Karen. A year on. Sheâs forgiven. And sheâs joining Sean and Kendra for Fridayâs trip south to Portland.
The trio of Sean Edwards, Kendra Miller and Karen the Volvo 242 Turbo are giving Oregon Trail Rally another go. Last year? They made the finish, but it wasnât pretty. Unlike the car, which is very pretty.
âI remember seeing an all-black touring car in the 1990s,â said Edwards. âI thought it was very cool â thatâs why we went with this. I like it. It looks like Darth Vaderâs helmet.â
Lamp pod in place, itâs impossible to argue.
Team DirtFish Alasdair Lindsay and Brenten Kelly capture co-worker Sean Edwards in his hour of need
Last year, the rear of the car lunched itself on the second run around Portland International Raceway.
âI wanted to go home,â smiled Edwards, a man who goes rallying to put pep in his step and speed on his side.
âI wanted to tuck my tail and put the car on the trailer.â
He wasnât allowed. A social media campaign kicked off within minutes and a replacement rear end was found. Sadly, the owner of the axle was on holiday. In Japan. No matter. The deal was done and Karen was up and running in time for Saturday morning. After a couple of hours sleep, Sean, too, was up. The running would come later.
Karen drew plenty of admiring glances in downtown Dufur last year. It'll be the same this week
And thatâs just the start of the story. Just weeks earlier, the left-rear wheel had parted company and overtaken them at the Olympus Rally. Edwards and Miller were hoping for better fortunes when they crossed the Columbia River.
After a dark start, they saw the light.
While you wait for the start of round four of the ARA National Championship presented by Kubota, take half an hour and watch what happened to two of the nicest people in rallying at last yearâs OTR.
âHell yeah.â
Hell. Yeah.
