The Rally of the Tall Pines 2004

By: Kent Gardam - Photos as credited.

This year's Tall Pines would mark the first Canadian event for Scott Harvey and the first Canadian event in 30 years for me since I last ran Rideau Lakes and Tall Pines in 1974. Based on recommendations of Brian Scott and others and with the demise of the SCCA program we had decided to give Canada a try. We hit the road from metro Detroit about when we expected Friday morning in crewmember Joe Sladovich's recently purchased used van. As we headed up I-94 to Port Huron, Joe asked, “Well what do you think of my new tow vehicle”? We responded that it sure seemed nice on the inside but that we'd let him know Sunday when it got us back home. Unfortunately 25K east of Sarnia into Canada the tranny failed in a big puff of blue smoke along the side of Hwy 402. Tranny fluid dripping onto the exhaust manifold started a fire on the road under the van. A few quick shots from the extinguisher had that out but us contemplating what's next. A couple of minutes later, the Wyoming, Ontario VFD shows up with three units after having been alerted by a passing roadcrew that saw the smoke. We had a nice chat with the firefighters while we weighed our options. Ultimately decided to unload the rally car and drive it the hour and a half back to Waterford to pick up Scott's wife's Grand Cherokee for a tow vehicle. After returning and stuffing as much as we could bring into the Talon and the Cherokee we were off again about four hours or so behind schedule. That resulted in hitting metro Toronto during evening rush hour on 401. Can you say more stop than go? Ultimately made it to our cabin a little west of Bancroft at 10:00 PM, quickly unloaded crap from the Talon and the Jeep and beat it to rally HQ arriving about 10:35. The registration people, Linda Epp, and the techies were still waiting for us and couldn't have been any nicer, they're thorough but they got us through the process and legal to go rallying. We had arranged to buy some slightly used soft gravels from ACP (Andrew Comrie-Picard) for the event but it was too late to get that done Friday night. Back to the room for a few hours of sleep and then off to set up service and find tires in the morning. ACP's guys were there, we picked out a set and our crew, Cris and Joe were off to Canadian tire by 8:00 to get them mounted. They found a tire tech who was excited about the rally and got everything done in short order. Before parc expose was over we had real rally tires on the car to replace the very worn Hakkas we didn't want to use. Tracked down Adrian Wintle to confirm the differences in timing and control operations between US and Canadian events and tracked down Jeff Secor to pick up an intercom and installed it to replace our marginal unit. Chatted with Doug Woods and got some good advice about the general nature of the roads. It was great to see him again after about 30 years! We are starting 11th on the road, not quite used to that rarified air, so we're quickly off to test our prep.

Off to the stages and find 23 (!) jumps in the notes on stage one. Wow, these roads are busy, continuous rights and lefts, a huge percentage of them over crests, and hardly a straightaway anywhere to be found. Great fun for the driver, incredibly intensive for the co-driver keeping ahead on the notes. Hit hard off a couple of big jumps even though we had them dialed back a bit. The new tires are working great, thankful we were able to get that done. Lots of attrition, cars #10 and #6 are off on stage one. More in stage two where we discover a large imbedded boulder on the right side of the road after a jump and we are moving toward the front of the pack by default. The end of stage three catches us out a little just one corner before the finish where the road tightens and a rock on the right catches us and we spin but with no damage. Refire and only lose 20 seconds or so. Back at service after three stages to discover a missing foglight from a stage one jump and a slight bend to the skid plate. All is good though and we're back off to the races. Discover that this is a great rally for VW's. Nichols, Olsen and Kishkarev are taking full advantage of the tight nature of the course and are well placed. Stage four brings us to the first iron bridge spectator point, tons of people enjoying the action and we do our best not to be overly dramatic for them. Five and Six are repeats of two and three and we've learned our lesson about the two rocks that caught us out the first times through.

Setting up for the run across the iron bridge. This was the first of two passes on this section of road (lights down). “ZAP” Photos by ZAP Omni Media (Patrick Munits). Visit them here: www.zapomnimedia.com/gallery.php?dir=galleries/rally/2004/TallPines&gallery=P-4

Harvey/Gardam drift past one of the spectator areas early in the rally.

Stage seven is another combination using iron bridge spectator point. These roads are fun! And then we get to stage eight. Mayo Lake has an official sign just before the arrival control that says effectively "Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here". Apparently the province has given up on road maintenance on much of the next 28K. Boy, this is not what a Talon likes to do best. Scott says later that that was the roughest stage he has ever driven in 20 plus years in the sport. It's replaced LSPR's Thayers Lake as his least favorite. We bang and crash our way over rough fords and difficult ups and downs. By now it's started to rain but our windshield wiper linkage breaks and there is no usable wiper on Scott's side. Not good. Part way in Scott announces that the clutch pedal has gone to the floor and stayed there. He finds third gear but can't shift so we are doing our best to keep momentum through the corners and not slowing down. Lugging away from the slow corners in 3rd in a restricted P4 car is painful! 10K in there is a right 3 turn onto a sideroad just over a crest and we overshoot (as do many others behind us) onto the escape road. We stall, have no clutch, no reverse, and the car is locked in gear on a downslope and we figure we're screwed. A couple of the marshalls help me push it back uphill a little and Scott gets it out of gear so that we can coast away from the corner a little. Good thing too otherwise a few of the following cars would have slid right into us. He fiddles around under the hood, realizes there are no immediate fixes but is able to get into first and gets the car to start in gear. Unfortunately he's going the wrong way on the escape road and motors away leaving me with the marshals. I tell them I hope he's looking for a place to turn around and come back for me! Eventually he's back, we belt in and decide to drive it out of the stage. By now it's raining hard and we still have no wipers and only one gear. The next 18K are interesting to say the least but we manage to keep going fast enough to not be a blockage to anyone behind us. Lose about 15 minutes in the stage to the competition but would have still had a shot at winning P4 nationally if we were able to keep going. Back at service again we drop the skid plate, assess our damages, discover a crack in the tranny case and decide there's no point in continuing.

The second time past the spectator area – lights up this time (and it’s raining).

Other than stage eight, we loved everything about the event. Everyone was fantastic, from Terry and Linda Epp, through the committee, the workers, the fellow competitors, the scoring, the guys serving beer and the band. Thanks one and all! We got to hang out with friends, old and new, got to drive some great roads, and had a ball. Learned that a great suspension is essential there and to be a little more conservative on the jumps. I understand that one of the photogs got a great shot of us at a stage one jump that has us nosediving into the ground. The pic was being flashed up on the wall of the tent and every time it came up, the crowd went OOOH. Hopefully it shows up on the web sometime soon as I 'd love to see it.

One of the big jumps early on stage #1. This is not an approved landing technique. Photo by: Andrew Harvey (no relation).

Tall Pines was great and I think our foray into Canadian rallying has not seen its last. As Arnold would say, We'll be back! Kent "SCCA, I'm sure I don't miss you"

The second time across the iron bridge. Photo by Tom Hayston. Visit PRI here: www.performancerallyimages.com/2004_tall_pines_rally_16.htm