I came onto the American rally scene a bit late for Rim, unfortunately. Seen some in-car from the last year it ran. (Some of those stages looked more suited to off-road trucks than rally cars, but it is what it is.)

One of my favorites was Laughlin. Nevermind 99% of the racing actually took place closer to Phoenix than Laughlin; this was a great rally. Multiple services in a day, massive silt, multiple DNFs, the WRC-style start/finish ramp in the hotel parking lot, the two-at-a-time Super Special Stage out behind the hotel. I loved Laughlin.

That was the year the Rallynotes.com "Red Army" (about 10 of us volunteering as service crew, all wearing red shirts) huddled together for warmth in the service vehicles on a playground on the reservation when the call came in car 761 was down and needed crew. A caravan of three or four service rigs (other teams flew too high on that stage as well) made their way down the dustiest roads I've ever seen, where we collected our battered Neon and hauled it back to the hotel.

We were up late repairing a fuel tank, replacing a fuel pump that had been knocked out of the tank, and making sure the rest of the car was okay. The damage was so bad, we were eyeballing Dodge Neons in driveways and salvage yards along the way back to Laughlin, even stopping at a couple to see if we could buy spares.

As the final cars returned to the hotel to drive over the start/finish ramp, we got ZE NEON back together and everyone cheered as the little red and white 4-door crossed the ramp under its own power. A great weekend I'll never forget.

Shame the event ended up being collateral damage in a messy divorce or something.

Press on regardless, mate. You'll be back in the saddle soon.