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WCRA
website promoting Stage and TSD Rally Sport in
British Columbia |
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Thunderbird
Rally 2004 Another Canadian Winter Rally Adventure Ron Sorem © 2004 |
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February
14 & 15, 2004. 33rd Thunderbird Rally. Merritt-Kamloops-Merritt,
BC |
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| The Thunderbird Rally has been around since 1957, has drawn entry fields in the low twenties early on, and in the low seventies recently. The 33rd running had 63 entrants prepared for snow and ice and a challenging drive through central British Columbia. | ||||||||
| Saturday morning the snow began falling an hour or so before breakfast. Snow would continue lightly throughout the day and have the added mix of occasional dense fog. The transit and odometer check section left Merritt for Quilchena and quickly onto the snow-covered back roads, on what may be the best TSD rally in North America. | ||||||||
| The first regularity, or timed section, of Leg 1, named “Minnie Lake”, climbed quickly from the river level into rolling hills with deep snow and speeds up to 72 km/h. The first few cars had to deal with a 10-wheeled propane tanker making a delivery to Minnie Lake Ranch, but surprisingly cooperative with the rally cars. The driver had honked and waved as he passed the start of the section where all the cars were lined up at the side of the road. From our position in Car 6, thoughts of having to pass in some unknown narrow section brought groans from driver and navigator alike. Fortunately, the propane truck gave a wide berth to the rally as each car passed, and in fact turned off our route just as we caught the truck. This would be the first of many trucks-versus-rally encounters for competitors during the weekend. A year ago this section was run in the opposite direction, late in the day, in much warmer conditions. The resulting melt and rainfall left most of the depressions in the road filled with water and slush, and of course the “Minnie Lake” section was dubbed “mini-lakes”, with spectacular water splashes at rally speed. This year’s weather had changed the path to a mixture of rolling roadbed linked by table smooth frozen areas, all of which were now covered with snow. | ||||||||
| A short transit section took the rally past the Douglas Ranch, the largest cattle operation in Canada, and on to the next regularity appropriately named “Douglas Lake”. Beginning speed was 72 again, lowering to 68 after a couple of checkpoints, then down to 60, 55, and 50, as the nature of the road and the depth of snow warranted. The last 7.3 km were relatively flat with a wide roadbed and the section ended at 72 km/h. On to Highway 97 South at Westwold, a pioneer community founded in 1864, we proceed to Falkland for fuel and snacks. | ||||||||
| Leg 2 begins at Falkland, northward again to China Creek Road and the beginning of “Martin Prairie” Regularity at 72 km/h. In 2003 at the beginning of this section, drivers were looking back across the valley beyond Chase toward the sheer-ice downhill they had just completed. Conjecture this year was we might be retracing the route or might in fact run the section as a hill-climb. Either option brought back exciting memories for some of the competitors, quizzical looks from those who had not experienced the adrenalin of the prior year. As it would later turn out, we would cross the ridge, but by a slightly different route, with just as many hairpin turns in the steep ascent. “Martin Prairie” contained two checkpoints and the speeds ranged from 72 down through 40, with duration of 8 km for a couple of the speeds and as short as 1.5 km for a couple more. Varying the number and length of speed changes keeping the navigators busy with calculations and notes, or tweaking the computers in the Unlimited class cars. | ||||||||
| A transit through Chase, the “Skimiken” Regularity, and another transit past Squilax, brought the rally to the beginning of “Eileen Lake” Regularity. Speeds began calmly enough, 50, 58, 55, 65, then 72 at a checkpoint, and continue at 72 through another checkpoint. Fortunately speeds slow to 36 for the next instructions of “Caution! Hairpin L, Exposure R” followed .33 km later by “Hairpin R”, a cattle guard, and then “Hairpin L” followed closely by a return to pavement and an increase in speeds. Then 35.67 km into the section, Car 6 experiences another close encounter with a big truck. There is active logging in the area, and equipment gets moved around on weekends to new landings. A big white Freightliner cabover with a lowboy trailer and a very large yellow machine met our very small white Subaru in the middle of a right corner between instructions “Hairpin R” and “Long Hairpin R”. The truck driver had met the course opening car, and five other competitors, and evidently expected us at some point or another as he had his right front tire as far right as possible, but the long trailer just kept getting closer to our side of the road. As one travels to the very right-most edge of the road, sometimes the road disappears. In this instance, the car came to a stop softly on the skid pan, reverse was selected as the trailer blurred past, and after several feet of spinning all four wheels, Car 6 was back on the road, the computer was adjusted, and forward motion attempted, slowly on the snowy uphill climb, then somewhat faster, through several more turns with questionable traction (and odo readings) to of course, a checkpoint. Thanks to the truck for 20 late, but better than a couple of the alternatives. The balance of the regularity to Sun Peaks transit was uneventful, past the checkpoints and photographers, with “zeroes” at both, and no damage. | ||||||||
| “Louis Creek” Regularity begins on a relatively steep but smooth incline at 62 km/h for 7 km, then somewhat levels out and the speed increases to 68 for 9 km, a short quiet zone at 55, then another 11 km at 68. The rally has 15 minutes to get to Barriere for fuel and snacks, and a 20-minute break. | ||||||||
| Leg 3 begins
with crews relieved and refreshed. 3 km to the start
of “Westsyde” Regularity where yet another
encounter with big rigs occurs. Two very large snowplows
begin to pass the line of cars awaiting their out-times.
A car pulls out of line to block the path of the
plows. Five cars then proceed ahead on the section
to the first intersection, execute the acute right
turn, and await the actions of the plows…
Fortunately the plows went straight ahead on the
main road, where the rally turned right. “Westsyde”
is 26 km of 45, 50, 55, and 60 km/h. A 15 km transit
to Jamieson Creek brings the beginning of the last
Regularity of the day. “O’Connor Creek”
ranges in speeds from 65 for 11 km, to 55 for 16
km, a short stretch at 65, then 55 for another 13
km. Speeds increase through 60 and 65 to 70 for
the remainder of the 66.22 km section. During much
of the section, snow was sufficiently deep for the
early cars that maintaining rally speed was “challenging”.
For later cars, the rutted snow could be “difficult”. Dinner and stories in Kamloops to end Day One, 454.33 km (282.92 mi). |
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| Leg 4 begins Day Two with a 26 km transit out of Kamloops to the 74.40 km “Tranquille-Red Lake” Regularity, longest of the event. The first checkpoint is only a short distance into the section (relocated because the checkpoint crew in rear-wheel-drive could not climb the first hill) and catches several competitors by surprise. The climb up the ridge is twisting and steep, covered with overnight snow over afternoon ice and is cloaked in dense fog! Checkpoint two, at the top of the climb, in the fog, afforded little chance to regain lost time. Immediately following the checkpoint is instruction “Caution: Exp R for next 6 km” and deep snow, in fog, spares any view of the exposure but keeps speeds low as well. Checkpoint three allows an opportunity for those who accumulated points on the hill climb, to utilize the Winter Scoring cushion and not incur further points if they had made up even a little of their lateness. Past Red Lake into a narrow twisting cut to a cattle guard and speed changes down to 40 km/h followed by “Caution!!! Hard R, Big Exposure Straight Ahead. Exposures continue for 2 km”. Downhill, 40 km/h (24.9 mph) in deep snow over ice in very twisty little corners, sometimes difficult to maintain the speed. Surprisingly no checkpoint in the usual place at the bottom of the hill, so no harm. Checkpoint four at 50.58 km calls for a right turn, again climbing the side of the ridge to the top of Copper Creek, where deep snow, and more fog slow some cars more than a minute. Others seemingly have no trouble and manage to pass other rallyists. The descent begins at 50 km/h with “Hard L”, “Hairpin L”, “Hairpin R”, “Hairpin L”, cattle guard, where Car 6 regained his position on Car 7, then “Hairpin L”, “Hairpin R”, “Tight Hairpin L” (as if the others weren’t tight!) whereupon Car 6 “widened” the exit just a bit too much and parked for 18 minutes, less than half a km from the last checkpoint. Car 6 vacating their parking spot just in time for Car 28 to do exactly the same thing, only “deeper”, necessitating the assistance of the “Sweep Truck”. (Sorry Jeff!) | ||||||||
| “Battle Creek” Regularity had so much new snow that the speeds were dropped by 20 percent. The adrenalin left over from extracting the car and regaining position for the start, put Car 6 early at the first checkpoint, but the deep snow and fog brought a 30-late at the second checkpoint, followed by an uneventful run into Cache Creek for fuel and refreshments. | ||||||||
| Leg 5 followed the break. Beginning with “Barnes Lake” Regularity which consisted of one timed lap around the ice-racing course on Barnes Lake, and the remainder of the second lap to hone sideways skills. (Unfortunately, after several cars, the “grooming layer” at one corner broke through—only a few inches deep, with another 18 inches of actual ice between cars and the water—but the water hazard caused cancellation of the run for later cars.) A return to “Battle Creek” brought smooth polished surfaces on the graded portion, turning to very rutted and washboard surfaces on the deep snow section, after sixty-odd cars had driven over it. “Tunkwa Lake” Regularity consisted of 39 km at 65 to 72 km/h with a short section in the middle, in the deeper snow, at 58. Long sections without instructions or references may have caused some anxious moments when the last checkpoint was spotted far off to the right of the route with only the white top of the car visible in the snowbank. A long transit into Merritt for the finish of Day Two and awards. | ||||||||
| Total rally distance 782.14 km or 486.62 miles. | ||||||||
| More Stuff(s): Car 1, last year’s winner, and very experienced crew, Lee and Rod Sorenson (Sacramento) managed to reset rally time one minute off on Sunday morning, likely costing them the rally, as they started Tranquille-Red Lake about a minute ten down, and just managed to catch Car 2 at the first checkpoint, substantially above rally speed. Car 52, 1992 Legacy, Novice class Shawn Edstrom (Kamloops) and Geoff Gauthier (Vancouver) experienced an encounter with not one but two big trucks. The trailer on the first truck was slowly slipping into Shawn’s path, so the only alternative is steering right and stopping abruptly in the snow bank. Geoff calmly looks up from calculations, toward Shawn, about to ask what’s going on, when he sees the truck and trailer skid to a halt… “just this far from our lights!” (holding thumb and forefinger a bit apart). |
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| Car 63, Historic class, White with Red, 1973 Ford Escort Mexico, of Brady Joy and Mark Viskov, has more than enough power (RS2000) but making it all stick on the slippery surfaces is a bit of a challenge… Sweep “strongly suggests” the Escort bypass “O’Connor” Regularity and rejoin the rally at Kamloops. Escort’s Day 2 began with the hill climb into the fog and deep snow… The Oregon crew completed leg 4, but skipped leg 5, arriving at Merritt with lots of points, but still looking and sounding like the top of the line rally car would have been in 1973. | ||||||||
| Car 43, 1974 BMW 2002tii with Richard Childs and Helen Welter from Calgary doing quite well thank you in Historic, until avoiding another competitor blocking the route, the BMW stuffed… to be extracted only three minutes later by fellow Calgary team Car 46, Ashton Evans and Brina Selander in the WRX, taking only enough time to pull the BMW out and then continue on to 6th Novice and helping to secure the Team Trophy for the Alcan Subaru Challenge Team. | ||||||||
| Car 14, 1988 Mazda 323GTX of Peter and Timothy Ryce from North Vancouver are walking around the start of the Barnes Lake ice section, and when asked if he was just checking out the snow, Timothy admitted there wasn’t much snow in Africa… Timothy has just returned from the Safari Rally having finished 36th overall co-driving a Datsun 510 private entry. | ||||||||
| On O’Connor Lake Regularity a pedestrian walking his dog in the darkness tried in vain to stop several cars without result… He then pulled out his RCMP badge and did manage to stop Car 12 of Jim & Cristy Breazeale, down from Kenai for the Alcan Rally. Fortunately, Diamond Jim is an expert at “explaining rally” to folks, why there suddenly were cars passing this man’s home every minute in the dark, and it didn’t hurt at all that the Audi has “Rally Official” on the side of the car. A brief conversation and all was well. | ||||||||
| Car 30, 1989 Subaru XT6 of Dan and Stuart Fealk, report grinding noises from the brakes, then smoke from one front corner, then engine light and stalling… apparently not sufficient problems to prevent them from taking 1st Paper and 14th overall. Unfortunately the power steering failed enroute to Spokane. | ||||||||
| Of the 63 entries 60 started, of those 35 were AWD with 30 Subaru, 3 Audi Quattro, 2 Mazda 323GTX | ||||||||
| Overall winners Glenn Wallace & Greg Hightower, in a 2004 Subaru STi (300hp), along with teammates R. Dale Kraushaar & Larry Richardson, 3rd Unlimited, in a 2004 Turbo Baja, and Paul Eklund & Kala Rounds, 1st Calc, in a 2004 Turbo Forester, called their Thunderbird Rally a “warm-up”, as the entire three-car team is competing in the Alcan Winter Rally, 5000 miles long, leaving Kirkland Washington, Wednesday morning following Thunderbird (two days of rest and back on the road). www.alcan5000.com | ||||||||
| Alcan Subaru Challenge Team took 1st Team with a 1.2 factor, followed closely by last year’s winners, Team Fugawi ?, with a 1.8 factor. | ||||||||
| Full class results, and the “Savoia Aero SA sponsored Thunderbird Team Prize” results, Thunderbird photos and other BC rally information can be found at www.rallybc.com | ||||||||
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