First, you have
to get there: Merritt BC, 250 miles give or
take from here. Crossing the border was uneventful
even with four spare tires and two tool boxes
visible. (It may have been eventful for Co-Driver,
he has a lasting impression of the blonde border
guard). Eastward to Hope and then the Coquihalla
into the snow!!! We were lucky, we only saw
the aftermath of several errant excursions,
others later in the evening came close to participating… Spinouts,
fender benders, rollovers, all non-rallyists.
Saturday AM Breakfast
Party, Registration, Tech. Inspection… Rewiring the driving lights
in the parking lot during the novice meeting
to cure "grounding problem" (lights just refused
to go out even when switched off!). We think
it’s fixed, go to the drivers’s meeting
and get a nod from an official that we’re
passed. Drivers are cautioned that they may encounter
some deep snow in the higher elevations… There
is snow on the parking lot and it’s twenty
degrees. Eight miles into the Odo Check and the
RCMP and Aid Car and Tow Truck celebrate the
day’s start, along with the rollover in
the median, not part of the rally. We are all
parked at the end of the Odo when the RCMP comes
alongside and politely suggests we move on, we’re
obstructing a public road. Our time comes up
so we oblige. We start the first Regularity looking
for a KL MBCU (Caution at driver’s meeting
was: "This is plowed right, not plowed left…").
Great. Deep snow, getting deeper, Acute Left
coming up, Let’s See… No dramatics
just go ahead and use the reverse and stay on
the road! Out of the deep onto the icy and fast
paved then back to the really deep. BR CAS 28,
where we catch rally traffic that missed the
BR and are trying to make up a minute.
Next
couple of instructions are Caution! Exposure.
No matter, you really can’t get up enough
speed to get out of the wheel tracks, which is
OK until the tracks go where you don’t
want to go. Kisela/Jensen make a shallow right
into a very wide right but miss the tree and
power-on to regain the proper line. The end of
this leg is a short narrow steep downhill to
Acute Right at Stop. Evidently the contol car
couldn’t get in to set the control and
everyone was stacked up (figuratively) at the
Stop being instructed to add 30 minutes to the
Transit ("Pass it on"). At the end of the Transit
Car One is missing, evidently ahead of the control
worker and unaware of the extra time. Car Seven
is the first of the two wheel drive cars and
eventually arrives. Car Six is missing. The 30
minutes pass and Car Six (Glenn Wallace/Richard
Squire) shows up to the very welcome news of
the extended transit, no control, and all of
their off-course excursion was without penalty.
You could here the cheers two cars up. We continue
through several legs without any difficulty until
a Driver/Navigator "discussion" ensues
over "CAS 100m after Stop"… "CAS What?"… "It
doesn’t say"… "Look up the Generals"… "Change
Average Speed"… "To What"… "It
doesn’t say"… We compromised, just
keep going… "This is pretty slow for this
road"… Car Six catches us doing 35 or
better so I figure 26 is out and I take off.
This would have been great if the speedo hadn’t
picked just this time to start adding indicated
speed on its own. 3500 in 3rd gear
is about 35 MPH, it now reads 55, now it’s
up to 70, still 3500, still 3rd gear:
Time to get creative. "Assuming" the Odo is still
working we start a chart of Gear position to
RPM to Time (GRT) over a tenth, a half, close
estimate of Miles Per Hour. It works. It works
just in time for "AR Exposure!" then "Extreme
Caution" and some 40mph stuff over a cattle
guard (we never saw Glenn & Richard again
after that until the Transit). The Transits were
quick and then 27 miles into the next Regularity
(after "Caution Exposures and Hairpins
next 2km") we find Car One, Dean Kokko driving
Russ Kraushaar’s GTX, significantly OFF.
A quick stop, they’re OK, they’ve
already landed a ride with a local, and we’re
chasing R. Dale’s 2.5 RS through the hairpins.
(He won the chase and had more time to make up
than we.) Later, the instruction read "OK Falls
Forest Service Road (may be snow covered) CAS
44.7" Oh Yeah! Big White Ski Area brought the
paved hillclimb but the control should have been
at the end of the narrow twisty snowy downhill
that went out the back side of Big White. We’re
coming to the end of Day One, 36 miles into the
last Regularity. Cattle Guard, Surface Change,
Pavement, CAS 37… Sounds good, Whoa! This
is slick! Downhill glare ice, forget the CAS,
keep it between the ditches. Several odd looking
patterns are in the ice… Someone is trying
to sign their name in the road, beautiful flowing
cursive letters… Sorry I couldn’t
read it. We survive, finish Day One, think we’re
leading the S.O.P./Paper class… Dinner,
drinks, stories, hotel…
Day Two breakfast
brings more stories and the revelation that
the fire alarm woke most everyone up at 0200… Not
us! (Hockey team prank??) We start the rally
going up the most talked
about downhill from last night. There is a fresh
dusting of snowy powder over the ice now.
Ten miles into the first Regularity we are cautioned
on a hard right bend that the RallyMaster had
gone straight here into the creek and that the
mileage is approximate! We decide to turn right,
we have enough mileage problems. The roads are
great. We continue through Lumby, Trinity Valley,
Salmon Arm, and start the Regularity at Turtle
Valley CAS 44.7; Caution Hairpin Left; Road Deactivated
(?); Caution Cows for 4km… 38 miles of
fun. Onward still, through Chase, Duck Range,
Monte Creek, Robbins Range, Barnhart Vale, and
Campbell Creek to the Regularity we’d been
warned about "The End Is Near" (something about
too much snow!!??). This is part of the Thunderbird
route, twisty, narrow, deep snow, exposure CAS
24.9… We’re calculating in long
division 24.9 every tenth… up 6… up
4… up 2… OK… OK… Checkpoint—Wow!
Then another quick control ½ km later.
Pedestrians, dogs, control worker, all in the
way, Whew! Is this Fun!… Dinner and Awards,
First SOP/Paper, Thanks all around!
Totem 2000 included spectacular elevation changes,
snow covered hillclimbs and sunny dry wooded
sections running 566.95 miles over 18 hours of
rallying. Congratulations to the West Coast Rally
Association and Route Masters Paul Westwick and
Andrew Dobric and their associates for an excellent
BC summer rally (Winter Rules) and to the people
in Merritt and Kelowna for their hospitality.
We look forward to next season.
Ron Sorem/Josh Sorem
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