And so it begins, that is of course….Wait a minute; didn’t I already do this last week? If you follow along, you will note that just last weekend I was working with Wazoo Racing in Atlanta, Michigan for the Sno-Drift Rally, the first event of the 2010 Rally America season. Well with time spent on the road, and new friends made at the US-Canadian border, I found myself in Maniwaki, Quebec for the 2010 Rallye Perce-Neige, The first rally of the Canadian Rally Championship. Let me take a minute to explain to you Canadian rallying. Now if you have ever gone to a Rally-America event, you would have seen at one point the packs of Ken Block and Travis Pastrana fan boys hanging out in the service parks. Well, in Quebec these types of fans are missing. Instead you will find hundreds of French Canadian (pardon me) lunatics hanging out 20 miles into the middle of the stages at night with fires blazing and air horns blowing. These guys are crazy, They party all day and night and cheer their heads off from the first car to the last car. They ARE the spirit of rallying, and at Rallye Perce-Neige, they were out in full force. In Canada it seems to be an honor to pull a car from a ditch. If you get stuck, have no worries because the great Sylvain Erickson and 46 of his relatives are somehow already there at your corner waiting to pull you out of the snow bank.

With a successful crossing of the border, I found myself standing in the Clear Water Design shop in Picton Ontario. Clear Water Design is a large Canoe and Kayak factory on the edge of the Bay of Quinte. They have a history of melting down plastics into various water toys but have now been bit hard by the rally bug. I spent a few days in the motosports half of the factory doing odds and ends on ACP’s Evo 8, Ian Crerar’s Evo 6, and Michelle Lafromboise’s Evo 4. It was a nice retreat and learning experience of things I have never done before like tractionizing tires and tasting fine European wines.

On Thursday of last week we packed up and headed to Maniwaki, Quebec for Rallye Perce-Neige. For this one day rally, Clear Water Design and Vortex Rally supported a four car team. Our team included Ian Crerar, Doug Draper in a Evo 6, Michelle Lafromboise, Dave Getchell in a Evo 4, Dov Arnoff, Jen Horsey in a 97 Impreza STI, Phil Deans, and Carmel Burke in a 03 Lancer. All of our cars came to the event in top notch form and ready to kick it. As a mechanic I usually work my A** on recce day to prep a few last minute things, but for this rally our cars were driven during recce which meant I was left to relax my still aching ankle in the hotel hot tub… its such a hard life I live.

Rally P-N is comprised of 14 stages over just one day of competition. The first two services of this rallye are in the parking lot of the local high school, and the last two services are out at the famous Black Rollway service area. Our first service set the tone for the event. All four cars came in and went out on schedule and only needed minor tweaking. The second service hit us with still little excitement, which in rallying is a good thing. Michelle’s car needed the brake pads changed, Ian’s car had the tires swapped. Phil’s car as always had no issues, and sadly Dov’s car did not make it back into service. On the last stage before the 2nd service, Dov hit a rock and broke a rim, which shot him deep into a snow bank only to be pulled out by sweep. After our two services were done in town our crew quickly packed up our things and started the trek into the Black Rollway service area AKA “Ice station Zebra”. This service is about 40 Kilometers into the woods and you can only get to this service by driving your big service rigs down ice covered WRC rollercoaster type roads. The service area is in a large clearing in the woods. Only a small snowmobile bar and hordes of deer could be found out here. That is until the rally teams roll in to take care of their fire breathing monsters.

Once we got to Black Rollway and settled into the -8degrees temp our team started setting up service as I pulled out the tire cutter and started sharpening up some tires. Our first service was as smooth as ever. We swapped some tires on the Evo6 and did our normal preventative maintenance on the three cars. We fueled the cars up and sent them on their way for another set of ice stages. As you my expect by this point our 4th overall service and 2nd service at Black rollway went by without issues. Michelle, and Ian’s cars came in and went out without any issues, But the same could not be said for Phil and Carmel. The two pulled the plug on their rally when their little lancer started having issues climbing up the icy hills. They decided to call it there and not try and push their aligning fwd car on the final couple stages of the event. Ian and Michelle’s cars would make it to the finish line without issues.

The final standings for this event would find Ian and Doug 14th overall in nationals and 1st in the Ontario Province Regional. Michelle and Dave would land 16th overall in nationals and at 4th place in the OPR, Michelle was the highest placing Novice driver in the regional. Our 50% finish total in cars is something I hope to improve, but I am also very pleased with our overall rankings at the end of the 2010 Rally Perce-Neige.

Things I learned.
1. Tractionizing tires makes a huge difference.
2. Frank Sprongl is pretty much THE MAN.
3. Burton Snowboards are pretty much the BEST snowboards on the market.
4. A RWD 3500 diesel Ram drifts pretty well. (Don’t kill me Ian, I blame Aaron for this)
5. It is a very bad idea to wear a Boston Bruins hat into a bar in Quebec. (I don’t recommend anyone try this.)
6. Tim Horton’s sharpens skates in Quebec.
7. A Canadian-Jamaican accent is the funniest accent you will ever hear.

People and things to thank
1. Justin Turner and Can-Jam Motorsports for the ride back to Picton.
2. Doug for pulling some strings!!!
3. Frank Sprongl for working with me and helping me improve as a rally mechanic.
4. ACP, Ian, Dov, Doug, and Can-Jam for everything you guys taught me this weekend.
5. Worldrallysport.com and Terra Firma clothing for the LATE night beers.
6. Gary Grahn, well I’m really not sure why I’m thanking you. But thank you anyways.
7. Michelle, cam, katie, ian for becoming my extened canadian family.
8. Mom and Dad for letting me chase this crazy dream!

Also be sure to check out my interview with Worldrallysport.com during the event last weekend. CLICK: http://www.worldrallysport.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4222#post4222