Larson/MacDonald Take 2000 Wanderin' Star ClubRally Class Win
Marblehead Racing travelled to Paris, Texas for the fourth time to run the 2000 Wanderin' Star. We were the only car entered in Production GT, so we could pick up 2 class wins by just finishing Wanderin' Star and Paris by Night the same afternoon. Our goal was to finish both events and beat as many of the Open cars as possible. That would be tough, since the event featured 3 new Mitsubishi Evo's in various configurations. Stage 1 was a long one around the perimeter of Camp Maxey, a National Guard base they let us use for rallying. The roads varied from big, round gravel to grass. Some roads looked like they hadn't been driven yet this year. It was a little difficult at times to see which way the road went. I had trouble getting used to the car again, making a couple of mistakes, especially under braking, including once when we spun all the way around! Will was running his first stage rally, and must have wondered if it was always like that. But we had the third fastest time behind two of the Evo's, and felt good about that.
At the end of the stage, the car was pretty hot. It was in the high 80's by then, and the heat was taking it's toll. We watched the guage carefully for the rest of the event, backing off a little when the needle went into the danger zone. Our goal was to finish, and we still had another rally to run. Eventually, we figured out that we had mowed enough grass on the rally that the radiator was blocked! We removed the grass at service and the car seemed to run a little cooler for a while. The rally fell into its usual rhythm, with the heat being the biggest problem that most of us had. Will and I each drank a bottle of water at every break. We scored in the top 5 on every stage, being beat by Tim Paterson and Ken Cassidy in two of the Evo's on every stage. Alec Ellsworth, in the 3rd Evo, beat us on one stage as did Ken Stewart. The PGT class win was my 5th in a row, though it didn't feel as good without any competition! The 3rd overall was nice, though, and made us feel like we deserved the class win. We had a nice, long break to cool off ourselves and the car before starting Paris by Night. |
