There are a bunch of points being discussed that I think needs addressing.
First of all, yes, ALL of the points and concerns raised about why it might be a drag *if* (and I say IF) the rallies need an extra day are valid. I never discredited that.
My whole argument is that it can be done without extra days, and everyone is jumping all over this because they simply have not experienced first hand compact recces in Canada and so they think it is not possible.
Although there is a post somewhere here saying "oh yeah then how is it done" I could list a bunch of circumstances which invariably will get shot down because of the multiple number of variables that are unique to each rally as they are currently organized. All I can say to you, is that I personally have partaken in over half a dozen single day (SINGLE DAY - NOT EVEN MULTIPLE DAY LIKE WE ARE TALKING ABOUT) rallies where recce and the rally is in the same day and the rally is over 120km of stage. Did you know that ALL of the French Championship (gravel) events are done in this format ? Did you know that a huge number of club-level events elsewhere in the world are run in this format ?
Now, when getting to our national championship, as I have already stated, I beleive that our current format, which requires a MINIMUM of 48 hours presence in the region of the rally at almost all the events, and NORMALLY more i.e. Baie, Defi, Quebec, Charlevoix (all rallies on the calendar last year, only one of which could even be argued was undersubscribed), etc. that recce can already be accomodated within that window. Note that this is ONE MORE DAY than what I am saying can already be done. In other words, they is PLENTY OF F_IN TIME to do it. That is already happening in many places around the whole wide world outside of our sandbox. Yes indeed, recce and rally in 2 days. Note that this is a format which is EASILY accomodated in MANY places worldwide and that in many countries, you do a three day rally, BUT the third day is an exact REPEAT REPLICA of day 2, and the total distance goes will into the mid 200 kms and eveyone is out by 3pm on Sunday. But they dont usually fly home. We should easily be able to accomodate 150-200km. Finally, fantasically and magically this also includes all the 'fluff' that everyone seems to be doing on Friday (i.e. getting ready because they aren't ready yet). Are we scared that we wont be ready to rally so we will lose our precious last minute fixit time ? Well, you won't, all it means is, maybe you only get 1 recce pass. That has happened to me twice, my first 2 times doing this, because I wasn't "ready" to go at Friday (at 11am), I was used to doing it the way we do it now here.
So the point is, before we all GO OFF SHOOTING DOWN RECCE DUE TO EXTRA TIME, first of all, YOU DONT ALWAYS NEED IT.
And that, is the whole damn point of this post to begin with. No "insulting" of anyone and no "I dont care if you cant get time off" and no "is this a club level or professional aspiring thingy". I am not and did not argue or say any of that. While the people's points in those posts are valid, it is not a case of "pro vs. club" and it is not a case of "I can take off more time than you" and it is not a case of "I dont care what you want".
Secondly, EVEN IF YOU DID NEED IT, (which you dont', but of course, you do if you want to add it with NO REFACTORING or thinking or effort to rejig anything else at all and just do it 'dumb' style), the calendar had three more events on it last year, 2 of which were multi-day recce events. This year you should have AMPLE OPPORTUNITY to partake in more practise, since you won't need time off to do recce, because people will make an effort to do it right. Even though in the last 3 years we have had rallies add days. And now, even if a rally does want to add a day, it now becomes a contentious issue. So still, you will have more days to practise/not be at a rally, because people will make an effort to do it 'right'.
Thirdly, EVEN IF YOU DID NEED IT, BUT STILL CAN'T take a day off, a lot of 2-day rallies do not use up the sunday or friday at all, and despite the post about "if you do ANYTHING on sunday then I have to take monday off", I simply don't buy that. You can run well into the early afternoon on west coast and make it anywhere on east coast. The fact is, our schedules are normally very, very loose.
Finally, I find this especially ironic considering that for you cushy eastern guys, your western events have been "in and out". Does anyone consider the western guys when the goo ol eastern rallies schedule awards at 10am on sunday ? Does anyone consider the western guys when your scheduled tech which is 6 hour drive from nearest airport is Friday at 9am ?
It is all moot, again, because even if you did need extra time, it will most certainly not be a full day requiring an extra day off. To put it bluntly, do we all want to start rally at sat 10 am, be drinking beer by 8pm, and rest on sunday. Is that then the point behind the national championship ? Which rallies are single day events again ?
My whole point is that people need to envision the events running different time schedules and routes (but almost always same roads) in order to make it within the time limit. It is possible, and like I have said before, I am available to help to make it happen. I actually have experienced this, and it is possible, and things can happen this way, and you dont need to lose your job or get a divorce nor will you miss your kids growing up. BUT THAT IS ALL UP TO THE ORGANIZER'S IMPLEMENTATION.
So it is basically a question of, do we want tight time schedules, a requirement to be ready to recce/rally, and to be on the go from say friday at 11am until sunday at 11am (or whatever permutation of 35-48 hours you want), or do we want to be like we are, normally hanging around friday at 11am and rallying sometime between then and 11am on sunday, and then going home. It can be done, and the rallies need rethinking, but it aint impossible, and the upsides (oh yes, we haven't talked about that yet) are big.
In closing, I have spectated many a recce'd club level rally, and they are DAMN WORTH WATCHING. Kind of like watching doo ****, where most everyone knows the roads. The action kicks ass. And we may, in 5 years, have a Julien pilon or antoine lestage or joel levac competing at international level. They're so young, they could even stay at that level for a while. And we may have international competitors COME HERE (dont you ever wonder why no one comes ? jeez. And whats been going on in the us - the 'marketing' excersize, does not count) so locals can raise their game. And we as drivers dont have to 'hope and pray' and make the winner a contest of who cares less about self preservation. We could actually learn to drive as quickly as possible.
