It's HERE! Feb 18-19 Maple Leaf Winter Rally!!!

[STeveD]

It's coming!!!!

This is the nav rally that you WANT to do.

2012 Maple Leaf Winter Rally
(http://www.mlrc.ca/MLWR/index.html)
This will be the team to beat: Ferd and Christoph in their 2WD BMW 320i. http://www.icerace.net/triangle.wmv Please move over for them when you are unable to drive the speed limit in your Subaru and your AWD turbo beast is holding them up. He's been ice racing longer than some of you have been alive and he's a genius on slippery surfaces.

We took 1st in 2010 on mixed surfaces, they got us in 2011 with a missed pause and a lead foot... I am SOOoooooooo looking forward to this rematch.



Note: In all seriousness, take any street legal vehicle you want to this rally, drive within your limits, and I promise you it will be the best driving experience of your life. A 2WD winter beater is perfectly fine. You don't forget your first winter rally.

[TrevorH]

I'm really looking forward to this. I missed this last year due to a malfunctioning part of mine (appendix). :-)

The MLWR is perhaps the most popular event of the ORRC season, and is an awesome experience. Just remember your snow tires, because Ted and I will not be running sweep on this rally. ;-)

[TrevorH]

Just one more week until the MLWR. If you're thinking of going (and you really should be), please register in advance, or just let the organizer know you're coming. It really helps the organizers to know most of the entries in advance.

[LaszloT]

I agree, this is the best Nav rally, with some of the best driving roads in Canada. Worth it just to get to drive in that environment.
The challenge is sleep deprivation, but it's super-rewarding when you're done.
Loads of fun!

[STeveD]

Bahahaha! I'm now at 24,500lumens from 220w or 31 amps of power.

Go ahead... leave your highbeams on while you approach me. I DARE YA!

[TrevorH]

Be careful not to cut down any trees with those.

[TR_Tim]

I'm afraid I will miss it this year - have fun, as I know you will, and bring us all tales of derring do!!!

Cheers,
Tim

[STeveD]

If you can't find a navigator, or can only commit to part of the night, the rally still needs volunteers:


The Maple Leaf Winter Rally, which runs this Saturday night (all night) in the Bancroft area, needs 6 more volunteers - one to assist at Rally HQ (Bancroft Fish & Game Club) and 5 to join checkpoint teams.

No experience required. We will pair up inexperienced people with veterans.

All workers will be treated to a great breakfast on Sunday AM.

If you can help, contact Ross at ross at tallpinesrally dot com ASAP.

[STeveD]

TR_Tim wrote:
I'm afraid I will miss it this year - have fun, as I know you will, and bring us all tales of derring do!!!

Cheers,
Tim

We'll miss your wit throughout the night as we need something to keep us awake! And of course... watching the TR bounce down the road!

How is the TR? All the bodywork finished I hope?

[STeveD]

From Ross Wood (Green Crew), posted today:




When I checked the route yesterday, there was one section of road - I won't name it, but it is a combination of cottage and forestry road - section is over 20 km in length and the entire thing was the most spectacular snow driving you could ever hope for with healthy snowbanks - pure snow - no ice, no sanding, no gravel. With the forecast as it is now, I cannot see how this piece of road will be any different on Saturday night. Drivers will love it.

[TR_Tim]

The Red Beast is pretty much ready for action again, although I'm not sure when it will be back out on the circuit.

Steve, it's that sideways, bounce onto snowbank (and off again), heads-in-the soft-top entertainment that you miss, isn't it?

I must say that I'll miss the rally this weekend - there's nothing like it in the series and a lot of the event was flat out in the TR on the slippery surfaces. And that description from Ross makes me YEARN to be out there...

To all those of you who will be competing, remember to have FUN!!!! Keep it on the road, and revel in a great experience. I recommend nothing more than excitement to keep you awake all night. And maybe a coffee at the rest halts.

Bring us the stories....

[TrevorH]

Finally back home.

Stephen and Opal took 2nd in Expert Class, with Ted and I finishing 3rd. Maxine was back competing for SPDA in novice class. Overall results and stories will be posted soon.

After about 1000km of driving, and being awake 27 hours, it's time to catch some Z's

[STeveD]

I can't believe that I did all of that on only about 400mg of caffeine in 27 hours... then 3 hours sleep and back up again.

It was a bit of a tough one navigationally. Nothing incredibly difficult, but Bruce knows that you only have to give the opportunity for mistakes in an overnight rally this long for them to occur. Straight line diagrams without many distances, columnar styles, turns close together ... it will eventually happen through the night. Great set of notes!

Our competition tonight, two veteran rallyists from Peterborough, did it flawlessly tonight whereas we made a few minor mistakes and always seemed to have a checkpoint right while we were recovering. Should we have stopped and thought it out and taken a TA? In "light of day" hindsight... yes.

Ah well, 19 raw points plus our green crew points to keep leading the championship so far. Thankfully the team that took the win in expert/overall tonight aren't series regulars.

[TrevorH]

As always, the MLWR was a great event.

After a random drawing for start positions Ted and I were given car #1, so we were to be the first out on the roads. Normally I like to be a few cars back so you're not the first one to run into the navigational tricks, but this year I think it worked to our advantage. Since the starting position mixed the classes, being in first meant we would have no traffic ahead of us, something very important as the Bancroft roads challenge the Novice drivers.

The roads were a constant mix. Paved roads were completely bare of snow, so traction was excellent on the section transits. The back roads were a mix of sanded gravel roads, with about 50% ice coverage and a 3ft wide snow pack for snow mobiles. Generally we could count on good traction in the back roads, but now and then the back wheels would step out, or braking would include small slides.

Leg A instructions were fairly straight forward. Running without a rally computer, we have a tougher time of zeroing checkpoints. Still we were able to zero the first three CPs before starting a mixed run of .1 early or late, to finish Leg A with a .5 over all.

Leg B stepped up the difficulty a hair, nothing too challenging but just enough to cause little errors. The roads seemed slightly more challenging as well, adding to the challenge. One section included a cautioned steep downhill right, into an icy downhill hairpin left (the handbrake was used here), into a short 50ft run to a checkpoint! We gathered a few more points during the leg, taking two Time Allowances. One for a missed turn, and another for some epic puking by Ted. Since Ted realized that there was no way he wasn't going to puke during the rally, he reasoned that there was no sense in skipping pre-rally meals like he usually does. The Tim Horten's Turkey and Rice soup apparently tasted great twice.

Leg C began with some fatigue issues. Somewhere Ted and I got our communications crossed and we began with the wrong time for the start of Leg. This had Ryan Huber and I trying to zero the first CP on the same time. We both zero'd it, except that I was a minute behind where I should have been, so that was +1 point right at CP C1. Other minor errors (and puking) cost us a few more points during the Leg, and ultimately dropped us down to 3rd position for the finish.

Many thanks to Bruce and Jane Leonard for organizing the event, and to Ross Wood and all the volunteers who manned the check points all night.

[TrevorH]

Detailed results have been posted:

http://www.mlrc.ca/MLWR/results.html