Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to announce the 2008 Wheel & Tire Zone Mini-Rally Championship Series presented by the Maple Leaf Rally Club - the best way to spend a Monday evening in your vehicle!

The Mini-Rally series is a set of seven monthly (April to October) navigational rallies held on good quality gravel and paved county roads just north of Toronto. The competition is held in three classes; Beginner, Novice and Expert. Trophies are presented to the Top-3 positions in each class.      Championship points are awarded monthly to determine the class winners at the end of the Series.

Returning in 2008 is the Combined Mini-Rally & Ralliette Championship presented in collaboration with the Toronto Autosport Club. Competitors count their best six events from either Series towards this Championship. At least two events must be from each series. A separate set of trophies will be awarded for this Championship.

This year, exciting changes are being introduced to the Championship Points system and the Entry Fee schedule. Teams competing in the Mini-Rally Series can win extra championship points by organizing or working at a Mini-Rally. Furthermore, entry fee discounts are available to teams competing in more than 5 events.   Check the additional details posted on the Maple Leaf Rally Club web site.

Paul and Rita Moore will return to defend their Expert Class championship from last year. They will be challenged by other Experts plus the new Expert teams of Tim/Steven Laye and Nikola Novak/Fiel Cotta who have moved up into the Expert Class following their 1st and 2nd Place standings in the Novice Class in 2007.

The Novice Class will see some returning teams including Bryce Baker/Derek Vincent and Mark Harris/Jason Crandall. They will be joined by 2007 Beginner Class Champions Jane and Bruce Leonard and runners-up Conor Malone/Glenna Chestnutt.

The Beginner Class always sees the largest number of teams competing for the class championship.      These will include fresh graduates of the RallySport Ontario Rally School plus teams from last year such as Alexei Stapinski/Richard Gardner.

The Mini-Rally Series is a fun, inexpensive, yet challenging way to enter navigational rallying at the grassroots level. We hope you can come out and spend a Monday evening with us.

2008 dates are April 14, May 12, June 9, July 14, Aug 11, Sept 8 and Oct 6.

For additional information, please visit the Maple Leaf Rally Club web site www.mlrc.ca or contact me via email at minirally@mlrc.ca.

Note – each month we need volunteers to run checkpoints and to assist with registration and scoring. Please advise if you can attend.

Ken Nazeer
Coordinator, 2008 Wheel & Tire Zone Mini-Rally Championship Series
Maple Leaf Rally Club

Maple Leaf Rally Club hosted the first Mini Rally of the 2008 season on Monday, April 14th.  Sixteen teams entered the event.  The rally ran very smoothly and the Results and awards were ready promptly at the Finish. Most teams were successful in finding all the checkpoints; one car, #8, had  car problems, but managed to get to the Finish, so they were scored as finishing.  Car 6 missed the first two checkpoints, but recovered nicely by following the instructions to an End of Section, and got all the checkpoints from CP3 on.

Winners of awards were:

1st Beginner – Car #2 – Patrick L. & Shawn G. – 1.7
2nd Beginner – Car #15 – Russ T. & Sean W. – 4.3
3rd Beginner – Car #10 – Ralph O. & Craig N. – 7.3

1st Novice – Car #14 – Jane & Bruce L. – 2.3
2nd Novice – Car #11 -  Carolyn & Alan R. – 3.2
3rd Novice – Car #4 – Bryce B. & Derek V. – 3.6

1st Expert – Car #1 – Paul & Rita M. – 0.0 (congratulations – a perfect rally!)
2nd Expert – Car #9 – Tim & Steven L. - 2.2

Full Results will be posted on the MLRC website at www.mlrc.ca

For this first event the instruction types included – Distances to Turns, Tulips, Tulip Map, Clock Faces and Columns of Instructions and Distances.


TIPS

Control Procedure

(1)As you approach a checkpoint, you may drive slowly but you must not come to a full stop in sight of the checkpoint.  If you do, the marshal will record your time  at the moment your vehicle stops moving.

(2)When you arrive at a control, pull past the control car and park safely on the right edge of the road.  Your time will be recorded at the moment your front bumper passes the control board at the bumper of the checkpoint vehicle. The driver should then go back to the checkpoint car to get the timing sticker.

(3)After you have received your timing sticker, pull forward at least three car lengths to allow room for other cars arriving at the checkpoint.

(4)Leave at the Out Time that the marshal has written on your sticker.

Time Allowances (TA’s)

If you lose time in a section (e.g. road blocked by a train crossing), you can ask for a Time Allowance at the next checkpoint in half minute allotments up to 7.5 minutes maximum. You must request the TA at the checkpoint before receiving your timing sticker.



Thanks to Ken Nazeer for organizing the Series and to Paul Henshall for organizing the April event, Donna Huber for running Registration and to the following people for volunteering for controls – Ross & Janet Wood, Doug Hollands, Bryn Epp, Ray Felice, Jeff Hagan and Bernadette, Norman Hibbert, Larry Flint, Roger Sanderson, Mac Calder and Christina Chinn.

NEXT EVENT – Monday, May 12th.  Reminder – big discounts in entry fees to any team who enter more than five events.

Note – Toronto Autosport Club is also organizing ralliettes on Wednesday evenings – next one is on Wednesday, April 23rd. There are also awards for the two series combined.

See you on May 12th.