Lake Superior Performance Rally - 2019

It is hard not to be a little superstitious when you are running a rally. Anything can happen on stage, and it usually does, and as you are getting set-up for the race, sometimes there are little signs that Murphy may have picked you to test.

And sometimes, there are bigger signs with flashing neon lights...

Before the Flatirons Tuning Rally team started the 2019 LSPR rally, we took the car out to the press stage to shake it down. It wasn't that technical of a stage, and it was only a little over a mile long. After two good runs, Scott picked up one of our crew, Bill Wantuk, for the next run. When they got the green flag to go on stage, Scott launched the car, and they were off. But there was a bit of noise coming from the left rear of the car.

That noise got progressively worse and it seemed from the driver's seat that they had a flat rear tire. With about 2 corners to go in the press stage, the car because very lose in the back, and Scott discovered that he didn't have any brakes. They went off into a ditch, but were able to get to the finish line to change the flat. But when they got out of the car, they discovered that the entire left rear wheel was missing.

Before the rally had started, we were now facing a challenge just to get the car to the start line.

After assessing the damage, we needed a new rear axle, some suspension components, and there was some concern about the brake line as well. When the rear wheel came off, the entire hub assembly fell off and took the brake and brake rotor with it. There was some damage to the brake hard line that when to that wheel, and even if we could repair the suspension, the car couldn't run if it didn't have any brakes.

Fortunately the rally didn't start until the early afternoon on Friday, so by the time morning came, parts had arrived, and the Boost'd Scoops crew were able to get the car repaired and the Flatirons Tuning Rally car was able to start the rally. In the end, we had to put on a new hub, knuckle, suspension linkages, a new rear axle, and because we didn't have a replacement for the caliper and bracket that were damaged when the wheel came off, the team had to convert the car back to stock rear brake calipers and rotors.

The start of LSPR was relatively trouble free, but just before the second service (which was all ready fairly late into the night) the crew received word that the car had some trouble, and they would need to go and get it. By the time the car was picked up and back to the hotel, it was well past midnight, and it was discovered that the car had snapped an axle on the left rear again.

One rule of rally is that if you need to keep a part as a spare, you might as well keep 2, and we had picked up a couple of spare axles after the issues at the press stage.

The Boost'd Scoops crew put in a lot of work, and was able to get the car repaired enough to continue on Saturday. Even though we were out of the whole rally, we would still have a chance to get a regional result from Saturday's stages if all went well.

Saturday's stages started off great, but there was some rain overnight, and there was water on course in some places that made the stage roads a bit slippery in parts, and that made the race even more challenging.

After a few good stages, we went off course, and unfortunately found a tree to bring the car, and our race to a halt.

The damage was mostly superficial, but the radiator was pushed back into the engine enough that the upper coolant hose was in contact with the alternator, and if we would have tried to continue, the cooling system would certainly have failed which would most likely have caused even more damage.

So with that, Scott decided that it was time to call it a day, and that is how the rally ended for the Flatirons Tuning team.

Even with pretty much everything is going well, a rally racing is a challenge. You are driving in a wide variety of conditions, over roads that you have driven once, maybe twice before. Day, night, rain, sleet, or snow. And when things get rough, there are not many motorsports that are as challenging for the Driver, Co-Driver, and crew alike as a rally race is. Above anything else, the goal is to finish the rally, and this time, we just couldn't quite make that happen.

But we still had fun, and for a while there, the car felt good! So we will get the car back in the shop, go through everything, repair anything that is damaged, and get the car back into shape. You can't keep a good rally car, or a good rally team down.

Huge thanks to everyone that put together the LSPR Rally, to Mike Brown for doing a fantastic job Co-Driving, and to Briant Szobody and the Boost'd Scoops crew for putting in a phenomenal amount of work to keep the car running!

Faster, with more zip-ties, and with slightly less dents, we can rebuild it!

- Jon Cooley