I just went back through the results from 2004-2012.

The interesting thing is that the entries varried from a high of 23 to a low of 15. The last 2 years have been 17, which seems to be pretty well normal for Bear.

I am not sure why we don't see better numbers than this.

On the roads, I will share a story. On A5 we had a delay on Car 99 as they dealt with a competitor issue. I was speaking with a local camper and he said, "Thank goodness that you guys come out here and rally, you are the only ones that fix the roads!" I said, yea but they are still rough in spots. He replied with, "You guys are on the good roads. You should see the other ones!"

I think many of the folks on Pines and Bear have worked really hard to improve the roads and they are far better than when I got involved 12 years ago. I know I have spent more than a few days working hard on them!

As a worker, I would certainly like to see the car counts higher. I have the same amount of work pretty well if there are 17 or 35.

Paul, I was disappointed for your team and Martin Walter's. To have two cars DNF due to failures on the transit back really sucks, plus the Lada guys made it to within 3 km of the finish of the last stage.

More musings: Alexei, thanks so much for taking along a last-minute passenger who needed to get to TO!   He had hoped to get a train from Belleville on Saturday night but that didn't work out.

Jeannie

Many thanks to all who worked in the sweltering heat and choking dust, all of the competitors really appreciate your commitment to the sport!

My $0.02 on the musings...

Low car count - in past years BB competed with the F1 race in Montreal, and was 2 weeks before Baie-Des-C. Most Regional entrants would likely pick a rally over an F1 race, but not all... most regional entrants can't afford BDC and BB within 2 weeks, i know I couldn't, so for the last few years we skipped BDC.  Some likely skipped BB.

Now the date is mid-July, school is out, vacation  season is squarly upon us... 2 weeks after BDC, same weekend as NEFR.  We decided not to do BDC again.. others may have done it instead of BB... some likely did NEFR instead,  others were likely at the cottage the same week they've been at the cottage for the last 5 years.  

For us the big decision was NEFR or BB, eventually the lack of MaxAttack!! at NEFR, the extra vacation days and the huge difference in expenses made us choose BB, but it could have gone either way as we love both of these rallies.

Changing the venue from Dorset to Bancroft area was a good thing, changing the dates (while probably unavoidable) is likely what will take more adjustment for the competitors.  But BB is a great rally, I can see nothing but increased car counts in it's future!

Love the 2 minute window! The forethough of the organisers on this one point shows how totally in touch they are, and will squish any concerns future competitors might have regarding dust.

-Martin.

We would have loved to have been there, i had to have some dental surgery  done and i couldn't see myself bouncing around in a Rally car shortly thereafter. We will be definitely present at GCFR.

Um, 4) same time as Maine (well, NEFR).

Really old rule - 2 objects cannot occupy the same space, at the same time.

overthehill wrote on 07/15/12 at 11:36:28:


press on,