Car 64 had a good day today. Our rookie navigator has come a long way in such a short weekend. He knew nothing on Friday. Seriously. I didn’t want to worry him, so I didn’t even show him what the instructions look like. I spent Friday morning training him, and Friday afternoon trying to peel him off the ceiling. By Saturday afternoon he really was getting the hang of it, and we were thrilled to find out we had the second best score of the day (before the worst leg got thrown out, then we were 4th). Of course, Sunday is for all the marbles and the pressure was on!
You don’t know how you are doing while you are rallying. You hope things are going well, but you have nothing to measure against. We were in the back of the field but had several good cars in front of us and behind us. We didn’t see anyone all day, except for glimpses of them on long straightaways from time to time. We thought we were doing well, and when the good cars left from the morning break almost exactly on our calculated time we felt like it really might be a good day. Our scores for the first 2 legs were ACE and :06, then a pair of :02s. The 5th leg wasn’t anything special, we didn’t bobble (much), but we had a :21. Devastating because your score on Sunday is your score – nothing can be thrown out. Worst leg of the weekend and it is the last one on Sunday…
We still finished 3rd on PRO. Our :22 for Stage 1 (:16 after the worst leg was tossed) made our weekend total :47. decent for a part timer like me and a fresh out of the package rookie in the navigator seat. We beat some really good teams. And most importantly, Vern might be willing to practice a bit for the next go-round.
Also, the GTO looked great, and even better with 2 ACE decals!
Congrats to all the winners:
Champion Division: Doug & Dana Sharp (1), Hudson, Hudson and Hudson (60) and the Deerings in car 83
Pro Division: Haverty/Kucera (29), Rutledge/Rutledge (25), Roche/McKinney (64)
SOP: Corey/Corey (8), Craig/Craig (18), Chikes/Sobiesky (7)
Rookie: Sirvaitia / Studeman (19) and Bent / Stuart (22)
Thanks to all the volunteers, the Millsboro Fire Dept, Bob Bryan, and everyone else who donated or helped in some other way to make this an outstanding event!
I can’t wait for the Spring rally!!!