Warm up Rally Today

Well today was the Warm up half day rally. The rally is called the Hagerty Trophy Run. We rallied in Illinois on Route 66. Pretty cool. By doing it that way we will rally in all of the states Route 66 passed through.

Team June Bug's goal was met. We learned a lot and came in with pretty good times for four of five legs. We ranged from a one second error to five second error. One of the legs was not so good. That's okay. Today was all about learning. And learn we did.

Tomorrow we start in earnest.

Got through tech inspection no sweat

We are in the program.

We cruised through tech inspection with no issues. The June Bug is official in every way. They even deflated our tires and refilled them with nitrogen for free.

We made it to the start

We made it to the start at Kirkwood.  Today was all about getting here.
Our mentors met us in the hotel lobby. Nicer people you won't find. I feel so lucky to have them.

When we drove in the car seemed to take me to a parking spot. Right next to the other VW in the rally. I guess June sniffed out her own kind.

Here are some photos of the cars in the rally. Just a small sample. June is the yellow VW.

Twas the night before

Well, tomorrow morning we leave for Kirkwood, Missouri. Tonight we finish packing and sorting out details.

I'm excited and happy to get started.

One week to go!

Well, we are one week away from traveling to the start of The Great Race in Kirkwood, MO.  I have not written for quite a while.  

Many, many things have happened during our preparation.  Dave and I completed three sets of car performance curves.  This is very tedious and boring, but necessary.  The car performed pretty well through all of this driving back and forth.  Each set of curves requires 96 (yep 96) passes to gather data.  We got it done.

We uncovered and fixed three small gasoline leaks.  Smelly and somewhat dangerous.  We also found a transaxle seal leak and had the mechanic fix that.  New tires mounted. Speaking of the mechanic, he is GREAT.  He works out of a small shop in Folletts, Iowa.  Quite a find.  He did all sorts of maintenance for us.  He also installed a new fuel pump and put in electronic ignition.  It seemed everything he did the car made it run better.

We are making piles of things to take along.  I have boxed up the spare parts.  I have my tool set assembled.  We have lots of data and guidance from lots of wonderful people.  Another practice session this Saturday is scheduled.

I guess now it will be up to us to make it happen.

California Dreamin'

Well it is the New Year and we did get busy getting ready for 2015 Great Race.  We took Driver and Navigator photos and sent them in along with the rest of our paper work.

 

The Great Race folks assigned us Mentors.  After exchanging instant chat messages and email we chatted on the phone today.  The whole team was clustered around the speaker phone absorbing every word of advice.  The Martins are the nicest people.  We feel really fortunate have them as our mentors.

 

We have the Rookie booklet and the 2015 Regulations.  We have watched pretty much all of the videos on line.  We obtained a used Timewise speedometer from Rex Gardner and I have bench tested it. (It worked!)  The car seats are re-upholstered; it is a long ride to California.  Soon, it is off to the mechanic for an in depth assessment of what we need to get beefed up.  The car runs strong right now, but we are taking it to an expert for an overall look with the long trip in mind.  When the weather gets more spring like here in Iowa, we will be hitting the road to practice.

 

We have a lot of work to do to get ready.  Dave and I went over a sample set of instructions. Using what we have learned and the advice from the Martins, we feel better about the approaching challenge.

 

Here is the "June Bug".  This is the photo we sent into The Great Race organization.

 

 

It is a snowy night here in Iowa.  We are definitely California Dreamin'

 

Winter Holidays

The winter holidays are here. Not much shaking in the Great Race team camp. We will get busy after January 1.

The Great Race headquarters put out a nifty one page flyer showing the schedule.