2013 - The end.

 It's several months in to 2014 and the rally team is still shaking off winter.

2013 ended at LSPR on Stage 3 in a cloud of smoke when the welded differential exploded through the bottom of the gearbox case and liberated a pile of metal and oil onto the skid plate. 

We spent the next several hours engaged in an amusing game of "get back to the service area" bumming rides from locals and volunteers, only to find that the steering column on the Van had eaten part of the keyswitch and leaving Chad Eixenberger, who was crewing for us, befuddled and stranded.

Not all was lost, though, as we wandered out to the last spectator spot on Saturday and drank beer with Dave Grenwis and his friends.  Dave races mountain bikes, too.  He's a pretty wirey fellow and I'm sure much faster on the pedal bike than myself.

It's been a lot of seasons since we've done more than a couple of events, and seems even longer than that since the car was really consistent.  Losing the good gearbox at LSPR a few years ago is proving really challenging to recover from....