No Winter Maintenance Rally 2011

The Event: We had the good fortune of some brisk weather before the rally to turn much of the foliage to fall colours the week before the rally, and the predicted rain for the day dissipated by the start of the rally. Twenty-two cars entered the rally and met the challenging route (and notes) head-on. We were thrilled to see perhaps twelve new teams enjoying the sport of Navigational Rally in the Rallysport Ontario ORRC series. All competitors are entitled to a great discount on Sailun Tires, an SPDA Ontario Time Attack supporter. If you want to see some of Trevor's files including CP locations and section notes, you'll find those resources here.

Our Volunteers: This event can't happen without the generous volunteers we had giving up a Saturday to help us out. Maurizio, our graphic artist, Joe in the white STi, Laszlo and Christine in the blue STi, Paul in the silver WRX, Ted in the silver Ralliart, Opal in Pugsy, Ivano in the BMW 1M, Ross in the grey Pickup, and Steve in the yellow Subaru, and of course the routemaster Trevor in another blue STi.

The Results: In expert class, Jane and Bruce (Subaru) championed over Roger and Dennis (Audi) to take 1st expert. Both experienced some trouble with Trevor's creative expert notes, but a tough leg B decided it. In Intermediate, MCO's Peter and Gary (Mazda) bested SPDA's Dave and Perry (Ford) who were working together for the first time. A mistake before CP B9 put the SPDA team into "Maximum Late" time and taking 20 points per CP until the end, even though they found every one of those CP's.

Novice was tightly contested at the top, with a novice team returning to rally after a few year's hiatus. Iwan and Nikola (Subaru) took first place, with Chris and Yevgeniy (Volkswagen) in second, and Taras and Igor (Audi) following in third. Very tight spacing at the top, and we enjoyed watching how close this battle was.

Of significant mention, was the efforts of Car 9, Jean-Paul and Alex in the 2011 Blue WRX. They were at their first rally, they were the FIRST to get their registration in to us, they were having a great Leg A until the Giant Tulip in Section 4 put them off route. But they came back and fought hard again in Leg B with a low 0.3 score, but again were lost by CP B3. They texted me to let me know when they were lost in B, and that they were cutting to Section 4 to finish the rally, again getting lost in B4, accumulating a total of 199.4 in penalties. They came back to rally HQ, chuckling at their misfortune, and stuck around talking with other competitors and about going to the next rally, President's Prize, in two weeks! Many great rallyists have started off in much the same manner, and we know they'll be challenging the top of the novice leaderboard in 2012. For that reason, we awarded Jean-Paul and Alex our "Cool Competitor" award, a tradition from our First Frost rallies for an extraordinary effort and attitude towards rally.

Click on the images below to see them in full resolution.

When's the Next Rally??? Need more rally? We understand. PMSC is hosting the "Not The President's Prize" rally on October 15th in just two short weeks. They have some great roads in the east end, and PMSC tends to make their notes very simple and beginner friendly. You will have a great drive at this one. Want to know about more Rallysport Ontario events? Get news about them here.

Photo (c) Eric Pohner

Pictures: Photos are uploaded here. Contact me for high res of photos on pages 6 to 12.

No Winter Maintenance 2012: Yes, while scouting this year's rally, Trevor made all sorts of notes for good roads to include next year. We'll see you again then, up in Grey County. "The Drive" is well worth the drive, isn't it?

Photos on this page are copyrighted to Eric Pohner, the crazy man hanging out of the flying STi.

This event was sanctioned by RallySport Ontario and Canadian Association of RallySport, and held under the CARS General Competition Rules.