Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Tall Pines Wrap-Up

I'm back from what in my mind was a successful Rally of the Tall Pines: we finished the rally without major problems, and Luis got his 3rd place in Production 2 class in the Ontario Performance Rally Championship.

The weather forecast was all over the map leading up to the rally. In the end, the weather on the day of the rally was clear, with a fairly thick layer of snow from a few days before. The stages ended up being a combination of loose snow and powder early in the day, which compacted to almost ice as the day went on. This made tire choice difficult, and we were forced to compromise based on the tires available, but Luis did his best to cope with the poor grip we experienced at some points.

We were really running to finish, so caution was the order of the day. We passed plenty of cars that pushed a bit too hard and went off the road. When the Tall Pines TV broadcast airs in late December, watch for Car 41, the yellow Rabbit of Malo/Fudalej. They went off near the end of the spectator area on stage A5, the third run through the Iron Bridge spectator stage, and judging by the aftermath, it must have been pretty spectacular when it happened.

We were only entered in the regional portion of the rally, so we had a 2-or-so-hour gap in the middle of the day while the national-only stages were being run. After that, we re-joined the rally for the final four stages, including two runs through the always amazing Castledine's Corner spectator area.

Every year, I'm floored by witnessing the sheer amount of work and manpower (and by imagining the work that I don't witness firsthand) that goes into pulling the Rally of the Tall Pines off. This year was the best year that I've personally experienced, not only because of the "proper" Tall Pines snow that's been absent the past few years, but because the workers and organizers consistently manage to do the unthinkable of out-doing their performance from the year before.

Jeff

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Tall Pines is a-comin'

After a month away from rallying, it's time for the last event of the season: the Rally of the Tall Pines in Bancroft, Ontario.

Tall Pines is the last rally in both the Ontario and Canadian championships, and it's generally an amazing rally in its own right. Like most years, several titles are on the line and the weather is extremely iffy - right now I hear Bancroft has a snowfall warning, but the forecast for competition day is above freezing... barely - so it should be a good show for the fans.

I'm going to be riding once again with Luis Melo. He and I teamed up earlier this year at the Rallye Perce-Neige in February. This will be our first foray in the Ontario Performance Rally Championship since then, but with our strong second-place finish at Perce-Neige, we're still in the running for third in the Production 2 championship for the year.

We won't have internet access in Bancroft, so I won't be able to post an update here until after I get back. In the meantime, there are a few sources for realtime and semi-realtime news, results and photos. Look for Car 45:

flatovercrest - rally news and photos
Rally Scoring - live results and stage times

Jeff