Flatirons Rally

Olympus Rally Press Release

From SpecialStage.com

Despite DNF Flatirons Tuning Rally Team Makes Progress in Championship
By: Flatirons Tuning Rally Media

The Olympus Rally, based in Olympia, WA, marked the fourth round of the 2007 Rally America National Championship. Held only three weeks after the Oregon Trail Rally, the Olympus Rally is second of a string of three events leading to a six week summer hiatus. The 2007 event marked the first time competing at the Washington-based rally for the Flatirons Tuning Rally Team, as the rally made its return to the National Championship Calendar.

"Olympus was going to be an important event for us. Even though we won Production GT at the last two rallies, we still weren't really sure where we were in terms of pace for the championship since at 100 Acre Wood we had new car teething problems before Matthew [Johnson 2006 Champion] crashed, and in Oregon we only went head-to-head on a few real stages with Matthew," stated Flatirons Tuning driver Stephan Verdier.  He added, "We also really wanted to work on starting at 100% on the first stage so we wouldn't have to worry about trying to make up time later in events, something that we had struggling with at previous rallies."

For the Flatirons Rally Team the Olympus Rally started off well, with class stage wins on two of the first four stages of the event. However, on Special Stage Five things began to take a turn for the worse. "Within the first mile of Stage Five, the intercom just went out. Scott tried to call the notes loud enough for me to hear so we could complete the stage and try to make repairs, but it was hard to listen to the notes and concentrate on driving without the intercom working. We missed a turn and stalled losing 20 seconds. On Stages Six and Seven we wanted to make up some of the time, but it was hard for me to concentrate after the problems on Stage Five; we ended up making a couple of mistakes and lost time on both of those stages," noted Verdier.

The last three stages of Leg One were a repeat of five, six, and seven. "On the repeat stages we were within a couple of seconds of winning the class on every stage. It was good to see that when we were on our game we could be competitive for the championship. I think if we hadn't decided to compromise on our tire choice we would have been even faster on those stages," commented co-driver Scott Crouch.

Scattered rain storms and overcast skies greeted the teams on the morning of Leg Two. After a brief Parc Expose in downtown Shelton, WA, the teams set out to complete the morning loop of stages. Despite finishing Leg One with competitive stage times the string of bad luck that had put the Flatirons duo out of first place in class returned on the first stage of the morning. "About half way through Stage 11 we started to lose turbo boost and had to switch the car to the low boost setting, giving up precious horsepower and losing time. On Stage 12 it became evident we had damaged our exhaust on some of the rough sections at some point and had an exhaust leak that was robbing us of power. Also a few miles into the stage we were forced to stop with electrical damage which caused the engine to shut down," stated Crouch.

With the team's 2004 Subaru WRX's electrical system damaged, preventing the vehicle from running, the team was forced to withdraw from competition. Despite the disappointing result, the Olympus Rally marked an important step forward for the championship aspirations of the Flatirons Tuning Rally Team. "Obviously we are disappointed to not have been able to finish the event or make an attempt at a comeback, but we feel like we have made a lot of progress for the championship. Every event we are making strides towards developing the new car and getting better performance. As a driver I have been working really hard on trying to get up to speed as the competition in Production GT has really evolved while I was absent from the scene. We'll figure out what caused our electrical failure and continue to develop the rest of the car. We hope to be able to take the pace we showed on the first day's stages to the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally and really battle for event wins for the rest of the championship; we still have strides to make with the car but we know we can be competitive and challenge for the overall championship," stated Verdier.

It's Bill!

Thanks to our friends on All Wheel Drive Pirates, we found a name for our new Rally mascot; Bill.
He seems to be one lucky buffalo, too!
Bill made his first appearance on our car for the Oregon Trail Rally.

We have stickers available in a full color vinyl decal that is approximately 4”x5”.

He's a great way to show your support for the Flatirons Tuning Rally Team as we compete in the Production GT class in the Rally America series.

To view the stickers, click HERE

Oregon trail Press Release

From SpecialStage.com

Flatirons Tuning Rally Team Emerges Victorious at Oregon Trail
Author: Flatirons Tuning Rally Media
Photos from www.Rally.Subaru.com

The Flatirons Tuning Rally Team wins Production GT amongst strongest field so far in the 2007 Rally American National Championship to move into the championship lead.

The Flatirons Tuning Rally Team secured their bid for the 2007 Rally American Production GT National Championship with their second straight win of the 2007 season. With 2006 Champion Matthew Johnson returning to competition after a crash at the 100 Acre Wood Rally that destroyed his competition vehicle, as well as fast regionally based competitors Canadian Norm LeBlanc and Washington based Jamie Thomas adding to a full field of the Rally American National Championship regulars the Oregon Trail Rally saw the most competitive field to date.

"Oregon was going to be a very important rally for us from the very beginning. After shaking the car down at 100 Acre Wood and not really getting a good chance to measure ourselves against Matt [Johnson] we weren't really sure how we'd do. I know how to drive on these roads from when I ran my own Production GT car and we made some key improvements to the car but we still needed to see how we would do against Matt since he will probably be the driver we will have to beat for the championship." Stated Flatirons Tuning driver Stephan Verdier when asked about the importance of the event.

Adding to the challenging nature of the Oregon Trail Rally was a series of spectator stages held a Portland International Raceway on Friday night, making Oregon Trail the only 3 day rally on the calendar and presenting teams with an important strategy challenge. "The stages at PIR are tricky, you can't really win the rally here, but you can lose it, we saw 3 of the high budget Open class teams blow motors and drop out of the rally before we ever hit the first real stage of the rally. Matt [Johnson] came out charging hard and looked to be taking big risks, we wanted to play it safe and try to get into rally mode and get adapted to our new suspension. We lost more time then we wanted to but it was important to make sure we didn't damage the car when the real stages begin. We planned to go out and push on Saturday and try to make up time and maybe pressure Matt into making a mistake so we could close the gap." Noted co-driver Scott Crouch while commenting on the team's strategy for the rally.

Leg Two of the rally started with the Flatirons Tuning Rally Team taking the Production GT stage win on the first stage of the morning by 6 seconds over Johnson. On Special Stage 8 the Flatirons Tuning Team kept the pressure up and took the stage wins on five of the six stages to take the overall lead in Production GT. "On Saturday I was really pushing the car and trying to attack while not taking too many risks. We were able to beat Matt on the first stage which was important for us," said Verdier.

Sunday saw the teams tackle just four stages to make up the third and final leg of the rally. Again the Flatirons Tuning Rally Team was on the attack as they ended up taking Production GT stage wins on 3 of the 4 stages to finish the rally with an almost 2 minute lead. "We had a couple of minor mechanical issues with the differentials sometimes putting us into front wheel drive but I don't think it effected our times very much. It was too bad that Matt [Johnson] broke his transmission on Saturday and wasn't able to battle with us. I feel confident that if we can do better on the starts of rallies though that we can compete for the championship with Matt even though we have only gone head to head on one stage with both cars running at 100%. We will take the car back to the shop and get the differentials worked out and continue to develop the car towards maximum specification and hopefully we can once again battle for a class-win next month at the Olympus Rally." Stated Verdier after the podium celebration in Hillsboro, OR.

The Driver:
Stephan Verdier, of Long Beach, CA, is a former top Production GT championship contender and has taken two overall rally wins to date in his rallying career. In addition to his duties as the driver for the Flatirons Tuning Rally Team, Verider also competes in the Formula D Drifting series where he will debut a new rear wheel drive Subaru WRX STi as well as participating in a variety of Time Attack races. Along with his Motorsports exploits, Verider is a former French National Downhill Skiing competitor as well as former 2 times Winter X Games Skier Cross competitor.

The Co-Driver:
Scott Crouch is the General Manager of Flatirons Imports in Boulder, CO, home to the largest Subaru Dealership in the Rocky Mountain region. Scott has been co-driving for over three years and won the 2005 Rally-America Production GT National Co-Driver Championship as well as was on one of the first 12 teams to compete for Rally Gold at the ESPN X Games in 2006. Scott is the proud father of three children and is supported by his wife Libby.

The Team:
The Flatirons Tuning Rally Team is supported by Flatirons Tuning, a performance shop for Subarus, Mitsubishis, and Hondas, based in Boulder, CO. The Flatirons Tuning team is also supported by BPM Sports ( http://www.BPMsportsusa.com), a top Subaru tuning company based in Australia, COBB Tuning (http://www.COBBtuning.com), one of the top Subaru tuners in the United States, Tire Centers International, a nationwide tire chain with over 100 commercial centers nation wide, and Prodrive, a Subaru performance and rally parts supplier.