Christopher & I ran the Tulip Rallye this year. It is put on by the local MG car club, and attracts around 200 cars from various clubs around the northwest. We went a couple of years ago, and had fun, but did horribly in the Rallye itself. It was the first “gimmick” rally he & I have run, and we over-thought everything… still being in “TSD mode.” Funny how easy things become hard when you over-think them. You can see our pictures from that 2004 event here.
We missed all car events in 2005 due to the whole Engine Debacle last year. (more gumblings about that later… more botched work has surfaced… sigh. Note to the Jaguar community: Avoid doing business with Classic Jaguar of Austin Texas. If my car is any indication, they make cars that look great, but are complete mechanical hatchet jobs!)
So based on our last performance, we went with low expectations but an eye towards enjoying ourselves. The weather was perfect… cool but sunny. The top stayed down all day! I ran into an old acquaintance, Sandro Menzel, who drives a nice old Jensen-Healey. I was too busy talking to him and admiring his engine (a Lotus DOHC 4 banger… mounted on a diagonal in the engine bay) so that I forgot to shoot any photos of it. Sandro had more presence of mind and got a great shot of Chris & I saddling up for the start.
Since we knew how it worked, we concentrated on the “gimmick” part more than the “rally” part, but knew how to recover from our “rally” part mistakes… we felt like we did pretty well.
Here are our pictures from the day.
The topper was finding out that we placed first amongst the Jaguars (of which there were 20 or so)… whoo hoo! Christopher gets the trophy as he did the real work. I just drove.
Great going! I won that event twice in a row in 1988 / 1989. We won the following year as well but the organizers found a “couple of errors” to give someone else a shot. 😉 Irritated me at the time, but in retrospect I’d consider doing the same thing.
Back then it started from the Skagit Valley Mall and ended in the parking lot at Deception Pass State Park. It was also run on Tulip Festival day through the heart of Mt. Vernon, so it was a bit of a muddle…