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Rally Comanche

man thats cool...i wish i had the money to get into the rallye stuff.
 
NOTE - I wrote this writeup for a forum where people are familiar with this event. If you'd like me to explain anything about it, please feel free to ask!

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My first time to Maine, and I wanted to make it a memorable trip, one way or another. I just didn't think it was going to end the way it did.

We left Buffalo Wednesday evening, drove through the night, and arrived at the Sunday River Ski Resort just outside of Bethel, ME at about 6:30am. Recce started at 7am, so we signed the waiver and got in line with the other cars. Drove recce until about 6pm, and at this point, we were all ready to pass out. Got some grub, got some sleep, and then off to Parc Expose in the morning.

There were 65 entries for the event, so it was awesome to see a bunch of cars in the lot. A lot of people commented on the truck, and there was even one random guy with a THR shirt on that he bought at STPR! There were the usual suspects - Block, Pastrana, ACP, L'Estage, Bacon (mmm...bacon...), Duplessis, Van Way...and a few guys came out of the woodwork, like O'Sullivan (who kicked some serious ass out there). But the highlight for me was finally meeting Mad Mike!

Anywho, the event started with 3 super specials - 1 at the ski resort, and 1 run twice at the Mexico Service area (which included the Red Bull jump). It would have been nice to be able to get the speed for that jump, but they didn't have a runway handy for us. I think we may have bent the front axle a little bit again on the jumps though.

After a service stop, off to Stages 4 and 5 - 9 miles and 16 miles long. Finally, the event can start! SS4 was more uphill, so our average speed was a bit low and our time suffered. The bridge crossings are interesting, as they only have 2 pieces of board for your wheels and you have to hit it straight or you slide off and nail a decent sized bump (which claimed the tie rod on Jim McLeland's MR2). I found out the hard way that the bump doesn't effect Jeeps the same way :) We get to the end, turn around, and now it's mostly downhill, with and added 7 miles of alternating rights and lefts that are flat out (5+s and 6+s the whole way). I was at redline for a good portion of it...which is probably what lead to the smoke coming from the hood at the finish of that stage. No biggie, we have service next, so we'll just limp it back and see what we can do. A couple miles down the road, we see a car off to the side, so we stop to help. Kristen Przybycz blew a wheels cylinder and rear top hat, so I let her have my bottle of brake fluid, and vice grips to clamp off the brake line. She was able to limp back to service, but when we turned to look at the truck, it was bone dry on coolant. I tried to let it cool and add water, but after 10 minutes, it was boiling right out the side the head. So we wait for a guy that is willing to pull us back, but we are already out of time, so we go straight back to the hotel, and have the crew meet us there with a new head gasket. Spent until 3am swapping the head gasket fixing the exhaust, and water pump. Wanting to give the RTV as much time to cure as possible, we tow it to the start the next morning, and wait until 15 minutes before our out time to fill it with water. Turn the key, and the engine sounds like it is about to explode. Overheated it to the point of toasting the rod bearings. So that's all she wrote.

Judging by our previous performances against others in G2, and the times we started running on Friday, it could have been a tight fight for a podium finish for us.

I need to thank Jesse for putting up with Lee and I, with all our bad ideas, and breaking shit non-stop. I would also like to thank Pat and Christian for their help with service. They really pitched in when push came to shove. Thanks to SwerveMotorsports.com for take care of us and being able to mount rally tires (when most other shops would tell us to leave because they are too difficult to deal with).

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I'm so biased but this has to be my favorite Jeep on the site.

I've actually been sitting here for a few minutes wondering if I make any products in our line that would suit your truck on a sponsor level. I'd love to force some rally involvement on the company.
 
you're seriously the highlight of STPR man. Thought i'd share a pic I took this past year. I'll send you a fullsize if you want

2s0cneq.jpg
 
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