After the pre-rally car issues, Day 1 was relatively uneventful. 7 teams left Gold Canyon this morning and all 7 made it to the finish in Globe, after 247 miles and 31 timed controls. A change to the posted entry list: Jameson & Sears are going to run L instead of S.

Damms are having "issues" with their external odometer pickup, resulting in erratic mileages and scores to match. It was much better this afternoon, so perhaps it's better? They also had a flat tire so we really hope tomorrow goes way better for them. Gary and John had a small adventure when, after working a control they discovered they couldn't leave. The soft desert had them stuck. Fortunately, the last car was still within radio range and Damms returned to pull them out. Whew!

Emerging victorious were defending E class competitors Fred & Jack with 41 points. Close behind were Gary and John with 54. Dave and John led L with 89 points after Stephen M & Steve N had some issues in the latter part of the first section for 200 total for the day. Chuck & J had 98 points, running unopposed in S. Full results / leg scores will be posted Weds when we are at home.

Chuck's Contour has been repaired so he and J "ran" down to Phoenix to swap cars. No other car issues that we know of. It turned out to be the a/c compressor, not the starter.

Teams leave at 8 tomorrow, ending in Payson where it should be a bit cooler.

Tomorrow's start is not until 8:45, so everyone is planning to enjoy the extra 45 minutes of sleep. 
Until tomorrow

Well we had a bit of excitement in the lead car today when Bill couldn't find his keys. Turned out they were in my pocket after I borrowed them to get something. I realized it when we were 2 miles down the road, just about the time Bill realized where they were and that John had my spare set. Disaster averted!

Today's route was from Globe to Payson, over 178 miles and 36 planned controls, 34 of which were used. One control was dumped due to "CSI-type" tape at the intended location and the other just missed by course opening.

Stories from today included the exploding tire (Damm's)..."can we make it to the end of the section in .15"....well, actually there is nothing left but rim and bead, so I guess not! Once again we had a swap of times for the two red RAV 4's, but we were wise to that trick in scoring! Tomorrow #16 will mark each side of the car with some white tape. I guess the lady-with-hat versus the guy-with-beard isn't enough distinction.

No one got stuck in their control location, and Chuck was really glad to have his own car back. Chuck & J drove back to Phoenix last night to pick up the repaired Contour and return the rented Jeep, and still got back to the motel before the group returned from dinner.

At the end of today, Fred & Jack again won the day with 36 points, extending their lead over Gary & John (52) to 29 points. Every one else was at 100 or more for the day. Dave & John had 50% more points today than yesterday (139) while Stephen & Steve bested yesterday by 4 points (196). Dave & John continue to lead L by a healthy margin. Chuck & J also had close to 50% more points than yesterday (144), but this is a really tough event to run in S.

We started from Payson at 8:45 this morning, and were all well rested with the extra 45 minutes of sleep. I took photos in the ponderosa pine forest before control 1, while Glenda worked control 3. That provided a bit of confusion for teams used to seeing us closer than 3 miles apart.

Dave & John evidently retired from the event this morning and returned home to Tucson.

Revere & Larry suffered a severely distorted tire, causing them to retire for the day shortly after lunch, after using their radio to advise us that they were going to the end location.  Using fix-a-flat and a compressor they managed to limp in and find a replacement tire. They plan to return to competition tomorrow.  That left us with just 5 cars for most of the final two sections.

Marinus and Renee are having better luck with their pickup after Monday's debacle. Read Renee's notes on her blog and choose from Recent Posts at the bottom of the page. Fred & Jack extended their lead to 60 points with a terrific day. It's going to be hard to overcome this in the remaining two days. With Car 10's departure, both L and S are uncontested, but the two remaining teams are working hard anyhow.

Every team took a TA on leg 30, plus there were a few balk requests. Seems there were a collection of sheriff's vehicles coming at the rally in the center of the road. Nothing to do with us, and no idea why they were there.

Tomorrow we go from Cottonwood to Crown King and return to Cottonwood, with an 8 AM start time.

Day 3 finished in Cottonwood after a trip to Crown King and the beautiful drive through Sedona. Some of us saw an unfortunate, but spectacular, fire in an RV on the interstate. Glenda and I must have passed it early in the process as we thought the firefighters were going to be able to save it. Later teams said the entire unit was destroyed!

Revere and Larry were able to restart today after getting their tire replaced. Day 4's tire disaster was in Car 10. They had two slow leaks and then a flat. They skipped the last section to limp back to Cottonwood and were able to get one tire repaired and replaced two, so they will start again on Friday. Jack & Fred had a flat during the odo check this morning and report that, when changing the pickup wheel, it's important to turn off the computer. Seems they managed to add a few "clicks" to the computer during the process, making their mileage a tad off at the first key time. 

Gary & John had pickup and power problems to their computer as well today. We have one team joining us for Friday only, and they arrived in time for dinner. Jack & Glenna Sherrin are new to the 1000, but they are veteran rallyists from Rochester, NY and Maryland. Seems they belonged to the same rally club as I back in the late 60's and our memberships probably overlapped by a year or two. Jack S and Jack vK also knew each other! The rally world is a small one. Eric Hobron and Denise Same, who were planning to compete but had to withdraw, also joined us for dinner tonight at Nic's for a great dinner and a lot of old rally stories.

All the scores are packed up for tonight, so I will report the numbers later, but Fred & Jack took the day again.

Sorry for the delay in posting the final day's run and week-long totals, but real life has a way of interfering. After a week away I had a stack of things with higher priority, although competitors got their scores last weekend.

Friday we started in Cottonwood and finished at Grand Canyon National Park. As I mentioned yesterday, we added another team for today in the #6 spot.

Stephen & Steve retired for good at lunch after their vehicle began exhibiting unusual handling issues. Better safe than stranded in the desert! Chuck & Jay discovered, unfortunately, that no matter how hard the rallymaster tries, there are occasional glitches in a route this long. Evidently, with only a stock odo, the team turned at a mileaged instruction with no other identification - and the next mileage seemed to work! Darn, don't you hate when that happens. Eventually they turned around and picked up the route. but we are sorry for the confusion.

Glenda and I had no place to be after lunch until the "terminal control" so we sat at the restaurant and printed pictures and assembled awards. Many thanks to the gracious folks in Williams who let us sit there for 3 hours.

As far as I know, the rest of the day was relatively uneventful, well except for the guy with a rifle at one control, and the guy on a bicycle at the next. Renee tells me she finally figured out the intended use for a balk. The end of rallying occurred about 40 miles south of the park, and the Revere & Larry of Car 14 headed home to California directly from there. We knew they were leaving, so we presented their awards at lunch, forgetting (of course) to take any photos. Sorry guys, but all that dust will have to be your memory.