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| Posted by Andrew
Comrie Picard on 06-16-03 at 01:17 PM |
| Randy- |
| "Off road"
doesn't really capture it. In the first place,
the new engine we installed on Thursday was
damaged on startup on Thursday night and so
we stayed up all night Thursday diagnosing
it. On Friday at 11am we took the decision
to just build another engine out of the parts
from it and the previous engine we'd lost
at Rocky that we still had around. We found
another set of lower bearings in Vancouver
and spent Friday afternoon at the machine
shop. By 8pm we had all the components for
an engine machined, cleaned, and sitting on
a table. The organizers very kindly gave us
a dispensation (reviewed by the stewards)
to scrutineer us if we could show up for the
start. |
| By 5am the engine was
built. By 6 it was in the car. We put in the
break-in oil and began to drive up to Merrit
from Vancouver. At Hope (roughly halfway)
we pulled to the side of the road and changed
out the breakin oil for the synthetic. Then
we started running up the boost and tuning
the air/fuel on the computer on the highway
to Merrit (I'm sure a lot of the trucks on
the road at 7:30 am on Saturday wondered why
we were accelerating brutally up the hills
with the brakes on). We arrived at the start
at 8:30, got scrutineered (THANK YOU EVERYONE
WHO ASSISTED - Ken, Martin, Dennis, Paul,
Ben, Alain, Tom, etc. etc...), and checked
in 40s into our minute. |
| We transited to the
first stage with everything in good order
and started. This was a victory in itself.
|
| The first stage was
fantastic - like Acropolis. Very twisty, challenging,
blind, big drop-offs - terrific. I loved it.
|
| At the 8km mark we were
happily sliding around a right-hander and
the right front wheel tracked over a rock
imbedded in the road - not a huge one, but
one that you wouldn't think much about. Immeditately
the steering wheel went limp and we went off
on the outside - turned out the steering knuckle
broke at the ball joint pin so the wheel jammed
in the wheel well and threw us to the outside
- all the inside tire treads were neatly sheared
off by the wheel well. When we looked at the
damage later there were three layers to the
shear point so we reckon we cracked it somewhere
earlier in the stage and it just chose that
point to let go. Unfortunately we haven't
had the budget to life-cycle parts and I think
that knuckle had done as many as a dozen rallies.
Maybe we can't afford not to life-cycle now. |
| Happily there was a
small tree and a wire fence on the exposure
side and happily we went off fast enough not
to roll but to land on a plateau about 15
feet down. The car will rally again. Whether
we have the money to do so is another matter... |
| So it was a terrific
shame to DNF after all the amazing work that
the crew did to get us to the rally. Several
of them literally did not sleep between Thursday
morning and Saturday night. As Tom McGeer
said, the victory was in part just getting
to the start line. So it was a bittersweet
experience, but on balance a great homage
to the crew. |
| Note to all - this event
has terrific roads. Soon it will be one of
the best events in Canada. |
ACP www.musketeerracing.com
Flirting with the laws of physics. |
| |
| Posted by Glenn
Wallace on 06-16-03 at 05:04 PM |
| < Note to all - this
event has terrific roads. Soon it will be
one of the best events in Canada.> |
| By the way.... there
are even better roads that are used on the
TSD rallies in the same area (e.g. Totem,
Thunderbird) that I don't think could be closed
for this event. I believe 1 stage was though. |
| I am hoping next year
that more of them can be used, although I'd
agree that the roads in the event were great.
And what about that route book? Excellent!!!!!!
|
| Glenn |
| |
| Posted by Tmachnik
on 06-16-03 at 07:58 PM |
| completely agree with
the quality of the event, it was the toughest,
most challenging, thrilling rally I've done
in my 6 event career so far. At times it felt
like I was watching the in car footage from
a WRC event, the roads were so amazing. |
| The route book was exceptional,
my co-driver is now easily 3 times better
than she was before this event, she wasn't
even using the odo a lot of the time or looking
out the window, she found her zone and must
have been using "the force". After
overcoming sudden severe motion sickness on
the shakedown stage the day before the rally,
she stunned me with her performance on Saturday's
stages . Well done Amy. I think we're ready
to try pace notes now. |
| Congradulations to
the entire organizing commitee, the volunteers,
and marshals, the event was smooth, and well
organized. The atmosphere of the whole town
was freindly and welcoming. We will be definitely
be back next year. |
Tom |
| |
Posted by August
on 06-18-03 at 04:53 PM
What's the word on your car Chad? |
Posted by Chad
Nothing, its fine It's just a minor flesh
wound |
Posted by Paul Westwick
When we heard from sweep over the radio that
you were off, we asked them if you were officially
DNF, and if so to collect the time card. They
answered "The time card's in the car,
and it's NOT safe to retreive it." That
remark had us just a mite concerned... |
Posted by Chad
Yes, well the thing is there was a potential
for the accident to be severe, at least for
the car. But in all reality, its not even
"a minor flesh wound", I really
didn't do any damage to it.
But on the other hand, I know I'm extremely
lucky, and that you don't get away with things
like that twice. |
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