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 We're excited to be sponsoring the Father & Son Team Hanson as they contest the Rally America series for the 2006 season in the 1990 Celica AllTrac. We are sponsoring them with a Powertank for the pitstop action and miscellaneous suspension and other parts as they need them. And where we can't provide full sponsorship we are helping them through negotiations with our suppliers at OMP, Motul, Team Dynamics and more. Read on as Travis gives a wrapup of the seasons event...
100 Acre Wood Rally, February 24-25
 Detroit, MI -
We left Michigan in a small snow storm and it was 20 degrees. After
driving for 12.5 hours we arrived in Salem, MO at noon on Thursday the
23rd. It was beautifully sunny out and 50+ degrees- to us it was a major
heat wave. Just as we pulled into the parking lot of the Tech inspection
one of the wheels on the trailer nearly fell completely off. We had
roasted a wheel bearing and just barely made it. I unloaded the car as my
dad went to register for the race. I took the car and had it tech
inspected and we headed straight to the practice stage as our crew began to
take the trailer apart and search for new parts. We took 3 runs and
each of the runs got progressively better. I began to feel pretty good
with the car on gravel- completely different compared to the snow/ice
conditions from the previous rally Sno*Drift.
 This was our first rally on the 32mm restrictor and the car was making
much more power, compared to the 28mm restrictor we had previously, but
this was also our first rally on a full set of Stage notes. Stage notes
gives you a complete description of the up coming road. The severity
and direction of the turns, off camber, crests, creeks, bridges, anything
of interest to a driver is listed in the stage notes. This is a good
thing, but creates some difficulties for the co-driver and communication
with the driver.
We struggled on Friday night with the notes. My dad would get lost and
I would have to back off to keep the car on the road by just driving
what I see. Our intercom failed on one of the stages, but was repaired at
the next service. We fell back quickly from the lead , but maintained
for second place in PGT and 7th overall.
Saturday we started out going a bit faster and starting to get used to
the stage notes. At the first service we found ourselves only 15
seconds out of the lead. It was our goal to come out pushing hard after the
service and try to close the gap. The next few stages were supposed to
be tight and technical which suits my driving style. We came out hard
and I could tell we were going fast, but too fast. We came around a hard
left turn and the rear of the car slid just enough to hit the bank on
the outside. This caused us to spin and we went over a small embankment.
We were able to get out, but had wasted 3+ minutes in the process. We
were then put in the finish for points mode, but came close to crashing
on the last stage of the night. We had a long wide right hand turn and
I entered the turn at full speed. My dad had failed to read ahead in
the notes and did not tell me that the turn tightened way down and then
crossed a creek. We came around in a full slide and then I saw the t!
urn tighten. We made the turn, but we were still sideways as we hit the
creek. It caused us to fly up in the air and land on two wheels
teetering towards a roll over. I turned towards the roll and gave the car full
gas and it caught bringing us down on all four. Amazing ride, but I was
as scared as I have ever been in a car. The next morning I inspected
the car on the side that we were on two wheels and there was gravel
wedged between the wheel and tire and sand actually in the valve stem.
For complete event details go to www.rally-america.com website.
Next Rally - STPR in Pennsylvania, 6/3/06
Images Courtesy of Artpart Photography
Sno*Drift Rally, January 27- 28
 Detroit, MI -
We had a great weekend in Atlanta, MI at the Sno*Drift Rally.
On Friday night, the Sno* rally we played things safe with
the goal of finishing and finishing strong. We got used to
the car on the first few stages and then began to pour on
the heat! Things just seemed to flow and we finished 4th
overall, 3rd in class. Unexpectedly good for beginner like
our selves.
 Saturday was a learning experience for us. We did
great on the first few stages and then we got stuck after
following the car in front of us right into a large snow
bank. We spent 15 minutes digging out and ultimately lost
over 10 places. Had we not gotten stuck on that stage we
could have finished in the top three for the Drift rally. We
finished the rally and ended up with 11th overall and 5th in
class, still not to bad for beginners. We got to use the
Powertank at every service and lots of people were asking
questions about it.
For complete event details go to www.rally-america.com website.
Next Rally - Hundred Acre Wood, February 24-25, Salem, Missouri
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