Vroom Vroom

More pictures from the adventures at the Rally Cross at Bancroft last weekend.

YoungerSon and his Dad-in-Law were competing with the 1992 Suzuki Swift that OlderSon and YoungerSon used for Rally competition about 10 years ago. They were competing in Class 1 - front wheel drive. Other classes are rear wheel drive, four wheel drive and turbo.

First task... get the car off the trailer.

When the 1992 Suzuki Swift was new, it was prepared for Rally competition by Four Star Motorsports, fitted with racing seats, roll cage, racing harnesses, fire extinguisher, navigation computer etc, all the bells and whistles needed for competitive rallying.

But the car is outdated now and no longer conforms to all the current North American Rally rules, so after spending 5 years collecting dust in my garage, and then another 3 or 4 in OlderSon's garage, YoungerSon had it towed to his house, cleaned it up, gave it a new coat of paint (you can hardly see the brush strokes), replaced whatever needed to be replaced and it's back in RallyCross action.

YoungerSon and his D-in-L wait anxiously at the start line. First time for D-in-L, he was feeling nervous and rightly so. Sliding round those curves at top speed can be a little scary.

Many of these crazy rally cross drivers use their every day cars to race round the track. And they take off their licence plates in case someone takes a picture and posts it on the internet and their insurance company notices!

The track was pretty dry, but that didn't stop the car getting filthy... but that's what racing against the clock on a dirt track's all about isn't it?

While the car was stored in OlderSon's garage, it became home to a thriving family of mice who lived in mouse nest luxury surrounded by fiberglass insulation. Nice and warm during a Canadian winter. Every time the car zoomed round another corner, more mouse nest material appeared from the nether regions of the car accompanied by lots of mousiepoo. Luckily for the mice they had already been evicted by the new landlord.

During YoungerSon's last run, the Suzuki popped a tire and lost it's transmssion fluid, so D-in-L wasn't able to have his turn to finish, but there's always the next time.... October 17!

For a video of the track, see the previous post.