Well, we've been home a week now and finally everything is unpacked and the rally car has even been washed, ready for the next set of prep work.

During the event Twitter was our main forum for updating followers on the goings on, with a few posts on Facebook. Now life's not quite so hectic I felt it was time to post the write-up from our weekend of excitement at the 2013 Tall Pines Rally in Bancroft on the blog.

Recce:

Recce started nice & early for us Friday morning with our 0645 meeting at rally HQ. Here rules are explain with regards to competitor behavior on the road & any route/schedule changes announced.

In the two weeks leading up to the rally, every competitor was emailed a list of times when each stage would be open plus a sample recce route schedule. Competitors could choose whether to devise their own route or follow the one provided. We decided to write our own, several in fact, to account for different situations: time we finished certain stages, traffic congestion on certain stages & whether we felt we needed 1, 2 or more passes of each stage. Since we were using notes we'd made previous years it was entirely possible that we would only need a single pass.

What is recce? It's the opportunity given to all competitors to drive the stage roads before the event. Generally it takes place the day before the actual rally, but in some cases - for example regional rallies with limited number of stages - it can take place the morning of an event.

Competitors are NOT allowed on stage roads within 3 months of an event outside the allotted recce times & therefore it is important to use your recce hours wisely.

During the recce we work on our pacenotes. We have a different set of notes for each stage, describing every corner, crest, jump, bridge & water crossing that we will come across. Each corner note describes the speed/severity, the direction & the behavior of the corner - whether it tightens, opens, occurs over a crest or jump etc.

For example: 4R->/Cr expressed "4 Right minus tightens over crest". In our notes (teams may use different ways of noting depending on what they are comfortable with) we use a 3 as a 90 degree turn and therefore a 4 would be slightly more open & faster. The minus denotes that it's slightly tighter than a regular 4 corner yet not as much as a 3. The "tightens over crest" explains that when the corners extends over a crest it actually becomes tighter at that point therefore slower.

The more accurate you are with the notes describing the road, the faster you can be through the stage.

The following photo is a page of notes from a section of the Middle Hastings stage. A 7km section of Old Hastings Road that is notorious for big jumps & crests. It's therefore very important to be accurate in your note making.

Recce went well for us with only one pass needed of all the stages other than the 14km Peanut stage where we did 2.

The only changes we made to our notes was to down grade some of the corners to account for the slippery conditions. Many of the stages were very icy, with a couple having a good amount of snow on them. Once again making tire choice tricky.

Other than that we had an unusually relaxed Pines recce, we were able to stop & admire the scenery & even finished well before having to take the car into tech & prep for shakedown!

The following photos are from the start of the Peanut stage:

Tech Inspection:

Having finished recce early we were able to take the car over for scrutineering/tech inspection. More often than not we rely on our crew to take the car because we are usually still out on recce. So it was nice to actually be able to accompany the car for once.

Second in line for tech behind L'Estage's car, we made it through quickly without issue. Every car must pass inspection before they can run shakedown &/or start the rally. Numerous items are checked, a few examples: cages, lights, seats, safety apparel (suits, helmets, HANS) & safety equipment (extinguishers & triangles etc). Once it's approved, it's ready to run.

Shakedown:

As the sun began to set on Friday night the service park came to life with teams getting ready to run shakedown.

The "Shakedown" is an opportunity for teams to take their car out for a few runs to make any final adjustments and prep the vehicle for Saturdays rally. A 2km section of stage that will be run during the event is used & teams are allowed to run at full rally speed.

It is also an opportunity for Media & Event Sponsor rides. Certain teams are invited to participate in giving rides to people involved with the rally; photographers, local business owners who have sponsored the rally or donate time &/or equipment to help out & also VIP contest winners.

Nick was asked to provide 2 rides, so once our own runs were completed & we were satisfied the car was running well - albeit incredibly slippery out there - it was time to give a couple of people a first hand insight into what rally is all about!

Driving at only 75% of competition speed they were still able to get air over the jump & a taste of what we do. Both of them thoroughly enjoyed it & it was fantastic to see the huge grins & enthusiasm about the sport we love.

Once the media/sponsor rides were complete, nick was able to take his wife Amanda out for a run. Amanda being a co-driver herself is no stranger to the silly seat, but having not competed for a while it was great for her to get some seat time.

Last ride of the night went to team manager, owner & dad Nigel. This is the first time he'd ever sat with Nick in the rally car. Being a rally driver himself back in the day he prefers to be behind the wheel, but it didn't stop him enjoying himself.

After we had established the car was in good working order & refueled for the next day, it was placed in heated overnight storage to ensure it would start in the morning without any issues.

Now it was time once again to relax & unwind before Saturday's craziness began.

Twas the night before Tall Pines and all through the house,

Not a creature was stirring....well except for the co driver, preparing the recce and route books, oh and team 'management' Nigel and Lou drinking while trying to blow the doors off the new fire in the cottage, oh and Nick lying on the couch not doing much but downing Steamwhistle!

We've all made it here to the little cottage outside of Bancroft which is incredibly cozy and warm with a fire blazing in the main room. With the registration complete the team ended up at Vito's in town for a great pre-recce meal. Always a favorite on rally weekends.

The team is basically relaxing at this point (even Kelly working on the notes doesn't seem too stressed!) and having a few beers to relax. We're all strategizing on the best tire choice for the rally, but until we actually see the weather the morning of then who knows. In driving the car back to the cottage this evening we were on gravel tires just for moving the car around and all we know right now is that there's NO WAY we're going out on those in anything like this temperature! There was absolutely NO traction on the side cottage road. Basically at this point looking at A034, R2 or Tractionized ice.

Recce tomorrow morning is at 6:45 for the meeting, so we'll be out the door just before 6 to take the car over to the service area and get situated.

The rally excitement is starting to flow at this point and it'll be really interesting to see how much snow is out on some of the deep woods stages! I'd like to be able to run the A0's and not rip them to pieces, but who knows.

Let the fun start in the morning!!

(After maybe one more beer ;-).....

Only a few more days to go before we get to see what the weather has in store for Tall Pines. With the conditions potentially being vastly different depending on the final hours leading up to the start, we're taking a variety of different tires.

Here's an idea of some of the different tires were taking and what conditions we might be using them for!

So this C5 is a tire that we picked up a couple of years ago. We've never actually had the opportunity to use this tire, mainly because we haven't run any deep snow lately.

This tire will be brought out if somehow we end up getting an unbelievable amount of deep snow out on the stages. With some of the roads being deep in the woods, there isn't really anywhere for the snow to push to. Being further down the pack, if there's a lot of snow these should help us to bite through and get some traction. Only for the deepest conditions!

These are a pretty common site in Canadian rally events. The prime snow tire for any conditions with snow on the road and low temperatures, you'll see a lot of competitors running these. The problem with running these tires is you need a good bit of snow cover to make them last. If we get icy conditions then these are a good option, but they wear too quick. You'll see the top teams running these all day if it's icy!

These tires are something that again we haven't used much, but they have a pretty specific purpose. Since we're running about 15 cars back, if the conditions are light snow with ice underneath, the surface will tend to get very 'polished'. These tires should give us some traction on those polished surfaces. The tires are run on a wheel which is basically full of nails to rip up the rubber compound, giving it a feathered appearance. The idea being that the tread blocks will flex and maintain contact with the icy surface, almost creating a suction like grip.

They do however have a limited shelf life, so if the surface changes and there's any grip at all we'll rip these to pieces!!

These will most likely be the best option for us if the conditions are a mix between gravel and ice. They are a street tire made for specifically icy winter conditions. The benefit to these tires is they will provide grip on the ice, but will at least last if the gravel starts to show through.

2012 saw us run these tires the majority of the day and although they are the right choice, they are also prone to flats. Rally tires have much stiffer sidewalks and stronger construction to resist flats, but these street tires don't have the same technology.

As well as these tires we'll also be taking various gravel compounds with us. You have to be careful with gravel tires because most are built to survive being pounded on in above zero temperatures and generating a lot of heat. When the temps are lower the compound doesn't react as well and tends to become very brittle.

So all this means is that we won't really know what compounds to run until we get up to Bancroft...and probably not till Saturday morning!

All we can be is prepared at this point, and even still I'm sure we'll be wishing we had one more option!!

Bring on the weather and let's hope we brought the right equipment!!

So Tall Pines is coming up as the previous posts have mentioned. The goal this year (and one if the reasons for the new website) is to be able to post pictures and updates throughout the rally. I know there can be limited cell access, so who knows what we'll be able to get posted, but we'll try!!

All of our posts should update to twitter, so make sure to follow @2britsracing in order to know when we've put up more pics.

The fun all starts in one week!!! New race suits have been ordered and the car has been all cleaned up and prepped. Ready to hit the stages hard and have some fun!

So we are 3 weeks away from the running of the 2013 Rally of the Tall Pines up in Bancroft, Ontario. Entry has been sent in, licences sorted and the car is 75% ready to go :)

Since the test day last month we have done quite a bit of work on the car to make it rally ready.

The car was taken to O'Brien Motorsports (who incidentally also built our roll cage) for certain improvements before heading to Planet Motorsport for final prep.

Improvement #1:

Heat shield for the turbo. Ronnie was able to design & insert a plate beside the turbo to help protect the neighboring components from the heat. Reaching temperatures over 1000'C especially running the ALS (anti-lag system), its easy to see how the surrounding area can be affected.

He was also able to increase the air flow through the hood scoop to direct cooler air into the turbo compartment.

Improvement #2:

Airflow ducting to improve cooling.

An issue that we have encountered in the past is overheating. The work done at O'Brien Motorsports will hopefully increase the amount of air going directly into the radiator. The good thing about the Tall Pines Rally is that the air we are pulling in is usually pretty cold at that time of year!!

Improvement #3:

Skid plate extension & raising of exhaust.

When we returned home from the 2012 Tall Pines & started taking a look a what damage we had done -if you haven't seen nick drive, he likes to cut a lot ;) - and found that the exhaust pipe was almost completely flattened. Taking a closer look, it seemed that if we went over any large rocks....on a rally? Never......that the skid plate would protect the majority of the impact but the exhaust beyond the plate was taking a beating. It was decided to raise the exhaust & extend the plate to protect it further.

Improvement #4:

Shifter & handbrake.

Slight alterations to the shifter & handbrake positioning now make it a more efficient movement.

This change allows the shifter to be moved back further in the car but giving the same precise movement and geometry of a stock shift. Compared to the original extension it gives much reduced shifter travel per gear change.

Other prep work:

So those are the major improvements to the car. Now it heads over to Planet Motorsport in Guelph for the remaining prep.

The usual suspects will be checked: brakes & scrapers, fluids, suspension, bolt check, mudflaps & vinyls.

Along with those items, we still need to double check the e-brake interface with the diff controller, and double check the speedometer is working correctly having melted one speed sensor at the test day!

The next big job after all that is getting tires mounted. In an ideal world we would have unlimited tires & rims and therefore would not have to switch them on and off all the time.....in an ideal world......

As it is we need to remove our gravel tires & mount snow tires, ice tires and possibly even tractionized tires for the Pines. We will keep a certain number of gravels mounted but with a limited number of rims we need to pick & choose.

More on tire selection to follow.

Entry for the Tall Pines Rally at the end of the month is now completed. Lots of work has been done on the car prepping for this event (photos & details to follow). The Tall Pines Rally is probably our favourite event in the season. Also known -to us- as the rally of the 1000 tires, it's always a challenging, exhausting yet rewarding event. We have managed to top the OPRC podium the last 2 years, so that adds a little more pressure to our one and only team outing for the 2013 season. Nick, having not been in the car since 2012 Tall Pines is itching to get back behind the wheel.

This years event has been moved back a week so the chance of a snow/ice event is even greater. Tire choice is going to be a huge factor once again this year. Unless that is, we receive 3ft of snow the day before & then the choice is much simpler!

More details on car prep & tire options to follow.....

A lot of work cleaning after the test day. Weight savings stage 1!

Once the car was up & running again having fixed the camber issue in the right rear, John headed back out for a few more runs. We wanted to see what temperature the car was running at (overheating being an issue for us in the past something we are always very conscious of in the car) and also see whether we had fixed the boost issue. On the 4th run the speed sensor melted with heat from the turbo which caused several issues including making the car think it was in launch mode & turning boost off or up to crazy levels. Not wanting to do any damage we coasted back to service.

After doing what we could to fix the issues the car went back out for a couple of runs. On the 2nd run after the issues were dealt with, John came back in with smoke coming from under the hood. The speed sensor had caught on fire, setting alight the heat protection wrap. Once the flames were extinguished a new sensor was installed, extinguisher damage was cleaned up and the car ran great all day after that!

Nigel (team owner, manager & dad!) jumped into the drivers seat next and proved he still knew what he was doing behind the wheel of a rally car. Increasing rainfall and passes of the stage made for some pretty slick conditions in parts, but Nigel had a blast & although maybe not quite as fast as John definitely didn't embarrass himself! Hahaha

20 minutes to alter the seat around & it was my turn!! Having never driven the rallycar before it was a fantastic opportunity. I'd like to think my practice in our Rallycross prepared Talon helped me out a little. I managed 4 or 5 runs before the end of the day, increasing in speed....all be it not by much....but improving on every run.

Thanks go to: Ross Wood and his volunteers for helping run the test day. To the Parnell Quarry for letting us use the quarry & access road. To Iain Fraser @ Planet Motorsport & the crew for fixing the issues we faced, and a big thanks to John Vanos for helping out with the shakedown of the car and putting in a fantastic drive today.

We are up on the Galway Cavendish Forest Rally road today doing a bit of testing with the rally car. The guys at Parnell Quarry have kindly let us use the quarry as a base & the road as our test stage.

Today John Vanos is behind the wheel with Kelly in the co-driver seat as nick couldn't make the trip up.

4 runs so far. First couple to play with the diff settings and anti-lag. Couple of good launches. Car was running well. Then we ran into a couple of issues. Right rear tire rubbing & some launch control issues. Planet Motorsport here to check over the problems & heading back out.

Conditions getting sloppy out there. John's doing a great job with the car & seems to be having fun.

Will keep updating.

So we're off testing today. Unfortunately Nick can't make the trip up for the test, but OPRC Champion driver & co-driver, John Vanos is stepping in to shake the car down and make sure we're all up to par for Tall Pines in a few weeks.

Hopefully Kelly will be able to get some pictures posted throughout the day of the action on the Galway road.