Lanark Highlands Forest Rally - in-car vids

Last weekend my buddy Martin and I competed in the Lanark Highlands Forest Rally in his Group-5 Nissan 240SX.


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It was an absolutely amazing event on a fantabulous road! We used the same 10 km stretch of road 5 times, in alternating directions. In-car video is being uploaded right now.

Stage-A1 is available now. [URL="[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD7JatPA44E"[/url];]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD7JatPA44E[/URL]

Holy cow, what a busy road this is! On this our first pass at speed, we discovered a couple of corners which we really should have noted during recce with a Caution, and several others that we hadn't noted accurately enough. But I didn't dare try to reach for my pen to make corrections, and Martin wisely decided not to ask me to make changes on the fly, as I would surely have lost my spot in the notes and gotten lost.

Note the windshield fogging up halfway through the stage. That would become a serious problem later on...

Despite not being 100% sure of the notes, Martin [B]attacked[/B] the road with a degree of confidence and commitment that I haven't seen from him before. It was an awesome ride! We were both itching to go right back and try it again because we were convinced we could have shaved a couple more seconds off here and there with another go at it.

Of the 24 cars entered, sadly two were out before completing the first stage. The Narini brothers, always quick, already had trouble starting their car the night before. We helped them push their car out of the scrutineering bay and back onto their trailer. On the morning of the rally, they had to get a tow from someone else to bump start their car to get out of the service park. After the long first transit, the car stalled while waiting in line to start the first stage and that was that. Their day was done before even entering the first stage.

Patrick Rainville and his dad had the most spectacular exit from the rally when they rolled their Golf mere metres from the finish line of the first stage. That must have been hugely disappointing for them as Pat is a very quick driver and would otherwise surely have placed high in the finish order. They look like they're in for some expensive repairs now.

With a time of 7:58, Martin and I finished 9th out of the 22 runners completing this first stage, and confident that we could go quicker yet. But we had no hope of getting anywhere close to the astounding best time of 7:00 flat, set by Marc Bourassa and Daniel Paquette! Even eventual winners Nick & Kelly Mathew and eventual 2nd place finishers Chris Martin and Phil Narini were respectively 19 and 18 seconds slower than that amazing opening pace of Bourassa & Paquette.

On Stage-A2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIl_lv0ya50, our first northbound run on the same road, there was something not quite right in our notes early in the stage.

Starting at 1:13 into this clip, I say "50 Cr, and 80 Cr, 50 L4 and R4 and R5..." The crests were correct, but the L4 R4 R5 was all completely wrong. I'm thinking, "Oh crap", but fortunately everything following that sequence worked correctly. I made a mental note to check whether I'd copied this bit correctly from my messy recce notes, but of course I immediately forgot all about it. That would later cause us a bit of anxiety on our next northbound pass.

At 3:28 we come up on a triangle. It's Marc Bourassa. The road jogs right over a blind crest and they've run wide, clipping a massive rock and smashing their suspension. That brought a sudden end to their rally. Their impressive pace on the first stage evidently comes with a little bit too high a risk factor.

It was raining hard during this stage and some deep puddles were developing. Despite running with the heater blowing full hot on the windshield, the glass was fogging up badly again. We could still see out the bottom edge of the windshield so it wasn't too bad, yet...

Before the start of the previous stage, Sergey Grishechkin & Alex Korovkine, starting right behind us in the running order, came up to Martin to ask him to to watch for them in our mirrors, as they fully expected to be catching and passing us on the stage. I suspect this explains why Martin was pushing so hard. No way was he going to let those guys in their Group 2 VW GTI catch us! Sergey & Alex did beat our time on the first stage though, but only by one second. Sadly they retired on this second stage with a broken alternator, so we were unable to continue our battle with them.

We finished Stage-A2 with a time of 8:25, 8th quickest. We were also looking forward to a close battle with our only Group-5 competitors, Greg Healey & Brian Johnson in their 1978 Datsun 280Z. We only managed to beat them by just one second on the first stage, however they encountered some problem on this 2nd stage managing only a 9:47 before retiring altogether on the next stage.

LHFR Stage A3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdRcfgP6BXQ

On this second run southbound, the rain has let off a bit, we can see where we're going, and Martin is determined to improve on our first run.

About 1:00 into the clip, I was startled to see what looked like smoke rising from the transmission tunnel between our seats. I looked down in concern and almost lost my place in the notes. About 20 seconds later it happens again. It's actually water splashing onto the hot turbo exhaust which then comes up through the floor in a cloud of steam.

The car is already unbearably hot inside because Martin has the defroster cranked up full blast to keep the windshield from fogging up again. Now the inside of the car is like after someone dumps a bucket of water over the hot coals in a steam sauna. The heat and humidity is incredible. I'm told it's good for the complexion though...

At 4:07 there is a Crest and R4 which scared us on the previous run. The road surface is mostly smooth hard-packed gravel everywhere else. But this is one of the few corners that has been ripped up and is now soft loose dirt. Everywhere else the traction is quite consistent, except now the gravel has been mostly swept away and the water on the surface has made the road very greasy. The traction in this loose dirt corner however is decidedly different than pretty much the entire stage elsewhere.

Martin wanted me to mark this one with a Caution already on the first stage, but I didn't have my pen handy. After that we promptly forgot where it was. This time he pipes in with a, "This is it." Of course I didn't have my pen handy again this time either. D'oh.

I briefly considered fumbling for my pen, but thought better not. Martin is pushing really, really, hard and I don't want to risk messing up the notes now. Watch how he's working the steering wheel. Lots of opposite lock steering going on this time with the much greasier surface!

At 5:40 we pass the stranded car of Marc Bourassa. They ran wide and clouted a huge rock on the first northbound pass A2. At the start of this southbound A3, we were warned to watch out for this particular rock. The road jogs right in a R4 and L5/Cr. If you were at all tempted to cut that R4, you would be shocked to discover this big new rock now standing upright just on the edge of the road. Yikes!

Shortly after passing the rock, our windshield starts fogging up again. It's not just the sauna-like conditions in the car causing this. I'm convinced it's due to the steam coming off Martin as he's working so hard! Holy crap he's attacking hard. It's awesome! I'm supposed to be concentrating on reading the notes, but I keep wanting to just sit back and watch him in action. This is sooooo cool!

Despite the deteriorating road conditions, the deeper water splashes, and much more slippery road surface, we finished with a time of 7:59, a mere 1 second slower than our first run.

Of the top running teams, only Chris Martin also managed to come within 1 second of his first run, with an astounding quickest time of 7:19 on this stage. Nick Mathew was 7 secs slower this time than on his first run, Ian Crerar 15 secs slower, Peter Kocandrle 22 secs slower, and Jaak Laan and Peter Reilly 34 and 37 secs slower respectively.

Of all the stages I've ridden with Martin so far, this one was by far our best ever. We've had some respectable stage times before this. And sure, three of the Open Class awd cars were still quicker than us on this stage. But this was the first time where I'm convinced we had given it everything, and nobody could have driven this particular car any better than Martin just did.

We were 4th quickest on this stage, and that moved us up to 7th in the standings. We were feeling justifiably pleased with ourselves at this point.

I really want to race like this, and your videos/pictures/writeup aren't helping any!

I would think that as I get older, this urge would wear off. But really, it's only getting stronger. It also doesn't help that I have a sister willing to be co-pilot

Thanks for the distraction from my research paper. I'll try and make more intelligent comments at a later time.

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Ferdinand
Last weekend my buddy Martin and I competed in the Lanark Highlands Forest Rally in his Group-5 Nissan 240SX.


See more photos

It was an absolutely amazing event on a fantabulous road! We used the same 10 km stretch of road 5 times, in alternating directions. In-car video is being uploaded right now.

Hey Ferdy, what does it mean when they say "they greened" the road?

Wow, Martin is going through that wet fire road very smooth. What does he do for a living?

After just watching the first section I'm stoked to go rally racing but you already knew that but I have to get some chores done; Herself hates it when she comes home after a full day at work and the only thing I've done all day was watch cool videos and ride the motorcycle.....but, its such a nice day now.....I've gotta go and catch up on some riding....and a few errands! B)

A few new shots of the latest bike I'm building, its a 1985 Kawasaki GPz550, ummmm good

[s200.photobucket.com]

I can, at last, have a roadrace machine, in my stable for late nite back road fun

Weight 424, Horsepower 68 stock (the pipe has to add a few), that's fair power to weight

See ya later, Rick

LHFR Stage-A4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdndjc-vr_U

It had been raining on and off all day so far. But, while waiting to leave Service to head for the start of Stage-A4, the overcast sky steadily became darker and darker with the approach of a massive thunderstorm. Martin said we really should have mounted the rally lights on the car.

I said it's not yet 5pm, and we still have another 3 and a half hours before sunset. It's just a thunderstorm. It'll pass and the sky will surely clear again after that. "The sun'll come out tomorrow." Everyone, sing along now.

We checked out of Service on time and then promptly got stuck in the slippery mud trying to get into the designated refuelling area. Fortunately we received help pushing the car out of the mud. While our service crew stood out in the rain to refuel the car, I had to talk Martin out of sneaking back into the service area on foot to fetch our light rack. We had already checked out of Service, and I suspected it would be illegal to dash back in now to retrieve our lights.

Reluctantly, we left the lights behind and headed out to the start of Stage-A4. Halfway there we passed Ian Crerar coming back the wrong way. It was so dark out now, Martin was convinced that Ian had decided to turn around and go back for his lights. Actually they went back to fix a power steering problem which cost them a 9:50 penalty, dropping them out of their podium finish all the way down to 15th.

Prior to this it had been merely "raining". But, approaching the stage start, the heavens opened with a flood that others have accurately described as "Biblical". It was incredible. It was pitch black outside, with flashes of lightning, rolls of thunder, and sheets of water pounding down. Our windshield fogged up completely. We couldn't see a thing. And Martin cursed me for having talked him out of going back to get the lights.

3-2-1-Go. Have a nice stage...

On our previous northbound run, there was a small hiccup in the notes in an early L4-R4-L5 sequence which didn't quite match up with the road. Everything worked fine from there on though. This time about 55 seconds into the clip, flying blind as we were, it messed us up more seriously before we eventually recovered. From 1:05 on, the R4 and L4 and thereafter is actually all correct, but Martin, relying heavily on the notes to navigate his way through this mess, noticed that something was wrong here and made me back up. And now I'm not at all sure anymore either.

Fortunately I have mileages marked into my notes, and I am able to rely on the odometer to get us back on track. Phew, that's reassuring. Unfortunately the odo eventually stopped working altogether... Oh-oh, that's not good.

The amount of water on the road is amazing. Even more amazing though is the amount of water running down the inside of our windshield! This is nuts! About 7:00 minutes into the clip the engine electricals begin complaining and the powerplant starts misfiring. Oh-oh, that's also not good.

Having anticipated the eventuality that we may be left stranded somewhere in the rain with a flat tire or whatever, both of us had cleverly brought along rain-jackets and stored them in the back of the car. They're now each floating in a lake in the back of the car. If this keeps up, we might have been smarter to bring life-preservers, paddles, and a dinghy.

Despite the appalling conditions, and despite the fact that you sadly can see so little of it in the video, this was another epic drive by Martin! We were 4th quickest again on this stage, 23 seconds better than Kocandrle/Brandt, moving us ahead of them to 5th overall. We were actually 4th overall now because Ian Crerar's penalty dropped them way down the standings.

Starting into this 4th stage, we had been 27 seconds behind the 3rd place AWD Open Class VW of Peter Reilly and Ray Felice. With this latest "challenging" drive, Martin took a whole 14 seconds out of them! Awesome!

One more stage to go.

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rkj
Hey Ferdy, what does it mean when they say "they greened" the road?

After the organizer has finished the final draft of the route book, an independent "green crew" runs the course to check that all the instructions are correct and accurate. I don't know why they're called the "green crew". Very often a different set of eyes will discover problems, errors, or omissions in the instruction set and recommend changes be made before the route book is finalized and declared ready.

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rkj
Wow, Martin is going through that wet fire road very smooth. What does he do for a living?

I'm lucky to be teamed up with him. He really is a very good driver and I always feel perfectly safe with him at the controls.

I'm not exactly sure what he does for a living. Something with software.

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rkj
I can, at last, have a roadrace machine, in my stable for late nite back road fun

Weight 424, Horsepower 68 stock (the pipe has to add a few), that's fair power to weight

You be careful out there! How many bikes do you have in your fleet now?

Speaking of power-to-weight, this is our latest acquisition. Christoph bought himself a 2-stroke Rotax kart. It's a rocket! Unfortunately my fat butt doesn't fit in that seat so I haven't had a chance to drive it yet.

He's racing here this Sunday.

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Ferdinand

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rkj
Wow, Martin is going through that wet fire road very smooth. What does he do for a living?

I'm lucky to be teamed up with him. He really is a very good driver and I always feel perfectly safe with him at the controls.

I'm not exactly sure what he does for a living. Something with software.

lol, I was going to guess software engineer just for the fun of it.
I swear, those software guys break more stereotypes than they stick to... I might be biased on the subject though

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Ferdinand

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rkj
Wow, Martin is going through that wet fire road very smooth. What does he do for a living?

I'm lucky to be teamed up with him. He really is a very good driver and I always feel perfectly safe with him at the controls.

I'm not exactly sure what he does for a living. Something with software.

Quote
rkj
I can, at last, have a roadrace machine, in my stable for late nite back road fun

Weight 424, Horsepower 68 stock (the pipe has to add a few), that's fair power to weight

You be careful out there! How many bikes do you have in your fleet now?

Speaking of power-to-weight, this is our latest acquisition. Christoph bought himself a 2-stroke Rotax kart. It's a rocket! Unfortunately my fat butt doesn't fit in that seat so I haven't had a chance to drive it yet.

He's racing here this Sunday.

Some bikes cone with Rotax motors, they Are really strong little motors. Go-carts are sooooo much fun, such good training too they build great driving skills. Too bad the one track here has closed up- New York just ain't no more fun!

My collection?, I've only got four but that's only cause I haven't found the fifth one yet. That will be my last and my 250 Zephyr and Janet have designs on that so we can't really count that one

Cheers, Rick

LHFR - Stage A5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDIzMljMDS0

Going into this 5th stage, we didn't really know where we were in the standings. We normally don't bother trying to keep track of other people's times. There's enough other stuff to worry about and we just do our own thing.

When last we checked the scoring we were 7th overall. We kind of figured Ian Crerar had dropped out of contention with his unscheduled return to Service, so that should move us up to 6th. Our goal on this final stage was to push really hard to catch Peter Kocandrle & Jimmy Brandt. With any luck, beating them might move us up to 5th.

We didn't know it at the time, but we actually were already 13 seconds ahead of PeterK & Jimmy. On this last stage we beat them again, but only by another 2 seconds.

Another huge effort by Martin saw us setting the 3rd fastest time overall on this stage and, with remarkable consistency despite the changing treacherous conditions, our three southbound passes all ended up within 1 second of each other. We did a 7:58 on Stage-1, a 7:59 on Stage-3, and another 7:59 on this Stage-5.

Unknown to us at the time, we started into this final stage sitting only 13 seconds behind Peter Reilly & Ray Felice. At the finish we were stunned to hear that we had made up those 13 seconds, and were tied with Reilly & Felice for 3rd place overall, and then even more stunned to find out they had somehow picked up a 2:00 minute road penalty dropping them down to 6th.

Woohoo! Our first ever top-3 podium finish!

Worst of all, I nearly messed up the entire deal when I got lost in the notes on this stage!

It was because of that rock which Marc Bourassa hit on the 2nd stage. At about 5:45 into the video, I let that damn rock distract me for a moment, and that's all it took to throw me off. And, since our odometer had died on the previous stage, it took me far too long to recover my spot in the notes.

Martin and I have never yet DNF'd a rally together, and we have sometimes inherited good finishes through careful driving while benefiting from the misfortunes of others. That's rallying. Although we've always been happy to finish that way, it has sometimes left us feeling mildly embarrassed and somehow undeserving. Although we again benefited from other teams' misfortunes, we worked really hard for this finish and this time felt we had earned it on genuine merit. We've stepped up our game another notch.

Wow! Well done! Many congratulations!

__________
Dave
'91 325iX

Absolutely well done

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rkj
Go-carts are sooooo much fun, such good training too they build great driving skills.

Christoph is having lots of fun so far with this one. He's not the quickest yet, but certainly not the slowest either.

One thing I'm amazed by, it seems like everybody else shows up at the track with motorhomes and huge enclosed trailers. We were the only ones there schlepping our go-kart around in a small open utility trailer which we picked up for $100.

Hey, I know that place! That's Saint Lawrence Motorsports Park! I've been going there with the Sports Car Club of Vermont for years, and in fact I'm heading over there tomorrow morning for a weekend of driving fun. They let us run our cars on the kart track (though a few people bring karts). We just do laps with one car (or sometimes two) at a time, and it's a great introduction to track driving. Obviously cars are a bit slower than karts -- my best time so far is a 59.11, and my goal this weekend is to finally get into the 58s.

Here's a video from a few years ago when I wasn't quite as quick.

It would be a fun place for an E30 -- you should join us sometime!

__________
Dave
'91 325iX

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Dave_G
Hey, I know that place! That's Saint Lawrence Motorsports Park!

Exactemundo. SLMP is located here.

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Dave_G
I've been going there with the Sports Car Club of Vermont for years, and in fact I'm heading over there tomorrow morning for a weekend of driving fun. They let us run our cars on the kart track (though a few people bring karts). We just do laps with one car (or sometimes two) at a time, and it's a great introduction to track driving. Obviously cars are a bit slower than karts -- my best time so far is a 59.11, and my goal this weekend is to finally get into the 58s.

59.11 is not shabby at all.

At our first event using the same long track configuration, the quickest kid in the Junior Rotax kart class lapped in 50.287. The best time in the heavier Senior Rotax class was 50.596. Christoph's best time in his cautious first outing was 53.535.

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Dave_G
Here's a video from a few years ago when I wasn't quite as quick.

It would be a fun place for an E30 -- you should join us sometime!

It would be fun even just to come down and watch. Christoph's first three karting events are all held there, every second weekend. The first one was three weekends ago, then two weekends ago was the Lanark Rally, then last weekend karting again at SLMP, this weekend is "free", and the following weekend we're back to SLMP again, ...

At this rate I don't know if I'll manage to get up to the cottage at all this summer.

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Ferdinand
It would be fun even just to come down and watch.

Well, you know where I'll be Friday afternoon through Sunday till about 2:00. If you want to watch, and you find you can't stand being away from SLMP for more than a week, come on down! Actually I think there might even be an open entry each day if you wanted to try driving.

Our next events there are July 18-19 (which I can't make it to) and September 5-6 (which I'm hoping to go to).

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At this rate I don't know if I'll manage to get up to the cottage at all this summer.

I know the feeling!

__________
Dave
'91 325iX