Prescribed Burn Comeback at Rocky Mountain Rally

Sirius Rally team member Jennifer completed her first serious stage rally this weekend, as a codriver for Mark Jennings-Bates. The weather was beautiful and the stages were dry and fast. Friday’s national leg was complicated by a blown turbo hose early in the rally, and a temporary transmission failure on the final motocross park stage. Jennifer made a novice decision to check in to service early in order to maximize time to repair the turbo and incured a substantial penalty. Mark improvised an effective turbo pipe seal, and the team continued Friday lacking boost power to the turbo engine. All these setbacks left the Prescribed Burn Team in 30th place for Saturday’s regional leg.

Undeterred by the disadvantage of placing last and 1.5 minutes behind the next car, Mark and Jennifer progressed on the Saturday stages, overtaking competitors on nearly every stage. The shadymobile put on a fantastic spectator show, overtaking a car on a tight corner on an early stage, and taking a fast wrong turn and spinout later on the same corner. A questionable reseed left them behind a number of cars they passed on previous stages, but Mark was concise and assertive in regaining postition over the later stages. The team posted the fourth fastest times on SS12 and SS14 despite an ailing turbo. Jennifer progressively got a handle on the sometimes superfluous Jemba notes and allowed Mark to get a good rythym and gain substantial time on stage by the end of the day.

The Prescribed Burn / Sirius Rally Team finished in 8th Regional and 15th overall. This was an outstanding result given the mechanical troubles, penalties and codriver inexperience!!

Jennifer and Mark are looking forward to Mountain Trials Regional Stage Rally in June, where the Prescribed Burn Team will increase the level of competition and challenge the regional leaders for a top five finish.

Without Gord on Saturday the Rocket Rally crew was very busy at service. The Rocket Rally open car placed 1st in open and 3rd overall, with Gord Olsen at the wheel.

Link to Rocky Mountain photos HERE.

2007 Rocky Mountain Weekend Begins

Sirius Rally Team members are departing today for the Rocky Mountain National Stage Rally taking place outside of Calgary, Alberta. Jennifer will be codriving for the Prescribed Burn Rally Team. This is Jennifer’s first big rally as a codriver, and the pressure is on to keep pace with her teammate and established rally driver Mark Jennings-Bates. They have entered both the national and the regional events in Open class. Mark is familiar with the Rocky stage roads but is still getting to know both his new car and his new codriver. Jennifer’s job this time out will be to avoid time and control penalties, and to get some practice reading Jemba notes at speed. This could very easily be the event that authenticates Jennifer’s status as a total rally addict.

Gord and Onur will be supporting Gord Olsen’s run for the win in a Rocket Rally rental car. Maybe they’ll give the Prescribed Burn Team a little help on the side too….

Click HERE for a great summary of the event on the SpecialStage Rally Forum.
Link to the Rocky Mountain Rally website HERE.

Wish us luck and we’ll keep you posted!

Update – Thursday AM
Warwick and I arrived safely but our overnight drive was a snowstorm from Revelstoke onwards. It is snowing in Calgary, and the weatherman is predicting 10cm overnight. It is shaping up to be a snow and mud rally! The Prescribed Burn car is still not running and will be trailered to the race to be assembled with parts from Rocket Rally. The rex was initially considered as a donor vehicle, but I’m glad there was a better option.

The ‘Lost Legacy’ Drives Again!!

The Sirius Rally Team is excited to report that Onur’s Legacy has been recovered from an isolated Squamish logging road, where it spent the winter. He stuffed it into a ditch with no gas and two flat tires in early December, and had to walk about 40 km back to civilization overnight during one of the coldest weekends in 2006.

Gord and Jennifer had joined Onur in two seperate rescue missions earlier this year, traveling up the Squamish Valley road in Gord’s hardy Legacy. The road conditions were passable but the crew was met with snowbanks over 3ft tall. ‘Peggy the Legacy’ spontaneously blew the driver’s side airbag on the last trip home, and was getting too beat to take another ride out into the woods. Onur seemed to be not entirely sure where the car even was, and we decided
to wait until a lot more snow had melted before resuming the search.

The Legacy was discovered and reported to the RCMP this past week. The towing company Onur had consulted to rescue the car last winter was called to retrieve the vehicle, and contacted Onur with the news. Onur and pal Ian set out in a rental truck to find the ‘Lost Legacy’ but were thwarted by two flat tires, and returned to town with a logging crew. They borrowed a better truck from Rob at SMD Automotive in Whistler, and managed to get up the road far enough to find the car. The windshield had been smashed, but with some gas, new tires and a new battery, Onur got to drive his car out. He had been commuting on the Greyhound all winter, and with the recent strike he’s ecstatic to have his daily driver back. Stay tuned to see if this prolonged misadventure / near death experience has been enough to remedy Onur’s total lack of self control behind the wheel….

MOMAR Squamish Adventure Race 2007

Gord and Sirius team member in training Onur Tezcan completed their first adventure race last weekend. The MOMAR course was a gruelling seven hour journey involving mountain biking, treking, navigation and a rappel. Squamish is well known for it’s steep ascent and descent trails; the main hike ’stairway to heaven’ was the biggest challenge of the race. Although the elite racers completed the course in just over four hours, it was a big accomplishment for the Sirius team to finish the racecourse, as they were very undertrained for the event. Onur probably had no idea what he was getting into but both he and Gord are looking forward to giving adventure racing another try. The Sirius team plans to get out on the Squamish racecourse again as part of regular training.

Jennifer assumed a volunteer role at the race as a result of her injury, and got some good photos of the boys in action. As a volunteer she watched the teams come through an important checkpoint and learned a lot about transitions and race procedure that will be very useful in future events. Her clavicle is still troublesome and will need at least another few weeks to heal, but more adventure races are being planned for the Sirius team, hopefully later in the summer!

Check out the MOMAR Squamish HERE.

Link to the Sirius Rally Team MOMAR photos HERE. There are also photos of our pals from Revelstoke, who also entered the race. Congrats to Bart Jarmula, who finished 3rd in the 1M category!

May Event Updates

The Sirius Rally Team is scheduled to be very busy this May as adventure racers, stage rallyists and service crew. Gord will be competing solo in The Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race because of Jennifer’s untimely clavicle fracture. This was a huge bummer because it was in Squamish and our first adventure race ever. We are considering MOMAR events later in the season, and Jennifer will be healed in time for Rocky. As mentioned below, she’s taking on a new codriving assignment as a Prescribed Burn Rally Team member. We may also be traveling to Washington for the Olympus Rally on May 24 Weekend. There’s not much of a break before TSD and Stage events in June…. Alcan deadlines are coming up fast.

Click HERE for the Olympus Stage Rally website.
Click HERE for the Rocky Mountain Stage Rally website.

Stage Season for Sirius Team Member!

Jennifer will be making her start as a stage event codriver for the 2007 season. She is joining the already accomplished Mark Jennings-Bates as part of his Prescribed Burn Rally Team. The Prescribed Burn team, 2006 WCRC Novice Champions, is based in the Okanagan and debuts a new rallycar this year. The first outing for the new team will be May 26, 2007 as a national entry in the Rocky Mountain Rally. Codriving for an established driver will be a challenge and a nearly vertical learning curve, but it will be a great time and a fun way to get ready for ALCAN.

Check out the Prescribed Rally Team website HERE.