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So after the endless prep, here is how Prescott went in a nutshell.

If you want a really nice recap of the whole event both right before and right after, check out the rally.gearboxmagazine.com interview:

Before the rally: http://rally.gearboxmagazine.com/201...aaron-ekinaka/
After the rally: http://rally.gearboxmagazine.com/201...kinaka-part-2/

No matter how hard I planned to avoid it, the last few days before the rally were a thrash fest to get the car even that much more ready for the stages of Prescott. There were a couple of nights up till 3am tying up random odds and ends (both by Kyle at the shop, and me and Albert working on things in the driveway). Working on mostly random tech related stuff.

Of course there has to be last minute drama. The night before we’re going to load the car up, i’ve got one of the front struts apart to swap out the bent insert that I bent the crap out of at Cal City. I inspected the new part and realized that it was not the right size (too short!). A quick call to Barrett at All Wheels Driven and he reassured me that i’ll have a brand new insert the next day (over-nighted first AM delivery to the Econolodge) in Prescott! I had faith... he’s never let me down before. Zack pulled his front struts off his GD to have as spares just in case this damaged one decided to let go.

We loaded the car up on a rented trailer and my buddy Dustin pulled the car to Arizona from southern California. It was an easy drive... he’s got a huge brand new F-350 Super Duty. Heated leather seats, satellite radio, and navi? Hell yeah. We rolled into town around 9:30, and meet up with everyone from Jackson Rally in the main service lot behind the Prescottonian. I end up tinkering with the car until pretty late, just buttoning down the last few things i could think of and was capable of doing.

The next day, Albert and I set off to do recce in his fiance’s car. Recce was early... but went really well. While we’re out doing this Zack, Kyle, and the rest of the crew took apart the rally car in anticipation of the replacement insert arriving. It did, and I got a picture text message from my wife showing Zack having it in his hands! I am instantly relieved to know we’ll have 4 gravel coilovers to run in the afternoon! They got everything installed no problem.



Recce finished up, we get back to grab everything and head over to Parc Expose at Tim’s Subaru a few miles away. Here we handled registration, tech, new drivers meeting, etc. After that, the plan was hangout and watch the lightning and rain for a while and just wait around. We were seeded dead last in position 22. sweet. Exhaustion starts to set in and i’m not feeling well. It was really bad. Too much wrenching on the car and not enough rest left me feeling like i had the flu. I was pretty pissed to feel that way since i’d worked so hard to get there, but I wasn’t going to give up... even if it meant puking on stage we were going to race. It was awesome hanging out with everyone before the race. Here’s Keith looking cool and composed before leaving the first MTC



Eventually it was time for Albert and I to suit up to make the first transit. It started raining again too. Got to admit I was nervous about the possibility of running stages i’d only seen once (with big exposures), at speed, in the dark, and in the rain. Here we head out of the first time control to transit to stage 1.



Racing that night was awesome. The first stage was pretty much at dusk so I was able to get a feel for things without relying 100% on the lights just yet. I jumped the start on stage 1 by a full minute... whoops! It was totally my bad, i saw the lights counting down on the clock and just went, we got a nice penalty for that. By the time Albert and I got into a groove it was pitch black with the exception of lightning off in the distance. I pushed as much as i felt comfortable with and our times were just fine, not fast, but not crawling slow either. It was really sketchy though because dust was a major problem in the dark. Many of the teams were switching from high to low beams to deal with visibility in the dust. I didn’t think to really do this... i just slowed down when i needed to, all the while praying that there weren't cows in the road! Right before ending the last stage before service I noticed a lot of smoke / steam coming out from the scoop. We had a problem with the power steering, but trudged along to service to have it checked out there. Crew did an amazing job of just tightening down the line that came loose and getting everything back together in no time flat. We were good to go for the last two stages.

I just focused on clean lines, and keeping it on the road for the last two stages of the night. The final stage was the one with the big exposures, so we played it pretty safe through there. Couple of the tighter turns caught me off guard a bit. Albert did great on the notes, there was only one time that i can remember where i snapped at him a bit, but i later apologized about it. It was all in the moment when adrenaline is pumping and you’re pretty amped up! He’s a good sport about those things. We finished up day one moving the right way up the leader board (not hard to do when you start at the bottom) and got some much needed rest for day 2. I was really looking forward to the day stages.

Day 2, we were refreshed and ready to battle! The goals were the same, keep the car on the road, have fun, and learn as much as we could. Speed would come as our confidence built. We were having a blast... it was warm, but not too hot out thank god. I can really see that i’m going to need a cool suit because i don’t do well in the hot weather.





We ran the two longest stages of the rally and had a complete blast. These were great for really getting in to a rhythm, and trying out techniques and lines on every corner to see what works best. It was pretty intense driving that hard for an extended period of time, so much fun. We came in for service and looked over the car real quick, there was nothing to note wrong with it. I opted to keep the same tires on since I was comfortable with them and they were still brand spankin’ new. Not a lot of tire spin going on in this car... she’s such a wuss! My folks came out to the race to hangout all weekend, here’s my mom rockin’ the DI shirt. KevinWelker came by to see how things were going, hes on my right. He’s always full of good advice and has been around since the very beginning of my talks about stage rallying.



We drove hard through the last two stages. Witty Tom in the daylight was amazing. There are so many back to back technical turns on the south end of that stage, it was a total blast to drive. We posted a pretty good time there. The last stage of the day was First View... and all uphill. The RS tops out in 4th gear going up those long straights, so it was totally pinned for sometimes 30 seconds at a time! I was super bummed to drive by Welker and Burke literally 4 miles from the finish on the side of the road, their motor let go. We finished, and made the long twisty transit back to the final time control. Albert and I were so stoked the whole ride back... exhausted but super stoked. Took a whole bunch of pictures with the family, here’s Juliet and I... she wanted full race gear on for photos, but i didn’t put the HANS back on.



Zack asked what I wanted to drink when we came in (before we left final service) the first thing i thought of was to have whatever home brew he had brought. The beers he makes are always insane! Turns out it was transported in a growler that Satan himself gave to him. Man, that was great beer!



We ended up taking 1st in CRS-GT and USRC Production AWD so we had the privilege of taking part in the champagne ceremony. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t think Albert was really prepared for any of this, he needs to brush up on his bottle opening skills! I made sure to give him a good dousing... and right in the eye too. Sorry man. :-)



Couldn’t have done it without my crew. They were awesome all weekend. Not to mention all the help I got on the car long before we even entered the rally. A huge thanks goes out to everyone that made this possible. I can’t thank them enough! We just wanted to finish without destroying the car, i never would have expected to do so well. We even got kicked down $50 from Moore Sport Inc. (MSI) at the awards ceremony for being “Most Improved Driver”. Totally unexpected, but that got us all a nice waffle breakfast :-)



We ended up partying into the night, right there in the parking lot. Rain came and scared all the pansies away, at one point I grabbed El Blendero to save it from getting completely drenched. People that stuck around were rewarded with an amazing lightning storm to watch and good stories being told by all the more experienced drivers. It was beyond awesome.

The thing everyone asks now is “whats the next event”? I have no idea. Definitely nothing until after the new year, my rally budget has been long since depleted. I’d like to do a medium sized USRC event (maybe Desert Storm?) but if money is too tight, probably something like High Desert Trails. Maybe Prescott again next year. We will have to see! Of course, i’ll be doing local rallycross events too.

The car could use some additional work, just to make things that much better. The bumper release clips are already lying around, just need to be installed. Under body protection is a must, along with some legit fender liners. I will continue to stockpile spares as well! Ill be sure to keep everyone posted for sure. :rally-driver: