Tigard, Oregon-- The Hairpin Racing Team arrived in Prescott, Arizona on September 28 ready to race. Unfortunately the car did not want to cooperate. After taking the car off the trailer, driving it to the car wash, and attempting to return to the hotel, the turbo started blowing oil.

Lee Shadbolt and his crew spent all evening and the better part of Friday attempting to fix the engine. The team found Mt. Vernon Motorsports in Prescott to be very knowledgeable about turbochargers as they tore down, cleaned, and rebuilt the turbo in two hours. The turbo was in excellent shape, so that was not the problem. The team then took the car over to Lamb Subaru and hooked it up to their diagnostic computer. A loose wire was found at the oxygen sensor and repaired. This time when the car was fired up, no big oil cloud was seen but gasoline was pouring out the turbo. So much gas was leaking that it was a serious fire hazard and the engine was quickly shut off. About a quart of gas was now on the shop floor after running the engine for less than 5 minutes.

By now it was 3PM on Friday and the team decided that they were not going to make it to registration and technical inspection in time for the race. Hairpin officially withdrew its entry from the Prescott Forest ProRally.

Lee Shadbolt and Bob Sherman volunteered to crew for Paul Eklund and Scott Huhn in their Subaru Impreza USX that took 5th place overall by the end of the event on Saturday.

For more information on Hairpin please contact Tamara Shadbolt at (503) 624-6366.