Four people: two in the Neon, two in the service car… We kept it simple for our first event and packed light, but mostly we wanted fewer witnesses if we screwed up anything major. This is our story and we’re sticking to it:

Since this post has been in limbo for a few umm … months, I’ll start off with the important stuff.

MUCH DESERVED THANK YOU’S:

Tyler Limbrock: our # 1 crew chief / complete service crew rolled into one. I swear next time we’ll get you some help! ;P

Danielle Patterson: our team mom and gatherer of important information / beef jerky. If you’ve never had the benefit of a team mom, you NEED one. Indispensable.

John Black: the team member and support crew we never knew we had. This man probably saved our suspension and our podium finish. Although, the jury is still out on whether he is the angel or devil on our shoulder at times.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

While the event is far from fresh in my head, our first, true stage rally experience in Gorman is one of those memorable things in life that you couldn’t blot from your mind even if you wanted to.

The overall event turned out to be less painful for the service crew than we had feared, thanks in part to the great planning of the organizers. I think the most downtime the crew saw was between the long afternoon stages, with a max of around two hours between packing and unpacking the gear. Since it was our first major event, we were sensitive to time management issues. Again our crew-of-two came through for us, consistently getting us the necessary info to keep ourselves out of trouble. Though I do remember something about Danielle screaming into my window “Your 20 minute transit only has 2 minutes left, GET OUT OF HERE!”.
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So what do you do if that tree gets a little too close for comfort? Did that blind-crest-into-an-off-camber-waterbar-of-death prove to be just a little too much for your poor little Neon?

Well, you toss all your gear and guts into your spare shell of course! O.o Thanx in great part to the keen eye of one Mr. Kaiser Chen, the WayTooFast Racing Team weas pointed towards a beauty of a deal. Sure our new parts car is a little rough around the edges, and okay it’s unfortunately an automatic, but it didn’t take much convincing for us to realize that we had an opportunity to save ourselves a lot of time and money in the long run. The frame is in great shape! Why there is hardly even any dirt on the underside…for shame!! After milling over the status of the car and its various “aftermarket” parts, we agreed on a reasonable price and drove it up onto the trailer. (Which is more than can be said for our purple Neon_1.0, which took more manpower than horsepower to get up the ramps and all the way home.) We haven’t yet decided if we are going to try to part out the “extra” stuff like the auto-trans, but we are planning on cleaning her up and prepping her for storage to be plundered at a later date regardless.

Of course the real reason we bought the parts car is for the simple fact that now that we have it, Murphy’s Law will allow us to run flawlessly and never need it. Kind of reverse-insurance!

If nothing else we might just pilfer the stainless steel dual exhaust…Vroom Vroom!

The WayTooFast Racing Team made it back from the 2007 Laughlin International Rally and it was an interesting trip to say the least. The RallyNotes Team had a great showing at this event and we’d like to congratulate them on their successful season. You can read more about their exploits at RallyNotes.com.

We learned a few things from our adventures in Laughlin, NV:

1) Just because it’s an international event, televised on ESPN 2, doesn’t mean we should sweat it. A rally, is a rally, is a rally. When we attend next year we’ll treat it as such, with little to no added intimidation factor.

2) Harry and Danielle are naturals at rolling in craps…Kevin and Jake should never, ever (ever!) touch the dice. Never. Don’t even look at them before they are thrown.

3) We like numbered lists.

4) Running recce is a great thing. Not only did we get to pre-drive the courses multiple times, get a feel for the terrain and correct stage notes as necessary, we got to drive down into the Grand Canyon…truly beautiful. We even got a pic of Kris peeing into the Colorado. Please take this under advisement if you live downstream (pun intended).

5) Fact: There is such a thing as too much beef jerky, but not too many In-N-Out burgers. Who knew…

6) What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas because it’s usually deviant behavior. What happens in Laughlin stays in Laughlin because the majority of visitors have advanced senility. Next year we will bring replacement struts for the Neon and replacement hips for the masses.

As the rally season winds down, the WayTooFast Racing Team is focusing on 2008. It will be a big year for us. Although we’ve run Gorman and numerous RallyX’s, the coming year will be our true rookie season. We expect big things from our little car and we hope you will all come along for the ride.

Heartfelt thanks to our readers, sponsors, friends and families and we hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.

-The WayTooFast Racing Team

No, no, no…Wait just a minute. It’s not what you are thinking… Unfortunately the WTF Racing crew isn’t heading out to the annual Laughlin International Rally & Motorsports Festival (http://www.rallyusa.com) in the team Neon this year, but we’ve got the next best thing! We’ll be crewing for our good friends Team RallyNotes (rallynotes.com).

Highlights* include, but are not limited to:

1 ) Road trip shenanigans and consumption of mass amounts of beef jerky
2 ) Course reconnaissance
3 ) Drinking
4 ) Gambling and, most likely, multiple trips to an ATM
5 ) Rally!
6 ) Explaining gambling losses via the phone to spouses
7 ) Drinking
8 ) RallyX! - We’ll be participating on Sunday in the RallyNotes car. Check here for results! (Link)
9 ) More beef jerky

*Plans subject to change due to spousal wrath, hangovers, excessive gambling winnings, excessive gambling losses, jail time, procrastination, irritable bowel syndrome, jury duty, alien abduction, alien smuggling, and/or lame, rambling web posts.

Looking forward to the great event and a crap-load of Rally! Hope to see you there!

- The WTF Racing Team