Directions to SOWR

FROM TORONTO AREA
East on 401 to 115
North on 115 to Peterborough
East on 7 to 134
North on 134 to 28
North on 28 to Apsley
East on 620 to Coe Hill
Go a further 9 km east on 620 to Limerick Community Centre

FROM THE SOUTHEAST
West on 401 to 62
North on 62 to 620
West on 620 to Limerick Community Centre

FROM THE NORTHEAST
West on 28 to Bancroft
South on 62 to 620
West on 620 to Limerick Community Centre

Note - Coe Hill should be marked on any map of Ontario.

Two days to go and we are promised a true winter event.

BEING PREPARED

The forecast is for extreme cold (-29 on Sunday A.M.) so be sure to come with full winter gear in case your car becomes disabled for any reason. There is minimal chance of snow in the next few days. It is wise to carry candles or other source of heat in your car. Remember that every car must have at least one reflective emergency triangle.

SUBARU ONTARIO WINTER RALLY DECALS

Each team will receive four SOWR decals at Registration, courtesy of our title sponsor, Subaru Canada.

SCHEDULE

Registration will open at 7:30 P.M.

Driver's meeting will be held at 10:05 P.M.

First car away at 10:31 P.M.

ROAD CONDITIONS

I just spoke (Thursday 9:00 P.M.) with two of my contacts in the area. There was a small amount of fresh snow about three days ago. Road surfaces vary from mainly hard-packed snow with icy spots to sand over hard-packed snow.

REBATES

The $10 and $15 rebates will be issued in cash at registration. The onus is on the competitor to prove current membership in MLRC, another CARS club or SCCA.

PARKING

With so many teams entered (64 at time of writing) the parking lot will be overcrowded at the Limerick Community Centre. Parking will be limited to competitor and worker cars. Park efficiently and do not block other cars. Any competitor's trailers or trucks must NOT be parked at the headquarters. There is parking just down the road at the junction of Hwy. 62. Overflow parking for competitors and workers will be on the shoulder of Hwy. 620.

GAS

Reminder - be sure to fill up with gas at Wood's Gas Bar in Coe Hill before the Start. They also have diesel.

ODO CHECK

Be sure to do the odo check before the Start.

BREAKFAST & AWARDS

Breakfast will be served for everyone involved with the rally immediately upon arrival back at the Limerick Community Centre at the end of the rally. Rally awards will be presented soon after. There are a number of cash awards. These will be forfeited by any team that does not remain to collect. There will also be a full entry fee rebate by draw at the awards.

START ORDER

The latest entry list (Feb. 13) and Start Order will be posted on the website www.mlrc.ca In almost all cases the number shown there will be your Car # in the rally. Cars will start at one minute intervals. Ample time will be provided to get to your car. It will be your responsibility to leave on the correct minute.

SAFETY

Remember that you are driving on public roads. You could encounter local traffic at any time. Always leave some margin to deal with surprises. It is not worth writing off your car and risking injury to win.

If you are stopped on route, you must immediately place a triangle a sufficient distance down the road on the same side as you are off so that oncoming vehicles can easily slow and pass safely.

SWEEP & TOWING

We have two well-prepared Sweep vehicles following the route to offer assistance. If they pull you back on the road, please show your appreciation by giving them $10.

Brinklow's Towing is also on call - 613-332-3308 or 613-332-1163.

See you Saturday night.

Ross Wood

In case you have not been following on the Subaru Ontario Winter Rally website at www.mlrc.ca things are shaping up beautifully for the SOWR next weekend. As of today we have 59 teams entered.

Specific advice to workers:

1. Fill up with gas in Coe Hill just before you come to the Start.
2. Have lots of food and drink with you.
3. Carry full winter clothing with you in case of emergency.
4. Bring emergency equipment such as shovel, tow strap, triangle, flashlight etc
5. Be sure the lighting inside your vehicle is good - you can get great fluorescent 12V lights that plug into your lighter socket - one source is Canadian Tire
6. Bring at least one good digital watch - Note - we will provide each team with one atomic clock as official time
7. If you have a GPS, bring it.
8. Four good winter tires is best.
9. We will provide good maps and instructions to your checkpoints.
10. Bring a clipboard and several good pens - not red - scorers don't like that
11. Bring HAM radio equipment if you have it - plan is for the net frequency to be 147.045+ with back-ups of 147.240+ and 146.580 simplex.

The Worker Meeting will be at 8:30 P.M. in the headquarters - Limerick Community Centre - south side of Hwy. 620 about 9 km east of Coe Hill. We have lots of goodies to give away to workers at that meeting - some of it is really neat stuff.

There will be snack food available at the Start.

All workers are invited to the Awards Breakfast in the morning (free of course).

I have begun putting together the worker teams and will list the basic plan below. I need each of you to confirm that you will be coming out to help. Most teams will be doing three checkpoints during the night.

Now I have to fill in the teams. If you have any special requests, get them to me by Sunday night.

There will be another message to workers next week.

Thanking you in advance.

PRELIMINARY WORKER TEAM

Headquarters/Scoring/Start-Finish Controls - Keith Townsend VE3 KTH & Steve Lines VA3 HIK + Steve Regan VA3 MGY?
Course Opening Car - Christopher Wood VE3 TPR & Chris ?
Course Closing Car - Roger Sanderson VE3 RKS & ??
Sweep #1- Scott Burrell VE3 EZY & ??
Sweep #2 - ???
Team 1 - Ross Wood VE3 WOD & Christina Chinn
Team 2 - Martin Loveridge VE3 MLI + 1 or 2
Team 3 - Mark Ockwell VE3 MGO + 1 or 2
Team 4 - Jeff Hagan VA3 EMV + 1 or 2
Team 5 - Tony Lamers VE3 TBL + 1 or 2
Team 6 - Brent Davies VE3 EJW + 1 or 2
Team 7 - Tom Martin VA3 DCW + Leila Wills + ??
Team 8 - Armando Meissinger VA3 AHM + Gabriel Mazzeo VA3 CWT + 1 or 2
Team 9 - John Meskes VE3 POJ + Julie + 1 or 2

Workers to be assigned to teams:
Brian Wong
Solomon Hindel
Gary Woolverton
Brian Winton VE3 ITB?
Dave Paisley
Trevor Edwards
Mac Calder
Christian Holteng
Josh Sauer
Chris Medwell?
Rebecca Muller & father

If I have missed anyone, please let me know.

Ross

Two weeks and a bit to go. We now have 53 confirmed entries in the Subaru Ontario Winter Rally and I hear there a few more lurking out there.

A few notes of importance:

ENTRY LIST & START ORDER

We have decided that in the interest of safety, the previous top ten finishers who missed the January 15th deadline to request a spot should not be running amongst the Novices. It would almost certainly result in some unnecessary snowbank encounters and possibly worse. So we are moving them up to the end of the Expert group in the order that their entries were received.

Tomorrow a new entry list will be posted on the website, which will reflect the new order. You will note that the car numbers have been removed until later, however the order shown will remain in almost all cases.

ODO CHECK

Attached is the official odo check for the rally. It will also be posted on the website and will be available in hard copy at Registration. It is highly advisable that you run the odo check prior to starting the rally, as there will be no official odo check in the rally itself.

Since you will already have completed the odometer check, you may encounter a checkpoint early in the event.

TRIANGLES

A reminder that every team must carry a minimum of one self-supporting reflective triangle, a minimum size of 40 cm (16 inches). We will be checking for these. Any team not able to produce a triangle will not be allowed to continue. Should you be stopped on route for any reason, you must display the triangle on the same side of the road as you are off, facing oncoming rally traffic, a sufficient distance in advance to give ample warning. You should have your triangle readily available for use.

QUIET ZONES

In areas designated in the route instructions as "Quiet Zones", you must turn off all auxiliary lights and drive as unobtrusively as possible. Failure to comply may result in a ten minute penalty. "Rally police" will be observing.

REGISTRATION

Due to the large entry, we have decided to open registration at 7:30 P.M. Please reminder to bring with you your driver's licence, vehicle ownership and insurance slip. If the vehicle being used does not belong to the driver or navigator, you must also bring a letter of permission.

FUEL

We have arranged for Wood's Gas Bar in Coe Hill to remain open until the rally has started on the night of the event. Be sure to fill up before you start. It is extremely unlikely that you will find any other gas in the area.

We have also arranged for the M & M ESSO on Hwy. 62 south in Bancroft to remain open all night for us. Be sure to fill up when the route takes you there. Also a good plan to carry cash with you for quick payment.

For those of you who will be attending the Subaru Ontario Winter Rally and would like to grab a few hours of sleep before and/or after the event, I have good news to pass on to you.

The owners of Limerick Lake Lodge, George and Chris Offshack, have put together a special SOWR package (see below). We placed many of our Tall Pines there in November. It is close to the Start/Finish and virtually on the route. Their website is www.limericklodge.com

Our special rates for the Rally if you want to pass it on - for this event only are:

Arrive any time Between Friday noon and Friday midnight:
$48/per person/double occupancy/night + TAX ($110 TOTAL inc. tax for weekend/person)
$65/per person/single occupancy/night + TAX ($150 TOTAL inc tax. for weekend/person)
Check-out time is 6PM Sunday (allowing them time to sleep after the race).

Arrive any time Between Saturday 7AM and Saturday midnight:
$59/per person/double occupancy for _ONE_ night + TAX ($68 TOTAL for one night/person)
$76/per person/single occupancy for _ONE_ night + TAX ($87 TOTAL for one night/person)
Check-out time is 6PM Sunday (allowing them time to sleep after the race).

These rates include:
2 meals for the 2 night stay (Breakfast Sat. & Brunch Sunday)
1 meal for the 1 night stay (Brunch Sunday)

(Our regular rates are $67/night/person + tax double occupancy or $85/night/person + tax single occupancy with sunday checkout at 1PM)

Regards,
Chris Offshack
Owner
Limerick Lake Lodge & Marina

The Gathering Place bed & breakfast is also very close to the Start/Finish and has been very good to numerous rallyists in the past couple of years. The owners are Al and Annette . You can phone them at 613-337-5177 or check out their website at www.gatheringbb.com

Only a month to go and the Subaru Ontario Winter Rally is shaping up very well.

The route has been finalized. When Keith & I drove it last week, conditions were great - about 10 cm of fresh snow. Enjoy all the great old roads and a few new ones.

Entries have now reached 37 confirmed and are steadily coming in. A reminder of the January 15th deadline for the top 20 starting positions - only a few spots left for those who qualify with a top ten finish in a previous Ontario Winter Rally or Yokohama Winter Series rally. We will soon be posting the entry list, showing starting positions.

Keep watching the website for more details.

Note - we can still use a few more workers - particularly HAM radio operators and experienced marshals. Contact Ross Wood at rosswood@aztec-net.com to volunteer.

So registrations are now being accepted on a first-come, first served basis.

Reminders:

(1) No registration is complete until payment has been received. You can pay by mailing at cheque made out to Maple Leaf Rally Club in the amount of $90 to Ross Wood at 557 Hayward Cres., Milton, ON L9T 4T8, by phoning your VISA information to Ross Wood at 905-876-1492, by sending your VISA information with your registration or by FAXing your VISA info to Janet Wood at 905-876-1344.

(2) The first 20 starting positions are available by request on a first-come, first served basis to any first driver who has finished in the top 10 of any previous Ontario Winter Rally or any YSWRS event. You must indicate which event you are using as your qualifier and what your finishing position was. This offer expires on January 15th.

(3) All other starting positions will be assigned on a first-come, first served basis as they are received.

Note - Entry fee rebates will be paid at registration as follows:

(1) $10 to any team where both Driver and Navigator are members of CARS or SCCA

(2) $15 to any team where both Driver and Navigator are members of MLRC

Route plans are well underway. Remember, the real action in this event will start about two minutes after you leave the start and stops about two minutes before you finish.

Keep checking the website for updates.

Ross Wood