Once more into the brink!!!

So Dmitri left the car with Cascade Autosport near Seattle after Olympus for some well deserved R&R. There I understand she received some gusseting in the rear suspension and a left front wheel that was actually properly located (thus allowing Dmitri to drive in a straight line!). Also she received new knees (rebuilt suspension struts) and had her internals examined (drive train found to be in excellent condition.....a phenomenon the Subaru guys wish they had...Mitsu drive trains are BULLET-PROOF).

So we'll meet at the Holiday Inn Express in Hillsboro, OR Thursday and start to figure out how to keep up with the Hintz Brothers (local regional experts at this) to try to get Dmitri some additional regional points. Chasing National Points with the likes of Block, Pa$trana, Pinker, Foust, Johnson, etc., etc., etc., is not worth the head games it plays on you.

Oregon is one of those irritating events that just eats up days. We have to be at Portland International Raceway (45 minutes from our motels) to run about 7 2/3 miles of stages between 7 and 9PM Friday night. Then we race all day Saturday. Then we race all day Sunday....so we get a lot of miles, but we also use a lot of motel nights. And those of us who live East of Oregon (and who doesn't) most likely will not fly out 'til Monday morning. But that's OK, too, 'cuz the party these guys throw at McMenamin's micro brewery is about the best in the business (although prime rib at Olympus last month was pretty awesome, too!).

Current entry list shows 60 cars entered and we're 22nd on the road....about where we started Olympus. But I'm looking for good things from Dmitri out here. He got real comfortable with the car and me and his driving as we ended up in Pomeroy last month....stage speeds were improving exponentially. And we're seeded in among some friends of ours George Georgakapolous in front and the Conleys right behind, so we're gonna have some good ol' fashioned mountain side racing fun!




Oh. I have a checkered record here. In '04, Dennis Martin and I fell off the mountain (literally)









Then in '06, Matthew Johnson and I won PGT out here.

And last year Justin and I tried a Formula Ford line through a crowned road L4-> that didn't quite work as planned. And that was after ripping off suspension parts and a rear bumper at PIR and then the next day running 15 stage miles with nothing but 5th gear and Matthew's crew and Otis's guys completely rebuilding the car in the basement of the Holiday Inn Express to the sound of many languages and some really esoteric music. The scene reminded me somewhat of Apocalypse Now!