Merritt, BC Canada – The Subie Gal Racing team headed north, across the border and into Canada for the first time in 2004.  Team visited the beautiful town of Merritt, British Columbia to contest the West Coast Rally Association's annual running of the Mountain Trials ClubRally Event. This event with it's beautiful scenery, fantastic roads, well organized and budget friendly fees keep bringing the team back for more - and again, they were not left wanting!  The team had a rough go of it, suffering major car damage, but still pulled out SCCA NW Region driver class and car class lead points,

This event offered a full recce of the stages.  Basically what this means is the team set out before the event, made 2 passes over the stages and made their own "stage notes."  This was the first time the team had tried doing any type of recce as it's not permitted or allowed in the USA Championship series.  The recce went fairly smoothly once drive Jamie and co-driver Matt figured out what notations to use.  The team was rearing and ready to go and set off at a very quick page on Special Stage 1, when it all went wrong...

"The car felt great and we were moving... a bit too quick,” noted Subie Gal Racing team driver Jamie Thomas, “We left the road only briefly on a nasty little left 3 that we came into too quickly, we took a rock.... a huuuge rock in the right front corner and I knew immediately we'd at the very minimum bent a control arm.  After finishing the stage, and looking it over, I decided to just keep going until it broke, guess I don't know when to quit!  What amazed me more than anything was at the start of SS3.... when other teams jumped in, took over, and helped me swap tires and sort the car out before the start of the stage - THAT was awesome! and THAT is why I love this sport, it just rocks!“

The team pressed on with a snapped front sway bar, broken control arm, broken right front axle and managed to set fairly competitive times, even with the damage sustained.  At the first short service, the team realized they did not have the time to make corrections and continued to press on with the car literally falling apart around them.  At the 2nd, long service the service team debated attempting corrections versus letting it ride - they opted for the corrections.  Repairs took much much longer than anticipated as the team struggled to remove bent and mangled suspension parts from the car - service time expired and  Jamie and Matt suffered a 5 minute time penalty for leaving service late.

"You know, this is what this sport it all about... challenges." Jamie stated, "My service crew did the best they could with the parts available to them and we tried really hard to get it together in time, we just couldn't do it.... so we gave up a 4th overall position - that's going to happen from time to time.  We will be back, and we'll get them next time!"

After most major repairs were completed, Jamie and Matt set out to take on the final 2 stages of the rally, managing to set fastest stage time on the final stage of the event!  A team first and a big thank you to the service crew for their hard work. 

"Oh yeah, we were moving," commented team navigator Matt Gauger, "Our service crew did a great job helping to get us going again, and it worked - the car did really well."

Jamie and Matt currently have the lead Northern Pacific, NorthWest Region & Western States Rally Championships. The team is also sitting 3rd in the SCCA ProRally National Championships

Next Event:  July 31, Aug 1 - NW Region SCCA Rallysprints - Hoquiam WA

Special Thanks:

To Crew:  Nick, Mike, Russ, Gordon, Travis, Brett - you guys were amazing. 

To fellow competitors and teams: Who lent us tools, who helped us sort the car before stage starts, who gave advice and shared a laugh!

And finally --- GET WELL SOON JANUSZ!!!

Member of the NorthWest Region SCCA  SCCA Regional Achievement Award Winner (1996-2003)

SCCA RECORD  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  A  ROW!!!

For more information contact:

Info@subiegal.com

www.subiegalracing.com

©2004 Subie Gal Racing.com