It has taken me a year to write this, both for the team and myself for a number of reasons. Much of this blog had been sitting as an archive for months so that I had time to reflect on the event and how I wanted to tell this story. I choose to put this portion of the event in my own words instead of our traditional, promotional style. Others in the rally community have a much more poignant and intelligent way of speaking about this incident.

I was really excited to run this event. I am very dedicated to the Max Attack two-wheel drive rally series; that, combined with the chance to run in the National portion of the event was a huge motivating point for us to get the car out and run hard here. With the passing of Ray Damitio, frankly, a rally icon in the Pacific Northwest, it was only common sense that we came and ran as hard as possible on his stage, the Brooklyn Stage.

We came out and ironed out some small issues in the fist few stages and parts of the event then got to run pretty hard on the Brooklyn stage. We ran so hard that we surpassed our old record on the stage, that was something that Don and I were both very proud of, so we were stoked to finish the event and put on a good show. After finishing the second running of Brooklyn, we came back to quite literally one of the fastest stages I have ever run on, Smith Creek. I’ve never been strong on the stage and I knew that courage on the high speed stretches in the stage was one of my limitations.

As we lined up for the second running of the stage, there was a delay at the stage start. For those not familiar with stage rally, we routinely come across delays for a number of reasons, anything from issues with stage communications to spectators on the course. Many times you hear from the competitors in front of you from the time control about the reason for the delay. This time the rumor down the telephone line (rally cars line up before the control zone prior to the stage start and exchange times and pleasantries), was that there was a car off the course.

While we waited for the stage to start, we removed our helmets due to the delay. We enjoyed the sun shining on us, it was a beautiful spring day, rare for the Pacific Northwest. After about 15 minutes at the stage start, veteran competitor Andrew Comrie-Picard called an impromptu driver’s meeting at the stage start. Andrew confirmed the rumor, indicating that a car was off the course, but added that it was a pretty bad collision, and that the stage was going to be cancelled, and that we would all caravan back to service.

Don and I have experienced this several times in rallying, sometimes big crashes happen and stages get cancelled, it is just what happens in rally. On the 30 minute drive around and back to service, Don put out a tweet about a car being off, keeping our followers up to date on our battle with Wyatt Knox. Once we got back to service it was time to fix a few issues with the car before fueling up and heading back out to finish up the day on the final two stages. I noticed a helicopter flying towards the area of the stage and hoped that it wasn’t heading to the crash.

After fueling the car up we entered a regroup to get everyone back in line and ready to head out to the final stages of the day. Yet again, another impromptu driver’s meeting was lined up. This time a few of the big wigs at Rally America were here to talk. I didn’t have a clue what they were about to announce.

J.B. Niday confirmed the rumor, identifying the car off as Matthew Marker and Christopher Gordon’s Subaru. They indicated that the car had gone off the roadway and struck a tree, that Christopher was doing ok, but that Matthew didn’t make it. My heart sunk. I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. I was nothing but shocked, and I could see the same look on everyone’s face around me at the meeting. I didn’t know Matthew at all, in fact I had only just seen him and the yellow back windowed Subaru at scruitineering the day before.

I’ve been involved in rally for eight years; as a driver for five of them. I think I have been relatively naive as to the risks involved with racing. I started out racing as a superhuman near teen, with a thick steel rollcage, a fire proof suit and crash helmet. I saw spinning, flipping wildly crashing WRC cars on TV and rarely was there even an injury. I knew I was safe, I thought that I was invincible.

I was wrong.

This weekend, someone I’ve never met before died rallying. We weren’t in the same kind of car and we weren’t in the same class, but we were both racing for the same reason, for the love of competition fun. You can’t do this sport without loving it. No one in their right mind would spend thousands of dollars a year on a car to drive it hundreds of miles a year.

In rally, we balance a car on the knife edge of our abilities. Many times we learn on stage what that limit is, we hit the wrong line, we have a moment, we miss a braking point or have a spin. We compete with others and push our limits, that is the excitement and the allure of rallying; the competition with ourselves, our machines, and our fellow man. I don’t know Matthew, but I know he is familiar with this concept. Anyone who has pushed hard in a rally knows it, it is a feeling akin to freedom. Matthew is more free than he has ever been. Rally on Matt.

In May 2011, the Olympus Rally brought the Demon Rally Team out for its first rally of the season. Settling in picturesque Ocean Shores, WA; the event was the third round of Rally America’s National Championship and the first round of the Max Attack two-wheel drive rally series. Little did we know that our first event of the year would be a fellow competitor’s last.

The Demon Rally Team came to this event well prepared. We had worked hard to revise a few lingering issues on the car and had tested accordingly. We were entered in the National race, both Regional races as well as the Max Attack race. Piloti was kind enough to offer up a challenge for two wheel drive competitors this year as well, taking the fastest combined time over both runs of the Brooklyn stage for free entry for the 2012 Olympus Rally.

Day one, the Ray Damitio Regional Rally, started off with a few minor issues. We were teething the car and had just moved to a larger turbo, supplied by CTS Turbo and RP turbos. This turbo pushed our power levels up in the rpm range and we found that we were hitting the limiter a lot on the first few stages. A quick Spitfire EFI computer ECU adjustment and we had upped our limit to avoid bouncing off of it on stage. Despite dropping about 20 seconds to Wyatt Knox on our first couple of stages Tom and Don were gaining confidence in the car.

After the first running of the Smith Creek stage Tom found that the driver’s side wheel had bad positive camber, unfortunately we had no time to try to fix the issue before running Brooklyn E. This is Tom and Don’s favorite stage, they were excited to run the stage and even more excited to run the stage for a chance at Piloti’s free entry for next year’s event!

Brooklyn E. went well for the team, our prior best for the stage was a 7:02; this year we ran a 6:59, putting our average speed at over 60 mph for the stage, and setting the third fastest time ever on the stage for a group 5 car. After finishing the stage, the team knew there would be some work to do on the car. Luckily there was time between stages to work not he car. Tom got out of the car and saw that the camber issue had increased and had for the driver’s side front tire down to nothing, the tire was destroyed, and the passenger side tire wasn’t doing much better. Changing the tire and doing a quick roadside camber adjustment seemed to right the problem, however, the team still had two more stages to finish on nearly bald Hankook tires and an unknown camber issue.

Tom and Don both knew is was time to back off a bit to ensure they would finish the next two stages. On their westbound run on Brooklyn the team gained 13 seconds on their first run. Luckily this time was still fast enough to win the Piloti Challenge by over 9 seconds over fellow national competitor Wyatt Knox. The Demon Rally Team took home free entry to the 2011 Olympus Rally as well as Piloti shoes to test out! A big thank you from the team goes out to Piloti for their support of rally! We were proud to run Brooklyn as well as we did, and could only hope that our late friend Ray Damitio was proud of our effort on his rally. We were stacked in third in the regional rally, just a few seconds off of second place The team then focused on the westbound run of Smith Creek, they had come back to just over nine seconds behind first place Wyatt Knox. As we rolled up to the stage start we had no idea anything out of the ordinary had happened.

Unfortunately, something had happened; something that would change the 2011 Olympus Rally and everyone involved.

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This once famed WRC event has had it all including Group B monsters of the day. The event started back in 1973 and has been going strong ever since. In 2011 the event is based in Ocean Shores, Washington, overlooking the coast of the Pacific Ocean just south of the state’s capital city of Olympia. This event is round three of the Rally-America National Championship and all of the big dogs should be on hand to compete including most of the Pacific Northwest’s top 2wd teams.

The 2011 MaxAttack!™ Rally Series Presented by Danza del Sol Winery runs in conjunction with the Rally-America Championship and holds three annual events. This series is setup specifically for two wheel drive cars and Danza del Sol helps the series $15,000 in cash for placing well in the series. This is the 5th year of the series, and will be the fourth Max Attack event that the Demon Rally Team has run. While we’ve had mixed results at Max Attack events and encountered some equipment issues, the team placed fourth in MaxAttack and 1st in Group 2 when they traveled to Michigan to compete against the best 2wd drivers in the nation in 2007. The MaxAttack series is our number one reason for choosing to compete at the Olympus Rally this year.

Amongst other reasons why we are competing at the Olympus Rally is because the event shares one of the Demon Rally Team’s favorite stages, the infamous Brooklyn Tavern Stage. The Brooklyn Tavern stage is an open rural county gravel road, closed only once a year for this event, its twisty and banked nature have created one of the greatest and most renowned stages in the nation. In 2008 the Demon Rally Team set a Group 2 record on the stage blasting through the 7-mile stage in 7:02 averaging a hair under 60mph through the stage. The Group 5 record is fully 13 seconds faster than their current record; while the team isn’t looking to eclipse that mark, they are looking to bring it at the familiar Doo Wop stages the Olympus Rally currently runs on.

2011 brought with it the passing of a great Pacific Northwest rally enthusiast and Doo Wop rally legend. Ray Damitio was dedicated to the sport as well as his community, friends and family. The team first met Ray in 2006 when they ran their first event at the Doo Wop Rally. His booming voice commanded attention and you could tell that this man was well respected among everyone. Ray appreciated the efforts of the little guys in racing and brought with him a quality in rally that will certainly be missed. The Demon Rally Team appreciates his efforts and salutes him and his friends in his passing.

We hope we can put a good show on for Ray at the Olympus Rally this year. Thanks for reading and as always, we’ll see you out there, sideways.

This Mt. Hood Rally was held on October 23, 2010, and while it wasn’t a new rally, it was a new rally for the team to compete at. Being a local rally took a lot of the big event pressures off the team; local rallies are our rallies, we are the top guys and we are in charge here. Unfortunately the rally didn’t come without our typical and untimely pre-event glitches.

In the weeks and days leading up to the event we decided to take the car out and ensure the tuning was up to date as well as the performance of the cooling system and all of the other crucial systems the car employs during a rally. While I didn’t have the opportunity to assist in testing the car, two members of the crew were able to put the car through its paces on the east side of the state. Unfortunately I got the call no team owner wants to hear just a few days before the event. Third gear was gone in our new transmission. I went on a late night rescue mission to get the car back to the shop. The transmission was pulled and we were able to source a stock transmission prior to the event in order to make it. There would be next to no time available for testing prior to the event.

Bright and early prior to sunrise, the Demon Rally Team left Seattle, Washington, and arrived in Hood River, Oregon for recce and relaxation….Or so we thought. We passed the car through tech after hard-wiring a switch for reverse and got registered for the event. While the crew stood by at service, we headed out to pre-run the stages and make notes in reconnaissance or recce as the rally world calls it. Recce went well and we packed up for the evening.

We woke in the morning and decided to drive the car up to town for fuel and to get a couple more miles on it before the event. we made it to the local gas station, only to find that the car wouldn’t re-start. A quick jump start and we were back on our way to service. Unfortunately enroute to service the car began sputtering and dying. It was a sound I was familiar with, just a few months earlier I had driven the car to a local car show and encountered the same thing, the battery was dying. Luckily when we rolled into service, we were able to locate a loose wire for charging and get the car re-fired and made sure the battery was charging. Finally we were ready to race.

Stage 1, 17 South, started with typical butterflies and apprehension about the car’s longevity. Not having driven the car in anger for nearly a 6 month period, waiting in the control zone gives you time to reflect on how much you wish you had been able to beat on the car at least once in its new configuration, and hoping that loose wire was the only thing that would be a problem at this event. Off into the stage I realized how dearly I missed the transmission that should’ve been in the car, the gearing was well off and the open diff was sucking the car into loose gravel relatively consistently. The stage was a smooth fast flowing stage that reminded me of my favorite stage I’ve ever competed on, the Brooklyn Tavern stage. Recce proved to be working well, despite the fact that our numbers were just a hair off for the corners, luckily we weren’t pushing very hard and I got used to the notes about 3/4 of the way through the stage.Nonetheless we set a decent time of 6:15 over the 6.2 mile long stage, averaging close to 60mph. Our time was 5th overall, 29 seconds off of the leader, and just behind Brian Svedin’s Open class 4wd Subaru Impreza. We were 1st in 2wd by just 5 seconds in front of Dave Henderson in his Group 2 2wd Mazda 3.

On Gilhouley North, stage 2, we were excited to run on the tight, twisty and technical road. Writing notes for recce on this stage was a challenge because of the number of tight and varying degree of corners on the stage. When we started into the stage, Don was kicking butt on the notes and rattling off instructions like a true stage rally veteran. I was happy with our effort through the stage and we set a time of 6:43 over the 5.15 mile long stage, averaging over 46 MPH. We tied for 5th overall with Victor Bartosek and his fire breathing open class 4wd Audi Quattro at just 33 seconds off of the fastest time. Interestingly we were second in 2wd a full 21 seconds behind Dave Henderson. Hendo was definitely putting his Mazda 3 through the paces and pushing some limits. I’m excited to exchange stage times with him in the future.

For Stage 3, Fir Mountain South, we knew we would have our hands full. Pre-running the stage in Recce let us know that this stage was the toughest of the event and would definitely be the roughest on the car. Little did we know how rough it would be. The first four miles of the stage were nearly flawless, The car was performing fairly well, despite having to tighten up the new fasteners for the turbo between stages; a big thanks to car #203 for that 10mm wrench! Part of the way into the stage a photographer caught us running a hair too fast into a corner, while it wasn’t the fastest way through it made for some good pictures.

Unfortunately another two miles into the stage something let go and we coasted to our final resting place for the rest of the event. While we didn’t hear or see anything from inside the car, someone caught us on video from above shooting a five foot flame out of the back of the car!

While it turned out to be another testing event for us, we our hoping for a solid debut with a few more upgrades in early 2011. We’ll see you out there, sideways.

The event was held at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, Washington on July 17 and 18th, 2010. The event is a motorsports event and car show, on the 17th Brendan of RalleyTuned with a lot of assistance runs a cone squishing autocross competition in the large open parking lot of Cheney stadium. This year, the autocross was a big part of making the event much more than just a car show. Seeing actual motorsports being incorporated into car shows gives the true motorheads hope for the future of motorsports competition.

We arrived on Sunday, and in typical Demon Rally fashion the car was not in mint shape, however, also in typical Demon Rally fashion the car was able to make the 60 mile trek from the Demon Rally compound in Seattle, Washington to Tacoma without charging the battery. Unfortunately when we got to the event the battery didn’t have enough juice to fire the motor and we were off to find a battery charger in order to make it back home.

We set up a display tent and played highlight videos in the background on our computer and handed out some new fancy business cards to the show goers, a lot of folks started collecting the different images on the business cards and we had started a new fan base without even realizing it! By the end of the event I was dead tired, there were alot of people asking about RP Turbos, about Fine Tuning, JRM, Spitfire EFI, as well as how we put all wheel drive into the Golf. I let them in on the secret that we beat STI’s and EVO’s without All Wheel Drive, because we drive harder and faster than the majority of the field.

After selling alot of T-shirts, and touting the car and everyone that works for the team, Tom had a chance to run out through the car show and reminisce about his old VW Rabbits, as well as look at a very inspiring all wheel drive drag Corrado that had a good amount of fabrication lined up in the car. Tom said it was good to see other enthusiasts putting forth effort into the Competition side of cars.

It was a long day at the car show, and Tom was beat after chatting up rally and the team, but overall it was a darn good time to meet a lot of local enthusiasts. The team made fresh new contacts in the industry as well as bring rally to new fans.

We have to say a huge thank you to Dave Meister of Meister Autowerks for putting on the event at Cheney Stadium. Car shows are a massive undertaking and he has really turned this event into one of the best in the country, so we appreciate his and his staff’s monumental undertaking at this event. We also want to thank Fine Tuning for their continued and unwavering support of the team, JRM, RalleyTuned, Product Apparel for printing some new shirts for the new car, RP Turbos for turning on slow anemic normally aspirated race car into a fire breathing monster, spitfire EFI for being the best solution for EFI in the pacific northwest. The Demon Rally Team has the best group of folks supporting them, help us by visiting our sponsor’s websites and using them to achieve your motoring goals!

We had penned Oregon Trail in as our debut of the car’s new power plant, luckily the Max Attack Series also chose the event to kick off their 2wd championship series for the nation’s fastest 2wd drivers at the event as well. Max Attack is a dedicated series designed to increase participation in events by 2wd competitors by offering cash prizes (over $15,000 for 2010) for top finishers. The Demon Rally Team finished fourth in the 2007 LSPR Max Attack event and 1st in the Group 2 National after three days of hard rallying in Michigan. Needless to say the team was amped about the prospect of winning some money and bragging rights.

The team traveled from Seattle, Washington to Portland International Raceway in Portland, Oregon on Friday morning after a long week of final touch up work to ensure our success. After passing through tech and getting registered it was time to watch the Rally America circus windup as several of the nations top funded teams including stars like Subaru Rally Team of America’s Dave Mirra and Ford Racing’s Ken Block all arrived to take their chances at the top overall spot in Oregon’s Premier Rally Racing event.

The first day is a spectator’s paradise. Housed at Portland international raceway, fans and crew members got to see a lot of action by the 63 starting competitors. A mix of gravel, grass, dirt, concrete and pavement meant driver’s would be focusing on keeping the cars gathered up on mixed surfaces and traction changes were constant. Little did we know that the 2010 Oregon Trail rally would be an event of significant attrition and that the Demon Rally Team would be one of the first to be injured.

We started stage one with high hopes. We had little gravel testing due to the rush to get the car ready for the event, but we had one prior event in the car, so we hoped that all of our hard work had gone in the right direction. Right off the bat, our Spitfire EFI launch control system was working well, power was excellent and predictable from our RP Turbos Turbocharger. we traveled from pavement to gravel and back onto the road course to finish the first stage at the top of the Max Attack leaderboard, almost a half a second in front of Dillon Van Way in his turbocharged Focus. Unfortunately, coolant temperatures were WAY up and the car was puking a small amount of coolant from the overflow. Knowing that we had a huge issue to take care of at service I was determined to get the car back to service without doing any major damage. I turned the fan bypass on high speed, and turned the heater on in already 80 degree heat, Don and I were both sweating, I was hoping that we would get the car back to service and find our problem.

On stage two we lost almost 3 seconds to Van Way after backing off to save the car. At service we found that there wasn’t much that we could do to cure the overheating issue. We arranged for an aftermarket fan to be installed after the first day, but we still had 3 more stages before we could get it installed. On stage three disaster struck, we started just fine and approaching a sliding pavement transition we reached the limits of factory Volkswagen engineering. The car was sliding and we were picking up grip as pavement transitioned to concrete and back to pavement again, this slip and grip along with powering the car through the corner sheared the passenger outer axle splines, not even our Kaaz differential could pull us through the stage on one axle and we became spectators as we watched the rest of the field pass by our location less than a mile after the start line. We were out of the race for the Max Attack money and failed to finish the first day of the event.

The team hustled through the night after making the long trek from Portland out to the Dalles, OR where the rest of the event was based. By morning time they had replaced the passenger side hub/bearing carrier, installed an aftermarket fan, installed a new passenger side axle and had the car ready for the long day of rallying again. on the first stage of the day we began to start pushing the car hard, our tires were just a little too big for the car and we were having some rubbing issues that were distracting, but we continued to push hard through the stage until the car began cutting out and stalled halfway through the stage. We stopped on stage to check the issue and after stopping for about eight minutes, were were able to get the car fired back up again after what seemed to be a small wiring issue was holding us back.

We pushed on the next stage despite the rubbing issues and the car starting to get hot again from the extra heat the turbo was creating in the cooling system. Luckily we were able to finish well on the stage, less than a second behind local 2wd all start Cody Crane. On the next stage, the second second stage of the day there was drama again. While it appeared that we had a full tank of gas upon refueling, it was apparent that half way through the stage that we did not have enough fuel to complete the stage and upon approach to the spectator area up a large hill, we ran out of fuel. luckily a spectator had a gallon of gas that got us back into town where we were able to fill up the car without issue.

Unfortunately this pushed us way back in the order and we began running into the dust of competitors that were much slower than us, without being able to see the road in front of us and without other competitors able to see us, the rest of the day should’ve turned into a testing event for us. Unfortunately driver ego got in the way and we started to push trying to run down vehicles in front of us. In what should have been a warning to the team, we were running in the dust of another competitor with about 50 yards of visibility when we approached a series of chicanes designed to slow the car on a long straight stretch, miraculously Tom was able to navigate the chicane at 70 mph sliding through after braking without hitting the large hay bails in the roadway.

While Don and Tom were both excited about getting through the chicane unscathed, it should’ve been a warning to slow down. Driver ego took over and we set about the next set of chicanes at an even higher rate of speed, unfortunately at 80 miles per hour the chicanes were barely visible and were unnavigable at that speed. As we approached the chicanes a large hay bale appeared from the dusty mist left by the vehicle that was in front of us. Tom broke hard in an attempt to set the car up and slide past the bale, it was just too much speed, we hit the first bale with the left front wheel and front valance of the car with a great bang. A course worker observing the chicane saw us go up on two wheels and said that the first hay bale disappeared after we hit it. Hitting the first bale pitched us sideways directly into the path of the next hay bale which we hit at a much lower speed. When we landed back on the dusty gravel road Tom hit the gas to straighten the car out. Tom knew there was something wrong with the car right off the bat as the car began to start rubbing the tire on the fender of the car and we began slowing with the handbrake to avoid damaging the car any further…we made it to the end of the stage 10 but on the road section we retired after stopping and realizing that we had sheared off the driver’s side rear a-arm bolt, continuing on would have damaged the car significantly more and we knew it was time to make repairs and focus on salvaging our effort to push on day three.

We started day three after more sacrifice on our crew’s part, they stayed up all night after repairing the damage from the night before and gave us a solid running car again. Charlie, Brendan and Jake worked their buts off this weekend and we owe them everything for our result on the final day. On the way out to the first stage of day three I noticed that the car seemed a bit down on power and that we had an exhaust leak starting up. I popped the hood before the first stage started and couldn’t see anything obvious that was causing the problem. We started and ran relatively cautiously, the car began cutting out on occasion on stage and I was not confident in driving the car the fastest it could be driven. We pulled a strong stage time out of the first stage finishing less than a second behind the fastest 2wd time set by phenom Cody Crane. On the second stage of the event I noticed that the car was still cutting out and we had no boost, so power was down by a lot, we continued on and set a top stage time for 2wd, two seconds faster than 2wd all star Christopher Duplesis in his new G2 Scion. For the rest of the day we took it very easy, knowing that we had no boost, an engine that was cutting out and a bunch of things that we needed to work on before we brought the car back out for competition. Luckily we were able to finish first in G5 on the third day, finishing at least one day of the event after struggling to create a reliable car.

While it might not seem like the most successful event we had competed in, trust me, it wasn’t. Out of 63 starters, only 43 finished the final stage of the event, we were one of them. The team really came together in competition, we were able to diagnose and fix nearly every problem we came across and determined the faults and weaknesses that we needed to work on as a group to bring out an awesome team for the next event. Winning group 5 in the regional was a big deal for the team and I give all of that credit to our crew, they worked insanely hard to give the team that result and they deserve all of the credit associated with it. When we make it back out, the car will be ready to fight for an overall win.

I want to give a huge thank you to Fine Tuning for supporting the team again this year, and to RP Turbos and CTS Turbo for supplying the team with a great turbocharger for the event. Without our sponsors we wouldn’t be the team that we are, thank you both, and thanks to our many other sponsors and fans, we appreciate your support!

Feb 16th, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CTS Turbo Boosts The Demon Rally Team To Group 5

The Demon Rally Team is proud to announce their partnership with CTS Turbo as the team moves to the unlimited two wheel drive rally class in North America.

The Demon Rally Team has been very successful in Group 2 competition, taking several regional group 2 wins and top stage times; they are most proud of their stage record on the famous Brooklyn Tavern Stage at the Doo Wop Rally, as well as a National Group 2 win at the final round of the inaugural Max Attack Two Wheel Drive Rally Series in 2008. Making the step up to Group 5 brings about several exciting new challenges for the team as well as the opportunity to compete with even faster opponents in 2010.

After completing their new Group 2 VW Golf GTI, the Demon Rally Team won at the Wild West Rally in group two competition, finishing 4th overall on day two despite encountering several mechanical difficulties. Upon arriving home after the event, the team was amped about their success, but still wanted the ability to compete at the National Level. Both Rally America’s National Championship and NASA’s United States Rally Championship now recognize two wheel drive vehicles as one class; competing in a regionally limited class like group 2 was holding the Demon Rally Team back. When considering their options, the Demon Rally Team contacted their friends at CTS Turbo. CTS Turbo chose to join the Demon Rally Team as they moved up into the Group 5 Class.

The addition of CTS Turbo as a partner allows the team to compete in Group 5 competition by using their newest line of turbochargers from RP Turbo. RP Turbo was founded on the principle of providing OEM performance and quality without the inflated OEM price tag. Adhering to this simple principle has helped them to design and re-design components for turbocharging that are often more simplified, but function better, and are more reliable.

RP Turbos are some of the best turbocharging components in the industry and are made to their own exacting specifications. Demon Rally Team driver Tom Burress exclaimed, “I am amped about adding CTS Turbo to the team. We are nearly doubling the amount of horsepower the car produced with our new RP Turbo; as a driver, if that doesn’t pump you up I don’t know what would!”

The team is yet again rebuilding their VW Golf from top to bottom to accommodate their new RP Turbocharger supplied by CTS Turbo. Look for the Demon Rally Team to debut the Group 5 Evolution of their VW Golf at the Oregon Trail Rally in Portland, OR May 14-16, 2010.


Special thanks to all of the Demon Rally Team’s partners, including Fine Tuning, who continues to support the team for the 5th Year in a row as their title partner. The team’s impressive racing graphics are supplied and installed by Meister Gauge Faces, their programmable engine management is supplied by Spitfire EFI, and performance tuning is done by Ralley Tuned. Product Apparel takes care of the Demon Rally Team’s clothing needs.

CTS Turbo

http://www.ctsturbo.com

sales@ctsturbo.com

For more information contact:
DiRT Media
info@demonrally.com

© 2010 DemonRally.com

Nonetheless, the team forged on, and Pomeroy was our target again. The Wild West Rally shared a lot with the Olympus Rally of 2008 and the team felt like it would be a suitable entry point for us to make our return to rallying in the Pacific Northwest. After completing the car we had a chance to put the car through its paces locally on a test course, no real concerning dramas popped up at the time, but unknowingly we were about to be very surprised.

We arrived at Pomeroy the day before the event, looking forward to setting up a single local service point and participating in the press stage that was arranged for us. We all concluded one last shake down wouldn’t be a terrible thing, considering we were racing a new car. We hit the shakedown stage and back into the service area, only to discover we had lost about a quart of oil on the short 1-mile long stage. We had experienced small losses of oil in the past, its something to be expected when you push a vehicle very hard for a long time, but a quart of oil in one mile was not acceptable, at that rate we would loose all of the oil in the engine before the end of some of the stages.

We made some small changes to our breather setup, but nothing seemed to fix the problem, the idea of withdrawing from the event crossed the teams mind on several occasions before we realized, that this was rally, this was a new car, and we were going to have some challenges before us to make the car work.

We started the first day of the event, not knowing if our over night repairs of the car really would make a difference in the oil consumption. At the end of the first stage it was right back to service, when we arrived it was more of the same, about a quart of oil was missing…We struggled to find a problem and the only thing that we could come up with was that the engine was having difficulty breathing with our new setup, so a coordinated effort by Matt Manspeaker, John Lane, Jason, Charlie, and Brendan attempted to solve our dramas.

When we finished the second stage w had a chance to check on the oil consumption, fortunately, the breather drama had calmed down. We lost much less oil, my confidence in the car was starting to grow, and I felt like we could attempt to get into a good rhythm very soon.

During the second stage about a quarter of the way through the stage, Cody Crane, one of the top 2wd drivers in the PNW and who I considered our biggest threat for the weekend in 2wd, was off the roadway. My pace continued to improve as we approached the end of the stage, when I went to shift into second gear, the linkage wouldn’t move….we ended up finishing the stage in third gear, losing a pile of time in the last two miles of the stage. We got to the end of the stage and started working on the car, as we did it overheated because the fan wasn’t running on the car. We figured out a way to make the linkage work, kind of, and headed out to stage 3.

The linkage was dropping through the floor of the car and finding gears was difficult, in fact, Don had to grab a gear for me once on stage while I was following the road in front of me…My confidence was down due to my numerous concerns of oil consumption shit linkage concerns and overheating.

We came back into service hoping that we could get all of our dramas sorted out before we had to come back out and run three more stages in a row. Sure enough, the Demon Rally Service Team was able to quell the issues with the car

For the second three stages in a row we ran 30 seconds faster per stage in comparison with the first running of the stages, while we were still encountering issues with the shift linkage, we ended up slowly building a rhythm and became a bit more comfortable by the end of the first day.

On day two we started out strong and started off with the same pace we ended with on day two I was really starting to get comfortable with the car and hearing notes from Don too. Unfortunately half way through the second stage the front motor mount broke on the car, I knew immediately what had happened, but I didn’t slow until closer to the end of the stage. Upon finishing the stage we transited slowly to the start of the next stage. I opened the hood and saw the broken bolt on the motor mount, unfortunately I also looked down and saw the fan for the radiator was completely destroyed. It was apparent to me that we would have to withdraw, however we only had one stage to finish before service, and I figured that we could transit the stage, sure enough, we transited the stage, and we did it faster than a third of the field. Unfortunately we lost about 40 seconds on the stage to our closest 2wd competitor, Cody Crane.

When I arrived at service the crew got to work and repaired all of the damage that we accrued, replacing the front motor mount, as well as replacing the radiator fan. After leaving service we finally got into a good rhythym, setting top 2 overall stage times and taking top stage times for all two wheel drive competitors.

Overall this event was a huge statement for the Demon Rally Team and for grass roots rallying. Despite all of our teething issues, we were able to successful compete with a brand new race car and put it in the top of the field consistently through the event. The Demon Rally Team finished 6th overall on day one and 4th overall on day two; we took 1st place in Group 2 on both days as well as top two wheel drive finishers for the event overall.

Big thanks goes to all of our partners, without them none of our successes would be possible. Fine Tuning, Meister Autowerks, Ralley Tuned, Spitfire EFI, JVAB imports, Product Apparel, 034 EFI, and Techtonics Tuning.

We are looking forward to big changes for next season and the Doo Wop Rally in Aberdeen, WA March 6-7, 2010.

Thanks for checking in. As always, we’ll see you there, sideways!

We’ll also be bringing some shirts and decals to Wild West, if you’d like to save on shipping costs.

Look for more items on the merchandise page, like spare rally parts, in the future.