Thanks to Vince Fortin for the bottom picture, also from Baie and taken in 2005, really nice shot!

xxxxxx

"Rally on a Budget - The Subaru Rally GC Manual" has arrived.

100's of tips and tricks, sizes and settings.

The thought behind the process and real-life examples.

Price $200.00

Comes as a 100 page PDF with text, pictures and captions.

Updates and communication.

E-Mail or call me for more information.

"randyzimmer@verizon.net"

xxxxxx

NEW!

Black River Stages 2007

9/29/07

Kent Gardam rode along for this rally.

We had a good time and once, led the rally into and out of service.

I hate having no one to follow!

We were consistantly the 4th fastest on most of the stages and that's where we finished, 4th OA.

NASA has a special class for 4wd with no turbo so we were 1st there and stayed ahead of the 2wd guys.

Add in that there was no damage or breakage and that makes a pretty good rally.

In_Car from all the stages in DIVX

In-Car and Pictures

Rally Defi St.Agathe 2007

9/15/07

One of the toughest rallys I've done.

It started out with very fast spectator stages on Friday and Saturday AM.

Service after service helped keep all the cars in the rally but one.

We finally got going out in the woods and almost right away, things started to happen.

(see car-on-car action)

We went from 6th seed to 18th to 24th and back up to 8th at the end.

Long water crossings, BIG rocks in the road and washouts took their toll, I broke two wheels.

No other problems though.

Adam Vokes from Alberta rode along and did a fine job for only his 3rd rally.

Pictures and In-Car from Defi 2007 in DIVX

Pictures and In-Car

Beebe Wedding Pictures

8/10/07

Pictures from Scott and Allison's Wedding and Reception

Pictures of the Party-Goers

smart Car Rides

8/5/07

Smart Car Demo Rides in Buffalo, NY

pictures

X Games Rally

8/5/07

most of the rally competition that aired

Movies in DIVX format

Rally West Virginia 2007

8/2-4/07

Rusty and Randy finally rally again

These are pictures from around the first service area and then some in-car from the #12 Rear-drive Max Attack Impreza.

The car ran well in RWD configuation but the axles couldn't take it.

Early the second day on snapped going up a hill and that was it.

Picures in service areas

In-Car

Champagne Party 2007 - the 30th Anniversary

5/7/07

Debi and Randy bring back the traditional gathering to a local bar

Its been ten years since the Laundromat we met in closed its doors.

Holding it in a bar made a lot of sense, food, drinks and bathroom facilities made it a lot more civilized.

The bar had a huge TV I played old home movies of the old parties on and also the old News clips.

The link below will show you pictures of all the attendees except for Dave Potocki who never posed and Sandy Said who wouldn't.

Pictures of the Party-Goers

Movies from the Laundromat!

Those who know Debi and me know we met in a laundromat.

We had a few TV segments aired from the Laundromat Champagne Parties and I have digitized them and posted them here.

(This was due to popular demand of course)

Here they are...

Buffalo Channel 2 - 1985

Buffalo Channel 7 - 1985

Buffalo Channel 2 - 1992

Buffalo Channel 4 - 1996

Sherbrooke 2007

2/25/07

Back to the World Famous Sherbrooke Ice Races

Rally Car Class

Things went pretty well this year with a third place finish against a very good field of 14 cars.

New this year was a wheel to wheel format and huge prize money, $20,000 to win!

Challenge Homepage in English
There's a lot of info there, pictures, results and loads of information. If you can't find something, check the french version.

Friday's Sessions
Friday started with a celebrity ride.

Martin Perreault and I took Pierre Reid around for our first laps on the course.

Pierre was elected as Member for Orford in 2003 and is a very gracious and likable man.

When he says he enjoyed the ride, I believed him. Canadians are lucky to have him represent them.

You'll also find some fun clips here. One is a good lap that everything worked on.

One is a hit against the wall in the fastest part of the course. It caused quite a bit of damage, more than I thought it would.

Another is a spin at the bridge section, I touched the back on the bank and it threw off the timing just enough.

Saturday's Sessions
These are of the Saturday final race.

One clip is of my laps and two of Martin's, in short and complete versions.

Sunday's Sessions
The first one, Audidoody, is of my repeated mugging and then the demise of the perp.

Lap after lap, I tried to ignore this guy's antics but when the stewards never flagged it like they said they would, I took action.

There are also two clips of the Sunday Final race.

The first is of the false start and the second is the beginning of the race.

I ran out of space on the disc which really hurts because it was pretty thrilling with all sorts of action.

Guess we'll have to wait for the SPEED "Lucas on the Edge" show.

*************

2006 Black River Stages, Harrisville, NY

10/6-8/06

Revival of a nice regional rally

Black River Stages Videos

2006 Gravelrama, Cincinnatti, Ohio

8/28/06

4-day Jeep craziness

Gravelrama has been held 36 years and allows any 4wd regardless of make.

They hold uphill drags, flat drags, an almost straight-up climb up a gravel mountain and an Obstacle Course.

I entered the Obstacle Course (rally-X) and because of the torrential rain, the event was put under water until the bulldozer made a new track around the perimeter.

The first two CJs got stuck on the first section and needed to be pulled out by the dozer. After that, the whoops were bypassed (whew).

The next Jeep got stuck in the crossover section and that was modified a bit.

I felt that I could have my best chance now, before the Jeeps rutted the sand-like surface and so I took off.

The route was the width of the dozer blade and it would be fatal (to my run, not me) to get off the path.

Except for a couple seconds in 2nd, I needed 1st all the way and spent some time churning thru the slop using my trusty Yoko WR-26 rally snow tires.

There were some steep approaches that the front end dug into (that only helped those behind) but the Subaru was the first one to complete the course and the next Jeep got stuck twice!

The crowd went wild, one spectator said he took his Jeep T-shirt off and threw it in the trash when the Sube finished the run.

To say the car was a hit is an understatement.

I got a lot of inquiries about rally from everyone and some were pretty knowledgable, one was a Houghton engineering student.

I really wasn't too sure of what the reception would be but everyone was nice, welcoming and pleasant.

The car was set up about as "wrong" as it could be according to the old-timers but it still performed well enough to keep FTD until the final few competitors.

The course widened out as the heavy, wide-tired and powerful Jeeps smoothed out the sides and made the turns wider - but the ruts deeper.

With only a few inches to the skidplate, I would have been stuck almost immediately running later so I did as well as I could have.

A lot of eyes were opened and friends made. All in all, worth the trip.

to see the in-car (with my EZ-Pass right in the lens...)<

Jeep running course
****************************

2006 Black Bear Rally

6/17/06

A very good rally with fantastic roads

only 4-1/2 hours away from Buffalo, NY.

This is the home base for much of the Eastern Ontario Rally nuts

Dean Campbell of Flat Over Crest and Ryan Huber, Coordinator

asked me to take a journalist for a ride.

Toronto Sun Auto Editor Annette McLeod was the victim and did a fine job, we're looking forward to the write-up.

The town has gone through quite a transformation in the past five years, very picturesque.

The new hockey rink is done, new sidewalks, paving, more paint and some shrubbery management has made it a very inviting destination.

The G meter fell off the car sometime during the rally so it may be unreliable.

Special Stage 1

Special Stage 2

Special Stage 3

Special Stage 4

Special Stage 5

Special Stage 6

Special Stage 7

Special Stage 8

dorset community center

service area

service area from downtown

downtown area

downtown area

bridge

Peter Reily using a modified version of a Slim Jim to unlock his co-driver's wife's car

TV personality Ray Felice watching efforts to shut off his wife's car

Annette McLeod - recce done, time to race!

Annette McLeod

Annette McLeod

*************

Click here to learn more about the Normally Aspirated Subaru Engine Removal Video! $5.00

*************

Sherbrooke 2006

2/4/06

Back to the World Famous Sherbrooke Ice Races

Rally Car Class

Things went pretty well this year with a second place finish against some pretty fast cars.

Wish there were more entries, this could be a great event!

With the same tires as the French T3F cars, we were running pretty competitive times.

Here's the best part I could find, running down Bruno and getting by eventually:

Passing Bruno

*************

Rally Perce Niege Manawaki

2/4/06

Shindle and I ran another winter Rally,

pretty sure this was my last.

The driving is fun but the chances of bad weather and big problems is too great for a crewless (clueless) team.

Things can get serious in a hurry with low temps and blizzards possible, survival is not really my thing.

Pretty boring so they're short.

Spectator Stage 3

an example of the mix of terrain

*************

Randy's Rally Entry Log

This is an updated history of my Rally participation and I'm proud of the results.

*************

Rally of the Tall Pines

11/19/05

Eric Lee made a return to my right seat but this was his first in a rally with me - last time was at Sherbrooke for the ice races.

We had a pretty good start with grippy snow and adapted well to the roads.

A few stages in, we had a backup behind a rolled car that blocked the road.

After a while, we'd made up for the delay but when the sun went down, I hit some ice and an unfortunately placed log and went off the road into a swamp.

The car wasn't going to get oput on its own so we had to withdraw.

The best video is of us following the Sprongl's after the blockage, here it is:

Following Frank

*************

Rallye Defi SteAgathe/Duhamel

9/10/05

This was my third trip to this rally with the third different co-driver!

Adrian Wintle was in the "silly seat" and did a great job considering he was using borrowed notes without recce.

I had knowledge of most of the roads, so it wasn't too bad for me.

The car was the star of this rally, it performed perfectly with just a squeak from a bent brake backing plate to repair.

With no flats, no car issues and no need to stop or reverse. this Defi was as perfect a rally as I've had.

The movie will show as many of the ooopsies I can remember but most of them probably were times I was doing it right (but scary to me) than slow.

This is my first compilation since the "jump practice" on this site and it is big... 154 MEG!

I'll work on a shorter version over the next few days.

A new method makes this movie a Windows Media Player file, I'll work on a better compression for the next one.

Defi 2005 Long

*************

Lada Club of Canada "US Invasion 9"

This is the 9th annual gathering of Lada owners and friends held in Pembroke, NY

Pam and Gavin Warren put this on and it was a very nice day with plenty of friendly people and some swampy mud was nearby.

There was an obstacle course "race" that was done with a blindfolded driver and a (usually) confused navigator.

Sorry the sound isn't working on these, it was hilarious to hear, "go that way!"

Dave driving Randy calling

Randy driving Dave calling

Gavin set up a tight course just for me!

I think everyone who drove it had a good time doing some rally style driving

RallyX course 1

RallyX course 2

Sorry I missed some of the hills and mud, this is all I shot of the trails.

This shows how nice the terrain and weather was.

Trail Drive

This is a collection of shots from the day.

pictures from US Invasion 9

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Rally Promo on  TV channel 2 - Buffalo, NY

7/26/05.

They did a nice job piecing things together from a lot of sources.

I got the camera guy pretty good and I thought he'd be mad but he laughed it off and had me do it three more times... but upwind.

It turned out the first one is the one they used.

This is a clip showing the coming subjects during the broadcast (rally racing)

coming subjects

This is the tease just before the commercial prior to the clip

tease

Here's the clip

clip

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Baie des Chaleurs

July 2, 2005

A super event at my favorite rally.

Good to see some more entries from the USA, expect more next year when they tell their tales.

I have some items you may enjoy...

This is my third BdC but I never got a movie of the signature stage, Camp Brulie. I have two versions, the complete last stage and a shorter clip of the final straight going into the bridge and jumps section. (for you dialups)

I have C3, Cariboux, to show how the flat-out C4 Camp Brulie stage is balanced out with some twisties.

The climbs and drop offs are not shown well in the movie but are Very severe!

Also, from C1, the bottom of Jon Nichols' car

I also have some beauty shots of the shoreline and valley.

complete C4 Camp Brulie

shorter version of C4 Camp Brulie from the 5th gear straight to the end

complete C3 Cariboux

what the bottom of Jon Nichols' car looks like

the shoreline of the bay

the valley

Rocky Mountain Rally 2005

May 28, 2005

Here's a clip showing the area of the leader's crashes on SS3:

ss3 crash scenes

here are some goofs I got away with

my ss4 goof

my ss13 goof

my ss11 goof - a close one

This is what it looks like getting to the stages

rocky sights

Cherokee Trails 2005

March 19, 2005

Here are some pictures from the central service area.

my car

Burke before

Burke after

truck

truck

people

people

people

people

people

people

people

people

Here's a couple in-car stages:

ss7

ss11

Burke on his door on ss5

The World Famous Sherbrooke Ice Races!

February 25-27, 2005

This race is a huge deal, with all these french guys coming over to Quebec for a round of the FIA Ice Racing Championship.

The seventh year of the event saw rally cars invited for the first time. We were made to use a spec, street-studded tire.

A who's-who of Canadian Rally showed up along with some others. Jean-Paul Perusse, Sylvain Erickson and ACP brought Evos. Antoine L'estage brought J.B. and the Elantra. Pat Richard, Julien Pilon, John Cassidy and I brought Subarus in N, P4, Open and 2.5RS trim repectively. Bertrand Lambert in an Echo and David Legault's Escort had a 2wd duel.

The first two 30 minute sessions were practice and qualifying for starting positions. Because it was on ice, with small studs and high, solid walls, a demo-derby broke out and just about all the cars were damaged, some pretty badly. The damage never really stopped with the racing but it was reduced by shortening the sessions to 15 minutes after the first race heat Saturday. The best ten laps of the 30 minute session were counted and the best five laps of the following sessions.

Three sessions on each day Saturday and Sunday produced two different races and podiums.

Saturday: Me, JP and Pat

Sunday: Me, Pat and JP

As far as I can tell, no one let me win it because I'm such a nice guy, but I was surprised everyone was so lost in the first sessions. Don't they have ice in Canada? Anyway, in the last heat, Pat figured it all out and started putting some really fast laps together. I am taking credit for all his wins from now on. Without me shaming him into learning something he didn't know before, he'll be even more unbeatable in the future. - Look out!

Here are pass clips. These are from the two practice sessions and the first 30 minute race. After that, I was placed out front and it gets boring.

Friday Night Practice

ACP

Cassidy

Erickson

Julien 1

Julien 2

Lambert

L'Estage

Perusse

Saturday Practice/Qualifying

ACP

Erickson

Julien

Legault

Pat

Saturday Race Heat #1 - 30 minutes - Best ten laps count

L'Estage

Pat

Results and info at:

Challenge Canada

Rally New York USA 11/6/2004

This was a short rally in stage mileage and transits but it was a tough one on cars. Many 4x4 trucks suffered damage during a 20MPH recce of ss9. Many rental cars were seen with the front ends elevated for oil pan repairs. Going faster smoothed some of the bumps but made the whoops pretty doopty. There was one section where the bumps caused the back to bounce waaaay up so we were looking at the ground straight below. There was also a paved stage (ss1 and ss7) and a narrow but typical gravel stage (ss8). As time goes on, more of the stages may be added here but they are repeats of these three roads.

Another feature of this rally was very short service periods and because of the change from slick to gravel tires, much of the time was needed to perform the wheel changes and left just enough extra time to clean the numbers and the windshield. A stong, well prepared car was a key to doing well at RNY-USA and that's what we had. 6th overall and first in class was a great result.

Results

A small problem setting up the chicanes, and a decision, run as described or as set up?

Russell hurts his neck on the jump

SS1 - paved

The first part of this stage was on loose gravel - you can see by the G-meter that there's no grip until we turn onto the next road.

SS2 - "smooth"

Wet and wild - more of a survival test than a speed test.

SS3 - rough

The gravel has been swept a little and grip is coming up a bit.

The whole rally had stumps and outcroppings lurking under the leaves. I did a couple bad things on this stage but got away with them...

SS4 - "smooth" 2nd pass

Let's face it - ss5 is tough...

SS5 - rough second pass - my favorite movie of the rally

ss6 was cancelled to bring the schedule back in line.

Four chicanes in this direction but fun to drive.

SS7 - paved, reverse direction

SS8 - "smooth" reverse direction

On this trip through the rough "Mortimer" stage, Jeff Field hit a tree right away and started back up right ahead of us.

Jeff was running a little ragged trying to stay ahead and finally pulled over and decided to cool off a little.

I stayed back a little to save the windshield, the wide angle camera lens makes it look further than it was.

We came up on Jon Bottoms and didn't realize he wanted a rope pull till it was too late.

That was a good thing because Jeff was right behind and probably wouldn't have had time to stop.

SS9 - mostly rough and rutted