Rally Nostalgia

After talking with some friends I used to Rally with back in the day, I have started to reminisce about all the fun times I used to have driving sideways in the gravel and snow.

Most of you know that I used to compete in "TSD/Road Rally" events. These are precision timing and navigational rallies and are not the 'go as fast as you can' rallies. They were a lot of fun, my main co-driver John Ma was probably the best of the best during his time making the calculations and calling out the route book for me. It was my move to Calgary and the selling of my old Subaru Legacy that finally quashed my Rally fun, but I did go out on top, having won championship in points for my class of vehicle.

The friends I made when doing these rallies have continued on and most have jumped up to the "Stage Rally" circuit which is the type of Rallying you see with cars with roll cages, drivers with full fire suits and helmets, and the cars 'going as fast as the drivers dare push them' sideways down gravel logging roads. I have recently been in contact with an old rally friend Christa, and she and others I knew from back in the rally days, are coming out to Alberta to compete in this weekend's "Cochrane Winter Rally". I will be heading out to say hi and talk of rallies past, as well as watch them compete in some designated spectator areas this weekend. I'll take my camera and hopefully get some good shots of the cars in action.

It's just too pricey of a hobby for me to get back into at this point and time, but wow, what a blast I used to have, even just with the TSD/Road Rallies. The last rally I competed in (wasn't with John Ma, but another co-driver) was a winter rally held in and around Merritt and Cache Creek BC. It was my first snow event, for which i bought purpose snow tires thankfully, but it was also the first time I ever had an "off". The "off" meaning, that I went off the road, and more directly.. into a ditch. It was on a straight section of road after a slight turn in which I applied to much gas after exiting and begun fishtailing uncontrollably, I eventually just let the car slide to a stop, but it took an extra little swerve and we ended up in a ditch! It was a pretty wide ditch, filled with snow. I was stuck and had to drive opposite direction to the traffic in the ditch and hop up and out of the ditch, I quickly got out and checked the car for damage and continued on without incurring too much delays thankfully. The car actually did have a little bit of damage to the rocker panel on the passenger side, it made it difficult to open the right rear door, but nothing a little rubber hammer couldn't fix a few days later.

Here are some pics from that event that I managed to find online from the RallyBC website.

Here's the old Rally Car in action!




My encounter with the ditch was also caught on camera


You can see the tire tracks in the snowy ditch on the left as I inspect for damage





Ahh memories, maybe someday soon I'll get back into the sport. For now, I shall watch some downloaded World Rally events to see some of the truly amazing driving they do.