Subie Gal Subie Gal Racing Earns 1st in PGT
at Oregon Trail Pro Rally
 July
15, 2003: Hillsboro, OR - Subie Gal Racing team
trekked south into Oregon to once again compete
in the Oregon Trail Pro Rally and Club Rally
events.
This 2-day event began with frustration and much
learning to be done. Since the in-car engine
fire at the Reno ClubRally, the team’s Subaru
WRX had not been running correctly. The car
suffered a ton of heat and internal damage
leaving no less than 3 engine codes and a load
of sensor and wiring issues. Friday night prior
to the event, finally… at approximately 1am the
team and their crew of supporters and
technicians were able to clear the codes and had
the car running nearly up to specs. This was a
huge relief to the team as the car has been well
underpowered for 2 events now. “Power” was
needed as Oregon Trail is known for its
hilly-climbing stages.
The next challenge for the team was the
patience-trying task of learning to use stage
notes which are available for purchase at every
Pro Rally. These notes differ from the organizer
route book in that every bit of the stages is
detailed, VERY detailed. Neither team driver
Jamie Thomas, nor co-driver Matt Gauger had
previous experience with stage notes. Quite the
struggle - by the end of the rally, the team had
made progress in the notes and were working out
how to utilize them in an attempt to be
dependant upon them. This challenge brought the
team to the ragged edge of their concentration
and patience levels, but they persevered in the
end.
“Notes are REALLY tough to learn at first… this
cost us a lot of time on some of the stages“
Subie Gal Racing team driver Jamie Thomas
stated, “But, Matt stuck with me on them, even
though frustration levels were at their peak &
in the long run I truly feel we will go much
faster because of them. ”
“Racing with Jamie is can be a challenge, but
ultimately its great.” stated co-driver Matt
Gauger, “I think we can learn to go fast with
the notes and have even more fun!”
The team battled on to earn 3rd place in PGT in
both ClubRally events, as well as earning their
FIRST 1st place finish in the SCCA ProRally PGT
class. Jamie and all of Subie Gal Racing would
like to dedicate this significant first win to
the memory of fellow competitors Mark Lovell and
Roger Freeman who passed away during the early
stages of this event. They will be missed dearly
– yet their memories will live on as we press
on, and rally on in their honor. GodSpeed Mark
and Roger…
Next Event (tentative) – Gorman Ridge -
http://www.wsrally.org/events/gorman.html -
Aug 16th OR Ojibwe Forests Pro Rally -
http://www.ojibweforestsrally.com - Aug
22/23rd
Subie Gal Racing team thanks season sponsors:
Carter Subaru,
www.allsubaru.com, StonGard.com, Performance
Graffix.com, AVSport.net, IonPerformance.com,
Hurrikainracing.com, Rallitek.com, WRXtra.com,
Grillcraft.com and the Subie Gal Supporters
Special Thanks to our Crew: Nick, Curt & Luke
and extra special thanks to Jeff for helping to
remedy the car’s electrical issues at 1am in the
morning… our crew is the best!!!!
Member of the NorthWest Region SCCA -
http://www.nwr-scca.org SCCA Regional
Achievement Award Winner (1996-2001) an SCCA
RECORD SEVEN YEARS IN A ROW!!!
For more information contact:
Info@subiegal.com or
www.subiegalracing.com |
