Pacific Forest Rally

I'll come out of lurking to pitch in....

We had huge fun racing against Dave and Sean, great car with great style. Theres something special about rwd....

For out first event in the car we both can't be happier - it is taking some getting used to, but more seat time will fix that. I know it has lots more speed - I'm using a fraction of the road and my brake distances are long. I'm bummed that so many 2wd teams went out Friday night, but it is what it is.

The ranch stage was fantastic - I was a little worried that it was going to be a tough one, but doing recce in a 3/4 ton pickup tends to change the surface a bit. Anywho, I thought the stage was an ideal rally stage, it had everything from tight narrow technical bits, to fast flowing corners, to blind crests. Sooo much fun and I hope it stays.

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Matt Bobyn
I'll come out of lurking to pitch in....

We had huge fun racing against Dave and Sean, great car with great style. Theres something special about rwd....

For out first event in the car we both can't be happier - it is taking some getting used to, but more seat time will fix that. I know it has lots more speed - I'm using a fraction of the road and my brake distances are long. I'm bummed that so many 2wd teams went out Friday night, but it is what it is.

The ranch stage was fantastic - I was a little worried that it was going to be a tough one, but doing recce in a 3/4 ton pickup tends to change the surface a bit. Anywho, I thought the stage was an ideal rally stage, it had everything from tight narrow technical bits, to fast flowing corners, to blind crests. Sooo much fun and I hope it stays.

Welcome! I was hoping somebody would get detailed what could be wrong with the stage... I've seen a good amount of the roads in one way or another and my biggest concern was that the tendancy would be towards more BIG HP type roads..
Can you say what the thing that others were sayingwas 'hard' or whatever?

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Sure, I'll try! We found a few notable 'gotchyas' during recce:

1. Downhill right 3 covered in slick mud with close lying trees - dried out after recce was simply bumpy. Lots of people I talked to expected someone to hit the birch tree that stuck out. No-one did...

2. A very rough (or so it seemed in the truck) straight, but in the rally car it smoothed out as expected, just needed to be a touch carefull or you'd risk being tossed into the lake.

3. Some very narrow sections, no room for error, just needed to be tidy. One of these was covered in slick slippery clay mud, trees on one side and a sharp upward embankment on the right. Again, largely dried up after recce.

All in all, I think lots of people were worried about how tight and technical it was. It was a classic spectator stage with little room for error, and plenty of chances to wreck. I really didn't expect it to be as fast as it was, but man was it fun. I found the friday night stages to be tougher - they had some huge straights and frankly, I'm not comfortable going that fast. I much prefer technical stages.

Edit: It was really one of those stages where good notes were a requirement to go fast - so many of the corners were hidden and would be impossible to drive by sight. To carry any sort of speed you'd have to set the car up prior to actually seeing where you were going.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/2013 10:08PM by Matt Bobyn.

Brenten Kelly's in-car.





Matt's got it about right.
The road was actually on private property and some of the stage looked to be 'manufactured' for the rally.
A real mix of stuff, but was really wet during recce, which made some of the downhill into tight corner bits look more than a bit sketchy. Also, as Matt said, tight trees and no sight line through many corners.

I think just about everyone liked the stage after 'racing' it - except for the finish.

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First Rally: 2001
Driver (7), Co-Driver (44)
Drivers (16)
Clerk (10), Official (7), Volunteer (4)
Cars Built (1), Engines Built (0) Cages Built (0)
Last Updated, January 4, 2015

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john vanlandingham
Blame is for idiots. losers.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/2013 10:27PM by Morison.

Quote
Morison
Brenten Kelly's in-car.





Matt's got it about right.
The road was actually on private property and some of the stage looked to be 'manufactured' for the rally.
A real mix of stuff, but was really wet during recce, which made some of the downhill into tight corner bits look more than a bit sketchy. Also, as Matt said, tight trees and no sight line through many corners.

I think just about everyone liked the stage after 'racing' it - except for the finish.

Well what was not to like for the finish?

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

What the video doesn't quite show is that it was a fairly steep downhill with a crest hiding a left right combo with a rough road and a narrow gate to find your way through and no way to 'straight line' the section and it was at the end of a run where you'd be using the brakes heavily and you could expect them to be marginal. More of a situation of 'if it went wrong it would go horribly wrong.'

Also, remember it was wet and slick during recce. (I think I heard some people were having trouble stopping in some sections in road cars)

Everyone made it through...

---

First Rally: 2001
Driver (7), Co-Driver (44)
Drivers (16)
Clerk (10), Official (7), Volunteer (4)
Cars Built (1), Engines Built (0) Cages Built (0)
Last Updated, January 4, 2015

Quote
john vanlandingham
Blame is for idiots. losers.

Just looked at video. Gawddam looks like a great stage, no pussified freeway, driver has to do something , suspension has to move..
MORE

(really only reason that anybody should have any commenst in advance is they are simply not used to anything but near freeways.)
That is what is needed for people to learn to drive.

Whew.

Relay the message to the right people MORE LIKE THAT.

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Adam would know better - since he was CROing the event - but I think just about everyone had good things to say after 'racing' the stage. I know our opinion changed completely.

---

First Rally: 2001
Driver (7), Co-Driver (44)
Drivers (16)
Clerk (10), Official (7), Volunteer (4)
Cars Built (1), Engines Built (0) Cages Built (0)
Last Updated, January 4, 2015

Quote
john vanlandingham
Blame is for idiots. losers.

That looked fun. Might have to come up and do that sometime.

What's the scoop on Big White? The website hasn't really been updated since last year and it's a scant two months out.

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Self-righteous douche canoe

Whatca want to know?

The event will be recce on Saturday Dec. 7, Rally Sunday Dec. 8.
Entry fees likely $650 early, $850 late
About 120km of stage distance. Three roads, if we get enough volunteers, two if we don't.
It's snowing up there already
Last year's supps will give you good information to plan with, many of the names are being juggled. Some details will need updated information.
http://www.bigwhiterally.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/RallySupRegs.pdf

At PFR I seemed to pull together the key positions for the event. The previous lead coordinator stepped down so I've been pulled into that role as well as clerking...

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First Rally: 2001
Driver (7), Co-Driver (44)
Drivers (16)
Clerk (10), Official (7), Volunteer (4)
Cars Built (1), Engines Built (0) Cages Built (0)
Last Updated, January 4, 2015

Quote
john vanlandingham
Blame is for idiots. losers.

Yeah, I planned stuff already around last year's supps. Gonna try to make it this year. It's just that I gotta figure out snowtires and studs (harder than you might think here in CA - probably have to have prestudded ones shipped from TireRack), figure out how to get Jimmy there, arrange a recce car, and schedule time off for the long long tow. That's a lot of stuff to arrange around extrapolation from last year's supps, and I'm sort of nervous about events being cancelled at the last minute after the whole Mt. Hood thing.

Probably will bring the slow Golf, not the fast one. I know jack all about driving in snow and figure I'll probably stuff it a few times. I hear snowbanks are soft.

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Self-righteous douche canoe

I don't see any reason Big White would get cancelled. There are too many people who want to see it happen - myself included.

Recce Car: As much as I advise against it, you can recce in the rally car.
Studded Tires: You can probably arrange purchase and mounting in Kelowna.
It will be a 'rinse and repeat' of either last year (2 roads, few volunteers) or the previous year (3 roads, more volunteers)

The big changes will be who you regitser with and what the booking code for the resort will be.

Big thing to plan for will be bringing enough fuel to the hill with you!

I hope you can make it up there!

Of course Rocky Mountain is three weeks away and we can sort out some storage between it an Big White...

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First Rally: 2001
Driver (7), Co-Driver (44)
Drivers (16)
Clerk (10), Official (7), Volunteer (4)
Cars Built (1), Engines Built (0) Cages Built (0)
Last Updated, January 4, 2015

Quote
john vanlandingham
Blame is for idiots. losers.

Quote
Morison
Adam would know better - since he was CROing the event - but I think just about everyone had good things to say after 'racing' the stage. I know our opinion changed completely.

It definitely wasn't like there was an overall "dislike" of the stage after people raced it, I think a lot of competitors were just gun-shy about the trickier tight stuff and still were after the fact.

I agree with John that we need more stages like that!

Quote
Morison

Studded Tires: You can probably arrange purchase and mounting in Kelowna.

www.tiretrends.com

You can get a wicked deal on studded winter tires right now that are General Arctic Altimax ripoffs (as far as I can tell, called hercules). I just priced them out $380 all in shipped to Alberta in 205/55R16 size, so as long as you had a place in Kelowna to send them to. Gotta be careful taking new tires across the border if you don't have them mounted, they might ding you with tax/duty. Also, discountiredirect.com might be a better bet than TireRack as they have free shipping in the US IIRC.

Tres chiche!

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All bridges burnt, island life is beauty

so talk about coming out of the woodwork...

checking the video, at 1:35 the slight right downhill was just a grassy field on survey, just a couple of tracks on checkout two weeks ago, with the promise it would be graded.
The lake was a two-track with foot high grass everywhere, and closer to the water! The grader did a fine job of easing the worry there.
At 4:27 FF, slight crest drops into CG slight right... All I can say is this was the longest shutdown on the event at over 600m. We moved Helmer downhill shutdown for a longer margin too, but only to 400m.
The small crest degraded quickly in the two weeks since checkout, and more-so with recce car traffic.
There are more roads on the property, the landowner is enthusiastic, and it is for a good cause. Pretty sure we'll see more of ColdWater Ranch.

Good to see more of us from the states up to PFR. With the Hardy's and Dave/Sean bringing home hardware, and Billy talking it up with the ever-present big smile, let's get a few more 'Mercans up next year!!

BTW, the timber company that repaired the rough transit did so in good faith, and PFR couldn't actually improve a "deactivated" road (at risk of permit issues) but the rain and new cross ditches for drainage were too much for any 2wd, exciting/scary for awd, and we'll just have to wait until next year to see how it dried out. The shortened Mab Lake stages exceeded the 120km/h average limit, so we'll have to put in another delta/chicane next time.