Doo Wop Rally
Memories 2007
Doo Wop 2007 Coverage from the Dusty Times
Jardevall and Trowbridge
Sweep the Doo Wop Series
Story and photos by
Jim
Culp
OAKVILLE, WA. - Carl Jardevall and Amity Trowbridge brought a brand new
Mitsubishi Evo 8 to the 2007 Doo Wop Rally Series and drove home with the
championship. The Nordic Motors team captured both rounds of the season
opening Doo Wop Series based at the historic Washington seaport of Aberdeen.
Carl Jardevall and Amity Trowbridge splashed through the mud in the new
Nordic Motors
Mitsubishi to win both of the Doo Wop rallies on the Washington coast.
Doo Wop 1
The first two stages on Doo Wop 1 were cancelled when the roads were blocked
by a heavy snowfall in the Olympic Mountains. So the 46 starters moved to
the Pacific shore near Taholah in the Quinault Indian Reservation for a
short three stage rally. Jardevall from San Rafael, CA and Trowbridge
from Seattle were fast right out of the gate. The red Mitsubishi was
fastest on all three of the slippery stages through the coastal rain forest
to take the win by 44 seconds. Behind them it was chaos in the rain and mud.
The 2006 Doo Wop winners, Dave and Rick Hintz looked great sliding their
Subaru WRX through the first turn, then they spun out and stalled on the
second corner. The brothers Hintz recovered, challenging Jardevall on
stage two on their way to a second place finish in Doo Wop 1.
Jamie Thomas and Matt Gauger posted the second fastest
time on stage one, despite a problem with the rear suspension. Dave Clark’s
quick rebuild on the rear struts at the first service got them back in shape
and Thomas turned in more fast times to finish third overall. That’s third
overall, just 14 seconds behind the Hintzs, in a Production GT class Subaru
WRX wagon. Thomas and Gauger not only claimed the PGT title, they finished
ahead of 14 open class cars.
Paul Eklund and Jeff Price looked smooth breaking in a new twin scroll
turbocharger for the Primitive Subaru STI. The twisting, slippery coastal
stages offered little chance to test the power output and they finished
fourth overall.
Then there was that chaos. Gary Cavett and Alan Perry showed up with a new
2.5 liter turbocharged motor in their Subaru Impreza. The motor was
very strong for eight miles on stage one, then it was blown and they were
done for the weekend. Brian Scott and Rebecca Greek dodged Cavett’s broken
Impreza and crashed their WRX off the narrow road.
The Group 2 favorites Todd Hartmann and Shawn Callahan had an even shorter
day in their Volkswagen GTi. Six miles into stage one, they slipped
off the road on a narrow, downhill, off-camber corner and crashed into the
bank. Several other cars slid, spun and banged through the ditches at the
same spot.
Surviving the chaos were the two thirty-something-year-old Group 2 cars that
tied for fifth overall. Tom and Don Burress in the rapid Rabbit
squared off against Nate Tennis and Janice Damitio in the “black beauty”
Saabwurx Saab 99. Burress was 10 seconds faster on stage one, Tennis
was 12 seconds faster on stage two, Burress made up the two second gap on
stage three and took the class trophy with the tie breaker of two stage
wins.
Seventh were Mike Goodwin and Debbie Wenzara in their first rally with a new
PGT class Subaru WRX. Goodwin shook off the rust on stage one and ran faster
than the Group 2 leaders on stages two and three, closing the gap to eight
seconds at the finish.
Next in the results list were a pair of flying Subaru Legacies. Gabe
VonAhlefeld and Jody Olson collected a 30-second penalty for missing three
of the gates placed on the stage to ensure a safe speed. That dropped them
into an eighth place finish, four seconds behind Goodwin and Wenzara and one
second ahead of Mark Mager and Miller Dumaoal.
Tenth overall were Carey Wright and Leanne Junnila in a Subaru USX, followed
by Steve and Kelly Greer in an Impreza and Brian Svedin and William Clark in
a PGT class Impreza RS.
The Production class winners also topped the four car Tabor Team, Mark Tabor
and Kevin Poirier in the Acura RSX were 13th overall, followed by the PGT
class Impreza RS of brother Matt Tabor and Jeff Zurschmeide.
After an eight-year absence, the world’s only open class Mazda Protégé
reappeared in the hands of Jay Woodard and Kathryn Hansen. A leak
between the turbo and the manifold robbed them of some needed boost and
dropped the AWD Protégé down to 15th. The Group 5 winners, Rick
Schmeling and Richard Kasten, finished 16th overall in a Mazda RX-7 turbo.
A couple of northwest mountain bike champions were the top rookies at Doo
Wop 1. Carl Decker and John Frey finished an impressive third in Group
2 and 18th overall in an underpowered 2WD Subaru Impreza. Garth Akeny and
Russ Kraushaar in the 1969 Saab 96 edged Glenn Wallace and R. Dale Kraushaar
in the 1967 Ford Cortina to take the historic class win.
Jamie Thomas and Matt Gauger challenged the open class
cars with a PGT class
Subaru station wagon.
After waving to the photographer
on the Taholah stage, Nate Tennis and Janice Damitio
went on to take the Group 2 class win in the Doo Wop Series.
Matt Tabor and Kevin
Poirier spun the Acura RSX on the Smith Creek stage but
recovered to take the Production class win.
Josh Milos and Michael Milos claimed the Group 5 class win in the series
with the
GMC Sonoma pick up.
Garth Ankeny and Russ Kraushaar topped the historic
class in the 1969 Saab 99.
Doo Wop 2
Day two dawned just the way day one had ended, gray and wet. Doo Wop 2
opened with 40 starters taking two challenging runs down the Blue Slough
Road near the saw mill town of Cosmopolis. The Blue Slough pavement
twists and turns and climbs and dives as it clings to the hillside above the
Chehalis River. The posted speed limit of 35 mph is fast enough for mortals,
but rally organizers install five tight chicanes to help control the speed.
Still the speeds generated by rally cars racing through the rain were
awesome. Eklund and Price tied the Hintz brothers for fast time on
stage one at 3:16. Then Eklund/Price topped that with a second run at 3:06,
that’s an average of over 80 mph on wet, slippery pavement. Heading
into the gravel stages, the Primitive Subaru led over Thomas/Gauger in the
PGT car, the Hintz brothers, VonAhlefeld/Olson in the Legacy and the Burress
brothers Rabbit.
Stage three is called Pico, it winds through the Montesano City Forest for
nine and a half miles and Doo Wop organizer Ray Damitio calls it his
favorite road. Rally drivers call this stage “technical,” that means its one
turn after another and the car is almost always sliding sideways on the
gravel.
When they lined up for stage three, Jardevall and Trowbridge found
themselves in sixth place, 21 seconds behind the leaders. When they
finished stage three, Jardevall and Trowbridge had a 25 second lead and
everybody else was racing for second place.
The Nordic Motors Evo 8 gained 46 seconds on the field on that one stage and
kept extending their lead with the fastest times on each of the next five
stages. They were fastest both directions on Pico, fastest both
directions on Smith Creek and fastest both directions on Brooklyn.
That string of stage wins included the fastest time ever recorded going west
on the Brooklyn stage, a 6:38. Jardevall’s only regret was not saving
the tires for a shot at breaking his own 2004 Brooklyn-east stage record.
At the end of the day, Hintz and Hintz claimed second overall with Eklund/Price
third and Thomas/Gauger fourth overall and first in PGT. VonAhlefeld
and Olson posted quick times to claim fifth, one spot ahead of Woodward and
Hansen in the Protégé.
Goodwin/Wenzara were second in PGT, seventh overall. Wright/Junnila
finished eighth, with Tennis and Damitio ninth overall in the first
two-wheel drive car.
Brian Scott had worked late into the night pounding out fenders, cutting new
windows, changing suspension bits and repairing the front end damage his WRX
suffered on day one. The late night paid off with a tenth place finish
for Scott and Greek in Doo Wop 2.
Mager and Dumaoal were 11th, while the Burress brothers’ Rabbit was 12th
overall and second in Group 2. Another impressive rookie team,
Canadians Gord Ryall and Jennifer Daly grabbed 13th with the Rocket Rally
Racing Legacy.
Mark Tabor and Kevin Poirier again took the production class win and sealed
the deal with a production class record of 7:25 on the Brooklyn stage.
Josh and Michael Milos were the Group 5 class winners in the Light
Performance GMC Sonoma pickup.
Ankeny/Kraushaar repeated in the historic class Saab after the Wallace/Kraushaar
Cortina cooked the engine while turning over 100 mph on Blue Slough.
The Doo Wop pot luck dinner at the Oakville Grange was the usual high point
for the northwest rally gang. Vermont Sports Car generously donated the food
for the spread so all of the proceeds could go to support the Oakville Food
Bank.
Ray Damitio’s unique Doo Wop Series trophies went to Jardevall/Trowbridge in
open, Thomas/Gauger in PGT, Tennis/Damitio in Group 2, Tabor/Poirier in
Production, Milos/Milos in Group 5 and Akeny/Kraushaar in Historic.
Dave Hintz and Rick Hintz slide their Subaru WRX
around the Smith Creek S curves
on their way to second overall.
Paul Eklund and Jeff Price averaged over 80 mph on the
Blue Slough Road in the
Primitive Subaru STI.
Gabe VonAhlefeld and Jody Olson were fifth overall in
Doo Wop 2 after a fast start on
the Blue Slough pavement.
Tom and Don Burress in the rapid Rabbit were fast all
weekend, finishing fifth overall in
Doo Wop 1.
Mike Goodwin and Debbie Wenzara returned to rally in a new Subaru and took
second
in PGT.
Jay Woodward and Kathryn Hansen finished sixth overall
in Doo Wop 2 with the only
open class Mazda Protégé.