DB Rally Team

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Car You could spend days reading and researching Mitsubishi’s racing and rallying heritage, I know I did. You could spend even more time on enthusiast sites for Mitsubishi Eclipse’s in particular. It seemed an unlikely rally car at first but after studying and talking to a few people it seemed like a no-brainer for the Teams first rally car. I never even knew there was an AWD Eclipse before I owned one. If you’ve read up on the Eclipse or any other 1G DSM you know that the 4G63 2.0 liter Turbo charged motor is one of the most reliable ever built. It has its quirks as any motor does but for the beating this thing has received only from me, I’m surprised it still runs. In fact this motor is still used to power the Lancer Evolution. Although this car is still running strong it may have to be retired soon. Its role will be soon exchanged with our parts car as it’s chassis and body is nearly perfect. There is also my WRX quietly waiting for a roll cage. So the future is exciting for our team as well as the amount of work and bribery to get the work done on these cars.

Driver Paul Willemsen was first introduced to motor sports with a gift from Europe of the ELF Formula 1 car with four steering wheels up front. I’ll never forget that toy, though I can’t remember where it ended up. Anyway, that also sparked an interest for more unusual cars and less popular forms of motor sport. Rallying was rarely played on the television in the U.S. but its occasional showing always drew my attention. Once I was able to drive there was never a better day than a rainy day to get my car or truck sideways. We’d also end up running local fire trails in my Isuzu Trooper. So in a sense we were training ourselves to what has now become a reality. A weekend away to Rally school and Autocross in a rental car was all that was left before we attacked our first rally In Reno, NV. The rest is the little bits of history outlined in these pages.

Co-Driver Travis Bos, a long time friend and another person of Dutch Heritage spent many hours on road trips and attacking fire trails with me in my Isuzu Trooper. He has always been an ‘outdoorsy’ person, as well as having a background in emergency medical service and being a person I could trust my life to, well he just seemed like the logical choice. Since he has proved to be a great co-driver and accomplished driver as well. Now we’ve known each other so long we seem to be like to bickering old ladies when were on stage, we always seem to lose that tension once we return for service. I think many drivers can relate to this relationship, if you can’t just think of a frustrating time with a spouse trying to give you directions neither of you are familiar with. That though is one of his greater attributes of being a co-driver, actually controlling the driver through his release of information at the most appropriate time.

Crew
Jason Jason Bos, Crew Chief, brother to Travis and also long time friend to myself as well. Jason has proved to be an integral part of our team, not only devoting his time but his vehicle, experiences and natural technical ability as well. Obviously also of Dutch heritage, sums up the meaning of our team name. Jason takes on the responsibilities of crew chief like managing the rest of the crew, parts, tools, safety etc.. And overseeing all the other crews work and keeps us on time in our allocated service time. Jason shares the responsibility of driving his or our service vehicle to and from different service areas on any particular rally. This is an integral part of our total performance as they are also timed to get from service area to service area and monitored for safety in transit and in service with potential violations be taken against our time. Jason has also stepped up to co-drive in his brother absence. He performed well taking on pace notes for is first rally. He was also co-pilot to the infamous 2004 Rim of the World Rally Super Special Stage jump. Jason on one of his first co-driving stages, got a little lost in the pace notes and was calling turns seemingly turn-for-turn until we flew at top speed through the flying finish and almost through the time control still reading notes until I mentioned he could stop, we had finished the stage. Some how the notes were similar and nothing tragic happened.

Rebecca Rebecca (Bec), we joking refer to as our ‘tire technician’. Actually it’s not much of a joke. Rebecca, sister to Travis and Jason, proved to be an important and integral part of the service crew as well from day one. The ‘Tire tech’ title was given as she jumped into the dirt and sand at our first rally to check and change the tires without much hesitation. She has since taken on the duties we typically overlook, even ones as simple as washing the windshield. Between all the crew members they all share a system of checks and balances to make sure all necessary work is done and on time. Her laugh and excitement after stage is always welcome after the in-car bickering of Travis and myself. Though technically not a brother, for our purposes she is as much as anyone in a family sense of our team. Rebecca also shares the responsibility of driving the service vehicle with Jason. She has also been the team photographer/videographer from time to time. We hope to have her in the co-driving seat before to long.

Frank Frank (Franky) Ansbro, Though technically not Dutch at all he claims he has some Irish heritage though we all know him to be more of Mexican decent. He is our honorary Dutch Brother. And it is our honor to have him on our team. He provides unlimited motivation and a certain ‘Mcgiver-ness’ in approach to what the rest of us see as impossible tasks. On our first rally we unloaded the car and found a leaky radiator. We had a spare and hours before tech. inspection, but I told Frank he had to change it in 20 minutes. He asked why and I told him that was the only time allotted in service. He turned around and finished in what I believe was about 12 minutes. Though he had the help of a coupe other people he go it done on time. He has since proved to be a great fabricator and his help in getting back to rallying in 2006 was essential. He asked at a recent rally why he was there, he said he had nothing to do, and I had to remind him that it was a testament to his pre-rally work and fabrication that we didn’t have much to do as well as finished 3 rd in our class. Franks motivation and drive also pushed him through a full 20-minute service trying to repair a bent control arm. Though the repair couldn’t be made in time to get us back on stage, most of us had given up upon sight, Frank nearly had to be forced to stop working as time expired on our service.

Support We’ve had some other friends help from time to time and welcome anyone who is willing to give up a weekend for us. We’ve also shared in what is one of the greatest things about rallying and our specific rallying community, is its sense of family. It seems no matter what rally we’ve been to some one has helped, offered to help or we have helped. Whether it’s sharing a part or advice or having the most of the Gavel Crew help push your broken down car back into the trailer, someone’s always willing to help. For the most part this also carries on stage and transit. Pre and post rallies we’ve been lucky to find great friends and advice from certain businesses like Road Race Engineering, and Rally Sport Engineering. We have also been fortunate to have help from our major sponsors Magnaflow Exhaust and Hanks Electrical Supply. If you’d like to help in any way please contact any one of us….

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