It's meeting time again, this Thursday, June 13, 7:30PM at the usual place. Some of us have supper at the Firkin at about 6:00PM
We had two events over the last month and two coming up in July. We'll review Saturdays rallycross first,
As usual these days the event sold out quickly and we ended up with 40 cars register for the event. A few people had issues with cars and trailers at the last minute so that reduced the number to 34 cars. For those that had to withdraw I`ll be working on the refunds in the next few days. With being tired from Friday & Saturday plus putting away all the equipment on Sunday I`m dragging a bit. I'll get the website and series standings updated this week as well.
We've had quite a wet and cool spring but the past weekend it warmed up so Friday and Saturday were quite hot and sunny. When we did the setup on Friday Jeff laid out a very technical course. The track staff watered the track at about 6:00AM on Saturday. Christina and Teresa did their usual efficient job on registration, we went through the competitors meeting and on to the parade lap. As I said the course was quite tight and that added about 30 seconds to our normal run times. We just used hitting barrels for penalties, cones were just for direction. We probably needed a few more direction arrows or cones since we did have some people taking the wrong route onto the small oval.
The dust started to be annoying almost right away but as long as the wind stayed blowing east it wasn't a problem for the track`s neighbors but it was for Christina doing scoring. The computers were getting covered in dust and it was hard to breathe so she had to move inside the car. That caused some connection issues that delayed us a bit but we got going again for runs 2 &3 until a timing issue caused by a car missing the timing hose which then made it appear that subsequent cars had long times. (if car 100 doesn't trigger the finish, then car 101 does, the computer assumes the entire time is actually for car 100. As soon as this becomes apparent we have to stop everything, fix the times we can and rerun the ones we can't)
Then, as we restarted after the lunch break the wind changed moving more to the south and the dust was blowing onto the neighbors property. We had to stop and water the course which was another delay and it changed the traction considerably. In the end we were only able to get in five runs instead of our planned six.
The results are athttps://kwrc.blither.net/registrants.asp?eid=21 and I'll put a copy on the KWRC site later on. Total seat time was about 10 minutes per person. Congratulations to Gary Sutherland (2wd) who won overall in his focus and Jason Ronza who took first 4wdN and second overall just 0.1 seconds behind. Zoltan took third overall and second 2wd, Eric Vlasic took first 4wdF. Interesting story there, Eric ran in a Volvo XC70 that he borrowed from a junkyard on Friday night and returned on Sunday. The first time he drove it was onto the trailer on Saturday morning and it had zero preparation. Great drivers mask the flaws in the vehicle, not that a Volvo would have any flaws.
Overall it wasn't our best running RallyCross and I apologize for that. There are several things we can try to improve the setup: Use my van as scoring HQ with a table set up inside, some sort of local backup for the finish line, better wireless network and things like that. The track suggested running in the evenings and using their lights, as the sun goes down the track doesn't bake and dry out as much. Matt and Jeff found that to be an interesting solution and we'll be discussing it at the meeting.
Thank you to all our workers who put up with the dust and heat, Jeff Lantz. Ian Lantz, Teresa VanRees, Christina & Gary Thomlinson, Sean McConnachie, Darin Mayes, and Teresa Marek. Greg and Vasu shared duties as clerk and kept things running as best they could. We had a delegation from TAC including President Rob McAuley who are thinking of doing their own rallycross series and helped with marshalling.
The next rallycross is July 27 and registration will open on Thursday June 27 at 6:00 AM. Thanks to Teresa Marek for most of the pictures, there are more on our Facebook pagehttps://www.facebook.com/KWRallyCluband I appreciate the effort she and Andrew put into maintaining the page.
It's almost a month ago that Blossom ran and it was well attended with 13 cars in the ORRC and 8 additional the SNATR. It was a typical Dennis rally with him trying to mess with peoples minds rather than difficult navigation. Roger worked hard on getting the event together with Darin & Amy as the long suffering green crew. The checkpoint crews did a great job, they included Steve, Ted, Ean & Faith, Justin & Gulsheet, Jeff & Cheryl, Paul and Darin. Roger and Lynda were the opening crew, Teresa & Andrew closing and Teresa V did registration. Results are at http://www.kwrc.on.ca/blossom-2019-results/
Congratulations to David & Connie for taking first in Novice & the SNATR, Nick & Kirk for first in expert, second expert of Adrian & Steven, and Eric & Rohit for second in Novice. Scott and Lynn-Ann came first in SNATR Beginner.
The next SNATR is our BBQ on Sunday afternoon July 21. We plan on going Karting on August 8. I'm looking for help for SNATR's 3 & 4 if you have some time available.
Other events coming up are PMSC's rallycross on July 6 at Burnt River and MLRC's Black Bear performance rally on July 13. I don't have a link to Black Bear info but I'm sure it will be available soon. I do know Vasu will be stewarding the event and Eric Vlasic plans on entering with Sean McConnachie in his first co-driving experience.
Teresa will have the meeting minutes from May available soon and I'll try to post them on the website. The meeting itself will be mostly about how to improve on rallycross and the upcoming events. We'll discuss the pros and cons of running an evening event. in the summer.
Agenda
Welcome
-Minutes from May
-Old Business
-Blossom, RallyCross
-Treasurers Report
-New Business
-- Upcoming events
-- SNATR & BBQ, RallyCross, SNATR 4
-Adjournment
Free discussion.
I have some video from the rallycross that you may find interesting if Roger can hook the laptop to the TV in the meeting room.
Martin.
KWRC MEETING MINUTES May 9, 2019
The meeting was called to order at 7:35 pm
Attendance - As per sign in list
Old Business
Last weekend Lanark Highlands was run out of the Ottawa area. David Bell co-drove for Zoltan Kovacs. The last stage was cancelled as there was a time limit from the MNR to use the roads.
We have provided the WRC Rally Promoter with our cheque for $500.00
Rocky Mountain Rally had 36 cars registered. Alan Ockwell will make an appearance in the co-drivers seat.
2. Treasurer s Report
The club is solvent.
3. New Business
The club will be hosting its Blossom Rally, which includes a SNATR portion. Its a Dennis Rally so it should be fun. If you can checkpoint, please let us know.
2. The RallyX is set for June 8, 2019. We wont have a meeting before so hopefully all will be organized. We will wait for the weather conditions as the date gets closer to determine if we will need the water truck or not. A self declaration form will be prepared for competitors to fill out when they register to confirm their vehicles are in good shape. Lunch will be Tims, coffee and Timbits and water will also be arranged.
3. Ian Wright has presented an opportunity for KWRC to see if we can run a RallyX event at the Full Throttle Speedway . It is suggested that some members arrange a visit to see if the venue is suitable. This visit will be arranged with the VP of RallyX
4. Christina has brought a suggestion for competitors to have permanent numbers for Rallycross events. This will make things run smoother. The idea will be discussed with Darin Mayes to see if it will be feasible.
5. July 21, 2019 is our annual BBQ.
We will organize Karting in Hamilton again for August.
The regular meeting was adjourned at 9:00 by Frank and seconded by Steve.
