Angel's Crown Report

[RallySnake]

2004 Angels’ Crown, Through Snake Eyes

The early weather reports were looking dismal for Saturday’s rally, “mostly cloudy with scattered showers”. As usual, the reports were wrong and the day was perfect with temps in the low 70s and plenty of sunshine. There were some unusually low clouds drifting across the Lebec start location. Then I realized, the clouds were not low, we were high! Tejon Pass is at 4100 ft. elevation. It was pretty chilly up there, too, enough to make us put on our ski caps. The power to weight ratio of the Cobra makes climbing the grade effortless. The view across the hills was fantastic. Made me really glad the hard top was back in the garage.

The Arntz was running great with a belly full of fresh Mobil1. Both of the rally computers were up and the GPS laptop (in the trunk) was working perfectly. I had just gotten a very small keyboard with a built-in mouse, but could not figure out how to add it to the cockpit. With all the other gear and the computer monitor on the dash, there just wasn’t enough space. I decided that it wouldn’t make the car any faster, anyway.

We were a little worried that we wouldn’t have enough time to figure out the routes. The instructions were not handed out until 12:00 noon with the first car due to leave at 2:01 PM. It turned out not to be a problem. Tim Errington, a long time competitor, but a first time Rallymaster, wrote this rally. He had created an 8-hour, 12 leg rally that had many unique features. The first feature was, that he didn’t tell us very much at the start! You had to figure it out as you drove along the route. On the maps, we marked in-marker roads with a hot pink highlighter and marked all the standoff locations with the yellow highlighter, drew directional arrows and we were ready to go.

The rally used all the best roads around the Bakersfield area. Standoff one on Sabodan Road, South of town, gave us compass bearings for Checkpoints 1, 11 and 12. Tim used a favorite Rallymaster trick here. Checkpoint one was on Millux road. The trick is that there are two sections of Millux road marked on the map with a third little piece of road that could be Millux in the middle. He compounded the problem by using an intersecting road, Rancho Drive, as another possible Checkpoint location for in-markers 11 and 12. Sure enough, the compass bearing took us to that dangerous section of Millux on the East side. I crossed the timing hose with a perfect zero and we got away with running up Rancho without encountering another in-markers disastrously early.

[RallySnake]

Part 2

The police in the little town of Arvin are notorious for writing tickets for the most minor infractions of the law. Some competitors on past rallies have had long delays while officers take their time writing up citations while multiple vehicles are waiting. We passed through town with the engine at the lowest possible rpm and a couple of digits below the posted speed.

Standoff two was cleverly positioned in the center of a ring of “hot” roads. One wrong turn could bring us into a Checkpoint way ahead of time. After getting our compass bearing, we headed up Caliente Bodfish into Walker Basin, one of the most beautiful valleys on God’s green Earth. The two lane twists through the hills covered with amazing displays of greenery, flowers and rock formations complete with waterfalls. It was also the route of the first rally that Ron and I had run together and brought back many memories. We caught up with car 13, a Mitsubishi 3000, and after a few curves, we had enough of a straight to get by. It was the first of many passes on twisty two-lanes during the rally. I was hoping that Hank and Rob would keep up or run with us, but they were content to keep their pace, unlike another competitor later in the rally. If you like running autocrosses you’d love Caliente Creek. It’s famous for having moving pylons, AKA cows. This time they remained stationary as we zipped by. But a big black Brahma bull, in the middle of the right lane, turned his head enough to give us a very dirty look. Makes you feel very vulnerable in the open car.

[RallySnake]

Part 3

Tim (the Rallymaster) and his better half, Donna, were sitting in the timing car enjoying the sights, sounds and smells in this incredible valley on Walker Basin Road. As checkpoint 2, they gave us a perfect zero score and a couple of candy bars, too. Life was a beer commercial!

One of the keys to winning Monte Carlo rallies is interpreting passage controls. In the old days, they were just proof that you visited a certain location. These days, they are used as clues to finding the checkpoints. If the checkpoint is manned, the passage control is moot. If there is no checkpoint, you write down the necessary information on the passage control as proof you were there.

The passage control for in-marker 3 was a diamond shaped sign with a right curve arrow on it. Tim tried a new trick here. We encountered a sign just like the one in the picture. It even had a letter stuck on the back, the letter “R”. But, when you look closely at the picture in the instructions, you realize that there should be a mountain in the background and there is another sign in the distance. We could see no mountain and no other sign so we kept on until we found another curve sign, with the proper background and a “J” on back. We dodged a bullet on that one.

Checkpoint 4 was at the lower end of Caliente Bodfish where it met Bena Road. The hose was stretched across a sharp curve in the road. It was doubly difficult because it was an uphill creep. You are not allowed to stop within sight of a checkpoint, so this meant slipping the clutch for a couple of minutes to go very slowly. Automatic transmissions are a BIG advantage, here. When it came time to hit the gas, I was just a tick slow and we scored a one late for the leg.

We had to go find three course controls and lunch on the way to Standoff 5, 6, 7 and 8. Tim used these to make us drive scenic parts of Bena Road and Breckenridge Road and Harrell Highway. We stopped at Wendy’s for a hamburger in a Northern Bakersfield suburb called Oildale. While we were eating and getting gas I could hear racing engines running in the distance. There had to be a racetrack near. Sure enough, after our dinner, we drove right by Bakersfield Speedway. Coming the other way down the road, were the Budweiser Clydesdales with the huge wagon and the Dalmatian on top. It was quite a sight. Our timing could not have been better. Driving by the entrance to the racetrack was difficult. I could tell that the car wanted to make a few laps and so did I!

Round Mountain Road is supposed to be paved, but in places, I think you’d have to dig through a couple of inches of dirt and caked mud to find it. We found Checkpoint 5. and started a string of 1’s (1/100 th of a minute off). The road was very rough sometimes and made the beautiful white Jaguar X-Type look like a much better rally car than the Cobra. We passed a number of cars but couldn’t lose a persistent pair of headlights behind us. It was bad enough on the dirty switchbacks of Round Mountain but very frustrating when the road improved. Highway 155 is the most unusual road I ever remember driving. The engineer who laid this thing out must have had a bad day. The continuous left, right sweepers varied in radius, often tightening up. The Toyos are about 3/4 worn and were gripping well and generating impressive g-force. I was cranking into the turns harder and harder but the headlights behind us would not go away. I began wishing for a straight so I could blow them off, entirely, but the curves continued their arrhythmic undulations. I could sense that Ron was not happy. After 40 odd miles of slamming through right, left, right, left we were both getting a little queasy. I slowed up to let the other car catch up. Wouldn’t you know, it was a Subaru STi with an Autocross driver, Richard (in a Ferrari shirt and cap) following us? After the rally, the Subaru team sat with us and we got to discuss the virtues of the car. It was really fast and has run at up to 150 mph (on a closed race track, not this rally). It handled really well, too (I can attest to that!). The only thing they didn’t like was, not knowing when the turbo boost would come on. It surprised them a couple of times. Subaru STi Team member, Greg Bartlett took the pictures I am attaching here.

[RallySnake]

Part 4

It was tricky finding Checkpoint 6. We knew roughly where it was, but the road signs in the area were different than the names we were looking for on the maps. There were 4 cars stopped at the intersection of Bakersfield Glenville and Granite looking at a sign that said Famosa Road? These are the type of problems that drive Navigators crazy. Ron figured it out and got us there. We were a little late, but it was nothing that 400 horses couldn’t fix. We blew over the hose only 2 hundredths off.

The instructions for Checkpoints 7 and 8 were minimal. With the information given, they could be anywhere. Welcome to Expert Class! Ron figured them out based on time. We had 37 minutes to get to In-marker 7 and 6 minutes to get to In-marker 8. There were two little loop roads that fit into the available time frame. Pascoe Road to the South and Whitewater River on the North. We found them both, but my collection of “ones” was growing. I remembered the words of esteemed rally driver and navigator, Joe Akerman. Many years ago he told me, “On some rallies your timing gets off just enough that you get a string of ones. There’s nothing you can do about it.” I never really believed him….. until now. I decided to play the ultimate trump card. If I got one more #%&%$#@* one, I would let Ron drive.

Checkpoint 9 was on the lower section of Granite Road. It was dark now and the beautiful forest scenery was not so distracting. I thought I timed it perfectly, rolling the front tires over the hose right on the beep. We got a one, anyway. That made a total score of 5. I talked it over with Ron and we made a pit stop in the middle of an oil field. You can smell the petroleum or the flowers, one of the things I love about the Cobra. Ron took over the driving and I started trying to read the maps. We drove all the way through Bakersfield to the South side and exited the freeway on Herring. Checkpoint 10 was on Millux Road just like Checkpoint 1, but in the opposite direction. We had an additional clue. The passage control sign was a right turn arrow on a diamond shaped sign. If you look carefully at the map, you realize that even though there are three sections of Millux, only one of them ends in a right turn. The other two sections end in “T” junctions. As we approached the turn up River Road, we saw rally cars all over the place. We had a little time to relax and talk things over with several old friends. We learned that we were probably occupying first place with our “5” score and the JPL Deep Space Team was close behind with a “6”. It was Ron’s turn now. (Thanks to Bill Jonesi for the cartoon.)

[RallySnake]

Part 5

Ron approached the hose perfectly and seemed to hit it right on, but the Checkpoint crew added another one to our score! We took Bear Mountain Boulevard all the way out to Wheeler Ridge Road, then South to find Checkpoint 11. We looped around on Laval Road then up Rancho Drive. By this point we were late and Ron was pushing hard. We weren’t at triple digits, but close to it when the checkpoint appeared far in the distance. The clock was counting down and then we saw car 15 sitting right in the middle of the road in front of the hose. It was very frustrating, because the clock beeped down to zero and we couldn’t get across. But this has happened to me before and I knew that if you claim a block at a Checkpoint you get an automatic zero. That’s one we didn’t have to worry about.

It was a short run across Sebastian and down Kraft Road to the final In-marker 12. Again, Ron timed it well and it looked good but we were awarded another one for our effort. The rally was done and with a total score of 7 penalty points, we had a good shot at a trophy.

[RallySnake]

Part 6

Alas, it was not to be. Our JPL friends ran the last three legs perfectly and beat us with a score of 6. Second place is not bad in a group of dedicated rally nuts like these. And, if you have to lose, what better people could you choose to beat you than a pair of actual rocket scientists?

Paul