Welcome back!!!

I am thrilled to announce the 2011 Mini Rally Series. In 2011, we will continue to increase the fun and challenge by making some more changes.

2011 Highlights:
- All Mini Rally’s will run on Saturday afternoons and into the evening – use those rally lights!
- Total distance will be around 150 km for each event – around 4 hours to complete!
- A new Start/Finish location for each Mini Rally – using a new set of challenging roads each time!
- No real changes to the instruction format – simple distance-to-turns and no tricks!
- 2 Classes: Equipped and Un-equipped (Novice & Expert) – Organizer's discretion may be used for Class assignment

Dates and Locations:
• February 5th – Husky Truck Stop, Hwy 400 & Hwy 88, Bradford, Ontario
• March 12th – Tim Horton’s, Hwy 10 & Mayfield Road, Brampton, Ontario - Registration opens at 4:00 PM, Car 1 starts at 6:01 PM.
• April 9th – Tim Horton’s, Dundas Street West & Hwy 403, Mississauga, Ontario - Registration opens at 5:00 PM, Car 1 starts at 7:01 PM.

Update: Winter Tires are Not Required for the April Mini Rally! A safety triangle is still required.
The Weather Network is calling for a cloudy day with a high of 15 degrees and no precipitation in sight! Based on this, winter tires are not required for the April Mini Rally!

Other details:
• $25 entry fee for each team (driver and navigator)
• Valid driver’s licence (for driver only), vehicle registration and insurance required
• Winter tires and safety triangles are required for February and March events. Winter tires may not be required in April (based on weather conditions)
• Watch this space for more info ...

Regards,

Ken.

What time do these start?

Here are the important times for the February Mini Rally:

Registration opens at   1:00 PM
Rally Overview:             2:00 PM
Car 1 Starts:                  3:01 PM
Car 1 Finishes (approx) 6:30 PM

Start/Finish Location:
             Husky Truck Stop Restaurant
             Hwy 400 & Hwy 88
             Bradford, Ontario

Equipped Class is for vehicles with any devices that receive a signal directly from a satellite or a wheel/moving part for the purpose of measuring distance. The only exception to this is the factory odo.

Trip computers and GPS devices are all considered Equipped.

This rule is to allow real newcomers to compete against other real newcomers. The Organizers may use their discretion to promote teams to the Expert Class in order to level the playing field.

• Winter tires and safety triangles are required for February and March events. Winter tires may not be required in April (based on weather conditions)

Do you still need snow tires with a 4wd vehicle

We are expecting a lot of snow this Wednesday so a good set of winters are required. We will not have a sweep either.

And some dollar stores carry safety triangles now!

Great Rally! Was my first time competing against experts. Some mad snow closer to the end. My driver's (Chris) Jetta barely made up some hills and for some sections we couldn't even keep the CAS, but caught up on straightaways.

We had a total score of 2.9 for 6 checkpoints, which landed us first place, but we were late at ALL 6 checkpoints. if late ones were to be timed to a minute, that would be 6 points... and probably would cost us that place. Next time we need to bring pace down just a notch.

We were winging it for most sections, but in one section there were long stretches and I tried to do some calculations and estimated we were 2 minutes too fast, I missed some pauses and we were going a bit fast, so we pulled over for 2 minutes and just as we proceeded, there was a checkpoint after next turn . nailed it. In prior section we missed a turn and ended up using time allowance for 1.5 minutes. It also let us put land right on a dot on next CP, though odo was off by a bit for 3/4 of that section.

The story telling section caught me a bit off-guard. I kept reading it to myself but kept missing something, so I've read it out-loud. as we come up to intersection on a hill, we stopped and I was hectically rereading, not catching a small detail that my driver picked up on and saved the day. The part where it said 'turn, but don't turn right' for some reason wasn't registering with me.

This also served as a warm up for me before next week's MLWR, so I'm all hyped up.

Anyway, huge thanks to organizers and to everyone who came out and participated. Looking forward to next event of the series.

so, what's the official start time on 12th? nowehre here it says time changed to 6pm, but on some other forums it does. Please clarify.

agh. So it is true.

Really wish the schedule was set in stone from beginning.. My driver made other commitments for saturday night before the schedule chage.

I will find another driver, but I was hoping to do the whole series as a same team.