The 3rd event on the Nokian Tyre BC TSD Championship
2000 ran this last weekend on Vancouver Island.
The Nokian Tyre Midnight 2000 is an all night
TSD rally which is noted for its variable conditions,
with this year being no exception.
Starting from Nanaimo,
the 1st Regularity posed no problems for the more
experienced teams despite the twists and turns
but the newest team failed to even show at the
start.
Then disaster struck.
After the pre-run last weekend, maintenance crews
had completely removed a bridge right at the start
of the transit to Regularity 2. Everyone, entrants
and control crews alike, had to transit back to
the highway and then convoy via public roads to
the start point for Regularity 4, a trip of almost
2 hours. Happily the missing team rejoined us
there and the time was just right so that everyone
could leave exactly on the times listed in their
route books.
Car 3, with Scott Elliott
and Adrian Gunton, a novice team on their first
Championship event, was having some major trouble
with their lights and steadily lost ground from
here on in while Car 1, with Jim Martin and John
Kisela, an unlimited team from Washington, steadfastly
stayed in there getting zeros, with a single one
for some variety. Their controlled pace came to
a stop in Regularity 7 though.
A thick bank of cloud
moved in and while this is not normally a problem,
when you are at the elevation level of this regularity,
it becomes fog. Thick, horrible fog. With only
a single one against them to the end of Regularity
6, Car 1 racked up an amazing 12 points (over
2 controls) in the first 12 km of Regularity 7
due to the fog. Car 2, with Ken Kwong driving
with Chi Tsang, an experienced novice team, were
similarly handicapped and wracked up 104 points
at those first two controls. Car 3 didn't have
any bright lights so didn't notice the difference.
Car 4, Geir Opdahl with Shane Anderson, a novice
team which had never even done a novice event,
maintained a steady pace throughout even this
bad section. Afterwards, the unfortunately missing
bridge did not allow us to run Regularity 8 but
we managed to salvage Regularity 3.
At the MGM Restaurant
in Nanaimo the winners were quickly announced
since the transit back had allowed the organizers
to complete scoring en route.
First overall was the
team from Seattle (Car 1), Jim Martin and John
Kisela, with only 13 points over 21 controls scored.
They were each awarded a lovely commemorative
plaque. They were also 1st in class, being the
only ones in their class.
The only other class
represented was Novice, and 1st was handily taken
by a Vancouver team (Car 2), Ken Kwong and Chi
Tsang, with 237 points. 2nd in Novice was taken
by the totally new team from Victoria (Car 4),
with Geir Opdahl and Shane Anderson, with 1152
points.
The organizers would like
to thank all who came out to run, those who came
to help, and particularly Nokian Tyre and Subaru
Specialty Motors for their ongoing generous support
of this terrific sport here in British Columbia.
Bart
Adrienne
Co-organizers |