Well, I'm going to do a post-rally wrapup for our Perce Neige experience, ala Ferd or Ryan. It was quite the experience, I've never finished a national rally of this length and toughness as a driver.
Before the story, I'd like to thank Angela Cosner for agreeing to get in the co-driver's seat again, and was a trooper all rally long in one of the toughest events I know. Kelly Sandford and Jeff Hagan towed and serviced for me, and did an awesome job. Pat Rainville was very understanding of the problems we had on Kitigan and helped us to run Tortue. Terry Epps also agreed to let us all run Tortue and sort out the scoring later. But most of all, thanks to all the workers and organizers who saved this rally and made it possible.
After the lowest of the low at Tall Pines (for those who don't know, this was the aftermath:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHes26dd_t8 ), I wasn't expecting to rally again this year. I booked days off for Perce Neige to co-drive or volunteer, but when Peter K put his car up for sale and all the supporting people were ready to go, I had to go for it. It was a tight schedule, but I managed to get everything lined up in time and away we went.
Recce day was HARD. It was a very long day, and being at the back of the pack meant we didn't get to recce Des Eaux or Marie-Anne at all due to how late it went + shakedown. We borrowed notes from Michelle (thanks!!!) for Des Eaux and relied on notes for last year's Marie-Anne. The borrowed notes we had from someone else for Tortue were not to my liking, so we spent significant time changing them on the 2nd pass which didn't help.
On the rally day, we checked tire pressures in the morning and discovered all the tires we had on were getting low. This foreshadowed things to come, but we filled up and were on our way.
The only goal I had for this rally was to finish, given that I had A) crashed big time at Tall Pines and was trying to get comfortable again; B) had zero seat time in the Swift; C) first winter event, first night stages, etc. I asked for stage times not to be told to me during the rally as well.
For all of these videos, I'll warn you that they're really boring because of all the above points. When I mean I didn't push, I mean it. I was running at about 50% maybe. Early braking, no sliding, etc. Also, the voice recorder wasn't really working out so well this rally so no in-car comm. It's time for a better camera setup.
SS1: Marie-Anne 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55KjMS-3DtcPretty straightforward, no dramas here especially since we didn't recce this stage.
SS2: Des Eaux 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBzUC4OH2IoAlso pretty straightforward, also slow because we didn't want to take any risks with borrowed notes.
Back at Service 1, everything was great until 5 minutes before we were due to leave. The night before I had problems with my suit's zipper coming apart. I thought it was a one time thing. I was wrong. So, we were 2 minutes late out of service because I couldn't get my suit to stay together. Eventually we got it done up, and I tightened up the fly with pliers at service 2 so it didn't happen again. Still, it wasn't a great start to the day. I had to hold in all, ahem, functions, until services in the morning so I didn't risk having a problem we couldn't fix on stage.
SS3: Marie-Anne 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7inRMujZOQAnother straightforward stage, a bit faster but still only going at about 50%.
SS4: Des Eaux 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytnQkAPgiMcWe get passed on this short stage by a Subie at 4:35, and now I'm feeling pretty crappy. That gets even worse at 5:05 when we see the rolled Focus of Andrew & Gary in the woods on the left. They rolled on SS2. Fortunately they're both okay, and the car doesn't appear to be too badly damaged.
The GoPro starts acting up again at this point, and we have no video until Blue Sea/Bouchette 2. Farley and Blue Sea go fairly well, although I act like a pansy on Blue Sea and basically coast 1/3 of the way to the end of straights. Poor Michelle sent her Evo off on one of these stages, and all we could see was her co-driver holding a triangle up just over a snowbank and waving it back and forth. Eep!
Kitigan Zibi 1 was an experience. I don't know any other stage quite like it. It seems to go on forever, and it's narrow, rough and hilly. There are 2 bad hills on this stage for 2WD competitors, but we make it up with no issues on this pass. Poor Paul stuffs it into a snowbank on this stage and can't get out in time. Peter and James also stuff it into a snowbank in their Evo9. We come up to them with their tow rope out, but we look at them like "uhhhh, yeah, not going to happen in a Swift". Sorry guys!
At Service 2, everything goes fine. We run Farley and Blue Sea again, and drive up to Kitigan Zibi 2. At this point, Angela and I get out and start talking to the other competitors. Everything seemed fine on transit. When Angela goes to get back in the car though she finds the front right tire has gone flat. Drat. So we're two minutes late into the time control after changing the tire and take another penalty. Lesson learned, always check the tires after every stage!
SS9 Blue Sea Bouchette:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_Ukm9vb_yUNothing really remarkable in this stage, but I loved some of the high speed straights! Witness the early braking though...
SS10 Kitigan Zibi 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRN_srM6I54I replaced the GoPro batteries so we have most of the stage. We get passed multiple times, but at this point I really can't do much about it. The cautious approach is not fun when you have a very narrow stage road and all you get is wheelspin all the time. Fortunately there's a few cutoffs in the stage and I pull over for people as soon as I can.
The second bad hill in the stage is where everything goes completely wrong. We let a Subaru by a short while before the hill, and we see his brake lights on and pull up. He squeezes by car 41, a Nissan Sentra, which either went into a snowbank or couldn't get up the hill and then put it into the snowbank. This is really bad news, since I couldn't get the run at the hill we needed with him so close to the turn up the hill, but we go for it anyways. We had nothing to lose.
The hill is awful, and far icier than the first pass. We almost got to the top of the hill when we spin out. I try and climb up slowly in first and we just slip down. At this point I know we're screwed and the only option I have is to see if I can brake gently back down the hill. It's too narrow to pull over and let someone go by and have them tow us up. Unfortunately the Audi TT of the Nichols come upon us, and then:
- We try to pull to the right to let them by, and get lightly stuck in the snowbank.
- The Nichols gun it to the left, barely get by us, but then get stuck in the overplow. Now we're both stuck
- The Evo9 of Peter & James arrive. They try to pull out the Nichols, but their tow rope snaps. I give them our tow strap instead, and the Evo pulls them slightly down the hill but still in the snowbank. Then another pull rips their tow hook and bumper clean off the TT. It was a heartbreaking moment, I felt so bad for the Nichols at this point
- The Evo9 pulls us out easily (yay for a light Swift!) and we both start trying to go down the hill. Then the Evo9 gets stuck in the snowbank on the left as well. Uuuuuugh...
At this point, the rest of the competitors and sweep are upon us and we work out getting back down the hill, and the TT and Evo get pulled out by sweep. Someone points out that we have a right rear flat now at this point, I have no idea when this happened. It was fine at the start of the stage, and I hit NOTHING the entire stage. Bah. Another tire change. Thankfully we took 2 spares in the car.
With the TT and Evo free, I take a run at the hill with speed and get up it. Great
At this point, we transit through the stage to Black Rollway as Foret de l'Aigle was already running the 2nd pass and it was too late for us to join. A great debate starts at Black Rollway whether all of us should be allowed to continue or not, and it gets somewhat heated at some points. The final decision is we can run Tortue after the others that made it through the stage, and the scoring will be decided later. Fine by me, I only care about running the entire rally.
On Tortue Nord, we're the slowest by far. The ice tires are thoroughly done by now, and we have two snow tires on the back. After the rally, the front ice tires would also both go flat. Something's not quite right there. To boot, we partially re-wrote the notes on this stage and it's my first full night stage, so we get caught again by Jeff Dowell, and it takes a while for me to find a place to let him pass.
At the turnaround, we're just grateful to be able to enjoy that famous bonfire and reflect on the day that's almost over. I tell Jeff that we'll let him go in front of us and we'll take the 10 second penalty. Fortunately it never becomes an issue because we just line up and go anyways.
SS14 Tortue Sud:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXv1pcCjkWUDue to the late recce the night before, sleep problems, and not getting a chance to eat at Black Rollway because of the issues on Kitigan Zibi, Angela is now suffering. I'm used to tough rallies late at night (MLWR!!!) but this is her first. She reads the notes as best she can, but she's really struggling to concentrate and I have to drive parts of the stage without notes. No worries, we already knew we were the slowest, so at this point it really didn't matter anyways. It was just a pleasure to run that stage with only that narrow road and snowbanks in front of you. We come upon the Evo of Peter and James, again, stuffed in a snowbank due to brake failure. And once again, sorry guys, we're in a Swift
We finish the stage without any drama, and complete the long drive back to Parc Ferme. I went to bed after a while, but the next morning we learned we (and the TT too I think) were DNFed due to missing Foret de l'Aigle. I have mixed feelings on that. I know that we basically weren't able to complete a stage properly, so it is our fault for that. But that hill was a nightmare to get up with on a proper run, and I couldn't get the speed needed due to the other car at the bottom of the hill. In the end, I don't really care about a result since everyone knows Dube was the best G2 there, but it does hurt not to have the official result saying we finished. I'm still happy to have finished one of the toughest rallies out there, albeit it at a fraction of the speed I would normally do. I did get that all important seat time in the Swift and the experience.
The next rally will probably be a long time aways for myself. I have to make up a lot of money still tied up in rolling the Scirocco and running this rally. Hopefully I'll make a testing day later in the summer, and maybe we'll be back for GCFR or Tall Pines. Otherwise, there's always next year!
Thanks for reading, and share your stories as well!
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