Lots of car parts!

Oergon Trail '08 should go down as the rally of the decade.....for attrition! Cars littered the hillsides of rural Oregon all day Saturday and Sunday. After running a handful of Mickey Mouse stages at Portland International Raceway Friday night and yet another in Hillsboro Saturday morning, we went out west to run some proper stages.

In the first 10 miler we saw 5 sets of triangles and drivers and co-drivers with OK signs. But no cars. The cars were all so far down the mountains they weren't visible at road level! Then into service at the Vernonia School and back out to a nice 16 miler....3 more off. In two stages we'd lost over 1/3 of the cars in front of us!

Dmitri drove a fast but cautious rally. Our times (when everybody was running) were in the 13th -15th spot among all the cars running (both National and Regional). We had a real battle going with Dave and Rick Hintz (local NW Rally heroes) for the overall win of the first Regional.
But by the time the day had ended, They'd broken a header and we'd lost a turbo pipe so we both dnf'd! SubieGal Jamie Thomas (I co-drove for her at the rain shortened Wild West in '06) inherited the Regional win in her PGT WRX Wagon. Great drive!

A similar story benefited Pat Moro over the weekend. Piotr Wiktorczyk had rented a PGT Subie from Cascade Autosport (the same guys who'd worked on Dmitri's car between Olympus and here) to challenge Stephan Verdier and Scott Crouch in PGT. Before the sun set Sunday, both Piotr and Stephan had gone off and dnf'd and Moro inherited the PGT win.


But close on his heels all weekend were the husband and wife team of Nate and Brandye Conley. While not setting blistering paces all weekend, their stage times were frequently in the top 10 which left them a position to inherit whatever anyone wanted to give them. Wiktorczyk and Verdier went off late. Add to that Norm LeBlanc flying off on the penultimate stage and Travis Hanson had gone off on Saturday. Jamie Thomas was only running the regionals, so PGT left the Conley's some real opportunities for points. And they took them. AND fifth overall! CONGRATS!


So next on the Hemispheric calendar is Rocky....in Alberta, CA. There are a LOT of cars withdrawing from that event this week!

Oh...and how cool is it that two of the podium cars are Mitsubishi's!!!!!

Off to STPR, but first a little diversion to the UK to see my daughter, Mindy, her husband Chris, and our rally buddies in the West Midlands!