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2003
Totem Rally
November 15/16, 2003 |
Round
6 of the 2003 Yokohama Tire BC Rally
Championship |
Hosted
by the West Coast Rally Association |
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Photos by Jeff McMillen and Marvin Crippen |
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Ron Sorem
© 2003 |
November
15 & 16, 2003. Cache Creek to Williams
Lake, British Columbia. Final round of the Yokohama
BC TSD Rally Championship, and final round of
the Pacific Coast Challenge (Washington, Oregon,
Vancouver Island, and BC mainland).
Thirty-one cars left the Bear’s Claw Lodge
in Cache Creek Saturday morning, intent on seeing
466km/290mi of varying conditions before dinner
in Williams Lake. |
The Transit
section north on Highway 97 was dry. Turning onto
Big Bar Road, teams found that earlier light snows
left a thin covering over the gravel. Further
into the Regularity fresh deeper snow had covered
icy roads, some sanded, some not. Leg One toured
through forest and prairie, past working ranches
and the Big Bar Guest Ranch, and finished with
a loop into Clinton for food and fuel. |
“Big
Bar” claimed two cars. The Audi 4000
Quattro of Dennis Gunn and Rebecca Rocks was carrying
three zeroes when it suddenly lost all coolant
and heat. The crew walked, about 6km, back to
where one of Clinton’s tow-truck drivers
was extracting a 2003 WRX from a moderate “off”.
Also, at 70-odd kilometers into Big Bar, Car 24,
Suzuki Swift caught an edge in one of the ruts,
got side to side, eased completely over, and with
what was described as a pirouette on the hood,
regained its wheels and came to a stop within
sight of the checkpoint crew. After collecting
a detached mirror and clearing the snow from the
grille, the teams continued on to complete day
one. |
Somewhere
between the end of Big Bar and the beginning of
Meadow Lake, the ’69 VW Beetle of William
McRae and David Harms suffered a broken throttle
linkage. Now being operated with string through
the window to the engine, they decided on the
prudent route and took the main roads to finish
day one in Williams Lake, at the Laughing Loon
Inn. |
Leg
Two left Highway 97 on Meadow Lake Road
with smooth gravel, covered with light snow. In
the front of the rally, Meadow Lake was fairly
clean. By the passage of 29 more cars, the open
areas were loose surface, the shaded areas polished
smooth. 25km/15.5mi into the Regularity the route
turns onto Dog Creek Road, less traveled, deeper
snow. 12km/7.5mi into Dog Creek, Car 3, Subaru
RX suffered an “assisted off”, courtesy
of a big blue SUV traveling against rally traffic,
into the right side ditch (Remember: Winter roads—Summer
ditches). The detour found a rock and detached
the toe-adjustment link on the right rear. Steering
was now in three different directions. Navigator
Max was already unbelted and running down the
road with a triangle in hand as driver Ron grabbed
scissor jack, lug wrench, and a big hammer to
begin repairs. After clearing a bit of space between
metal and tire, radioing their position to the
Zero Car and to Sweep, the crew waited for the
rest of the rally to pass, then returned to Clinton
for a “real” repair. (Compliments
of Wayne Walch at Jim Walch Repair—shameless
plug. Thanks Wayne! We were second in line though,
he had to finish work on the Clinton Fire Truck
before he could fix the Subaru—probably
some kind of local rule…) The ’87
Subaru RX was able to rejoin the rally, bypassing
the end of leg two and the beginning of leg three
to check-in on time at the final control, and
as Max has stated often, “with numbers instead
of letters in our score”. |
At 63km/39mi
a double-90-left brought an increase in the instructed
speed, but also a significant increase in the
snow depth! Of the first 14 cars, 12 were AWD
(and 10 of those were Subaru). The course at this
point had recent tracks, probably that of the
ever-present F250 pickup, and Paul Westwick’s
AWD Turbo Impulse opening the route. Car 1, Greg
Hightower of Bellevue, with Russ Kraushaar of
Battle Ground, said the ’98 Impreza RS was
“floating” on the skid plate more
often than not through most of the deep snow,
making steering an adventure. Car 2, Eric Horst
of Shoreline and Steve Willey of Seattle in the
BMW 325ix fared a bit better given the extra weight
of the BMW, and of course Paul and Greg’s
fine effort at clearing the road. Car 4, Subaru
Legacy Turbo with son RJ and dad Ren Carroll from
Kamloops were caught by Car 5, ’02 Subaru
Outback Sport with Steve Richards of Everett and
Gary Reid of Olympia, who were in turn caught
by Car 6, ’99 Impreza RS with Lee Sorenson
and Rod Sorenson, managing a mere 19 late at the
end of Meadow Lake Regularity. Lee and Rod came
up from California for their first Totem, having
won Thunderbird ’03 in February. |
As the
AWD cars cleared a path, the mid-pack two-wheel
drive cars encountered just enough snow, just
too little traction, and too little room for passing,
resulting in several “groups” forming
for the next controls in nearly bumper-to-bumper
fashion, the later AWD cars learning the term
“force majeure” and eventually accepting
their extra points. Recall that Canada recognizes
both French and English, but the phrase “time
dec” does not appear in either. |
Meanwhile,
midway through Meadow Lake the ’74 VW Beetle
of Garth Hales and Mike Palm broke an axle shaft
and ended the VW versus Saab competition for Historic
Equipped class. The ’68 Saab Sonett II of
Teresa Davenport and Brian Hackney, and the ’70
Saab 96 of Fred Ankeny and Satch Carlson, later
recovered from the deep snow delays and finished
both days. |
Eventually
the deep snow gave way to smooth roads with moderate
speeds through Helena Lake Regularity and into
the break at Lac La Hache. During Helena Lake,
a checkpoint and turn were mis-marked, the turn
coming up before the odo. This made for some spectacular
recovery attempts ranging from “straight
through then turn around” to “well
executed pendulum turns at the last instant”
covering the control worker with snow, to “drive
on looking for more information” only to
return later. The control was eventually dropped
from scoring, with the provision that penalties
from that control to the next would remain. |
Leg
Three circled east of Lac La Hache to Spokin
Lake Regularity, north to Mountain House Regularity,
then south into the finish at Williams Lake. |
Day
Two began with the announcement that due
to the deep snow problems of day one and additional
(continuing) new snow, Alkali Lake and Exeter
Regularities would be dropped from the morning
activity. Unfortunately this eliminated instructions
such as “Caution! Exp L” “Caution:
Exp R” “Hairpin R” and “Caution!
Exp R for 2km”. A 95km/60mi Transit in light
snow from Williams Lake to 100 Mile House replaced
Leg 4. |
Leg
5 began with the Bonaparte Lake Regularity
on smooth roads with fresh snow. The twisty little
bits were separated by just enough straight roads
to make up lost time. One long straight contained
a surprise. The week prior to Totem this section
had been muddy. It seems the new snow had covered
a large rut, in the middle of the long straight,
which threw most of the cars sideways at speed
without warning. The latter parts of “Bonaparte
Lake” became a bit more challenging due
to the deep snow, blind corners and crests, and
oncoming traffic. At the final checkpoint nearly
every car found a different line through the corner
sliding through snow banks at the apex left, and
also outside right. Car 4 nearly caught Car 3
after a “déjà vu” moment
with another truck. Car 9 and Car 8 were bumper
to bumper, the checkpoint reporting just a cloud
of snow with two cars in the midst, then one red
Alan McColl rear-drive RX7 and one white Paul
Eklund AWD Impreza TS leaving the corner. There
may have been something to be said for the Imprezas—Car
1 red ’98 RS, Car 14 red ’95 L with
Martin Chung and Christa Monasch, and Car 22 black
’02 WRX with Casey Woodrum and Benson Miller
were the ONLY cars to zero this control, and it
was Casey’s first snow rally! The universal
comment from drivers was that there should have
been video at the checkpoint. |
Bonaparte
II followed a 45 minute re-group break,
to allow Saab maintenance, lots of photos and
stories, a snack, and time to relocate the checkpoint
crews. The Regularity began downhill, into long
uphill, into gradual downhill through twisty roads
on deepening snow. 18km/11mi into the section,
teams encountered “Caution! Exposure L,
Watch for fallen rocks next 0.5km, 0.3 mi”
and it was all of that. Car 2 and Car 6 caught
a much closer view (as well as someone ahead of
Car 1, but no one is saying much about that—it
could have been a local, right?). The hard right
was in sunlight and getting more “slippy”
with every car. The following hairpin left was
in the shade, could be planned for quite some
distance and actually afforded good grip. |
Two more
checkpoints and a 3.2km/2mi transit brought the
rally to “Brigade Regularity”. This
is the last chance to do well or to do poorly.
Speeds of 65k, 70k, and 72k kept drivers’
attention, then the path narrowed after the checkpoint,
speed dropped to 60k, and some found overtaking
a horse trailer to be troublesome. The driver
was friendly and willing, just nowhere to pull
out. Speeds dropped from 45 to 40 to 30 to 20k
for “Caution! Exposure L!” and “Caution!!
Car Breaking Cross Ditch” as the rally descended
the ridges into the valleys and out of the snow.
The wide smooth gravel passed ranches, pasture,
and campgrounds.
A right turn onto Deadman-Cache Creek Road brought
out another “local traffic highlight”.
The ever-present F250 slowed to 20k, in a 53k
CAS and meandered left and right for quite a distance
until a point where he could no longer physically
block the entire road… At that point, each
car passed slowly, waved (right?), and tried to
make up a minute, at double the CAS… Later
teams encountered firewood across the road, compliments
of the F250 and another local resident. These
small distractions brought teams up to the “Yawning
Pit of Death”. YPD is a bit exaggerated
but has collected more than a few cars. The “hard
left downhill, 180 right, into double apex left”,
is either fun or fearsome depending on what one
has been told of the turn. First-timers were briefed
on the corners, cautioned to keep a couple of
seconds early so as to be on time for the control
surely hidden just beyond… A twist for 2003
was another control just before the turn, as well
as after the turn. Next year expect a series of
lawn chairs up and down the hill, some as checkpoints,
some as photographers, and possibly some as style
judges. |
Teams
finished a short transit into Cache Creek
and the Bear’s Claw Inn for prime rib and
trophies. There was no further attrition on day
two. With 26 starters and finishers, Overall scores
ranged from 28 to 2856, over 310km/194mi on day
two. |
Dan and
Stuart Fealk in their ’89 Subaru XT6 saved
27 points to beat Casey Woodrum and Benson Miller
for SOP/Paper class honors. Calculator class went
to Martin Chung and Christa Monasch 65 points
ahead of Paul Eklund from Tigard and Kala Rounds
form Portland. Historic Equipped went to Fred
Ankeny and Satch Carlson in the Saab 96. Historic
went to Richard Childs and Helen Welter over from
Calgary in the ’74 BMW 2002tii. Novice went
to Kevin Freisen and Erin Freisen from Williams
Lake in their ’97 Outback—just a little
jaunt around their back yard. |
In complete
contrast as to distance traveled to the event,
from Fair Oaks and Elk Grove, suburbs of Sacramento,
Lee and Rod Sorenson took First Overall/Unlimited
with 28. Eric Horst and Steve Willey were second
with 33. Greg Hightower and Russ Kraushaar were
third with 54 after their snowplow duties. (Our
76 would look OK if it didn’t have a 2400
in front of it from the “off”). |
In the
Pacific Coast Challenge standings, series class
wins were won and lost at Totem. The overall champions
needed only a Third-in-Class to accumulate enough
for their win. Running in Calculator class, Jeff
McMillen in his WRX and Marvin Crippen, both of
Seattle, are the 2003 PCC Driver/Navigator champions.
Full results,
articles and photos at www.rallybc.com |
All
images are © 2003 RallyBC.com and the author.
Any other use without permission is in violation
of copyright laws.
Feel free to view these pictures, or download
for personal use only. |
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