PBRT Competing @ Alberta’s Rocky Mountain Rally This Weekend

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Local Team Takes on National Competition at Alberta’s Rocky Mountain Rally

May 20, 2009 – The Prescribed Burn Rally Team will be traveling to Alberta to compete in their first national event of the 2009 rally season, the epic Rocky Mountain Rally, taking place on the ranchland roads outside of Calgary May 28-30.   This will be the second outing for the team’s new 2004 Subaru STi rally car, which has received suspension and brake upgrades since the team’s open class win at the Cochrane winter rally in March.

The Prescribed Burn Rally Team is aiming to improve upon their 2008 result of 6^th overall.  Driver Mark Jennings-Bates is looking forward to giving the new car its first hard drive on the fast, open Alberta roads: “We were happy with last year’s finish, but it was a learning experience for us.  This year we are better prepared, with the right tires and more knowledge.  We’re planning on pushing our limits from the very first stage, and staying in close battles with some of the eastern teams that finished just ahead of us last year.”  Rocky is a particular challenge for codrivers, because it is run on computer generated ‘Jemba’ notes, a vast difference from most events, where teams are permitted to generate their own pace notes.  With a new rally computer in the car, codriver Jennifer Daly is feeling confident: “Two years ago Rocky was the first event for Mark and I as a team, and we’ve come a long way since.  The car is well equipped and we are working well together; I think we’ll be able to push harder and use the Jemba notes more effectively than in the past.” 

The Rocky Mountain National Rally will be broadcast on TSN this fall as part of the televised Canadian National Rally Series.  The event draws rally teams from across Canada, including the 2008 championship winning Rocky Rally Team, lead by Patrick Richard.  The 2009 Rocky Mountain Rally begins on stage roads familiar to the teams from other regional Alberta events, and features a head to head super special at the Race City Speedway on Friday night.

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The Prescribed Burn Rally Team is a performance stage rally team based in British Columbia’s Okanagan valley.  Driver Mark Jennings-Bates and co-driver Jennifer Daly compete in an open class Subaru WRX STi, supported by a dedicated team of local volunteers.  For 2009 the Prescribed Burn Team will be striving to win the Western Canadian Rally Championship.  Mark Jennings-Bates is also endeavouring to raise millions of dollars for charity as part of his bid to be the first Canadian driver to enter the infamous Dakar Rally in 2011.

The Prescribed Burn Rally Team is sponsored by BCResortHomes.com, Agar Paint & Autobody, BigO Tire in Westbank, Aerius Engineering, Wyatt Auto Parts, Kelowna Moving Centre, Provisiondata.com, The Great Canadian Oil Change and Bell Racing.  The team is supported by K96.3FM, Castanet.net and Green Couch Designs.

(as reported by PBRT media)

Follow the Prescribed Burn Rally Team @ Rocky via twitter (link on right) or check out FlatOverCrest.com for all the rally tweets….

Canadian Rally Championship on TV – Reruns & Premieres!

TSN will be running the entire 2008 CRC season as a leadup to the 2009 shows:

2008 Rallye Perce-Neige – Maniwaki, Quebec: Mon Jun 08 09 05:00

2008 Rocky Mountain Rally – Calgary, Alberta: Mon Jun 08 09 05:30

2008 Baie des Chaleurs – Richmond, Quebec: Tue Jun 09 09 05:00

2008 Rallye Defi – Ste. Agathe, Quebec: Tue Jun 09 09 05:30

2008 Pacific Forest Rally – Merritt, British Columbia: Wed Jun 10 09 05:00

2008 Rally of the Tall Pines – Bancroft, Ontario: Sat Jun 13 09 05:00

2008 Year In Review – Sat Jun 13 09 05:30

2009 Air Dates:

2009 Rallye Perce-Neige – Maniwaki, Quebec: Sat Jun 13 09 11:30 Premiere

2009 Rocky Mountain Rally – Calgary, Alberta: Sat Jun 20 09 11:30 Premiere

(as reported on SpecialStage)

 

Sirius Rally Team Takes 1st in Class & 2nd O/A in 2009 TSD Debut!

The 2009 Trail of the Gnu Rally around Rocky Mountain House, AB in late March turned out to be a true winter driving adventure for Sirius driver Jennifer and her new teammate codriver Leanne.  The first outing for the all girl team was a super fun, spirited and lucky drive, with challenging slippy and deep snow roads, and the rex’s wheels leaving the ground on more than one occasion.  

The team had the privilege of starting directly behind rallymaster Taisto and his accomplished right seat Jim, who provided a lot of advice and encouragement, as well as great racing lines, throughout the event.  Organizers Eric and Kris have built Gnu into the premiere TSD in AB; indeed, the Gnu roads rivaled any of the Alcan regularities, except for Blackwater, and were some of the best times Jennifer has ever had at a TSD.  After a bit of a rough start as the new team sorted out how to work together, the points stayed low, with the exception of overestimating the difficulty of a series of hairpins and coming in early, and stuffing the car into the deep snow on a narrow section.  Luckily, on the reg where the team got stuck disruptive locals caused havoc for the cars behind, and it ended up being an unscored section.  Even luckier, the team put the car in the bank on such a narrow road that the next cars could not pass and were eager to pull them out quickly.  Many thanks to Richard and Helen for getting the rex back on the road with their 1974 BMW!  

After the off, the codriving was impeccable and the rest of the rally flew by, highlighted by a zero through a challenging hairpin series, and an impressive ‘jump’ over one of the final cattle guards.  Veterans Peter and Geoff Hill took the overall win, besting Jennifer and Leanne by only two points!  Unfortunately, the newly formed team will be unable to contest for the 2009 RallyWest TSD title because of the untimely crash and writeoff of the Rex in late April.  

Link to results HERE.

Link to istaphoto.com event photos HERE

Link to Sirius event photos HERE.