"We're having some fun down here between the legs.........uh........of the Pacific Forest Rally" said the live on-air announcer
for CJNL Radio in Merritt BC this past weekend, as he covered the 4th event of the Western Canadian Rally Championship. His comment generated a lot of laughter across the service area in the shopping mall parking lot.Although the weather did not cooperate with the event (we drove into Merritt on Friday night through rain and even heavy wet snowfall), the competitors and workers made the best of it, and had a great
weekend in the thick gooey mud. It was also the rally with the most unbelievable finish of all.
Janusz Komorowski and Piotr Kadlubowski of Calgary had the worst time of the competitors, flattening all 6
tires on their car (the 4 they started with, plus both of the spares) before they could get to the first service, putting them out of the rally after only two stages.
Janice Damitio and Amity Trowbridge of
Washington State and the Trinders (Scott and Bob) made quite uncharacteristic timing mistakes leading into stage 2, both taking 10 minute early check-in penalties, and tumbling them both to the bottom of the results.
Both teams made furious charges back to the top, and almost made it, missing the top spot by 18 seconds when all was said and done.
Their transit mistake handed the lead over to Ted Wilkinson and Bill
Westhead of British Columbia in their vintage Group D Toyota Corolla. The radio announcer took great joy in announcing to his listeners that it was the first time a Dinosaur was leading a rally.
Their luck
also went sour for them on the very last stage of the event. Having fuel vapour lock problems all day, the problem really took hold on the last stage, costing them an extra 14 minutes in the stage and the rally win.
All the problems of the top teams left the door wide open for Mehran Arefi and Dan McLean of Vancouver BC to take the victory in only their 4th rally in their 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX. Janice Damitio and
Amity Trowbridge took second place, and the Trinders took third place.
Mehran Arefi also took top Novice Driver honours, as well as the Production Over Class. Janice Damitio took top Open class, Peter Hill
took top Dinosaur, Richard Penrose took top Group 2, and Production Under went to Martin Wilson in the Justy, the little Subaru that could.
Paul Westwick and Ken Kwong are to be commended for putting on a
great event, despite the problems they faced, from trees falling across roads, to the weather and mud. Next year, Pacific Forest joins the National schedule as the furthest west event in the calendar. We're all looking
forward to the Pacific Region joining the National series.
Dave Sharp
CARS Rallywest Director
