Pines Volunteer Thanks 2016

Thanks for your part in making the 2016 Rally of the Tall Pines another great success. It was the most challenging Pines in many a year, due to heavy snow in the week before then warmer weather on rally day, leaving sections of snow, ice and gravel, plus the melting snow caused at least one of the water crossings to be a challenge for a few of the cars. Once again the Golton track was not frozen, so it could only handle one pass of the cars.

Each year the teamwork and professionalism of the workers seems to get even better. This year with a record number of 238 volunteers, Saturday tasks were easily covered, but we were thin on Thursday and Friday.  The positive buzz amongst the volunteers was remarkable.  Experienced workers mentored the new volunteers and you moved quickly to fill in gaps as needed without complaint. We finished within just a few minutes of the scheduled time – amazing considering the conditions. Please send me comments about your experience (not just the ‘newbies’ but especially the ‘newbies’) and tell us how we can improve.

Note – I must apologize to those of you who arrived at the Fish & Game Club on Saturday night after the food ran out, due to a miscalculation. Promise that won’t happen again.

On Thursday and Friday about 80 of you helped with event preparation, competitor recce and Shakedown. Thanks especially to the 20 of you who helped clean up late Saturday night and Sunday.

The big news for competitors this year was having Travis Pastrana enter the event. Talk about excitement amongst the volunteers and the fans. I swear everyone in the Town of Bancroft was talking about it. Travis gave Antoine L’Estage a good run, but Antoine and Darren Garrod emerged with a clear victory over Travis & Robbie Durant. The surprise 3rd podium team was Simon Vincent & Hubert Gaudreau, who ran clean and steady throughout the day and night. That also gave them 1st Overall in the Ontario Championship.


First 2WD was taken by the Jason Bailey and Shayne Peterson in a Ford Fiesta R2.

You can check out the full Results at  

http://www.rallyscoring.com/results/2016/TallPines/index.htm

As I said above, your comments and constructive criticism of ways to improve the event are always welcome. In particular we are looking for any suggestions that would make the particular job you did easier for a new volunteer to take on.

BTW if you want regular updates on all rally activities in Ontario, you should sign up to receive the Car 0 Report. It is an excellent newsletter put out as the spirit moves its author, Bruce Leonard, RSO President. To sign up go to http://eepurl.com/LK6AD  

See you on November 24-25, 2017. Please mark it on your calendar now.

Thanks again.

Ross Wood, Clerk of the Course