| "We're
having some fun down here between
the legs.........uh........of the
Pacific Forest Rally" said the
live on-air announcer for CJNL Radio
in Merritt BC this past weekend, as
he covered the 4th event of the Western
Canadian Rally Championship. His comment
generated a lot of laughter across
the service area in the shopping mall
parking lot.
Although
the weather did not cooperate with
the event (we drove into Merritt on
Friday night through rain and even
heavy wet snowfall), the competitors
and workers made the best of it, and
had a great weekend in the thick gooey
mud. It was also the rally with the
most unbelievable finish of all.
Janusz
Komorowski and Piotr Kadlubowski of
Calgary had the worst time of the
competitors, flattening all 6 tires
on their car (the 4 they started with,
plus both of the spares) before they
could get to the first service, putting
them out of the rally after only two
stages.
Janice
Damitio and Amity Trowbridge of Washington
State and the Trinders (Scott and
Bob) made quite uncharacteristic timing
mistakes leading into stage 2, both
taking 10 minute early check-in penalties,
and tumbling them both to the bottom
of the results. Both teams made furious
charges back to the top, and almost
made it, missing the top spot by 18
seconds when all was said and done.
Their
transit mistake handed the lead over
to Ted Wilkinson and Bill Westhead
of British Columbia in their vintage
Group D Toyota Corolla. The radio
announcer took great joy in announcing
to his listeners that it was the first
time a Dinosaur was leading a rally.
Their
luck also went sour for them on the
very last stage of the event. Having
fuel vapour lock problems all day,
the problem really took hold on the
last stage, costing them an extra
14 minutes in the stage and the rally
win.
All
the problems of the top teams left
the door wide open for Mehran Arefi
and Dan McLean of Vancouver BC to
take the victory in only their 4th
rally in their 2002 Subaru Impreza
WRX. Janice Damitio and Amity Trowbridge
took second place, and the Trinders
took third place.
Mehran
Arefi also took top Novice Driver
honours, as well as the Production
Over Class. Janice Damitio took top
Open class, Peter Hill took top Dinosaur,
Richard Penrose took top Group 2,
and Production Under went to Martin
Wilson in the Justy, the little Subaru
that could.
Paul
Westwick and Ken Kwong are to be commended
for putting on a great event, despite
the problems they faced, from trees
falling across roads, to the weather
and mud. Next year, Pacific Forest
joins the National schedule as the
furthest west event in the calendar.
We're all looking forward to the Pacific
Region joining the National series.
Dave
Sharp
CARS Rallywest Director |
