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TOMMY GUN TEAM NEWS UPDATE – JUNE 30, 2008 Archives: Idaho here we come! With over a half a year of preparation – the rally car is in its best condition ever! After an extremely eventful first quarter – where we had a catastrophic engine failure and were rear-ended by a drunk driver – we now have the car in its best condition yet and ready to win! The NASA National Championship (the series we are competing in) has a big upswing in summer which allows the first part of the year to be utilized for necessary repairs and upkeep. In this time, we’ve done tons of work to the car – repairs, upgrades, maintenance, and a new visual identity package (see sidebar). We have over a dozen new tires mounted up and ready for the first major event of the year – the Idaho Rally. Held outside Boise, Idaho, on July 11-12, this rally promises to have some of the smoothest, most rally-friendly roads in the region – no bunker-busting rocks like we’re used to! So far, the field looks incredibly tough and all classes are represented well. There are a few former national champions entered and we’re honored to race with (and against) them. More competitors are signing up by the day. We’re hoping some of our preparation and practice done in the off season will pay dividends, but will also drive smartly to ensure the car is in great shape for the remaining major races of the year - which are some of the toughest in the Southwest – the Gorman Rally and the Prescott Forest Rally, held in August and October, respectively. New Rally Series – R4! With the skyrocketing cost of fuel and exploding interest in motorsports – especially Rally – a new series has been developed to get more seat time for AWD rally drivers, help minimize costs, and keep competitors energized between big rally events. This new kind of event is called R4 and is seeing a TON of interest in our community. It’s short course off-road racing, similar to rallycross. Our friend Scott G – fabricator to the stars (of Robby Gordon and the Syms/ROCKSTAR Rally Team fame) dreamed up this series to help get serious AWD racers out in force and to get back into the mix with his old Gravel Crew posse. We competed in our first event at Lake Elsinore and it was awesome fun. The car was flawless and despite some initial teething pains (quickly learning that 320 ft. lbs of torque in silty dirt will get you out of control quick!) we ended up mid-pack in the standings. This was our first foray into rallycross with the Tommy Gun Rally car, and though we didn’t do as good as we would have liked, we still set quite a few respectable times. Furthermore, we as a team are stoked that we have a nearby sustainable venue with a ton of racers from SoCal coming out to get nasty in the dirt! The exhibition at lunchtime featured the first outing of the Gravel Crew’s newest idea – side-by-side racing, European Rallycross style. It was a terrific show, with Mark Gardner, Marvin Ronquillo, Martii Silvola and one other competitor going nuts off table top jumps and rollers with their rally-prepped Subarus. Martii actually got 100 feet of distance on his longest jump! Despite a single blown strut, the rally cars looked up to the challenge and this may be the wave of the future for rallycross and rally. If you want to come out and race with us, let us know! Check out their website at www.gcrallyx.com for more details. - Tommy Gun Rally Press |
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