On Friday during recce, many of the roads seemed to melt and get much muddier as the day went on. That evening during shakedown, there were sections of the transit that would be stage on saturday that turned so muddy it looked like cars nearly went off a very low speeds (myself included!). This mud, combined with the overnight freeze and sprinkle of snow we woke up to made tire choices very difficult. We didn't have what we thought would be the ideal tire, the Yoko A034, only gravels and street ice tires. Our decision, like most others, was to go with gravels. We wanted the durability over the rocks of the Peanut. For about half the stage it was the right call, for the other half it was very much not the right call!

This stage has the first of our "moments" from the rally. At 2:00 into the video I lost the back of the car as I got on the power in a 5L>. I still don't really know what happened, but the car decided it would much rather be facing the other way! I jumped in with both feet, and somehow it went around 270 degrees and didn't hit anything, how I have no clue!

At 7:38 we make the turn onto the fast main Egan Creek road and the conditions got significantly slipperier! At this point we were taking it really easy, and at 9:02 we see the triangle of Sylvain and Simon Vincent, off on the right. Thankfully they're ok, but obviously done for the day.

Continuing to the finish, our time was 11th fastest, not surprising given our spin. In a few spots you can actually see me glance at the mirror to see if anyone is catching us, that's how slow I felt we were going!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpgpEkznRzA

Next up was the Old Detlor stage, the long version of the Iron Bridge spectator stage. Again, this stage mostly suited gravel tires, but it seemed like once we made the turn onto Bronson Rd. at Tait farm there was quite a bit more ice, including one spot at 6:48 that caught me out badly. I didn't think the braking zone for the 5R> there would be as bad as it was, and we were going much too fast!

Later at 7:30 I came into the bridge a little hot, and then slid wide on the exit of the following left hander. Definitely not my best driving on this stage, though the final corner's nice big slide is always fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jPTpueNkqk

RyanHuber wrote on 11/28/12 at 06:23:54:


You would have thought the more open roads on Bronson would not be as slippy. Is it because Old Detlor is a single track and therefore the previous cars had chewed it up, but Bronson is a harder road and offers more choices of line?

The cold roads definitely held the road together better than last year. The straight on Iron Bridge was so, so much better.

Here's our video. We didn't get SS1 and 2 due to some issues, and honestly it's better I didn't. We went really slow on the icy roads and lost too much time. We also lost SS6 to a drained battery.

SS3 - Upper Hastings Northbound - After we see most of the ice is gone, we dial it up a couple notches, and go 1 minute 4 seconds faster than our first pass.
http://youtu.be/1oqZDAo_aZg

SS4 - Old Detlor - I liked the first twisty portion of the stage, and pushed decently in here. When it opened up, I wasn't certain if we'd encounter more ice like on previous stages or not and back off in some places, again bleeding time. This stage has the corner of the rally for us though, with a nice momentum turn at the Detlor pavement, 3:45 into the video. We come really close to hitting the pole on the inside of the corner!
http://youtu.be/rVc89LxePRI

SS7 - Iron Bridge South - No drama, except for maybe after the Iron Bridge where I felt like pulling the happy handle and we take an interesting line through the L2.
http://youtu.be/yyGKkznpXDk

SS8 - Egan Creek. We went out on gravels, which was the wrong choice in terms of grip. Longevity, maybe. Not grip though. Icy braking makes things tricky in spots. Shortly after one of the watersplahes, the car starts feeling really odd. Soon the car revs but won't move with more than partial throttle. It then gets progressively worse until we can't move at all. DNF. It appears to be the diff as our LSD is now open for some reason. I won't know for sure until I drop the transmission out for the 3rd time this year  
http://youtu.be/iTZiERHONu4

Edit: Linked Egan Creek to wrong vid

That's what I thought at first too, but when I was storing the car I jacked up only one side and moved the wheel and it turned, halfshafts and all right up to the diff. The LSD should prevent that, well up to 80 ft lbs or so. Then I tried jacking up only the other side and the same thing, moves with zero resistance. So in a week or two I'll drop the tranny out and check everything out. Maybe a half shaft did partially break and I just couldn't tell by moving it by hand at full droop.

Looking good man!

After transiting back up to Bancroft, we had a quick rip around the Golton spectator stage, which is also used for the Maple Leaf Rally Club rallycross events throughout the year. Knowing this course well, we didn't make notes so John just got to sit back and enjoy the ride. Our time of 1:48 was good for third fastest, on par with my best from the rallycross events. Where Pat finds another 6.5 seconds in there, I have no idea!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K896ij1dg8w