Local Hero

Earlier this year, my better half finally talked me into buying a Subaru for family hauling duties. Since this was my first experience with something that wasn’t an old RWD Mopar or Volvo, I knew I needed to find a good Subaru mechanic. I asked Ryan Douthit, who owns Subiesport, and he recommended Smart Service up in Shoreline (just north of Seattle). Last week I brought our car in to Smart for the 60k service and spent some time talking to Gary Cavett, their Service Advisor.

In his spare time, Gary races a Pro-Rally Impreza, and he just put together a cool ride page for his rally car, and even uploaded some video. Gary has been at this for almost ten years, and he and his team were the 2005 Northwest Region Pacific Rally Series overall champions. As you might expect, racing at this level is not cheap. Costs can be well over $4,000 per event. You’re looking at $700-1100 for entry fees, $800-1000 for tires, $600 for race fuel and another $1,000+ for hotel/gas/food/transport. And that doesn’t even include the car and all the stuff you’re gonna break! We’ll be sure to follow Gary’s progress during the 2009 season, so stay tuned.