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Seed 9 Rally

November 17, 2014 by ponycargirl 2 Comments

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Surrounded by the flashing lights and omnipresent din of casino games in Las Vegas, it’s easy to forget that the city is smack dab in the middle of nowhere. In a week filled with the spectacle of SEMA along with NHRA Toyota Nationals, SPEED Energy Formula Off-Road Presented by TRAXXAS, and Red Bull Global Rallycross season finals, it’s easy to not seek life – or motorsports – outside of The Strip. About 35 miles out into the nowhere around Las Vegas is a essentially a crossroads called Jean, Nevada, with a casino, a gas station, women’s prison, and a small town whose entrance is choked by a rather formidable biker bar. Everything else is desert, dirt roads, and rattle snake holes. Lots and lots of rattle snake holes.

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It is out on these Joshua tree and rock-lined gravel roads of Wilson Pass where the Seed 9 Rally took place on Saturday, November 9, 2014, the weekend after SEMA and its associated events. The regional stage rally and the last race of 2014 in the Bilstein Southwest RallyCup Series drew 22 teams from Arizona, Colorado, California, Ecuador, and even China with a wide range of experience. The rally cars ran the gamut as well, ranging from a 1971 Datsun 240Z, a 1994 Ford Ranger, to a 2013 Toyota GT86. Not the most inviting terrain for spectators, the course wound uphill to a turnaround, dotted with the occasional race official, volunteer, and photographer. Total mileage for is 35 with all stages completed. The first stage began around 2:30 in the afternoon.

Once the two safety cars drove past, the first team of David Sterckx and John Reed barreled by in a 2011 Subaru WRX STI. Billows of dust undulated behind each car as the teams came through one by one, snaking along the course, adding layers of dust between the road and the setting sun. Early on in the course was a deep gully – some teams slowed down to navigate, but a couple teams were caught by surprise and hit it too fast; all cars made it past, but a few cars were worse for wear. As in all stage rallies, time is of the essence – teams were looking to beat course bests as well as other driver’s personal bests.

Seed9Sunset

The sun finished setting as the racers looped back down the course for the service break. The Gold Strike Casino lot was lit up with work lights under tarps as team mechanics worked feverishly on the cars, adjusting here, welding there. The informal atmosphere of the parking lot paddock, drivers and supporters alike friendly and chatty, is one of the many positive aspects of regional and grassroots racing. Pro Tip – the best grilled chicken ever tasted can be found in the paddocks at Seed 9. While some lamented the challenges of competing with heavily funded teams, it was agreed that all in all it was fun.

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At this point, my friend Lecia and I had to leave. Exhausted from SEMA, needing another layer of fleece, still rattled from narrowly avoiding a head-on collision with an either tweaked out, suicidal, psychopathic (or all of the above) Harley rider driving the wrong way in our lane, and not really able to shoot much at night amongst rattle snakes anyway, we hit the highway back to Las Vegas. The rally continued on in the dark desert, and David Sterckx scored the best time of 29:08, George Plsek second with 33:17, and Doug Chernis in third with a time of 35:37.

Next year’s date has been announced – November 25, 2015. One more Pro Tip: If you drive a Prius, rent a Jeep for the day.














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Have you seen this Sprite?

October 5, 2010 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

At some point on the evening of October 3, some dirtbag stole a grey 20′ Haulmark trailer from Woodstock, Ontario. Having a trailer stolen is bad enough, but inside that trailer was Dino Micacchi’s red Bugeye Sprite. Seen above at the 2010 VARAC Festival, #02 is a vintage race prepared Sprite.

The license plate on the trailer is D26 44W. If you see this trailer or car, contact Dino directly, by email at dino@vmswca.com or by phone at 519-788-2227.

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Fast surplus from the Canadian Government

July 15, 2010 by Gary Grant 3 Comments

We’ve all heard of the elusive government surplus sales. You know the kind: Joe went to this auction and bought a Humvee for $100 and sold it for 20 grand which is why he never showed it to anyone. This morning I received a tip about a real auction here in Ontario, that happens to have a rather interesting item up for bid. A Porsche 911 race car!

The opening bid on this 1975 911 is just $14,000 Canadian. Like many 911 race cars of the era, this one has been converted to look like an RSR and has all the right goodies to be a great club racer or lapping day car.
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Gateway Racing arrives at Mosport with complete support services for racers

May 18, 2010 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

I’ve been fortunate to have visited a number of race tracks across North America over the past couple of years. One thing that I always notice is when a track has retail facilities catering to racers. I notice it because most of them support visiting racers very well, and my home track has next to nothing. While there has been a race prep shop in the garages at Mosport for the past several years, it wasn’t the retail focused haven for racers like one would find at Lime Rock.

Earlier this year I was excited to hear that there was a new enterprise coming to Mosport and that my old friend Blaise Csida was playing a major part in it. I wasn’t prepared for the level of transformation that has been made to the dingy old space. From the modern, spacious retail facility to the race shop, the place has undergone a complete transformation.
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Hand carved Porsche 917

April 8, 2010 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

The creatively inclined have always blown me away. I can see a clear picture in my mind as to what I might want to create, but when it comes down to slapping paint on paper or putting knife to wood it turns to mud. Perhaps I could carve a bar of soap convincingly, but that’s about it.

Gary Tatman on the other hand is a genius with wood. His medium of choice is wood and his muse is the automobile. The Porsche 917 you see above has the most incredible detail, right down to springs, dual distributors and brake lines. With each car, he creates a detailed stand to display the car which in this case has been signed by Porsche racing legends Brian Redman, Vic Elford, Derek Bell, John Horsman, Charlie Kemp, and Hurley Haywood.
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What is the best sounding race car of all time?

September 30, 2009 by Gary Grant 2 Comments

The Canadian Motor Sport History Group on Yahoo has a bit of a fun debate on the go at the moment which I thought we should spend some time with it here in The Garage: In your opinion, what is the best sounding race car of all time?

The discussion has been broken down into 4, 6 and 8 cylinder engines to start with. Of course this rapidly changed with the acknowledgement of 10, 12 and 16 cylinder monsters.

So far, there are some pretty serious contenders.

4 bangers:
Lotus
Alfa
Cosworth Atlantic
VW Bug turbo drag car
On contributor feels that most 4’s sound like crap
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One man’s pile of gold is another man’s pile of…

April 16, 2008 by Gary Grant 5 Comments

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I’ve come to the conclusion that the time has come for The Garage to take our readers through the resurrection of an old race car. Not a top flight resto and build like we saw through Gary Faules’ eyes with Lucky the GT350R, but a bare bones, grassroots resurrection and build. I think it would be a lot of fun for us and for our readers.

Of course, to begin this process, we need a car. Ultimately, I’d like to get our grubby little hands on an old race car that someone has more or less forgotten about and left under a growing pile of rubble in some dark corner of their shop. Maybe the engine blew up and the owner decided it was a lost cause. Maybe it was picked up as a next project that someone never got around to. Maybe some unfortunate soul passed away and the family wants their parking spot back. You get the idea.

The problem here is that I am that unique combination of a racer who actually works in the new car side of the automotive industry. That means I am uniquely challenged as a purchaser. Why? Well, let me give you a few fun facts that aren’t often discussed out in the open.
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Something in the air….

January 27, 2008 by Will Faules 3 Comments

There is always a different mindset whenever I wake up on a race morning. It feels like there is something different in the air. Especially at a high profile event.

I got up on Saturday morning and knew I was in for something exciting, but I had no idea….
Just driving to the track, what has seemed like normal suburban/industrial streets turned into what seemed like rush hour in New York City. I knew if I waited in line I would never get to the pits in time to see the cars grid before the race, so I devised a plan. I passed all the cars turning into the speedway and pulled to the left of the car in the very front of the line, a new, very modified black Corvette. I rolled my window down and told him if he let me in front of him I would give him my extra infield parking pass and he replied “ I park in the pits, I have better passes than that”. I laughed as I made the same offer to the next car and they let me in and I was off. As I drove into the garage area I saw the guy getting out of the black Vette in the standard grass parking lot, now with mud all over his recently polished wheels, tires and fenders. I rolled my window down and yelled to him with a devilish grin “Hey mister, the pits are this way, want a ride?” He and his wife declined as they proceed to walk along outside of the gate to the ticket stand as I drove into the garage area. Some people!!!

Once I was in the garage area I felt like I was inside my television that I watch every race on. Now while HDTV is awesome, there is absolutely nothing like being there and actually feeling the rumble of the cars warming up in the garages and the smell of the SUNOCO 260 race fuel burning, and almost getting run over by golf carts driven by names like, Chip Ganassi, Boris Said, Max Papis, Jimmie Johnson, Juan Montoya, Kurt Busch, and the list goes on. It is fun to be able to walk right into the pits at the Daytona 24 Hour, with camera in hand snapping away. I watched as the teams pushed their cars out with the drivers in full suit following their car like a NASA Shuttle launch prep. The machines meticulously prepped, everyone’s morale was high. Press was everywhere. About the time I was wishing my friend Ken Dobson good luck the police came through and got everybody out of the pits and off the grass, so I decided the infield would be a good place to watch the start.

As expected somebody was in a hurry to end their race on the first lap of a 24 hour race. The GT cars came through and a Porsche already had a flat apparently from contact with another car. As the race sorted out I made my way around the infield carnival area and got some cool souvenirs. After that I decided to go back to the garage area.

In the Fanzone there was a big stage set up with a DJ and while I was ordering food at the NASCAR Bistro thinking about Ricky Bobby and NASCAR going French I overheard the DJ mention that SUM 41, one of my favorite bands, would be playing a concert!

I walked through the garages where there was already 3 cars broken, 2 terminal and one being worked on. The spares each team has amazes me every time I see it. There only one rule for the DP cars for changing parts during a race; no engine swaps. That means that every team has every other spare part ready to go in their garage including an assembled cockpit.

Before I knew it I could hear the concert starting so I made my way back to the Fanzone to watch SUM 41 perform. As I walked up as close as I could to the stage I was nailed with an empty beer can flung from the mosh pit. I decided the typical viewing area wasn’t cutting it for me. So I proceeded to walk into the backstage area where I was confronted by a security guard asking me what I was doing. I flashed him my Grand-Am credential which say in big letters CREW as I said “I’m with the band” and walked backstage where I watched the rest of the show. The whole time I was thinking “I have always wanted to say that.”

After the concert ,as the skies turned black, there was a huge fireworks show. By now the race was pretty sorted out, but rain was on the radar. SO on the next pit cycle all the teams put in their rain hot shoe.

About this time I decided to drive over to the main grandstands because there was dry seating and I had been walking around all day. The view was awesome from the grandstands. It looks like 4 Candlestick Parks could fit inside the speedway. After watching for a couple hours with my cameras 1G memory card full it was time to call it a day.

It was definitely an week I will never forget.
Boy I can’t wait to come back as a driver!!!

I am at the Orlando Airport on a slow Internet connection so I will post all the pictures when I get home tonight.

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Aston Martin to sell Nurburgring clones

July 19, 2006 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

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The old adage “Win on sunday, sell on Monday” is being put to use by Aston Martin following the 2006 Nurburgring 24 hour race. While the Vantage V8 finished 24th overall, even finishing a 24 hour race is really a win, especially when the car has very few alterations from what is sold on the showroom floor. To be built in limited numbers, the car will be identical to the factory race car, meaning that well heeled club types will be able to drive their toy to the track, just like the factory boys did.

Cool catch from Autoblog

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More Festival Pics

June 29, 2006 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

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It’s been years since I’d seen a 124 coupe race car. The first car I ever paid for was a 75 124 coupe that was metallic blue with white interior. I suppose it was early Italian pimp. I loved that car, so seeing this one in nice shape was sweet.

After the break, there are a couple more pics…

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