Hello all!

[monte 283]

Just wanted to introduce myself and join the fray.

I used to be the crew chief for Jerry Sweet when he was running his 99 rally cars in the SCCA Pro Rally series; first in U2 and then Group 2 when they changed the classes. We came close to winning the G2 championship in 1995, losing by 5 points to Sam Bryan and Rob Walden in their ultra trick 900. We had many a a great time and I see a few familliar names (I can recall changing the struts with Mike White on Jim Andersons Honda rally car in '94 or '95 (Copper Harbor, MI) and remember the Maine summer rally and John's 96?) and even tho I have been out of the rally picture for...crap, a long time...I still try to keep myself informed as to the Who's Who of SAAB motorsports.

I also designed the logo for the Western States Rally Championship (WSRC) and had some stories on "how to service crew" posted on SS.com a few years ago; they must have been good as they were re-posted a few times for newbie service crews looking for answers.

Keep the rally faith; I will interject with my two cents, tall tales and outright lies as needed. If you have any questions about our rally days at Team Troll, feel free to ask.

Cheers!

Mike Blija
Team Troll crew chief, 1990-96.

[Rallyho]

Hey Mike! What the hell! How are you....I remember that friggn' POR...I thikn we changed the struts on that damn qualude at every, single service...and twice on the side of the road...in the rain...and ended up not finishing the event...good times.

So here are a few crazy's....drop me a line...I'll catch you up!

Mike

[monte 283]

Yeah, that was crazy stuff; it all blends together in a bunch of random snapshots now but it was all fun. Swapping a beer for a Terratrip probe at STPR...the horrible hail storm in Ohio where we put planks down to drive up the car up steps to hide in a stadium...trying to start the car at Sno-Drift when it was below zero...NASCAR tire changes at POR for brockway mountain...bending the steering rack straight by driving the service van on top of it at Ojibwe...Sam and Rob's quick but fragile NG900 on its roof and helping flip the car over...

I also recall Ojibwe in '95 and waiting by the side of the road after the last stage Saturday night. Jim came out of the control and the front brakes were on fire! He paused just enough to say he was going back to Bemidji, trailing smoke as he left with the front rotors still red.

Jerry had kissed a tree with the drivers side of the car that night, just in front of the B-pillar, so he had a tow strap holding the door shut. One of his very rare off's and I believe that was the year we almost tore the front control arm off on Friday. We had replaced it with junkyard part at STPR when he took to the ditch to avoid a local on the closed practice stage. Since it wasnt boxed and plated it bent like a banana when he struck a rock. We were lucky enough to slip a guy at a service station $10 to bend it back and weld it in place just before Parc Expose Saturday morning.

I see his car is still alive; nice to know it wasn't scrapped or turned into a dirt track car as there were a few S&R goodies in the gearbox. It went like stink and I always had a blast driving it to get fuel, tech or back to the hotel from the stages. We were at Maine winter and he wanted me to try out the rev limiter so we opened her up on the way out of Rumford until we realized we were doing 70-ish in a 35 zone. Oops.

[Crazyswede]

I have The shell, John has the gearbox, Mike took the engine and wheels. The car is in kinda rough shape but I used it off an on for a while and am trying to get it back into the "on" status again.

[monte 283]

Best of luck if you do try to restore it. It was Jerry's second car, the first was bent into a "U" after POR one year (that's why you tie your cage into the suspension points, boys and girls, and you leave the autopower bolt-in kits for cone squashers or street racers).

Prior to the buildup the car was going to be my wedding present until he bent the other one and decided since he had a running 99...he would build another rally car (I got a nice cookie jar, his old skidplate and the old SAAB sign from the dealer her worked for instead, no lie!). The fab work wasn't fantastic but Jerry worked for function and strength, not perfect welds and exact dimensions. With a whopping 150HP, stock brakes (with metal master pads!) and the good gearbox, he gave the guys with deeper pockets a good scare more than once when he passed them.

[Crazyswede]

yeah we had noticed a few interesting things with the way the car was built. Kind of figured out that it had a nice drivetrain and pretty basic in every other department....like the stock seats with sport and rally seat covers :lol: . If it ever makes it back to the stage rally it will need an entirely new cage. He rolled it at the 1999 maine forest rally....I had to do some pounding to get the roof to look about right.

[Geoff]

Yeah Jerry was pretty quick with that car. He passed me on the last stage one year at Maine. I was creeping through the stage with my hazards on (blown out upper A-arm mount) and he came upon me like a first-time male porn star. I put the car as far into the brush as I could and waved him by and by the time I came over the next crest a few seconds later all I could see were his tail lights disappearing into the woods a few turns ahead...

The wiring isn't anything I'd want in a car when events cost $1000. The last rallyX it was at something went nutty in the wiring and it wouldn't start for a few runs. We got some seat time in a VW and the diff broke. The 99 got started again and then the chains in the tranny broke when I was driving. Those old tires were great in the greasy mud though!

[Hans]

Sam and Rob's quick but fragile NG900 on its roof and helping flip the car over...

That NG900 still exists -- last I heard, one of Rob's employees, Doug Schrenk, owns it. It was at the SOC in '04.

[SaabsBreakDown]

Sam and Rob's quick but fragile NG900 on its roof and helping flip the car over...

That NG900 still exists -- last I heard, one of Rob's employees, Doug Schrenk, owns it. It was at the SOC in '04.

I heard that car got rolled. Rob told me a story about one of their cars getting autographed on the roof at soc '04 by Eric Carlson, and it got rolled at some point afterwards, so they cut that piece of the roof out of the car. I am not 100% but I believe it was the NG900.

[monte 283]

They rolled it at Ojibwe in 1996(?). I was spectating with my brother and they didn't come through on the stage. After sweep went through we drove back down and found them standing on the side of the road; the car was upside down 10-15 feet down the side of the hill. They were taking a fast right hand corner and the rear drifted out; they hit a rock with the driver's side rear tire and flipped upside down off the road into a tree. If the tree would not have been there they would have rolled further down the hill (I have a photo of them standing on the car somplace in my archives). We had to wait until the stage was run a second time before we could flip it over and pull it up to the road; the only part not dented was the driver's side door...which was crunched a bit when they flipped it back over. The crew chief started swearing at the tow truck operator and I started laughing. He wanted to know what was so funny and I told him it reminded me of "Days of Thunder".

He asked "Why is this like Days of Thunder?" "Because there is that scene where he comes in to the pits with the car smashed up and the mechanic says "How 'bout that, a side we don't have to fix" and the crew cheif kicks in the fender and says "I don't want you gettin' spoiled, Buck."
Then he started laughing too.

[SaabsBreakDown]

I just talked to my dad and he seems to think the car was autographed in '96, so that may be the roll rob was talking about. they probably built a new car, and cut that piece of roof out of the old one. That makes sense!

[79-99]

http://saabpics.com:3000/gallery2/d/125 ... +rally.jpg

Courtesy of DougM on SAABNET

79-99(Ed)

[Jordan]

...while a co-driver with motion sickness caused the retirement..

MoNgO?

[Crazyswede]

I have never caused a retirement due to motion sickness. I caused a retirement due to a 102 degree fever once with the flu...but I lasted a couple of stages.

[monte 283]

That's got to be tough to explain to the press:

"What happened to your team? Engine failure? Transmission blow-up? Rolled the car five times to avoid a spectator?"

"Uh, no...the co-driver puked on the route book and we couldn't read the directions."

At my first POR I noticed several co-drivers with Dramamine patches behind each ear. I also noticed a local newspaper reporter a little green in the gills; he rode the press stage with Paul Choinere.