About Us

We are an awesome rally crew.

the CRANE RALLY CREW (Britta and Adam)

CRANE RALLY CREW was established around the year 2001 when my friend gave me a sweatshirt for my birthday which read:

(front)

CRANE

RALLY

CREW

(back)

Putting the hurt on dirt since 1997

And it’s true, ever since I learned to drive (I got my license in ’97), I wanted to go quickly, competently, anywhere, in any car.

I found out about US rallying in school, and took a road trip out to the Oregon Trail Rally in Tillamook the year it snowed (1999?).  I still look at those pictures with awe, remembering the sound and smell of cars going entirely too fast down narrow forest roads.  I volunteered and spectated, making friends at any event I could get to.  It wasn’t until I got to Co-drive that I knew I would build and race my own car.  I wasn’t very prepared, or very good at co-driving.  We crashed on the first stage (my fault – sorry Chris) of the Doo Wops Rally in 2002.

I went to School at WWU and Graduated from the Vehicle Research Institute in 2006, the same year I drove my first Doo Wops event.  I met my co-driver and special lady friend Britta Nielsen there, and most everyone who ever serviced for me – Marc, Dustin, Jack, Che, Ethan, Vedran, Noah, Eric, Tyler . . . Some of them even started competing in rallies on their own (I started it).

My classmate Dustin, and noble Ken, serviced for us a few times, earning the name Op.S.S. for all their hard work. Once Dustin realized how easy rallying with a friend could be, he started building his own Corolla, #206 – the Purple Panda, with a GT-S that had some rally pedigree (and damage). Having an experienced hand around leveled out the learning curve a bit. In fact, since starting only two years ago, Dustin’s won the regional class at WRC Mexico.

As of the beginning of 2013, #742 -Patches has done almost 30 events, most with Britta, most of them finishing, a few mechanical DNFs and a few dead last but finished.  Dustin runs ‘the Purple Panda’, which has had three different engines, been rolled, repaired, finished last, and won the regional class at WRC Mexico. We’ve outgrown our cars, and are in the process of distilling the essences of AE86 rally into two new builds. ‘Hatches’ will be built to win Gp2 against some of the serious competitors that have shown up recently. ‘Panda2.0’ will have an engine displacement well above 2.0 liters. Think of the Olympic motto ‘Swifter, Higher, Stronger’.

Not a goal or ambition, but a hope is for Support.  Running events is pretty time consuming, and expensive, squeezing in time for promotion is also time consuming, but if you don’t ask . . .  So I’d like to thank Contour (now defunct), makers of some of the finest, fun’est action cameras for the deals I’ve gotten on their gear.  The GPS camera is a lot of fun, check out some videos on the media page.  Speaking of asking, there’s a lot of room on my car for stickers and my box van makes a great billboard.  We’re kings of the scene at rallies and RWD makes us a crowd favorite.  We could use help with rally equipment and safety gear, tires, event entry fees and lodging.  I’ve got my contact information below, if you’d like to show your support.

Adam Crane

PandaCraneRally@gmail.com – Spam Away!!

360 73 99 11 8 – this had better be good.

We accept paypal at PandaCraneRally@gmail.com