Thanks to all 28 of you who assisted in making the Maple Leaf Winter Rally a
huge success on Saturday night - from the officials to the Course Cars to
the CP teams to the Scorers/HQ guys. Everyone contributed to a great example
of teamwork, making it a very efficient operation.

A special tribute to Ryan Huber, who put a huge amount of work into the planning of this event. If any of you are interested in getting involved in some of the organizing next year, let us know.

Many of the competitors commented on how well organized it was and how they
were treated by everyone in such a friendly manner.

Conditions were pefect and very challenging, making it an event that the
competitors will not soon forget. Amazing achievement for the father and son
team of Ferdinand and Christoph Trauttsmandorff to take the overall win in
their old 2WD/RWD BMW.

See you again soon at another rally.

Ross

Thanks to all of you who worked and organized this amazing rally. It's become a not-to-miss event thanks to all your hard work.

I'd like to give a special thanks to Ryan & Donna who accommodated our really late arrival. We had big problems getting out of Toronto with the snow and our 45 minute early arrival estimate wasted away quickly We arrived in Bancroft with the empty gas tank light on and frazzled nerves   but it was an awesome time.

Thanks so much to all the many volunteers who made this event possible.  It was great to discover so many different checkpoints all night long, and always a big relief to stumble across the next one as confirmation that we're still on the correct route.

We were a little uncertain as to whether we would actually make it all the way to the finish.  The old BMW was experiencing a few difficulties in the deep fresh snow.

Other than the usual stuff, like barely being able to scrabble up icy steep hills or almost getting bogged down and stuck in the deep snow on West Eels, our biggest worry was the amount of snow filling our engine compartment.

The first indication of trouble was the way the headlights kept intermittently dimming out.

Oh-oh.  That can't be good.

So much snow was packed into the engine bay, piled halfway up the backside of the radiator, it eventually caused the rad fan to stop turning.  That, in itself, is not a terminal problem as long as we keep moving forward and air continues to flow through the portions of the rad not yet blocked by snow.  But, with the fan not turning, the engine would rapidly overheat anytime we stopped at a checkpoint.

The fan is joined by a viscous coupling to the water pump, which is driven by the alternator/fan belt.  When the rad fan gets jammed with snow and stops turning, the viscous coupling eventually overheats, then the alternator/fan belt starts slipping, the alternator stops turning or otherwise cuts out due to excessive snow ingestion, and then the headlights subsequently fade out, which is the signal to us that the water pump has probably also stopped turning.

If ignored too long beyond that point, really bad things could start happening...

We were forced to make frequent emergency stops to dig the snow out of the engine compartment, before it could set solidly into ice.

Then, while blindly hacking away in the engine compartment with my snow-brush, I managed to sever the wire leading to the oil pressure sensor.  Thereafter, the exposed end of the wire would occasionally ground out against the engine block.  Already concerned with imminent overheating, engine meltdown, or a potential head gasket blowout, we really could have done without the added distraction of that very alarming bright RED oil-pressure warning light constantly flashing on and off in the instrument cluster!

Still, even if left stranded somewhere deep in the Hastings woods, we were reassured by the fact that we wouldn't starve because Stephen very generously also gave us a bag of those famous cookies.

Rallying is so awesome!