Thanks for your assistance in making the 2013 Rally of the Tall Pines another great success. Moving the event a week later achieved exactly what we were hoping – back to the old-style Tall Pines with winter conditions. The cold snap in the days leading up to the event froze the roads solid; in fact it was really difficult in places to pound the stakes into the ground, even using the steel ‘podger’ to create the hole. With a snowfall a couple of days ahead, we were back to the Pines well-known moniker of ‘Winter Roads, Summer Ditches,’ Judging by the significant attrition, it caught many of the competitors  off-guard.

The teamwork of the workers was amazing. We were never more than 8 minutes behind schedule all day. It was especially commendable considering the unusually high number of worker withdrawals in the two days before the event, leaving us short-handed in many areas.

On Thursday and Friday over 100 of you helped with event preparation, competitor recce and Shakedown. Saturday saw around 190. Thanks especially to the 18 of you who helped clean up today. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough to finish the cleanup, so we will have to go back up. It would be nice to have more, so I think next year we will offer a special perk to those who help on Sunday.

Unfortunately we had an incident of very irresponsible and inconsiderate behavior at one of our subsidized accommodations sites. We are still investigating that and will be dealing severely with the individuals involved. These establishments are extremely important to us and we will not have the relationships jeopardized. If you have any information that would assist us in dealing with that, please contact me ASAP.

There were a number of epic battles amongst the competitors. With L’Estage/Parry, Richard/Richard and  Crazy Leo/Walsh all determined to grab 1st Overall, it was a great contest in the early stages until eventually mechanical issues took out all Leo & Pat and severely handicapped Antoine, although he drove like possessed in the later stages and clawed his way back up to second Overall, clinching his 6th Canadian Championship. Leo had the drive of his life and had developed a healthy lead until he retired due to a broken camshaft.

In 2WD Walter/Trauttsmandorff handily took 1st Overall, followed by Dowell/Dowell and Deschenes/Asselin. Hartl/Storry drove at a measured pace to claim the Canadian 2WD Championship.

You can check out the full Results at  http://rallyscoring.com/results/2013/TallPines/index.htm  

Your comments and constructive criticism of ways to improve the event are always welcome.  

See you on November 28-29, 2014. Please mark it on your calendar now.

Thanks again.

Ross Wood, Clerk of the Course

Wow, was it ever cold on Friday morning for Recce!  Race day on Saturday wasn't much better, brrrrr.

A huge THANK YOU!! goes out to all of you generous volunteers who braved those cold temperatures in order to make this fabulous event possible.

We may not have had the time or opportunity to thank every one of you individually during the running of the rally itself, but please believe that your contributions to the success of this event were noticed and deeply appreciated.  All of you volunteers are indeed heroes!

donalcrookerallying wrote on 12/02/13 at 14:04:16:


This is good feedback thanks!    It seems quite popular, hopefully we can do it again.