CRC on TSN – Defi and PFR Coming Up Soon!

The updated schedule for the Canadian Rally Championship on TSN has been released:

Rallye Defi

Wed Oct 21 01:30 / Fri Oct 23 04:00 / Fri Oct 23 13:30

Pacific Forest Rally

Sat Oct 24 11:30 Wed Oct 28 01:30 Wed Oct 28 12:30

(24 hour Eastern Time; check local listings for confirmation)

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)

 

PBRT Takes Open Class Win at Cochrane Rally

The new Prescribed Burn 2004 Subaru STI left its tarmac circuit racing history in the dust this weekend at its first rally, the Cochrane Regional Rally of the Ranchlands in Alberta.  This year’s Cochrane Rally, the first round of the Western Canadian Championship, began as a pure snow and ice winter event, with some teams ending up in the snowbanks multiple times, and ended as a warm sunny spring rally with a great finish for the Prescribed Burn Rally Team.

On the first few morning stages, driver Mark Jennings-Bates had his hands full keeping the new car, with its still stock suspension and non rally tires, on the slippy winter roads.  Other teams struggled for grip as well, including the first car out, which ended up in the snowbank on the first stage.  By the long mid day service the Chinook arch was high in the sky, and the temperature was rising rapidly.  The Prescribed Burn service crew worked hard and solved a list of problems that cropped up throughout the morning, giving Mark and Jennifer a chance to test out the new car in earnest during the second half of the rally.  With the temperature above freezing, the worn winter tires found more grip and the team returned to rally pace, enjoying settling in to the new car. 

 The Prescribed Burn Rally Team’s 2009 Cochrane Rally was an eventful one, with new car teething troubles, stopping on stage to pull another competitor out of the snowbank, and penalties incurred when they spun 360 degrees backwards through a chicane, obliterating most of the elements.  The detailed results are not yet available, but without the estimated five minutes they lost to these challenges the Prescribed Burn team would have been in an overall podium position.  By the last leg of the rally the team was consistently setting competitive stage times, enough to and take first place in open class and fifth overall.  The next event on the PBRT calendar is the Rocky Mountain National Rally in Alberta in May.

1 – #4 Hardy Schmidke Adam Vokes 1:07:21 1
2 – #2 Eric Grochowski Leanne Junnila 1:09:42 2
3- #11 Onur Tezcan Aaron Neumann 1:10:43 3
4- #9 Jared Powell-Williams Mark Uhlmann 1:12:45 4
5 – #3 Mark Jennings-Bates Jennifer Daly 1:14:49 5
6 – #7 Graham Bruce Ryan Warrington 1:15:51 6
7 – #8 Neil Wright Lorna Wright 1:16:37 7
8 – #12 Jim Gemmell John Gemmell 1:17:53 8
9 – #10 Mehran Arefi Dan McLean 1:21:01 9
10 – #1 Colin Armstrong Jason Thain 1:30:02 10
– #5 Brian Maplethorpe John Hall DNF – Max Late
– #6 Ken Maydaniuk Chris Maydaniuk DNF – Off road

Link to detailed results HERE.

Photo links:

Istaphoto

Andrew Snucins

Sirius Rally Team

Travis C, chicane supervisor

Canadian Rally on TSN/RDS

The first event of the 2008 series, Perce-Neige Maniwaki, has been aired on RDS and is now available at flatovercrest.com, in association with CARS and TV2Go. The English version will be on TSN this fall.

The next event on the CARS calendar is the Rocky Mountain National Stage Rally in May. The Prescribed Burn Rally Team will be competing at the Olympus Regional Stage Rally in April as part of their preparation for Rocky.

Sirius Rally Team Member Takes Second Overall at IceX

The first iceX of the season was sunny, slippery and fun, with Sirius team members besting rivals and posting top lap times. The lake was as slick as glass by the end of the day, and cars were sliding sideways and getting stuffed into all the snowbanks. Driven by Ryan from Vancouver, the big red sweep truck was dispatched frequently. A total of 33 drivers participated; a crowd of spectators and passengers braved the cold as well.

The variety of vehicles racing was entertaining: Paul in Mr2, Gil in his 1967 Volvo, and even a token Porche 911. Warwick the organizer flicking back and forth in the fun Justy was great to watch, and he put on an excellent event. The Legacy battle was the story of the weekend, and it ended up almost too close to call. Gord placed 2nd by only 2 seconds to Onur and his fancy tires in the 4wd rubber class. Both placed ahead of all the entrants in the 4wd studded group. Jennifer placed 8th in 4wd rubber. The fastest lap of the day was Onur’s at 56 seconds; Gord’s best was 58 seconds, and Jennifer was close behind at 1:01.

This event was a great opportunity to test our ice driving and our tolerance for cold. Jennifer volunteered for the event and was comfortable out in the elements setting up the course and starting cars. The clear, cold day was forecasted to be -10 degrees at the coldest, and the winds were not strong. Inuvik temperatures will be as low as -25 degrees this week, making Barnes Lake seem balmy in comparison.

Click HERE for results.

Clicke HERE for event photos.

Watching and Wandering at Defi National Stage Rally

Over the Labour Day Weekend, Gord made his debut as a rally spectator at the Defi National Stage Rally while on holiday in Montreal. The rally takes place a couple of hours outside of Montreal in small towns around Ste-Agathe and Duhamel. Joined by Jennifer and displaced BC rallyist and pal Andy, who extended generous hospitality and pure insanity behind the wheel of his minivan, they experienced Quebec rallying at its chaotic best.

In Quebec the spectators haul their chairs, coolers, bbqs and other rally gear onto school buses to be transported to the stage. Bus after bus was filled with people and there were big, enthusiastic crowds at the spectator points; the party atmosphere added a lot of fun and craziness to watching the cars speed by.

Friday was the easier day for spectating, but we enjoyed watching the in town tarmac stages, getting a bit lost, and tearing around the early stages after they were closed on Saturday. There was a little bit of rally carnage – a lucky scrape along a tree early in the rally, and multiple cars complaining and limping out of the final stages, adding to a decent total of mechanical DNFs.

The event was typically dominated by Antoine and Natalie in their Tiburon, who have signed on to promote Hyundai’s new performance parts and are newly sponsored by the manufacturer. Matthew L’Estage looked extremely fast on the stages until he trashed his transmission. There were some quick and entertaining VWs at the back of the pack that were fun to watch. Alberta friends Eric and Leanne were looking quick as well, but had too many flats on the longest Saturday stages and fell out of contention.

In total the Sirius Rally Team has been present at all but one of the Canadian National Rallies this year. The Pacific Forest Rally is up next in October, where Jennifer and Mark will be striving for their best finish in the (hopefully) newly painted Prescribed Burn Rally Car.

Click HERE for event photos. (caveat – professional photographers we are not)
Click HERE for event video clips. (again, short amateur clips for fun)

Rocks and Roll at Mountain Trials 2007

The Prescribed Burn Rally Team had an eventful but fruitless rally in Merritt this past weekend; working effectively to attain second place by the end of the morning Nicola and Sheep Mab stages, only to meet disaster on both Helmer runs. The rally ended in the first rollover crash for novice rallyist and Sirius Rally Team member Jennifer. It was a slow roll and both Mark and Jennifer were unhurt. Their car will need some serious bodywork before it appears in the Canada Day parade in Kelowna, but at least the crash happened before the car got its brand new paint job.

The event began on Friday evening with a two pass recce session, where pacenotes were generated for Saturday’s competition. Recce was smooth and successful and the team felt confident in their notes. Saturday morning began with three runs of the Nicola and Mab stages, during which Mark and Jennifer traded times the rally frontrunners, and ultimately ended this first leg in second place, with two competitive teams less than 30 seconds behind.

Two runs of the infamous Helmer stage would complete the rally, and the team went into the stage determined to hold on to the podium positions (second place overall and first place open class). The car overheated on the first stage, but luckily it happened near a creek. This setback eliminated Mark and Jennifer from podium contention, but the team decided to continue for experience and fun. Unfortunately the second Helmer stage ended in a rollover caused by a wide ride around a greasy corner, and large rocks which destabilized the car and caused it to roll. The team ultimately landed wheels down in a ditch, unhurt and with repairable car damage.

Despite a challenging rally which ended with a crash, we had a great time and learned a lot. This was Mark’s first rollover as a driver; a roll is something every rallyist eventually experiences, and ours was low damage and exciting. The 2007 stage rally schedule is empty for the summer months, and resumes with the National Pacific Forest Rally in October. This is a Merritt event as well, and Mark and Jennifer will be seeking their Helmer revenge.

Jennifer and the other Sirius Rally Team members are gearing up for a busy tsd schedule in preparation for ALCAN, beginning with the SnoGit tsd in July.

Click HERE for event photos.

Click HERE for a video of the extraction.

Weekend Rally Fun

Here’s a clip of Gord (& ‘Peggy’) out on a Squamish logging road. Even on non rally weekends he’s out driving… maybe practicing for Cochrane??! Filmed by Onur.

DooWops Footage

Taholah Stage (Saturday)
We’re not on this one… but that’s a good thing! The blue legacy (502) driver maintains that he wouldn’t have gone off if the triangle was properly placed, but that looks very unlikely. He goes up on two wheel and nearly rolls….

Pico Stage (Sunday)
This was a pretty tight section on a narrow, technical stage. Again, car 76 isn’t on the video but you can get an idea of what our ride was like. Apparently this has been a popular corner to go off on in the past.

ROCKET LEGACY # 76
Here’s a few moments of our DooWops ride. The first clip is our turn around the Taholah corner from the video above, where we are being waved to slow down because of the cars off. Thanks to Mike S. for standing in the rain and getting some great photos and video of all the competitors.