[rally_master]

what an event! i was standing on stage A2 an A5 and there was this big rock and that u coulndt even see and 8 cars ended up hitting it most of them went off the road and ended up stopping in the stage or retiring. i recorded it all to bad its a high 8 and i cant place it on the net but theres some pretty nice shot especially of labrie/ labrie. again great event

 

[randyzimmer]

Yay Joan and Jeffy, you beat a lot of fast cars didn't you.

Can't wait for the stories.
rz

 

[Rexxrally]

Here's results for anyone looking for them:

http://www.rallyscoring.com/results/2004/TallPines/index.htm

 

[PAddy]

Good on Antoine for keeping it between the trees all weekend. It's nice to see it all come togather for him.

Boy oh boy, look at all those 2wd cars....

 

[Bjorn240]

Fantastic roads, great organization, and great workers and promotion. Alas, completely unacceptable notes which led to a number of unnecessary offs.

The most egregious one was 5.22km into A2/A5, where a !! R5/Cr-> L5 was marked as a !! Keep R/Cr. A number (7 +/- 1) of cars kept right and went over the crest and hit a large embedded rock on the left hand side of the road, ending the day and costing a good deal of money for a number of competitors.

The organizers' decision of notes provider was unfortunate, especially after competitor comments in 2003, and was a big stain on what could otherwise be the best event in North America. If the notes are not going to be correct and consistent, I think competitors are better served by not having organizer notes at all.

Other than the notes, it was great! Possibly the best event I'd attended in 2004.

- Christian

Bjorn Christian Edstrom
www.christianedstrom.com

 

[craig]

I was the first marshal at the shakedown/special rides, taking your tickets. These are the tickets that many people didn't know about. This translates into me, on DIRECT order from the organiser, turning people away from the stage unless they have that coveted ticket. I do not know how the ticket sales were managed at the HQ, nor was that my job or responsibility. I personally think the supp regs were not 100% in this regard, they just say 'pay $10/run.' (paraphrasing)

Since I'm not a performance rally driver guy, I usually try to keep my trap shut on this performance rally board, however I am a part of the sport, and I want to remind drivers of a few things, then I'll go away:
a) I took a day off work so you can go play. Don't give me sh*t at the stage start. Some drivers were really good about it, others were less than good. I totally understand the frustration with the shakedown ticket situation. I'm just a guy wearing an ugly (and smelly) vest that says "Marshal" on it. OK?
b) Don't ever take a passenger out in your rally car during an event without knowing that your passenger has signed a waiver. Luckily I had a waiver, and wristbands with me and we solved that little issue on the spot. Think about the liability you open yourself and the organisation up to in case of a 'serious problem' out on the road. Perhaps this part could have been managed better at HQ, too.
c) Don't do doughnuts on gravel near parked cars (shakedown, again). Would you like rocks thrown onto your parked car because you were helping at a rally, on your day off? Save the driving displays for the stages. Courtesy and respect please.
d) Try thanking the marshals once in while. A few drivers look at you like your some sort of worm (I never see those drivers volunteering at rally events, btw). Of course, most are really nice.

Besides all that 'stuff' I saw some fantastic driving out there. Thanks a bunch. That's why I go.

Craig
Shakedown/A1/A7/B2/B4//radio

 

[Bjorn240]

Craig,

For what it's worth, I thought the start and captaining of the shakedown stage was great. Eventually (around 1.20), someone put a marshall in a truck right at the turn off to L'Amable Rd.

And THANKS!

- Christian

Bjorn Christian Edstrom
www.christianedstrom.com

 

[RallyBrat]

100% agreed Christian. I feel very fortunate that I was co-driving for someone who was just getting used to notes and wasn't ready to totally commit yet...because some of those notes were plain retarded. Did John drive the car at 15mph when he made the notes? At speed those L6 into L4 into L5's 90% of the time look like a long L6>4<5....but of course 10% of the time it would actually be seperate corners...Not to mention the sections that were typed as R5/CrL4R6R5L3smlCrR3R5/bigCrJmp ;-)

Anyway, everything else was fantastic. This being my first Canadian rally, I was pumped by coming around a corner and seeing what looked like thousands sitting up on banks and lining both sides of the road. The organization was top notch...we were on stage within 2-3 minutes of our TC in time for every stage but the longest one. Everything was centralized and simple...that A1 stage was the craziest thing I have ever run (6 times in the air in a G2 car!) and I believe the rally was actually running *ahead* of time. Unfortunately, I pretty much missed the party, but it sounded like a good time

Thanks,
Alex

 

[jeffy]

>Yay Joan and Jeffy, you beat a lot of fast cars didn't you.

Thanks Randy -
1st P-4 OPRC
1st P-4 Nat.
1st Nat. Novice
2004 P-4 North American Rally Champion!

-The girl done good! - And it's far more than the final results that allow me to say that (yes, the first two stages were "holy carnage batman" ) But it was the focus that Joan applied to her driving that I am most impressed with.

 

[Do It Sidewayz]

Was an AWESOME rally..

however...i don't have much to compare to as it was my First Ever.

I was driving car #48. We were really happy with our performance up until we blew the head gasket on the transit to the start of A8.

 

[Kim 100AW]

Agreeing with Christian...GREAT event..GREAT people..GREAT roads....GREAT spectators...TERRIBLE notes....dangerous....I think we'lre lucky no one was injured...I didn't mind the concept that 5's weren't the 5's I'm used to...but they were different.

If we come back, we'll probably go with no notes and drive consrvatively (like we did this year with the malfunctioning fuel pump...probably saved our butts!).

Sorry for crapping out at Start A5 and blocking...it wasn't our idea!

Kim DeMotte
Official Old Fart, etc.

 

[Ivan Orisek]

<The most egregious one was 5.22km into A2/A5, where a !! R5/Cr-> L5 <was marked as a !! Keep R/Cr. A number (7 +/- 1) of cars kept right <and went over the crest and hit a large embedded rock on the left <hand side of the road, ending the day and costing a good deal of <money for a number of competitors.

Nothing reconnaissance would have not been able to fix.
Coming in Canada for the 2005 season I hear.

 

[Morison]

>Nothing reconnaissance would have not been able to fix.
>Coming in Canada for the 2005 season I hear.

Uh ... how about was here for 2004!
I the Western Canadian Rally Championship (no offense robin :+ ) 5 of the 6 events were recce/pace note events and we had VERY few accidents at any of the events! (the other event used Jemba descriptive notes)

If you look at the CNRC, I beleive Baie, Defi and Pacific Forest were all pace notes ... Half of the championship.

I'd strongly suggest that IF events choose to have 'human' prepared stage notes, that a requirement is to have them independantly checked by someone outside of the organisation committee.

 

[John Vanos]

Without getting into this recce thing again just know that the organizers did all they could to allow recce this year for Pines. There is simply not enough daylight to allow the recce to take place in one day so we dont have to add another day onto the schedule. Glad you all had fun, 250 volunteers made it happen!! Thanks to all of them.

Hope to see you next year!
John

 

[Steve McKelvie]

Jeff,
It was a pleasure to meet you and Joan at Tall Pines. You had a great finish!

Keith Kreisler and I started out fine and by mid-rally we had set the fourth fastest stage time and were laying fifth overall, then we had problems with flat tires and bent A-arms on two stages. We continued with our tire woes and DNF'd (two flat tires and damaged suspension) on the last stage. Thanks to you and Joan for stopping and offering to help.

Steve McKelvie
Co-Driver Car # 27

 

[robin]

>I the Western Canadian Rally Championship (no offense robin
>:+ )

Where's the tongue-sticking-out happy face...oh, there it is:

I'm all for recce as long as we can run it in a day - I'd gladly give up the shakedown/sponsor rides (sponsors?)

Running at night in the thick fog on the two leg B stages with our friking lights stuck pointing up into the tree tops - trying to keep track of 'smlCr into smlCr 80 Cr into smlCr into smlCr into smlCr 200 L3>/Cr' I lost track of the small crests and our odo was out somewhat from an extended anti-lag launch "Um... we're coming up to a Left-three tightens over crest...pretty soon..."

I'll take responsibility for my own lack of clarity but boy, we were pretty lucky the Losiers were out there slowing us down after their very heavy hit earlier in the day...

Robin

 

[Matt F]

Steve and Keith

Hope we (car #53 "eat our mussels") didn't hold you up to much on Stage 9? That road was so tight... I saw you coming, but even if I had of stopped, thought we wouldn't have room for you to get around... Tried to put my foot in it a bit more.. while preseving failing engine (again), lucky for the junction to come up when it did...

Matt

 

[FMF]

>Without getting into this recce thing again just know that
>the organizers did all they could to allow recce this year
>for Pines. There is simply not enough daylight to allow the
>recce to take place in one day so we dont have to add
>another day onto the schedule. Glad you all had fun, 250
>volunteers made it happen!! Thanks to all of them.


ADD THE EXTRA DAY!!!!
For an event as good as the pines could be adding and extra day to save the THOUSANDS in car damage plus frustration would be worth it.! Baie and St. Agathe require 3 days Thursday ? Saturday and I didn?t here anyone complain especially after Baie had the highest finish rate ever. Recce Thursday finish up Friday morning if you have to and you can still do rides and shakedown.

 

[jeffy]

Steve- good to meet you too-
We felt really bad for you guys, the entire hell of that rally and then w/ only 2k to go in the final stage!

 

[Steve McKelvie]

Matt,
No problem. The road was very tight and we could not have got by you any sooner. That junction was the only place that we could have passed you. Thanks for allowing us by as easily as you did.

Jeff,
It was disappointing the way it ended for us. Our crew worked hard to change A-arms working in the wet ground twice during rally and Keith did an excellent job of driving.

See you in the woods!

Steve McKelvie
Co-Driver Car # 27