2002 Silverstone Black Bear Rally

[AlanO]

Info for the 2002 Silverstone Black Bear Rally, round 2 of the Ontario Performance Rally Cup, can be found at:

http://www.mlrc.ca/blackbear/

This is an event not to be missed: pace notes, a brief recce, large prize fund, and much more.

Alan

[PAddy]

I know I can't wait....but seems i'm only going as a spectator/worker x( Yarg.......pace notes should be interesting as well....Frank and Keith are preparing them, no?

[John Vanos]

Yes paddy, that's true, should be neat!
Alan, when can we sign up to work?

[AlanO]

Contact Ray Felice at the email address on the site - he'll find something for you to do. The road work day is May 11.

Alan

[silenuskjh]

While everyone is focused on STPR this weekend, I stayed home and checked the entry list for Silverstone. Of the 24 entries posted as of 5/30, 9 are U.S. and 15 are Canadian, including Dan Sprongl, a late addition to the list and last year's co-winner. Could be an interesting little international rivalry brewing here.

Stage notes courtesy of Frank Sprongl, prize money, recce ... all promise to make it lots and lots of fun.

Ken Hawley
Kalamazoo, MI
Audi 4000Q - #577
khawley@silenus.com

[PAddy]

Including a 80% chance of precipitation!!!! :7

[Jerry Brownell]

Anybody have results to share?

[randyzimmer]

I really only have my/our non-results.
Dave Shindle and I went off at a "caution r2" by driving at "r3" speed without using any caution on the second stage and bent a lower control arm and limped out during the service break.
We saw two suspension failures after stage one on an Audi - Ken Hawley and a Suzuki Sprint and a submerged car in a lake near the end of SS2 - roof was black (Toyota all-trac? David Lea?), Piotr Motykiewicz from Rally Planet was in the trees just a turn or two from SS2 finish and the s-10, John Daubenmier was on the trailer.
We were too tired to hang around. The rain we had wished for appeared on our extraction so the place was turning into a churned up mudpit.
Just as we were leaving we were told Brian Scott went into the trees on ss3. That left the order Thompson, ACP, Dan Sprongl.
rz

[John Vanos]

I heard Dan Sprongl ended up winning, I left before the last stag4e as I was COMPLETELY soaked!!! Randy was running somewhere in the top 4 I beleive...good work!

[PAddy]

I can't say who won, i didn't stay for the awards, but i did hear peter thomson ended up taking it. Man, was it wet. Took 20min to drive out from the end of the stage, absoloutly no gravel left on that road, just rock after rock after rock.......:o Saw the audi and the swift with the suspension failures, though the audi looked better after service....But when i left, they were still trying to get that car from out of the lake.

/edit in people's CORRECT names....god i'm slow...

[John Vanos]

Frank who? Im assuming you mean dan...what happened to thompson and ACP?? Anyone gonna be posting any pics?

[Robin2]

This is the lake shot!

http://www.home.golden.net/~thayston/bb02-60024.jpg

Here's more pics... I didn't take them but they were sent on the mailing list...

http://www.home.golden.net/~thayston/2002_black_bear_rally.htm

Robin

[randyzimmer]

in-car video going up right now (1:42pm)at:
http://www.randyzimmer.com/video/blackbear/blackbear2002/
ss1 has 2 parts, a&b
ss2 is rather short
rz

[PAddy]

Official Results:


http://www.mlrc.ca/blackbear/02results.html

[randyzimmer]

In my short rally career, I've been all over the US and the west coast guys say, "oooh, look out when you come here, we have big cliffs and WATERBARS. You east coast guys don't know how tough our roads are." They also call RIM the toughest rally in the US. That is Bull, er rubbish. After BlackBear I went to Maine and couldn't tell much difference. In 40 minutes this little rally caused a lot of hardships and in comparison, RIM was more fun than frightening, those cute little bumps broke up the monotanty of going back and forth so slowly.
Congratulations on running the notes AND recce. The SCCA not allowing writing in the notes book does nothing to level the competition.
-------
If someone wants to check himself, his navigator and car in the most challenging way possible, in a fun and friendly atmosphere - put Black Bear on your list for 2003.
rz

[robin]

This weekend's Black Bear was my first as a driver. I have to say that I loved the notes. The road was fantastic, but rough after the rain. We ran well in SS1&2, but hit some "new" bedrock on 3 (ran 8km with a blown Silverstone) and continued to finish with a bent tie-rod.

My rookie co-driver took to the notes like a duck to water - now he's dreading the thought of tulips!

A great event.

Robin

[PAddy]

Does anyone know how Andrew picked up 9min on the transit???

[jeffy]

Great thanks to the organizers and the workers at Black Bear.
Service by those working & fighting off the black flys & staying in a friendly, helpful mood went "above and beyond".
You are the reason we will return!

We (Mark Buskirk, myself) DNFed while leading Gr.2 ...(He did a fantasic job driving- first time w/me and notes). A CV joint failed on the "transit" up to the start of the last stage, leaving our little VW stranded. Sweep was fantastic to tow us all the way out, and watching them pull Brian Scott's tree climbing Evo and the submarine Celica out of the pond was great- these guys knew what they were doing!

Hope to see you all again soon
Jeffy Secor codriver #554 yellow vw golf

[Adrian Wintle]

>Does anyone know how Andrew picked up 9min on the transit???

A couple of codrivers neglected to remember that they were running CARS timing rather than SCCA timing. That, unfortunately, means early penalties.

I had a fun ride, my first time in a Cossie, and Martin loved the notes. Unfortunately, we weren't quite on the pace we wanted to be, but we didn't go swimming or lumberjacking either.

This is a great little rally.

Adrian

[Ryan Huber]

I know I had loads of fun, both servicing for Roger Sanderson and working as service radio. The road looked like it was very challenging the day before the event, and the rain must have made it even moreso. I learned a great deal working as a radio for the rally, and despite having to wear my rain gear most of the day, I had a blast. Congrats to everyone there, and Randy, it was neat to finally see the legacy tow car in person. I posted some pictures on my website, http://va3awd.dyndns.org/sbbr/ , including some action shots taken by a friend out spectating.

Ryan
http://va3awd.dyndns.org

[Lancia037Rally]

It was challenging driving the Legacy tow vehicle too.
The first couple minutes I was all over the place and just waiting to see the Impreza in front of us. No wonder Randy isn't scared driving the rallycar fast, the trip to and from the rally is scarier.

Dave Shindle

[Fe3O2 Motorsports]

>My rookie co-driver took to the notes like a duck to water -
>now he's dreading the thought of tulips!

I have to agree with you on that. My navigator, Jim said the same thing. It was the first time for both of us and we got on to the stage notes very quickly. We're a little concerned of how it's going to be using tulips.

Robin: Did you make it home without any problems? Hope the bent tierod didn't wear out your tires.

[robin]

>Robin: Did you make it home without any problems? Hope the
>bent tierod didn't wear out your tires.

Yep, made it home OK - it was pretty straight after we welded it - it's being replaced Wednesday. Time for a trailer...

Are you guys going to the Rally Cross? If so I'll see you there.

Congratulations on winning the Silverstones!

Robin

[Ray F]

HI there...
Randy glad you enjoyed yourself again this year. I was hoping to see you near the top this year too.
As for ACP's timming penalty, his codriver had never run here in Canada and did not know about the stage slow times used to calcualte times in. Real bad luck as without that he finishes just 2 seconds out of first place.
The event went off great except for the rain part way through.
Everyone seemed to like the stage notes and the chance to recce them before hand. Lots of cash awards, over $3200 plus tires, free entry to this years pines , hats, shirts, etc...
Ray Felice
Orgainizer,
2001, 2002 Silverstone Black Bear Rally:)

[Ryan Huber]

Ray, I just want to say thanks again, it was a great rally from the spectator and worker point of view as well. I'm glad things went so smoothly, and I'm proud to have been a small part of it.

Ryan
http://va3awd.dyndns.org/

[silenuskjh]

Strut failure on stage 1 - replaced in the pouring rain at service. Strut failure on stage 4 - DNF - replaced in a bug storm on stage and drove out. It may have looked OK in service but it was toast inside.

Colin McCleery worked "above and beyond the call" to do those two replacements under crap conditions both times. We're all still scratching the itchy red bumps from the on-stage service.

Great rally, great notes ... nasty bugs. We'll have the right suspension next time.

Ken Hawley
Silenus Motorsports
Kalamazoo, MI
Audi 4000Q - #577
khawley@silenus.com

[PAddy]

If you think the bugs were bad from a on-stage service, try standing at the dang start/finish control out in the woods all day. :o I still itch.....

Thank you to all the competitors BTW for an excellent rally. No complaints from anyone, nice candy ;-) , a few kind words, it made all the bugs and rain worth it.