Fatboy Raceworks Rally Team Scores Trophy At 2005 Dryad Quest Rally

Driver Kris Dahl and co-driver Ed Dahl set out on June 4th to complete their first rally in a Production Class Integra GSR.

The team and car are still early in development, but proved they do
have the speed to compete for the class leadership.  The team
finished the 69.83 mile long Dryad Quest rally with a total time of
1:33:04, averaging 45.0 mph over rough gravel terrain.  They
finished 3rd in Northwest Region Driver Class 3 and 6th place in
Production Class, just 1 second behind the 2nd and 5th place finishers
respectively.

One of the highlights of the weekend was Special Stage 3, which was a
re-run of Special Stage 3.  Kris was really starting to get in tune
with how the car was handling at speed, and Ed was able to establish a
rhythm with the route book.  “We knew we flying, there was a complex of
several corners coming into a long straight where we just executed
perfectly, which really helped our stage time.”  The team managed to
shave more then 60 seconds off of the first running of the stage, and
ended up beating perennial class leaders Mark Tabor and Keven Poirer’s
Acura RSX Type S by 10 seconds.

Typically attrition is a major factor in off-road stage rallies like
Dryad, which features nearly 70 miles of slippery gravel roads, strewn
with rocks the size of bowling balls, ruts and ditches.  Performance
rally is tough on the cars when they stay on road, and brutal when a
team strays from the beaten path.  Despite overwhelming odds, every
Production class car that started also finished the event.

The team’s goals for the weekend were modest: finish the rally, get a
feel for the car, as well as learn which components on the car are and
aren’t tough enough for rally duty.  All goals were exceeded.

Overall the car held up very well, with some minor problems.  The team
lost use of the Brantz Laser 3 rally computer, which enables the
co-driver to track of the team’s position while on stage, when rocks
destroyed both the primary and backup wheel speed sensors.  There was
also a problem with the intercom amplifier on one stage.  “Luckily Dad
has the ability to really raise his voice when he wants to,” said Kris
about the experience of not being able to hear instructions on the
in-car headset.

At the end of the day, the only work required to get ready for the next
day’s stages was washing the exterior of the car and filling it up with
fuel.

More Info:

Car 258 Dryad Stage Times
All Stage Times
Photo Gallery

Photos by PDXSports Photography:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 15th, 2005 at 5:07 pm and is filed under Rally. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.