the truck into the perfect rally support vehicle for us and we'll be thinking about the layout long and hard before cutting/welding/fabbing.

Next race is the Rallye Baie Des Chaleurs at the end of June. Check out the event website at www.rallyebdc.com

Cheers! John

Just back from a whirlwind day at the Team O'Neil Rally School in Dalton, NH.

We went down for a, "test and tune," day. What the heck is that, you ask!? Well, it's a day where our rally guru Tim O'Neil checks out the car, the driver and the co-driver and offers suggestions on how we can improve our game.

We had a classroom session, followed by some time with Tim on some test stages, then some pace-noting work. T-4 held up well, but we found some issues with the brakes and alignment settings. We lost a power steering belt after a bolt on the pump backed out enough to contact the pump pulley. This stopped the pump in its tracks and Tim brought the car in smoking as the shredded belt hung off the front of the engine like a dead snake!

Another belt sourced and I got some time on the stages. Working on timing and intensity of braking, crests and up and downhill sections. Erik Lee hopped in the co-driver seat for Emilio Arce to help him out with the pacenoting section.

Dave hopped in T-4 after he was done helping teach the, "Rally Experience." course and we went off to write our own pace notes for a small stage which Tim had Jemba notes for. We then compared what we had versus the JEMBA and we all discussed what worked for each of us individually.

Fantastic day in the White Mountains, except for swallowing a few black flies! ;-)

Cheers! John

With over 180 photos on our flickr account spanning out entire career, we'll be adding more from our gigantic collection over time! All the way from the time of Fireball, our Honda CRX, to the 2007 season in T-4, it's all(almost) there. :-)

LDR on Flickr

If you're one of the intrepid rally photographers that has snapped us in action, and you see one of your pic(s) on the site without credit to you, please e-mail me so I can credit you! :-)

Cheers! John

We've received our new tire changer and balancer. Purchased from Greg Smith Equipment, http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/default.asp , this is a HUGE upgrade from the team.

In the run up to a rally, we usually carry with us 12-15 wheels/tires. Most tires only last an event. So, the process in the past was: 1.) Load up 15 wheels/tires in the truck with 15 new tires. 2.) Drive to the tire shop and unload the whole lot, 3.) Pick up the whole lot and load them into the truck. 4.) Bring them back to Triple Caution Farm and unload them and then put them on the rally car and into the truck/on the trailer.

I'm not really interested in lifting 30 tires/rims 3 times prior to each event, thus the new machines. We can change tires in our spare time, on site and have control over the quality of the process. Vive le Revolution! :-)

As an FYI, our next event is the Rallye Baie Des Chaleurs in Quebec at the end of June. http://www.rallyebdc.com

Cheers! John

LDR got a couple new livestock at the farm this weekend! We received our new tire changer and wheel balancer from Greg Smith Equipment. After much research, we purchased these unit due to their quality/price combination.

The tire changer has dual assist arms, which should help us mount the difficult rally tires. A rally tire has such thick sidewalls, that mounting is difficult.

Why purchase these machines at all!? Well, it's a large investment in our infrastructure, but here's an example. For each event, we usually take 12 tires/wheels. This means that I get to load 12 mounted tires and loose tires in the truck and take them to the local tire shop. Then I unload them. Then, I return and load them all back in the truck for return to the shop. Finally, they get loaded into the rally truck and onto the trailer and car for the event.

Sooooo.....potentially 24 tires that I get to move 4 times. Not to mention the travel time. We've been thinking about this for some time, so it's an exciting upgrade for L'Equpipe!

In other news, T-4 is getting a new oil pan, fresh steering rack, an intercooler spray tank and some general TLC. Out Peltor intercom(which is on the fritz), has been sent out for service.

Out next event will be the Rallye Baie Des Chaleurs in Quebec June 27-28, 2008.

Cheers! John

Time for another Triple Caution Farm Update! :-) We don't stop moving for long here and the list of projects waiting in the wings is always long! :-)

Last weekend, we upgraded the trailer with a winch mount and some new tow rings. We found that we need to replace the axles on the trailer as the trip to Missouri a couple months ago destroyed one. We've put some miles on the trailer, so new axles will be a good upgrade.

We've been working on installing a Mercedes diesel engine in a 1960's Land Rover Series IIA truck and the engine is now in. Unfortunately, we need to replace head gaskets on two Range Rover P38 models, and it needs to get done soon!

T-4, the rally car, needs to get in soon for a rotated turbo system and possibly addition of a rotated intake manifold and front mount intercooler.

And what about the Ford Merkur?! We have parts, and a freshly rebuilt engine. We need to find time to work on the roll cage and other bits. It should put a big smile on our face when we're done! :-)

Cheers! John

A big congrats to Mark Fleming for his recent win at the Adobe Photoshop World 2008. conference. He won the Best in Show Prize/Guru Award for his photo of T-4 airborne at the 2006 New England Forest Rally. He also won in the photography category for a separate photo.

Photoshop World Winners

To see more of Mark's fantastic work, check out his blog site at:
Mark Fleming

Congrats Mark, and thanks for making us look soooo sexy! :-)

Cheers! John

Progress continues here at Triple Caution Farm, with T-4 being nearly ready to go onto the lift for a round of repairs and upgrades. We have to replace the front bumper cover and the oil pan due to damage from our recent events. She'll get a thorough battle damage assessment and we'll tend to other issues as they arise.

We're contemplating installing the Triple Caution Thong front mount intercooler that was on T-2, and installer our new 12L STi intecooler spray tank. Rotated turbo? Rotated intake manifold?! Perhaps! :-)

We just made a major investment in our shop infrastructure with the purchase of a tire machine and wheel balancer. With the number of rally tires and street tires we process in a year, it'll pay for itself in no time!

Just realizing how little time we have prior to Rallye Baie Des Chaleurs in June!

Cheers! John

All our videos are now online. We're going to find a couple of older ones and try and get those up. I think we have a few from Targa Newfoundland and Rallye Quebec. Good stuff!

Spring has arrived here at Triple Caution Farm, world headquarters of the Last Ditch Racing team. :-) As the snow melts, piles of parts and tires emerge as if growing out of the ground.

The rally car will be getting some new parts and we'll be working on upgrading some systems prior to our next event, the Rallye Baie Des Chaleurs in Quebec in June. www.rallyebdc.com. If you want to spectate at a fantastic event, this is one of the best! It's one of the closest rallies to our home base and one of our favorites.

We had a difficult event there last year, with boost cut issues and the shift lever repeatedly popping out. The final blow was a broken outer tierod after hitting a skidder tire on the Super Special. Quel dommage! ;-)

We always have a line of various automotive projects here at the farm. My old Land Rover will eventually get a Mercedes diesel engine. My new(er) Range Rover will also get a new engine. We have our Merkur rally car project that's always on the list, and of course our street cars and the rally car! We need a couple more bays.

We'll be working on a spring video podcast soon, so look for that.

Thanks for visiting the site and checking in with us! Cheers! John

Going through some teething pains at present trying to load content into/onto the site.

Look for our full complement of videos and podcasts soon.

You can find us on myspace, facebook and a beginning collection of photos of flikr.com

With the summer rally season a few months away, we are beginning to turn our thoughts to making some improvements to T-4 to make her more competitive.

Cheers! John

Updating the new site slowly but surely. Working hard to get media loaded. 9 years is a long time to accumulate stuff! If anyone sees a photo on our site that they took, and it's NOT credited to them(or if you have a problem with the photo being here), simply e-mail me and I'll take care of it!

Cheers! John

For Immediate Release

Bangor, Maine USA

Maine's oldest rally team travelled to Salem, Missouri for the 100 Acre Wood rally, round 2 of the Rally America National Championship. The event consisted of two regional events; Trespasser's Wil Central Region Rally on Friday and the 100 Acre Wood Central Regional Rally on Saturday. The event was also the host of the Rally America Regional Rally Championship for 2007.

While the event is known for it's fast and flowing gravel roads, it is rarely a dry event. This year was no exception as the Last Ditch Racing team seemed to tow the snow and ice South with them from Maine. The week's forecast called for, "ice pellets," which the team sound found were accurately described. Said driver John Cassidy, "We thought they meant sleet or freezing rain, but they were tiny round balls of ice. Talk about slippery!" The team had come prepared with snow, ice and cold weather gravel tires. "We've been doing this long enough to know that we could be racing in any weather and on any surface!," said Cassidy.

Having won Rally America's Eastern Regional Championship in the Open Class in 2007, the team were anxious to take the show on the road to compete against other Open Class champions from other regions in the US. Their main competitors for the event would be Henry and Cindy Krolikowski from Michigan in their Subaru.

Fridays' four stages saw teams trying to come to grip with, well...the lack of grip. Cassidy and Getchell chose to go out on Yokohama AO-34's rally snow tires. The tires were a good choice for the conditions and helped LDR to a second place overall(in a field of 24) in the Trespassers Wil Central Regional Rally, 33 seconds adrift of the top spot on the podium. The team ended the day about 2:30 minutes ahead of the Krolikowski's.

Feeling that the cold weather would most likely cause the existing ice to freeze solid, the team chose to use their Michelin X-Ice tires for the first 4 stages on Saturday. A decision, they came to realize, on the transit out to the morning's stages, was a poor one. "Dave and I knew going to the stages that we had made the wrong tire choice. My confidence in the tires was low and we were sliding in the slush with very little traction. The X-Ice's excel on ice in cold temperatures, but we really needed the Yokohama's on," said Cassidy.

Stage 5, the first stage of Saturday, proved to be the team's undoing. On a left hand turn early in the stage, they struck a rock that was in the racing line. The left front tire was soon going flat. With about 7 miles left in the stage, the crew decided they'd loose less time by simply driving the rest of the stage on the flat. The team dropped about 2 minutes on the stage, finishing well down the order. Stopping on the transit to change the flat, they found the jack not working! Borrowing an operational jack, they got the spare mounted, but were now late on the transit. With a non-functioning speedometer/odometer due to an electrical glitch, they drew a speeding penalty, being clocked 25mph in a 15mph zone. "To say it wasn't our morning was an understatment," said Cassidy. "We handily turned a 2:30 advantage into a similar deficit within the span of 4 stages."

Not a team to go gently down the order, they managed through the remaining 3 stages of the morning without another flat. The service crew refitted the Yokohama tires and away the team went, eager to prove a point. Said Cassidy, "I knew that our deficit was more than likely too large to make up, but that didn't mean we wouldn't try! We have a reputation for going faster as events progress, and Dave and I were a bit cranky at our situation and wanted to prove a point."

Prove a point they did. Cassidy and Getchell won 5 of the remaining 6 stages outright among the 21 regional competitors. Their pace garnered three top 10 overall stage times among both the national and regional competitors. The team finished the 100 Acre Wood Central Regional Rally in seventh place overall, with the Krolikowski's taking the win.

In the 2007 Regional Rally Championship portion of the event, Last Ditch Racing took 3rd overall. The Krolikowski's took first and fellow Mainer Chris Duplessis took 2nd. Without the road penalties, the LDR crew would have taken the win in the Regional Rally Championship, having won an impressive 9/14 stages outright among the 2007 Regional Rally Championship contenders. "Dave and I did our best and put in some of our best stages to date and we were very pleased that we were able to go quickly in such challenging conditions. We're hoping to find more speed as the 2008 season progresses," said Cassidy.

Last Ditch Racing would like to thank their 2008 Team Partners: Triple Caution, LLC
Team O'Neil Rally School
Hydra EMS
MOTUL lubricants

Last Ditch Racing would like to thank crew members Drew Simpson and Eric Wages for their help at the event.

For more information Last Ditch Racing, please visit: http://www.lastditchracing.com
To purchase Last Ditch Racing Merchandise, please visit: http://www.cafepress.com/lastditchracing
For more information on the 100 Acre Wood, please visit: http://www.100aw.org
For scoring information on the 100 Acre Wood and regional rallies, please visit: http://www.rallyracingnews.com/

After a mega drive(15 hours from here to there), the LDR crew has emerged with a record setting result.

Having finished the 2002 RIQ in dead last place in our Honda CRX rally car, I wanted to see what it would be like to tackle the event in our updated 2.5L Subaru Impreza all wheel drive car.

Having put in a fair performance at the 2002 Maine Forest Winter Club Rally in early December, and then having some winter instruction at Team O’Neil in New Hampshire, we felt we were ready.

We attended Team O’Neil as a team(driver/co-driver) as we had asked Tim for instruction so would could better make pace notes. Tim obliged and asked Marc Goldfarb, an accomplished and experienced co-driver, to instruct us as well.

We wanted some more experience on how to perform recce and make our notes as RIQ 2003 would be our first opportunity to do so. The driving experience for me in the snow was humiliating and humbling, but that was good. The pace noting experience was invaluable.

There was one day of recce, and we were advised that teams could run each stage twice. We were up earlier than needed after a good night’s rest. Some of the stages were nearly closed due to recent snow and many recce vehicles got stuck. We performed recce in co-driver Dave Getchell’s Subaru Impreza RS, affectionately named, “Nigel.”

We completed the day and felt good about out notes. We felt they were consistent across all stages, and we had both come to a common language to use when describing the stage to each other.

Last Ditch Racing had made the decision to focus on running as many SCCA ProRally events as possible in 2003, and I had thrown out the idea of going to California to run the Rim of the World 2003 rally in early May.

I really didn’t expect the team to bite, but when they ALL told me they were up for going, I really couldn’t believe it! We’ve always had high expectations of our rally program, but this would be one of our most ambitious undertakings to date. Targa Newfoundland 2002 was our other.

The team members had combinations of stashed frequent flyer miles and free tickets from getting bumped from previous flights that allowed them to find their way to California much quicker than I. I would piloting the team’s new tow rig, “LDR-1 Heavy,” a 1997 Ford F-250 crew cab diesel that I had recently bought from a wholesale lot.

While the team had their reservations made, I was desperately searching for a co-driver to make the cross country trek with me. Despite numerous responses, I finally found a co-driver in one Mike Rademacher, a private jet pilot and fellow Subaru owner from Maine.

Our rally car, “Steel Tulip,” had most recently completed Rallye De Quebec, and was in fine shape. We loaded all the gear we thought we’d ever need and I picked up the trip-tik from the AAA office. We estimated a trip that would take 5 days averaging 700 miles daily.

After struggling with Steel Tulip, our 1994 Subaru Impreza with 1999 Subaru 2.5RS engine and LINK PLUS ECU for two events, we were at our wits end! We finally contacted LINK in New Zealand and Brett Middletion at MRT Performance in Australia for help.

Paul at MRT was able to diagnose some significant tuning errors we had made in our LINK and we realized that we had been lucky not to have melted our engine down as we were running dangerously lean and using only a quarter of the resolution of the LINK’s fuel table! Truly a testament to the longevity of the Subaru powerplant!

Some back and forth via the internet in the middle of the night(on our end-it was mid day in Australia), and we had a map that made the car feel like we had a new engine installed! It put large smiles on all our faces! To have the car finally run correctly, and understand the LINK PLUS was doubly exciting.

Bangor driver to compete in Pro Rally race in Rumford
By Tom Hale

If racing full throttle through the forest is your type of motorsport, you’ll have a chance to see it when the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Pro Rally comes to Rumford Friday and Saturday.

Pro Rally often conjures up visions of racers from Europe or other foreign shores. Race fans may be pleased to know that Bangor’s John Cassidy with his race team, Last Ditch Racing, will be in the top class.

After a couple years racing at the local Club Rally level and the Canadian rally scene, Cassidy’s team has gone professional this season. Cassidy and co-driver Dave Getchell from Camden are the only team from Maine to compete in three Pro events in 2003.

Cassidy has taken delivery of a turbocharged 1998 TAD Motorsports Subaru Impreza to race in rally racing’s top class, Open. In previous races Last Ditch Racing competed in their non-turbocharged 1994 Subaru Impreza.

The Maine team finished its last race in Pennsylvania ninth in the Open class.

Cassidy, a physician’s assistant, developed his interest in rallying after viewing a race on ESPN. His mechanical background at that time was limited to restoration work on Land Rovers.

Bangor ProRally team driven
Last Ditch Racing competitive in recent events
By Tom Hale in The Bangor Daily News

The Last Ditch Racing ProRally racing team of Bangor finished its quest to race on both ends of the continent by placing 26th in the Susquehannock Trail SCCA ProRally held over the weekend in Wellsboro, Pa. The previous weekend the Maine team finished 15th (fifth overall in the Open Class) in the Rocky Mountain Rally in Calgary, Alberta.

Team driver John Cassidy said the engine in the team's Subaru race car blew in stage five of the Pennsylvania rally.

"I was not disappointed in our race weekend since we placed eighth in the Sherwood Forest Club Rally portion of the event, thus earning our highest placing in a rally event in the United States," Cassidy said. "Our Bangor team was the highest placing nonturbo car in the Club Rally."

Despite a broken spring in the car's suspension, the rally team moved up four places after the first stage, three more in the third stage, and held its own in the fourth stage of the Pro Rally.

The road to Maine Forest 2002 was paved with adversity. This event is very important for myself and the team. We consider it our home event and this year was our fourth time at the race. I started rallying after seeing fellow Mainer Carl Merril on ESPN2 and couldn't believe that someone in my state was rallying! As crazy as the thought was at the time, I bought a car and decided to go rallying. My passion for rally has steadily increased. I regret that I never got to meet Carl prior to his untimely death. From what I understand, he was quite a character. I would expect nothing less from a fellow Mainer in a rally car!

We had many obstacles to getting to this year's event. We weren't done building our new rally car, a 1994 1.8L Subaru Impreza AWD sedan. We didn't have our SCCA ProRally licenses. We had just come off a Canadian events two weeks prior.

The Last Ditch Team was up to the challenge. Team is the operative word. For the first time in it's short history, Last Ditch Racing is a TEAM, consisting of, John Cassidy, Maygen McCarty, Eric Wages, Margaret Michaels, Dave Getchell and Matt Robinson. Without the team, there would be no car, no event, no stories. A heartfelt thanks to all of them for helping me realize my dream of becoming a better rally driver and representing Maine in the sport.

I’ll premise this article to note that it is being penned quite some time after the fact, so I’ll apologize now for any glaring omissions.

The RIC rally is an epic, three day event, very similar in structure to events held in the World Rally Championship. I had heard of the rally, but had never attended. It seemed as if it would be a good yardstick for the team. Little did I know....

Prior to the event, we had to replace the transmission in the car. We took the opportunity to also put in a new 1.8L engine as well. The rear diff was also replaced. We didn’t know at the time that we had replaced the diff with a conflicting ratio to that in the gearbox!

I convinced the crew that we should tackle the event, and we headed North. We took one set of gravel tires, and after much arm twisting by Eric, I agreed to pack a set of Nokia snow tires.

Not one to make rational decisions, I made the workload for the team exponentially greater in the few weeks we had to prepare for Maine Forest Winter 2002. Having returned from Charlevoix, our first DNF from the year, we had been discussing moving into Open Class for 2003. We had a 2.5RS Impreza engine sitting in the garage and we had been tempted to swap it in earlier in the season, but had thought better of it.

Dave Getchell, a long time team member and co-driver for another team, would be joining me in the right seat for this race. Dave ended his first race in the woods after a spectacular roll at Ski Sawmill 2002. I told Dave I thought I could get him across the finish line. The thought of having another co-driver in the stable for the team was a very sensible one, as we have had five different co-drivers this year alone!

Defi-St. Agathe was a shot in the dark for the Last Ditch Racing crew. Having just had a successful debut at Maine Forest 2002 with the team's new 1994 1.8L Subaru Impreza, it was decided that Defi should be the first CARS event for the car.

The car performed flawlessly at the nortiorously rough Maine Forest event and needed no mechanical attention prior to Defi. The engine had a bottom end knock, but we were assured by the folks at Exeter Subaru that it would, "probably," hold together for another race.

We headed North and hit rush hour in Montreal, adding at least two hours to our trip. We were pleased to see two other Subarus with the same displacement in the P-3 class. Racing the Impreza at Maine Forest in the SCCA PGT class against stock 2002 WRX'S was futile to say the least!

The first night saw us do two stages at a tarmac road racing course. We soon found that the 1.8L did not have the gumption to power-slide the car through the tight turns. We took a more traditional road racing approach of , "slow in, fast out," the second lap and were rewarded with a faster time. A timing error on the first lap led to us taking a bogey time for the first stage, putting us down a couple minutes on most of the other teams heading into day two.

Day two provided us with beautiful weather, although conditions got dusty to the point of being dangerous toward the end of the day. We steadily gained time on our nearest Impreza competitor, but at the end of the day it was not enough to advance a place in the standings.

We were extremely pleased to take third place in P-3, and took home a trophy for the top finishing American team as well as a gratis entry into the inagural Targa Newfoundland 2002 tarmac rally!

I knew we had to install a thermostat in the car, but didn't get around to it prior to heading up to Quebec. We then end up doing it in the hotel parking lot, risking our ears, fingers and respective noses to exposure in the gale force wind, sideway snow and then finally stinging sleet. BTW, the car never leaked a drop of coolant the whole race and we were quite toasty inside! :-)

The stuff at the end of SS1 was on a downhill section. I was too fast and started sliding. No way to stop-brakes no good-accelerator no good. Up and onto the snowbank. Out come Nate and I and the shovels and traction mats. We huffed and puffed and were finally rescued by a caring Mazda 323 driver who tugged us out. Come to find out we were just around the corner from the finish! Talk about heartbreak! :-(

SS2 bit. We race into the stage only to stop behind a line of 6-8 cars sitting on the hot stage. Turns out the Datsun 510 couldn't make it up the ice precipice. No surprise. Then, a service van gets stuck. Then, the tow vehicles can't tow us up! We end up getting towed all the way from the bottom to the top on the back of a Ford pickup, with both vechicles clawing for traction. Studs would be nice.

Did you ever want to rally, but didn’t have a rally car in the garage? This was my problem prior to the Baie Des Chaleurs rallye in Quebec this year-sort of. See, I sold Fireball and was holding him until his new owner could pick him up. The mailing came for the Baie rallye and we really wanted to go-problem was, Fireball was no longer mine! So, I e-mailed his new owner and offered to rent Fireball for the event. He replied that it was cool to take Fireball North for a romp and we were on!

Rallying in Canada, specifically the province of Quebec, is very attractive to us as we are less than ten hours away from most of the five events that make up the Coupe De Quebec. The exchange rate is very favorable, with fuel being the only expensive consumable. But most of all, the Canadian rally community is extremely friendly and inviting! The events that we have attended are the best organized we’ve entered to date.

Enough gushing about the Great White North. We were on a mission-this was Fireball’s last spin with Maygen and myself in the seats and we wanted to show well. We entered the National event so that we could get some more seat time and experience with a longer format rallye. We had everything packed and somehow tricked Dave Getchell, Matt Robinson, Eric Wages and Margaret Michaels into coming along for the craziness that is a rally weekend.

Text of article:

RACERS: The Sports Car Club of America Maine Forest RAlly Pro-Rally drew nearly 100 cars from all over the country, Canada, and a few foreign countries Friday afternoon, as well as hundreds of sports car enthusiasts. The two-day race began Friday afternoon through about 100 miles of rough terrain in the Western Mountains area. It ends late Saturday afternoon. Top: Hundreds of people took the opportunity to look closely at some of the SCCA competition vehicles early Friday afternoon in downtown Rumford just before the race began. Above Left: John Cassidy, the driver, will be competing for the fourth time in the Maine Forest Rally, while navigator Maygen McCarty is making her second effort. The couple are from Bangor and are driving a 1994 Subaru Impreza. "I love everything about the race," said McCarty. "It's the excitement." Above right: Navigator Conrad Ketelsen and driver Bob Olson, both from Minnesota, are making a first-time run in the Maine Forest Rally leg of the SCCA. It's a first visit to the state for the two as well. "It's a beautiful state," said Olson who is driving a 1993 Porsche 911. Right: Chris Havas, the driver from Vermont, and navigator David Kean, originally from England, are making Havas' fifth try at the competition in the Rumford area. Havas particularly likes the rough terrain, and roller coaster-styled roads in the Parmanchenee Lake area. He's driving a 2000 Volkswagen Golf.

Article by Steve Carrick, Co-Driver for Last Ditch Racing's Targa Effort!

Stories on the event by Jim Kenzie (http://jimkenzie.tripod.com/)

Article by Jim Kenzie mentioning us specifically (http://jimkenzie.tripod.com/TNPrologue.htm)

www.targanewfoundland.com (including official results)

Targa...Targa Newfoundland...

Those were the words that I wouldn't let enter into my conscience willingly prior to heading North to the Rallye Defi-St. Agathe. I had viewed the Targa site earlier in the year and was interested, but knew that I would not be able to enter my lowly Subaru Impreza rally car in the race because it was not, "historically significant." Although, the more I thought about it, the Subaru Impreza is very significant in the history of rallying. No matter...I wasn't going to Targa anyway.

Prior to leaving for Defi, I received an e-mail from the Defi rally organizers explaining that the winners of each class would win a free entry into Targa Newfoundland. Dave Getchell, one of my team members, joked prior to leaving, "we're going to win an entry to Targa!"

What follows is a long synopsis of our weekend. It became a little long winded, so read at your own peril! ;-)

There were rally cars everywhere! Parc Expose was really fun with lots of public coming up and asking about the car and what we had done to it. Rallysport was there with a mobile trailer making up cool t-shirts, and Subaru Canada and USA were selling shirts and giving away posters and stickers. My boys got Maine Forest shirts with other pictures on the front. One got a jet and the other a Nissan Primera. Go figure! Turns out they had a CRX graphic and we had them put that on our other shirts.

The spectator stage on Friday afternoon was fun, with lots of folks able to see the cars up close and personal. With so many cars in the field, the waits to run were long but that provided us all some time to meet new folks and catch up with old acquaintances. Friday night was rough for us at the back of the pack, but we knew it would be. We drove conservatively to finish. SS4 was scrubbed after an Audi caught fire and burnt to the ground(so we heard).

Our car was mechanically okay after Friday and we got to sleep about 12AM! A record for us. We even slept in a bit! :-)

The following is an abridged e-mail sent to a fellow racer regarding our experiences at Maine Forest 2000. After trying to edit it, I decided that the flow of ideas/impressions stands up pretty well as is.....

Click here for links to pictures of us from Maine Forest 2000!

Stage 1, over two hours to wait in line to start...nerve racking to say the least! Stage not bad but we were slowed by someone without their OK sign out. They were standing on the side of the road with it in their hand, but not displayed. We were almost caught by the car behind us...

Well, the Last Ditch Racing team had a long week! :-) We travelled to New Hampshire Wednesday night to attend the Team O'Neil liscensing school. We took a wrong turn in New Hampshire and took an hour-and-a-half detour through the State Forest. Beautiful country, but we were ready for dinner and bed!

The school was fantastic! A big thanks to all the instructors for presenting the material in a way we could understand. The mock stage was great as it gave us a good idea of the timing setup.

We arrived in Rumford Thursday night and found our Motel. We then went to the Madison to check in...it was a mob scene! Different accents, the cars, and the excitement of registering for our first rally...it was sensory overload. We found John Buffum and the Michelin's he had overnight expressed from the warehouse for us. We watched the team work on Carl Smith's Ford Escort behind the van and were in awe of the level of preparation.