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Dirty Words with Adam Craig: Rally Cars and Fresh Powder
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American cross-country mountain bike racer Adam Craig has his sights set on the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. That means for the next few months he will be battling it out on the World Cup and National Mountain Bike Series with his fellow Americans for a slot on the U.S. team. In between races, Craig skis, kayaks and is the rally car co-driver for his Giant teammate Carl Decker. VeloNews.com is along for the ride. —Editor
It’s been a while since Adam and Carl’s Fun Giant Team came up with some written drivel, and hopefully this means you’ll actually read this one. It’s kind of an ace in the hole, though, because it’s about rally car racing. Everyone loves rallying, right? Yes — that’s because it’s awesome. To quote a bumper sticker spotted at the tech zone on Friday night “Real Cars, Real Roads, Real Fast.”
Our race of choice, western Washington’s Doo Wop Rally, celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. Race director Ray Dimisho, a sprightly 80-year old, has put on the race every year since 1988. He also happens to co-drive for John Lane in a fire-breathing 500-horsepower Volvo, which just happens be the series winner. Dimisho, who has undoubtedly driven over the course hundreds of times, probably had a bit more information to give his driver that I did.
Since the Doo Wop is a down-home event with a very reasonable $300 entry fee, they only provide a “Route Book” to make it though the stages. This book provides directions to the individual stages as well as outlining intersections and hazards on each stage. It is NOT a play-by-play descriptor, which you might find at a bigger race. So besides calling out hazards and keeping Carl on route between stages, I pretty much just sat in the passenger seat and enjoyed the badass driving that was going on.
That didn’t last for very long. Carl’s Subaru, the Wheels of Teal, is settling into a somewhat concerning pattern of first-stage brake failure. For about a mile I quietly observed (with growing concern) the manner with which Carl was frantically pumping the stop pedal. This pumping of the brake didn’t seem to be producing any type of slowing, which made me read Rout Book instructions like DOUBLE CAUTION: ROAD DROPS LEFT OVER CREST, EXPOSURE RIGHT with increasing concern. Carl eventually confessed that we had no brakes. He did this just as we crested a rise at about 90mph and were greeted with our competitors stranded in the middle of the road in their Sentra. We both went for the horn and somehow squeezed by, rocks audibly ricocheting off from their car. We made it through the next few miles and limped back to the service pits, which happened to be right on the beach in the little Indian village of Taholah.
Fortunately, our crack automotive diagnostic skills identified the problem immediately from the puddle of brake fluid dripping onto our service area tarp. A new line was dug out of the spares pile and we had things fixed up in 15 minutes flat. Perfect.
Now, back to going 100 mph on one-lane roads through giant potholes.
The rest of stage one passed without incident — we drove the anemic little car for all it was worth on a bunch of really straight, fast roads into the setting sun. We ended up second in Group 2 and ninth overall.
Day two dawned a bit wet, and we tackled four miles of tarmac twice in a row on our slow gravel tires. We still had a good time, though, and did some gratuitous ditch hooking and drifting on wet pavement for the spectators.
Up next were two opposing ten-mile loops through the Pico stage, which featured tight roads, lots of elevation, lots of sunshine and perfect dirt. We drove quickly between the stages, making some tasty sandwiches at the service pit. With the Group 2 ringer, Tom Burress, in his ’77 VW Rabbit leaving early with a failed fuel pump, we were suddenly in a decent battle for first place in Group 2.
Next up was the Brooklyn West stage, which has seven miles of mainline logging road that’s been called one of the greatest rally stages in the U.S. It is — it’s two lanes wide, perfectly graded and has a perfect camber. Now if the Wheels of Teal actually had enough power to make it up the hills with a little conviction, we might actually have to be concerned with the cautions and “tightening” turns. But we posted another good stage time nonetheless, thanks to Carl’s aggressive downhill attack style. He is the NMBS Super D series champ, after all.
The race finished up with the extremely fast Smith Creek stage, which found the Wheels of Teal making the most noise possible as we shifted gears down a steep hill. Fortunately, we tested out the driving lights before the stage started, then plugged them in correctly so they actually worked. Carl kept it clean, but our nemesis for the Group 2 title spun into the weeds while passing the spectator area.
So we finished 1st for the weekend in Group 2 and 7th overall. Not too shabby for having one of the slowest top speeds of the field. Carl and I both agree that the Wheels of Teal needs a new engine with more oomph before any more rally racing happens. It’s a slippery slope that I’m sure will get expensive quick. So if any of you know someone who wants to sponsor a pretty fun rally team, let us know.
In the meantime, cruise on over to my website and check out a little video from the weekend. You should also check out the rest of the site, which my good buddy Josh Edgar just gave a new look to in the name of free rent. There are a bunch of random photos, some schedule info, and some other random stuff, like a link to Tara Llanes’ Road to Recovery Fund.
So what else has been going on? Carl has been skiing a bunch, and went on an anti-winter vacation to Hawaii. My anti-winter training vacation to Northern California was a bit of a bust, as I still got snowed on. But I did ride a bunch, so hopefully I’m in shape.
We’ve got a few weeks left before the season kicks off with NMBS #1 in California, then it’s down to Venezuela for me to contest the Pan Am Championships. Then back home for a week before heading to Europe for about ten weeks of World Cup racing for the Olympic selection. If I ride fast, I make the team.
Carl is going to hold down the fort over here on the domestic racing front, and do some more car racing. And that, my friends, will be sweet.
I went skiing yesterday. It was fun. Here’s a photo.
Thanks for reading.
Adam
