Happy Holidays!

The New Year is quickly approaching and the time has come to sit down and think long and hard on what it is exactly each of us has planned going into the 2009 rally season.

For me personally I am hoping it is an opportunity to build on years passed and continue to improve my co-driving abilities as I gain more and more experience in "telling the story" of the road.

I know for me it all begins before I even get to a rally; familiarizing myself with the event, the stages, the projected weather forecast as best I can.

Then nothing speaks louder then a good 2-pass recce.

Improving upon your recce ability from year to year is essential, especially for myself as I am still always finding ways to improve both the clarity and comprehensiveness of the notes I take. It truly is a team effort and I encourage any co-driver to take an active roll in building that team relationship. Team cohesion is essential.

I am certain any driver would agree that it all comes down to confidence in the notes. If the driver has the ability to be so confident in what he or she is hearing that they can drive blind you know your on the right path to success! After all lets face it there are times when you really do feel as if your driving blind, whether it be dust plumes, sun glare or torrential rains.

The plan for 2009 is to bring my abilities up to the next level and hopefully compete in even more events then the previous year allowed. You will certainly see me in one capacity or another across the Canadian National circuit and will of course make our presence felt here at home in the Western Canadian series.

We are looking forward to another season and are optimistic to see things continue to build on years past and see the sport continue to grow and prosper throughout the region. I am interested in what other teams have in store for the 2009 season.

If you have the time and want to share your plans with me you can leave me a comment, write it on your blog or email me, chris@worldrallysport.com.

It was an excellent weekend of rally, people and SNOW.

The Big White Rally Weekend started this past Saturday with a rally Test Day. This day was intended for performance rally competitors to get behind the wheel and spend the day doing shakedown, tuning and improving their performance on a winter stage setting.

The road was closed to the public for the day, allowing the stage teams to practice at speed in a controlled environment. The road surface was snow/ice and was the perfect challenge for the drivers to tackle. The teams were allowed a chance to do a 2-pass recce prior to testing the stage. The navigators had their notes in hand and the teams set out on approximately 9 km of closed stage road.

Each team had the opportunity to do several runs with only 5 stage entries for the shakedown, one which couldn't start due to a failing transmission (Onur Tezcan), who I might add went back to Kelowna and spent the entire night getting his car back in working condition for the RallyX the next day. He was not alone, many teams eagerly awaited day-2 for a chance at the RallyX. Day One was not without incident, unfortunately for my team, we suffered a broken rear strut early on the test runs and had to sit the rest of the day out while we waited for a spare to be delivered to Big White Ski Resort from the Subaru dealer in Kelowna (much thanks!).

We were back in the action for day 2 and the RallyX, which brought out over 30 drivers. The snow was falling most of the day, making the course very interesting. It was more technical in nature then some perhaps would have liked, but everyone had a smile on their faces as they did their best to navigate the tight turns, hairpins and slaloms. The drivers ran in two groups and everyone was given the chance to do 5 runs of the course. Your best 3 times were added up and that was your total run time for the course. Their was a wide array of vehicles on the course, the majority were AWD, however props to the entries in their 2WD for giving it their all and navigating the slick and often icy course.

The results from the Sunday RallyX can be found here,

2008 Big White RallyX Results

Congrats to MJB for a solid performance!

Some photos are available at the following link:

http://islandphoto.ca/gl.php?fld=bwrallyx

source: Anton Skrigitil.

What a surprise! We just sold the original Shady mobile to a new rally star from Kelowna. Good news, one more entry into next years events. Watch out for Richard on the circuit next year, I have a feeling he is going to learn quickly.

Now we are left wondering what to do for next season in terms of a ride! Watch this space. Plans are coming on well for the DAKAR. We have almost reached an agreement with Mick Exance, the UK's top DAKAR bike entrant to co-drive for us which will be an awesome help. Mick is planning on finishing in the top 20 this year so cheer him on in January. Hopefully we can get him out to Canada at some point for a guest appearance. We have also had the great news that Colonel John Blashford-Snell a very prominent explorer and adventurer in the UK has agreed to be the patron for the attempt. We are stoked. Now all we need to do is start the fund raising.

It is just around the corner, as I take flight from beautiful British Columbia, to the likely snow-covered shield of Bancroft, Ontario. Its is the latest edition of the Rally of the Tall Pines 2008 and it has an entry list that will be bringing people out in force to bare witness to the final rally on the Canadian Rally Championship.

With the Canadian Rally Championship claimed by Subaru Team Canada driver Patrick Richard/ Co-Driver Alan Ockwell at the Pacific Forest Rally in B.C. this next edition of the CRC is all about the North American Rally Championship (NARC).

Who will be the NARC? Two teams are in the running, Antoine L'estage and Nathalie Richard VS Ken Block/Alex Gelsomino.

No doubt as these two teams battle it out for top NARC honors there will be Patrick Richard/Alan Ockwell looking to claim yet another top finish in the CRC circuit.

I am very excited to attend Tall Pines this year, it is my first time covering the event and while some changes supposedly have been made to this years event, I am sure that it will out pace, out perform and leave everyone with that lovely sense of rally satisfaction.

See you all at Tall Pines 2008!
Tall Pines Event Page

Supercharger Versus Turbocharger - Superchargers are generally the reason why tuned engines have a distinct high-pitched whine upon acceleration.

The Adventure of MotoCross - Motocross was first known as a British off-road event called Scrambles, which are when a baby rabbit is set loose and many men on dirt bikes chase it down over many obsticles. Trials events popular in northern Britain.

Auto Racing Championship - The cars all run to the same specification with the only variable being the body style and also have a lot more power than grip which ensures exciting racing.

Auto Car Modification - Body kits, there are a very small amount of cars that can get away with a standard body and still turn heads but as in the case of most cars if your want a really good sporty and custom look from your car your going to have to kit it. Depending on what car you own you may have a large amount of different body kits available to you, but if your are making a custom car that is not commonly modified then you are going to have to venture in to the world of customised body work.

Engine Turbocharger Maintenance - A turbocharger consists of a turbine and a compressor linked by a shared axle. The turbine inlet receives exhaust gases from the engine exhaust manifold causing the turbine wheel to rotate. This rotation drives the compressor, compressing ambient air and delivering it to the air intake manifold of the engine at higher pressure, resulting in a greater amount of the air and fuel entering the cylinder.

So I made it to Pacific Forest Rally and managed to land myself a MEDIA vest so I could pretend like I actually knew how to operate the camera, which Andrew Snucins (our photographer) was kind enough to trust me with.

It was interesting... My first time shooting the camera was in the darkness of dark. It started slow, or should I say it started really really really fast, and I quickly learned that if you do not pre-focus the camera you will miss the car entirely. It was entertaining at best with minimal light, I quickly realized that it wasn't as easy as it looked and I should consider a pay increase to our photographer.

BUT then it got easier (Sorry Andrew). Daylight came and I quickly figured things out. I finally started to play around with the settings and got the general jist of things. I admit by the end of the rally I was no expert. I found myself using Snucins wide-angle lense most of the rally, which I quite enjoyed as it forced me to try get as close as daringly possible to the cars. It was a different kind of adrenaline rush from being in the car, one though that I must admit was addicting in its own right.

I found myself trying to get to the best tight vantage points possible to capture the best shots of the competitors I could manage to scrub up, with my severe lack of experince. It turned out to be a blast and a good runner-up task to competition itself.

I really do hope that next season we will be back in the car with a full calendar ahead of us. We missed you all at the Pacific Forest Rally, and definately would have loved to been a part of the action.

It looks like I will get some more opportunities this season to shoot this camera and with any luck my skills will drastically improve and you all can enjoy them for memories sake!

See you at Kananaskis and Tall Pines!

Cheers,

Chris