Cage This, a race and rally car roll cage design and fabrication shop, has announced that it will sponsor Slapdash Racing in its newbie rally efforts.
“I’m excited about teaming up with Slapdash,” said Cage This CEO Bill Doyle, a 15-year master welder and fabricator. “While I’ve been around the rally scene for a few years now as a driver, co-driver and car builder, so it’s cool to see a start-up take to the stages. Especially when we’ll both be running E30 BMWs.”
Slapdash owner and driver Kris Gove is equally excited about the partnership. “This is literally a dream coming true. I’m watching my own vision come to life and Cage This is helping make that happen.”
Cage This designs, builds and fabricates roll cages, skid plates and a host of other racing bits for rally cars, track monsters, street cars, drift machines, dragsters, 4X4s, and anything else you can imagine. Check out their site at cagethis.com. Tell'em Slapdash sent you!
You made it!
Welcome to Slapdash Racing’s home for little wanderers. This is the place to learn a little about rally racing and why we’re doing what we’re doing. This may be a mid-life crisis gone awry, but alas, we’re going for it anyway.
Rally America describes rally as, “Real cars. Real roads. Real Fast.” The car is real, a classic E30 BMW. The roads are real, as rallies are run on both public streets, called transit stages, and private “special stages”, like old logging roads. The car, when it’s ready, will be real fast. Top teams reach ludicrous speeds of 125 mph. That's not so bad on a race track, but our goal is to reach these speeds on dirt roads in the middle of the woods in the rain, at night, while it's snowing, or all of the above.
Rally racing is about endurance. Stamina. Insanity. Crash your car? Fans come from behind the safety of trees and rocks to help roll your car back over and send you on your way – cheering the whole time.
There may be only one driver and one co-driver, or navigator, but rally is truly a team sport. It takes time. Money. Effort. Bloody knuckles at midnight. Sore muscles in the morning. But it’s all worthwhile. Rally is a complete spectacle.
Take a look around this site and the links provided. Then, come back and see us every once in a while. You can also find out how you can become a Slapdasher yourself!
Thanks for visiting!
Slapdash Racing made its rally debut at the 2011 New England Forest Rally! We had a great time, met a lot of interesting characters and etched some memories into the banks.
Since we were a regional entry, technically there were two rallies, the Mexico Regional Rally, and the Errol Regional Rally. Our scrappy rag-tag team managed a seventh place finish out of twelve on the first day. On the second day, we discovered, unfortunately, why they call NEFR a 'car-breaker'. We surfed up a wave of heavy gravel that gave way into a gully featuring a giant hidden rock that shattered our aluminum oil pan. This was despite a thick skid plate AND a bash bar protecting the pan. That was a big rock.
We're already planning for next year's event and some in-between events, possible Rally New York.
Slapdash Racing would like to thank Crew Chief Stephanie 'Eagle Eye' Gove for her stellar service setup, despite never having done anything remotely related to crewing a rally. She was the mastermind behind the planning and logistics and spent countless hours watching the clock in a field of crazy people in the deep woods of Maine.
Slapdash would also like to thank its title sponsor, Cage This and Bill Doyle. We really couldn't have done it without the support, technical knowledge and years of his rally experience. He also lent us his whole service rig and trailer. He's been the recipient of many a panic call pre-rally, hearing things like, "I broke this, how do I fix it?" and "Why is there smoke coming out of my engine bay and the car's not on?" from Slapdash owner and drive, Kris Gove. Slapdash Racing appreciates his unwavering effort.
And there's Bill Hatem, co-driver extraordinaire. Hatem had no idea what he was getting himself into. Before shakedown, he and Gove were in the dark about what was going on. But by the end, Hatem had started to master the timing, figure out the algebraic pace notes and get a feel for the rhythm on a brisk drive through the Maine woods.
Slapdash Racing would also like to thank Matt Albie, Payam Fahr, Ryan Donaldson, Kyle Dwyer, Neal Liddle and Eric Shea.
Rallying is truly a team effort that needs time, money and a lot of insanity. And help. Lots of help. Slapdash Racing would like to thank its sponsors and friends for their dedication, blood, skinned knuckles and patience.
