The Mt. Hood Rally, this year, as usual, was one of the best events of the season. Initially, I was planning on crewing for the 4 car Tabor Rally Team, similar to 2008. I was still going to crew for them, but we would wind up needing another bay in service.. Just several days before the event, a new team, Dave Henderson & Terry McDowell of Hood River, contacted me about running the GTI. The wheels were set in motion , as the days were ticking off quickly to the event. Fortunately there wasn’t much to do on the prep end for the GTI. Checking fluids, a good detail, new numbers, flags, and names, and the car was good to go. Recce was mucky and wet, so we opted to run the mud tires instead of gravel tires. Fortunately, the weather got nicer on Saturday.. The muds wound up being a good choice.. The guys started in 26th place, at the end of the pack. By the end of stage one (Gilhouly, +-6mi), they moved up to 17th, and 4th in G2. They drove a steady, clean race, finishing 14th OA, 2nd in G2 their first time on stage.. a stellar debut. But it’s not Hendo’s first time in a gravel car. He normally runs a Modified 4 ‘06 STi in the local rally crosses, which helped him build a sollid foundation that carried over well to the stages.. We are looking foward to working with the Henderson/McDowell team  in 2010. These guys have been bitten hard by the rally bug..:)

All of the Tabor’s finished on the podium in their respective classes, free of _too much_ drama. Mark Tabor and Ben Bradley had a bit of an offroad excursion that “modified” the rear subframe towards the end of the event. To spite the car “crabwalking” on fast straights, they pressed on to the end, still finishing in the top 10 and 2nd in PGT. Matt Tabor and Jeff Zurschmeide finished up 3rd PGT in the ‘99 2.5 RS. Bruce “Papa” Tabor and John Elkin’s Nissan Sentra SE-R  would up ahead of the Tabor Ladies’ Acura RSX Type S in the production battle. The “Tabor Cup” has switched hands yet again, after the Ladies’ victory at WIld West Rally In Pomeroy, Wa. Congrats to the Tabor’s once again, for starting and finishing all 4 cars.

Tags: Henderson, Mt Hood Rally, Tabor, Tabor rally team

This entry was posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 11:25 AM and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.