Well, now I don't have anywhere to post my rallying exploits with the Canadian section gone! Of course, the Canadian section was under-utilized and I was basically the only person posting there, but still... ;)
This past weekend was the 2nd round of the Canadian Rally Championship, the Rocky Mountain Rally based out of Calgary, Alberta. The weather was um... wet to say the least. There was 5" of rain over 4 days prior to the event, plus another 4" during the event itself. I love terrible weather (its more fun to compete in!) but to each his own. After Antoine L'Estage and Andrew Comrie Picard dnf'd after the 3rd stage on Friday, Patrick Richard (who is back rallying in a Subaru Canada sponsored 08' STi) grabbed the lead and held onto it till the end. A local driver Gord Olsen driving his Rocket Rally prepped 04`STi came 2nd, while Zebe Szewczyk in his Evolution powered front wheel drive Lancer came 3rd (also prepped by Rocket Rally). Hardy Schmidtke (my driver) and I came 5th overall, suprising considering it is only his 3rd event ever. We were shooting for 10th overall if we were lucky but Hardy is getting up to speed very quickly. Also, this event is a National/Regional and we came 3rd overall in the regional. Was pretty cool to get to do a champagne spray! So that means 5th Overall, 3rd regionally, 1st in P4 nationally and regionally (aka PGT in the USA), and 1st in novice regionally. All of that adds up to 2nd overall in the Western Canada Rally Championship and somewhere in the top 10 overall nationally from what I can figure. So the weekend ended up treating us very well. Hardy recieved a sizable sponsorship cheque from CARS due to the awesome contingency program Subaru has setup in Canada. The car we compete in is a 2002 WRX built by Rocket Rally. It is not fancy in anyway, it runs on 91 octane and was built to be above-all-else durable. The only major modification to it is the DMS 50mm suspension setup all around (ok, as well as the rollcage/skidplates but that is a duh).
Now, time for the mandatory pictures plus a link to an overview video:
