We are now in the home stretch in gearing up for the 2011 Rally of the Tall Pines. The roads are in great shape, the Routebook and Notes have been written and printed and entries are at a  record level (59 right now). Check them out on the Pines website at www.tallpinesrally.com in the Competitor Section.
All the top teams have entered, including Antoine L’Estage/Nathalie Richard, Pat Richard/Alan Ockwell, Leo Urlichich/Martin Brady  and a big surprise – the current Rally America champions – David Higgins/Craig Drew. Plus have a look at the amazing 2WD entry – Tim O’Neil/Martin Headland, Jan & Jody Zedril, Simon Dube/Pat Lavigne, Peter Kocandrle/Alex Kihurani  plus some of the best from the U.S. It is going to be really exciting.
At this point over 200 workers have signed up. We are fine for Thursday & Friday now, but we could still use a few more helpers on rally day – Saturday, November 26th, including HAM Radio Operators, Traffic Control blockers and mid-stage Media Marshals..If you are available but have not registered, please go to the Pines website at www.tallpinesrally.com then to Worker Registration and complete your profile. If you have any difficulty doing that, contact me directly at ross@tallpinesrally.com. We rely heavily on the database for making our worker assignments, so please complete the registration. If something has changed in your plans, remember to update your profile and send me an email. We can accommodate requests for late arrivals and early departures. Also do not hesitate to contact me to discuss your requests.
I have been exchanging e-mails with many of you already about specific assignments or to follow up on information that you posted in your Worker Profile. For those of you who have not heard anything yet, our committee meeting to finalize assignments is Wednesday the 16th. We will be posting a full list of assignments within a day or two after that. I can assure you that we read your comments carefully and that we will be trying to match your requests if possible.
Trish Groom has been very busy helping workers arrange accommodations, but a few of you have not signed up yet. We have a few spaces available and reserved for workers at very reasonable rates. Several of our subsidized venues are full. For assistance contact Trish at accommodations@tallpinesrally.com
HAM operators will want to get your radios set up in advance. Repeater frequencies will be 147.285 with a tone of 118.8, 146.610 with a tone of 100.0 and 147.180 (no tone). In addition we will be using several simplex frequencies – 146.520, 146.550 and 146.580.
Remember – the Worker Meeting is on Friday the 25th at 9 PM at Rally HQ.
More news to follow soon.

Ross Wood, Clerk of the Course