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12th March 2011 A Different but Busy Season Ahead As my plans start to get finalized for 2011, it is evident that I am going to be very but it doesn’t look likely that I will be spending that much time behind the wheel of a car. At the end of 2010 I commented on the US Rallycross series for the first time and this year I have been contracted to commentate on several events which mean the Ford Focus will probably stay in the garage at Planet Motorsport for most of the year. So right now, my calendar looks like this: March 25/26 US Rallycross 1/2 Irwindale, CA I hope to have some commitments post X Games but these haven’t been publicly announced so I can’t leak them here. Needless to say this doesn’t leave much time to rally in the first part of the year but my aim is do something this year. There is also a rumor running around that I have a very sexy rally car coming my way and these may well be true……. My other big interest this year is the progress of David Binks in the Best Buy Rallycross Car. I hope to get across and see David’s quest for the Championship in 2011. So, a busy but different year. Hopefully I will get to see many of the year in different places! 22nd November 2010 My Secret Life... I have been hoping to have European style Rallycross come to the US for several years. I got close in 2005 but unfortunately everything fell apart. So I was very excited when I heard Rally America was looking to bring the sport over and was glad to accompany them to Lydden Hill earlier this year to observe an event. Several meetings followed and plans were baked for the first meeting. I was hoping to compete or do something but then the real world intervened and I ended up having business commitments for the first two events! So, I was determined to get down to Rounds 3 & 4 especially with the large number of European drivers coming over. I offered my services to J.B. who asked me to help the regular commentator – Will Mattox – with background information on the sport, etc. It wasn’t really in the plan to commentate on the air myself but Will and I quickly discovered that working together worked really well. So, in addition to giving background information about the sport, the drivers, etc I found myself doing the play by play. It was tremendous and although I am biased I think Will and I worked really well.
Our viewing platform was a little exposed but did allow us to see most of the circuit and provide the crowd some really good information when the cars briefly disappeared out of view. The racing throughout the weekend was absolutely fantastic. There were several highlights but probably the main one for me was the B Final on Sunday between Isaachsen and Rhys Millen. Isaachsen was literally pushing Millen down the short shute in front of our commentary position and it was incredible to watch until Sverre got it all wrong and collided with the tires.
I have to confess that a personal highlight for me was getting to interview Sverre and Travis on Saturday evening. Travis is a great guy and the lines of fans waiting for his autograph were incredible to see and of course, being Travis, he stood there for as long as he could to make everyone happy. My girls are massive Travis fans after watching rally and Nitro Circus and I told them that we would try and get a picture with him. Of course, they stood in line and got the regular autographed picture – and Lucie got a very personal one in her autograph book that Travis took the time to read. A little later Beth managed to get Travis alone and took this picture. As sports stars go I am not sure if there can be many who understand the value of their brand than TP. He made my two girls weekend with that picture.
So after losing my voice I drove back to Connecticut on an absolute high. I think the high at least matched the thrill of competing and Beth and I talked about the weekend all the way home. It then got better as JB reached out and not only thanked me for the weekend but told me he wanted me to commentate on rally cross in 2011. And then the television company reached out and asked whether I could possibly do the commentary on the first round. Thanks to Best Buy I was able to get to a sound studio in Minneapolis on short notice and record the show. The show aired on NBC with my name credited. This was very cool and of course the girls went wild! To top it all, Pat and Amy Doran then asked me to commentate at the 2011 ERC opener at their Lydden Hill circuit. To be able to commentate at the circuit where I grew up watching rally cross is both a thrill and an honor. So finally I want to thank Arthur Debenham because I learnt so much from listening to him of how to fill dead air time and how to make the most dull race exciting. Then man is a legend. I also want to thank J.B for the opportunity, Jen Horsey for the advice she gave Will and I through the weekend; Will for being an awesome dude to work with and for the drivers for putting on such a great show. My biggest thank you goes to Beth, Sophie and Lucie. We had only planned to go for Saturday but when we were asked to stay for the Sunday I asked them if they wanted to stay and all three said yes. I couldn’t do all that I do without the love and support of all three of them. Thank you!
15th September 2010 To finish first, first you have to finish!
The last weekend was a little surreal in that it brought Amanda and I our first OPRC class victory and we achieved this at a National event that is considered one of the hardest. However, the surreal element came in because the typical Ontario entry never materialized and instead of having 5-7 other cars to play with we had zero...so technically heading into the rally all we had to do to finish first was to finish – but this is Rally Defi! Rally Defi is the fourth round of the Canadian Rally Championship and also a round of the Ontario Performance Rally Championship and located in Ste Agathe-des-Montes, near Mont Tremblant in Quebec. The event has a reputation of some great roads but also stages that are very rough and tend to break cars. Spread over two days with a lot of non-competitive transit driving it is also not the most flowing event in the Championship. It is a very long event so I have just captured some highlights here: 1. Amanda’s and I ability to write notes improved dramatically
and Amanda’s note reading was excellent. To keep up with the speed
and the technicality of the stages in only her fourth rally was really
great. Even thought admitting to being a little concerned at times re
the drops she never lost her focus and therefore the insurance of me
not driving into those drops! So “Bert” heads back to Guelph needing some surgery and all being well we will be ready to run at the Rally of the Tall Pines in November. We now lay second in the OPRC Group 2 overall standings but anyone of four drivers can win the Championship. Hopefully all of us will come to Pines and battle it out on the stages. People always ask me why I rally. Well on Saturday there were several occasions when I shouted “woo-hoo” very loudly into my microphone. The cause? We were sliding a rally car at 60-70mph through a gravel corner in a forest and you could feel the car rotate underneath you and the front pulling as you kept your foot planted. When it works like this there is no better feeling. Imagine the feeling when your favorite team scores the goal that wins the game and then imagine you are doing that and that not many other people are. It feels so cool and is something that you can never get enough off even when the downside is that you get it wrong and your car is wrapped around a large and immovable object such as a tree! Finally, the last shout out to Nigel and Kelly Mathew for all the logistical support they gave Amanda, Iain and I, Without them I wouldn’t have been at Defi and to them thank you for the victory for to finish first not only do you have to finish but you also have to start. Thanks guys! 29th August 2010 What might have been... So in early August, we headed up to Bobcaygeon, Ontario for the Galway Cavendish Forest Rally, a round of the Ontario Performance Rally Championship. The parts had finally arrived to allow us to run a limited slip differential, final drive and a couple of suspension tweaks. GCFR uses a wonderful stage in and out of slate quarry. The road is primarily fast and flowing and in a two-wheel drive car requires commitment in every corner – and more than a few cuts – to main the momentum. The first stage totally caught me out. All the changes we had made meant it was like driving a new car all over again. The LSD meant we carried more speed through and out of the corner and that lead to higher entry speed to the next corner. During the first stage I wasn’t able to capitalize on this and at the end of the stage I was very unhappy with how I had driven although the car itself was wonderful. The second stage was better and we beat the ‘target time’ that had been set for me by John Vanos. However, when comparing my time with the other Group 2 cars I still wasn’t happy and knew just how much time the car had in it if I could untap it. The third stage was much better and I was changing my braking and flick positions probably another 6ft later to take advantage of the differential and this was paying off. In the stage we passed the Suzuki Swift of Peter K who had gone off and although we hadn’t driven particularly well, we were now leading the Group 2 class by two seconds. I set a target time six seconds quicker than our previous run through the stage and we were absolutely flying. We nailed every note and every corner and knowing how much later I could keep the power on enabled us to carry so much more speed through the corner. We were on pace to be more than six seconds quicker over the stage but then it all went wrong. Several weeks after the event I still can’t figure out what went wrong. Somehow we went over a left 5 o/rest short right 5 but the car went straight on after the left 5. It didn’t appear anything broke but at the same time you could see from the tire marks that we never tried to turn for the right 5. I am not sure if I heard the note wrong or perhaps was carrying too much speed and got on the loose gravel and couldn’t turn but either way we slid gently off the road and into the deep loose on the outside. We couldn’t drive out and despite the help of a couple of marshalls we couldn’t get out and our rally was over. Thankfully the car suffered very minimal damage – a tie rod end – and was on a flat bed at the end of the rally. I am confident that we would have won our class and after three second places this would have been very welcome. Anyway, now we look ahead to Rally Defi in two weeks time. This is a fantastic event and one that always causes me a lot of trouble! Two grueling days with crests, great corners and ditches that always have something in them to ensure you don’t cut. I want a good result so watch out and follow the rally at www.rallyscoring.com -I hope to have pictures up from GCFR shortly. 13th July 2010 Looking Ahead Unfortunately, my plans to run Max Attack! at the New England Forest Rally had to be cancelled due to supplier problems on the upgrades that we wanted to do to the car. I wasn’t prepared to take on more than 30 of the best two wheel drive crews in the country in a one wheel, down on power car. So reluctantly I pulled the entry and will hopefully have everything together before Galway Cavendish Forest Rally in early August. Rally New York A week after Black Bear I entered the New York Rally Sprint which was where Beth made her debut in the car last year. Amanda, unfortunately, couldn’t get the time off work so I was fortunate to have Shane McCann the reigning USRC co-driving champion running with me. Ray and Tucker had nightmares at the border but used charm and perseverance to somehow get across and for the first time this year both Sophie and Lucie were able to come and cheer me on. The Rally Sprint used a 4 mile road through the Ten Mile Scout Reservation in Sullivan County, New York. The road was ideal for the Focus – even with one-wheel drive – as it didn’t have too many long straights and rewarded commitment through the corners. The entry was pretty thin on the ground which was surprising and disappointing. I felt the day went really well and we had a couple of notable moments. The first was at the end of the first stage as you came along a narrow ridge lined by trees and we had noted some bumps. All of a sudden the back of the car is really bouncing and as we came across the line, the back lifted at the same time as I did and the next second we were spinning backwards toward the trees and thankfully down the stage. It was certainly an eventful way to end the first stage. It confirmed what we knew after Black Bear that we need more travel at the rear of the car. The downside of course was that we had to take it easier through the bumps which were half a mile on each stage. This cost a lot of time. This however, was the highlight. I am getting better at using recce for my advantage and I noticed that at the end of one straight in the notes there was a left 4 short into right 6 300M. This meant that I had no speed for the straight. However, I worked out on recce that I could cut under some tree branches on the left 4 and straightline so that I carried maximum speed onto the long straight. I got better and more committed each time until the last time I didn’t lift at all. So at the end of the day we were 6th overall and second in class and Shane and I got to spray the champagne! A nice end to the day. 18th June 2010 Black Bear Rally 2010, Bancroft, ON. Round 4 OPRC
I have a soft spot for the Black Bear Rally. Firstly it was the rally in which I made my debut back in 2007 and while the rally has moved HQ from Dorset to Bancroft it gives me a second reason as it allows Bear to use the roads of the Rally of the Tall Pines without the inclement weather that usually occurs in November. The rally is also hosted by the Maple Leaf Rally Club which is my ‘home’ rally club and several of my friends are among the organizing committee. I was pleased with our debut at Lanark and Amanda and I were able to pinpoint several areas that would make us go faster and close the gap to the other Group 2 competitors. Firstly, we both had to stop making mistakes. Secondly there were several areas of mechanical enhancements to bring us up to par with the others – limited slip diff for instance so we would have two wheel drive instead of one – and finally more experience working together both in the speed of note delivery but also how to drive the Focus quick which is very different from the Impreza that I took to 4th here in 2007. Of course, rally wouldn’t be rally if everything went to plan. Firstly the week before the event I put my back out to the point that I seriously considered withdrawing from the event as late as Saturday morning. Beth asked me not to run fearing the damage that I could do to my back and I agreed that with all the information and pain I could feel that it was probably the most stupid thing I could do but that I was going to do it anyway and pray the consequences weren’t too bad. Then delays with our suppliers meant that we couldn’t upgrade the specification of the car and we would once again be one wheel drive. Finally the weather forecast said heavy rain for most of the day and there were seven water splashes to deal with in a car with unprotected and low slung air intake. Most OPRC events allow two pass recce and I am now starting to make full use of what this allows. With very well written organizer notes and some classic Pines stages, I used two pass recce to really work on where we could place the car to gain time and most importantly maintain momentum. You can’t place the car 100% where you would the impreza as it won’t skip the rocks and debris as easily but we noted places – usually in my memory – of where I could put the car half off and run over the rocks on several corners without fear of damage. Of course recce is at a lot lower speed but more of that later...
"Black Bear rally is well named. This not so cuddly friend was just a few hundred yards from the stage finish that Beth was working in the woods!" So, once again due to my seeding we started 6th and the roads were in great condition. Amanda and I agreed to settle into the first stage and not push too hard wanting to ensure we both met our first goals of no mistakes. The 8km stage was a new addition and John Vanos had done a great job on finding a road that was very technical, with some fast sections and lots of gotchas if you let your guard down. I made a minor mistake on a Left 3 ‘don’t cut’ when the don’t cut didn’t register in my brain and the car hit the rock we had noted. I feared we had a puncture just 2-3km’s into the stage but thankfully the Yokohama tires held up and we continued on. Amanda was flawless as we went through the stage in 6m 40sec. At the end I knew we had about another 10 seconds or more to find but were very pleased to find that we were the third fastest of the Group 2 gang and had already achieved our performance targets against all of our competitors. On the second running we agreed to be more aggressive and while many struggled to find time as the road conditions deteriorated we managed to find 12 seconds which at 1.5 seconds per km was a great improvement and put us right up with our competition. We went to service with a healthy car and the Planet Motorsport complained about the lack of activity as neither of the team cars were having any problems.
"I said DON’T CUT” Stage 3 (Quirk Lake) was by far my most favorite stage although it was Amanda’s least favorite. The stage allowed you to carry great speed over blind crests with flowing 5 and 6 corners with the occasional 3 or 4 to keep you awake. The more challenging – and I am sure for Amanda terrifying – fact was that the stage was often only wide enough for your car and with over hanging branches almost made you feel claustrophobic! However, I absolutely love this sort of stage and I knew I was getting a really good feel for the Focus. I was committing 100% to the blind crests and the faster corners. Amanda read the notes on time and this allowed us to get a time of 10.03 just 1 second behind the second place Golf. While Amanda was a little green in the gills at the finish I didn’t help when I told her I knew I could find probably another 15-18 seconds in the stage if I committed more to the 4’s... Stage 4 (Peanut) the Peanut stage is legendary on the Rally of the Tall Pines and in its extended form it is with good reason. Narrow and fast in the early stages then very rough with water splashes and some pig hills for a one wheel drive car and then culminates with a fantastic flowing end that rewards full commitment. The stage was going to really well but the Focus struggled up some of the hills as its one wheel scrabbled for grip on the rock strewn surface. However, Peanut provided without doubt our biggest ‘moment’ of the rally and in a totally unexpected way. We had come down a straight and were heading for the “tornado” clearing into a L4 over crest right 6 200 and were pushing when as we turned through the left 4 and all of a sudden the back lifted so high I thought for a moment we were going to literally perform a front flip. I kept my foot planted and thankfully the forward motion and gravity saw the back of the car slam back down onto terra firma and we bumped along through the right 6 at barely diminished speed. To her credit, in only her second rally Amanda didn’t miss a beat. As we start to get into the faster stages I literally put my left foot on my right foot to force commitment through the 5 and 6’s and a couple of times I shouted ‘yahoo’ as we nailed a corner perfectly with the right amount of drift and it was marvelous how friendly the Focus, which can be twitchy if you treat her badly, was suddenly being. We crossed the line in 9.56 which was only 6 seconds behind our second place friend Mr Landreville. At Lanark he was beating us by an average 3 seconds per km and now we were only down 0.1 seconds per km and without our LSD (which he has!). Smiling big time especially as I saw Beth in the control car at the end of the stage. However, when I got out to inspect the car I found that the front wing had partially popped off and that the spare tire had broke its mounting straps smashed into and broke the Perspex rear window and landed on the back seat. I ran around like a headless chicken to re-stow the spare wheel in a secure enough fashion to get through the next stage and back to service. In addition to this damage, the exhaust had broken its clamps and the noise was pretty incredible. I knew we wouldn’t be able to push as hard on Stage 5 and would have to somewhat nurse the car back to service to ensure that we could minimize damage and finish the rally. However, we got back to service and the crew set to work checking the car over. All the suspension and engine was good but the exhaust brackets were broken and it was better to pull the whole assembly off than try and re-mount it knowing it would only break free again.
"Peanut Water Splash – note front wing damage" As we headed into Stage 6 we were without a doubt the loudest car on the rally. On Stage 6 we were within 0.2 seconds of the class leader (Rainville) although that was more due to his problems than anything we did although I was very pleased with how we drove the stage. What worried me was the fuel economy. Running a 12km stage had suddenly seen ¼ tank of fuel disappear and on that basis we would not have enough to finish the rallies last two stages. With that worry in mind we entered Peanut for the second time. I drove the first part of the stage much better and we were on for an improved time until a little over two thirds of the way through the reserve fuel light came on. As we entered the wide roads I decided to play it safe and stick in a higher gear knowing that seconds were slipping away all the time. We ended up 18 seconds slower than the first past and should have been 18 seconds quicker at least. Very frustrating but we were now faced with an 18km stage on a reserve tank in a car that was drinking fuel. We calculated that we had second in class secure and probably couldn’t catch Rainville unless he broke down so decided to play it safe and make sure we got to the finish rather than DNF so close to home. We ran the stage semi hard but lost almost 2 minutes in the stage to our target time. We limped our noisy and empty car back to the final time control and were greeted by heart-felt cheers by not only our own crew but many other competitors who knew of our plight and fully expected to pass broken down on stage. So we ended the stage in 10th overall and 2nd in our competitive Group 2 class. We had exceeded our targets going into the rally. I hadn’t made any driving mistakes and Amanda hadn’t made any note reading mistakes. We got far closer in time per km to our competitors and in some cases went past them. We continued to improve how we worked together inside the car and worked well with our service crew. Overall a wonderful event and I can attest that adrenalin is a wonderful stimulant as my back didn’t hurt until the hotel that night! So now I move onto the New York Rally Sprint with a new co-driver Shane McCann. I know where I need to improve to get more out of the car and I want to use New York to practice and develop those areas. After New York it is off to Maine for the New England Forest Rally before returning to the OPRC in early August with the Galway Cavendish Forest Rally. I hope to be much closer to Rainville and Landreville at Galway. So in closing, a massive thank you to Beth for all of her support and encouragement despite my stupidity; all the guys at Planet Motorsport; Amanda for doing a great job before and during the event; and all the organizers and workers of the Black Bear Rally. The event ran flawlessly and was worth every penny of the entry fee and the 19 hour round trip. See you all in 2011. More pictures will be added in the gallery and thanks to the usual photographers for the great shots including Evan Holt, Mike Proulx and Tom Hayston. 7th June 2010 Looking Ahead – Black Bear and New York Rally Sprint This weekend Amanda and I are looking forward to getting the car out again at Black Bear Rally. I made my debut at Black Bear back in 2007 and it yielded my first podium in 2008 so although the event has moved location hopefully the omens are good. The entry is strong with 22 teams as of Monday and as usual with the OPRC the quality is deep. Iain at Planet Motorsport has managed to install a slip differential so I now have two wheel drive (unlike at Lanark) and while we still don’t have the full engine we have made some progress. Every rally will hopefully be a step forward in the performance of the car and the crew. I will send some results out next week. Just a week after Black Bear, we are entered for the New York Rally Sprint in Monticello, New York. As Amanda isn’t available I am very pleased that reigning US Rally 2WD Champion co-driver Shane McCann on board. I will benefit not only from his knowledge of the stages but also his tremendous experience. I look forward to making more progress having gained the seat time at Bear just a week before. 23rd May 2010 New Season, New Car, New Co-Driver
So this season is a new dawn or is it ‘Back to the Future?’ After 3 fantastic seasons I sold the Subaru Impreza in which I made my rally debut in 2007 and after two great years Jeffy Secor decided to take a sabbatical and spend a little more time at home. But the rally bug bit deep and I have managed to pull together a season of rally! First, I agreed to use Beth’s Ford Focus and then I found a new co-driver in Amanda Tolhurst. The Focus had only run the New York Rally Sprint before and was an unproven quantity and it would mean returning to front wheel drive for the first time in 10 years and, without a slip differential for the first event, it would be returning to one wheel drive. It was all new for Amanda too as she had never co-driven before and no amount of practice on the road reading notes cannot compare to actually being on a stage. So our first event was Lanark Highlands Forest Rally. This stage used to be part of the WRC back in the 1970’s and is only 90 minutes across the border so is a great location for us driving up from the US. We had to write notes from scratch as there were no organizers provided notes which made a nice challenge for Amanda. We went through two pass recce trying to figure everything out and then began preparing for the event. As usual, Planet Motorsport is looking after the Focus as it did with the Impreza and the car looked great in its new black/green color scheme. I hadn’t driven the car before so pulling out of service for the first time I was focused on not stalling and looking a total idiot! So onto the first stage and let the learning begin. Firstly, I found the brake pedal without any bias (from stock)was very firm and the slightest touch made the back want to be the front. This led to a couple of hairy spins on the first stage but thankfully we didn’t hit anything and by the end of the stage I had adjusted the pressure on the pedal to rotate and not spin the car. As the day progressed we got faster and on each stage narrowed the gap to the other G2 cars. With each stage, Amanda got more comfortable with being in the car and reading the notes. Sure, we got lost a few times but that is part of being a rookie co-driver and thankfully this road was pretty true without many deceptive corners so I could drive to the tree line while she regained her place. At the end of the 3rd (of 5) stages Amanda and I were both smiling and wanting more. Our highlight was without doubt the last run of the day. We had run the Southbound section in 8.05 on the previous run and while we weren’t as fast as our better prepared/experienced G2 cars that was good for us and we set ourselves a target of under 8 minutes. The run was awesome and we got into a really nice flow and as we crossed the line I was confident that we had done it. And indeed we had – by 3 seconds! – which meant we had not only beaten our goal but also found 1 second per kilometer. We ended the day 17th out of 28 and 5th out of 6 cars in G2. Not the most stellar result but it was the most fun I have had in a rally car since probably West Virginia in 2008. I just can’t wait to get in the car at Black Bear and try and go faster and close the gap to our competitors in G2. Our tentative schedule for 2010 looks like this: Black Bear Rally - June Hope to see you on the stages! 20th March 2010 It Has Been A Long Time… Well it has been a long time since we posted anything on the site. Our silence reflects the little rallying we actually got round to in 2009 as the financial crisis absorbed all available time. So here are a few quick updates: 2010 Season I am in the final stages of putting together a package for the 2010 season and just need to finalize with my sponsor but they are great guys so I am confident that it won’t be a problem. I will be changing cars this year and in place of the Subaru Impreza, I will be running a Ford Focus in Group 2. It has been a decade since I last ran a two wheel drive car but to run a four-wheel drive car at the front of the field was becoming cost prohibitive. I would rather rally in a slower car regularly than run a fast car often. The Focus needs a lot of work as it is very untidy and not built how I would like. Planet Motorsport (Guelph, Ontario) will receive the car in early April and will have a lot of work to do pre Lanark Highlands in May and we will then develop the car through the year. Of course, I will also have to transform my driving style and won’t sit in the car until we go to Lanark so that will make it fun. I am still looking for a co-driver and hope to finalize all the plans by the end of March. My schedule of events is planned to be: Subaru Impreza GC8 Over the weekend I sold my first rally car. The ex Subaru Canada/Can Jam Motorsport Subaru Impreza has gone to a wonderful new home and will be out on the Canadian stages again very soon. Jeff “Jeffy” Secor After Tall Pines my regular co-driver Jeffy Secor decided that it was time to take a sabbatical after abusing his body with rally for more than a decade. I have loved running with Jeffy and hope that he will come back to the silly seat in the future. I know we will continue to see him at the events. As always please contact rallyxmark@aol.com for more information. 23rd May 2009 Time to Bounce Back After a torrid start to the Ontario Rally season that saw the Williams/Secor Subaru Impreza STI robbed of a certain top 3 finish by a center differential failure, the team is looking to re-group at the Planet Motorsport sponsored Black Bear Rally on June 13.. For Williams, who made his rally debut at Black Bear in 2007, the rally has proven a happy hunting ground with a 4th place on his debut improved in 2008 when with Canadian National Champion Alan Ockwell co-driving, Williams achieved his first ever podium in rally racing. Twelve months on and the task facing the pair is probably larger than any other time they have been together. After a well funded campaign in 2008 delivered two 2nd place overall to compliment the podium at Black Bear, budget cutbacks has seen the competition advance in the development of cars and general seat time. "We wouldn't have been rallying at all without the generous support of Paymentflex" said Williams "however, even with this support and greater assistance from Planet Motorsport, our budget is only 25% of what is was in 2008 and that makes a difference when you look at a rally and think about tires, the wear on key parts and always driving in the knowledge that even a minor excursion could end your hopes for the season" However, Williams has committed to an all out attack on Black Bear to make or break his Canadian season. The rally has moved this year a little further north to the Bancroft/MacArthur Mills area and will use some of the same stages as the famous Rally of the Tall Pines. Planet Motorsport driver John Vanos who has coached Williams in the past is helping to organize the rally and has consistently told Mark that these stages will be fantastic and will reward total commitment .The two main title protagonists (Chris Martin and Nick Mathew) will both pose a strong challenge and with entries expected from former Canadian National Champion (Peter Thomson) and former Ontario Champions (Peter Reilly and Martin Donnelly) finishing in the top 5 will be the crews first goal but an overall win is the true goal for the weekend. For more information on the Black Bear Rally 2009 including spectator points please visit www.mlrc.com 9th April 2009 Shannonville Stages - Rain, Sleet and Snow! After being in rally hibernation for 8 months it was great to finally get out to a rally. The Shannonville Stages was an all tarmac event using the various course configurations of the Shannonville Motorsports Park east of Toronto. The weather was disgusting with heavy rain, wind, sleet and snow being a constant feature - sometimes at the same time! The weather left deep lakes in some of the corners and even a water splash on one of the straights. Many of our friends had installed larger engines over the winter and we were disadvantaged further by running gravel suspension and some very average old road tires. However, bad weather is a great leveler and we had a lot of fun. We were able to slide the car around a lot with all the water and I think I managed six spins in the first three runs as we found that there was a big lack of traction! It is funny how some of the slides that you could have held on gravel end with the back snapping faster on wet tarmac. Anyway we were running around 5th at the lunch break and this was pleasantly surprising given how much time we had spent facing the wrong way. The first run after lunch was on the almost full track and was the best fun we had all day. The length allowed us to get into a rhythmn and I could tell we were making time on others just through sight lines. On the fourth lap after holding the pit bend flat in fourth we had a strange spin in the following left hander. Initially I put this down to the faster entry speed but as we pulled away there was a definite noise from the back of the car. We carried on until going through a fast right/left kink the back of the car just whipped around without any warning whatsoever. As we pulled away Jeffy and I tried to figure out what could have happened but knew it was serious as whenever we tried to push the back wanted to be the front. As we drove into the pits we decided that the differential had died leaving us with rear wheel drive.The team descended on the car and sure enough we had blown the center differential. However, it was a good day and great to be back in the car again and has me very excited about getting out on gravel at Black Bear. Congratulations to Chris Martin who was the class of the field all day and took a well deserved outright win. Many thanks as always to our sponsor Paymentflex and the boys of Planet Motorsport. 26th March 2009 2009 News update It has been a long time since I have updated this website and apologise for the absence. However, with a new job leading financial services for a major retailer in the middle of the worst economic crunch for 70 years you will appreciate my time has been spent elsewhere! I had feared that the slowdown in the economy would also force a total slowdown in my rally program and I, like many others, worked hard over the winter to see what, if any, sort of program they can pull together for 2009. In our case this was always going to be tough as we knew that our primary sponsor DST Output would not be renewing for 2009. So I am very pleased to announce that we have agreed a season long deal with Paymentflex an innovative financial solutions company based in Toronto. I met their CEO through business and invited him and a friend to our 'sponsor appreciation day' with DST Output. The venue used has a 1.2km fully RSO compliant stage and he was so overwhelmed he committed to get more involved and contributed to our Rallye Defi budget. When the opportunity arrived to take more prominent space on the car we were able to conclude a deal that will allow us to compete in the Ontario Performance Rally Championship (OPRC). We are also hoping to source some additional funds to rally in the US again during the year. Our current 2009 schedule looks like this, although it is always subject to change: 4 April Shannonville Motorsports Park OPRC After their terrific work in 2008 supporting us to two second places and one third place overall, the car will continue to be prepared by Iain Fraser and the guys at Planet Motorsport, Guelph, Ontario. We couldn't have got through last year without their amazing efforts and know we will have another great season with them. Jeff "Jeffy" Secor will continue alongside me for our second season together. We developed a good relationship in and out of the car in 2008 and want to build on that as the year progresses. John Vanos will continue to provide driver coaching as I continually endeavour to remember that sideways is good in rally! Hope to see you on the stages in 2009! 24th November 2008 2008 Rally Season Review As for many people, that
last few weeks have been very busy and unfortunately haven't offered
much opportunity to either update the website or to compete at the Rally
of the Tall Pines. I recently changed my job and am now commuting to
Minneapolis each week that means my weekends are more precious than
ever. As I thought of Pines it made me think of the great year that
2008 has been. Some of the highlights - OPRC Rookie of the Year - runner-up 2008 was a season of firsts for me - my first with Jeffy Secor, my first with Planet Motorsport and of course my first in rallying as opposed to rallycross. The learning curve was certainly steep and wouldn't have been as much fun or as successful without Jeffy, Iain (Planet Motorsport), John Vanos and my sponsors. Our first event was back in February at the very snowy and icy Rally in the 100 Acre Wood. I hate ice and snow so to finish was great even if the result (17th) was particularly great. We did a lot of test days during the year and this undoubtedly helped to help me get used to the car and the different driving style. STPR was a great rally but it was only on Saturday afternoon that I really started to drive properly. The highlight was the penultimate Waste Management stage which was run in the dark and catching the Kennedy's about half way through. They thought we were mad going that fast in the dark on that rough stage so near the end of the rally. We probably were but it felt great! We next moved on to Black Bear where Alan Ockwell ran with me. Things started to click as the day went on and I managed the first podium finish. Having tested all the previous day and having the tow truck get stuck in a mini-lake (no I wasn't driving) the success was even sweeter. We next headed off to the legendary New England Forest Rally and had a great battle with Dave Mirra, the late Jeff Moyle and Pat Moro,. We were starting to 'come of age' and the stages were incredible with just about everything that John Buffum could think of to throw at you. We were next off to Rally of West Virginia for our first NASA event. Without doubt West Virginia is the most beautiful part of the States that I have visited so would really like to rally there again. Getting 2nd place overall was probably the high point of the season. A week later we returned to Canada for the Galway Cavendish Forest Rally and another 2nd place overall. Even managed to win 'fastest car through a hidden speed trap on stage' which was very pleasing. Defi was next and was probably the low point. After the accident last year to crash on the same stage just about 400 meters nearer was incredibly annoying and cost us a strong top 10 finish and the OPRC rookie championship. I thought I approached the corner too slow but as the tv showed this was definitely not the case. Lesson learned - maybe! So the year is over. I am still working on plans for next year but it will be a very limited schedule. For those interested the 2008 season cost in excess of $70,000 and I can well understand how those regularly in the top 5 are spending around $200k. We certainly didn't scrimp but didn't do a lot of things we could have done to the car and didn't buy new tires all the time (just a lot of it). To my family, my dad, my sponsors (especially Paymentflex) a big thank-you and I hope to see you in the woods next year. 1st October 2008 Crash included in television coverage The rule in racing is that there are only two ways to get on television: Firstly you can win - which is something we have unfortunately been unable to do. Secondly, you can crash in front of the cameras. Now in 2007 when I crashed at Defi we did so out of sight of the cameras although I did get interviewed on television afterwards. So, to prove that I learned my lesson, in 2008 I actually crashed almost on top of the cameraman (who happened to be the very nice Andrew Harvey). I thought this was a surefire way of getting television coverage for my sponsor DST Output. The French language version of Rallye Defi aired on Sunday and sure enough our moment is captured in all its glory. I now know what went wrong – I was going too fast ! But always conscious of image, I am very pleased that the DST Output logo was in the middle of the camera shot for the longest period. New York Times, Toronto Star and national television in one season – not bad publicity! If you would like to enjoy our moment of pain and shame then please log on to www.flatovercrest.com and click the video. This is in French but the footage is excellent. Our crash occurs about 11 minutes in to the episode. Canada Post hasn’t (yet) tracked me down for those mailboxes but I did enjoy reading the Hbc Rewards Catalog in one of them (inside Canadian GE joke – sorry to everyone else!) 25th September 2008 New York Times Article While not named, the DST Output Subaru Impreza is the lead car in the pictures for an article in the prestigious New York Times (Sunday 21st September). As you can see in the picture we made a rather spectacular jump. When Jeffy and I were in the air we certainly weren’t thinking about being in the Times more ‘Oh, this is going to hurt!’ As the picture clearly shows we landed heavily on the front left of the car but this made us appreciate the investment in the RS&SP suspension that held it together and we even finished the stage with the 9th fastest time. At the end of the day rally racing is an entertainment sport and I felt sad for the 3,000 spectators who came to see action and ended up seeing everyone poodle over the jump. Sometimes it is good to be different! Click here for online article or Click here for the PDF (1.6mb in total download)
Black River Stages Unfortunately, I have decided to withdraw our entry to the Black River Stages. After a very busy summer rallying and the recent turmoil in financial services I decided that I needed and wanted to spend more time with my children. Also at the time of my decision I was the only Open class entry and I really want to run events where I can benchmark my driving against leading drivers so I can learn to drive faster. However, I am already sad and know I will be really gutted next weekend when I am missing out on night stages and those fantastic roads. But my kids have to come first and they are my biggest fans! 18th September 2008 Cars for Sale! 1995 Subaru Impreza (ex Subaru Canada) After 18 wonderful months I am now selling my primary car. You can read all about this car on this site but very quickly this was the first car imported by Subaru Canada for rally use and was driven by Tom McGeer and John Buffum and has a very humbling log book! This year I have driven this to 2nd overall at Rally West Virginia and Galway Cavendish; 3rd overall at Black Bear; 8th overall at NEFR and 11th overall at STPR. We have entered 7 rallies this year and ran all of them hard and have a 100% finishing record. The 100% finishing record is a testimony to both quality of the car build (Can Jam Motorsport) and the fact that I have spared no expense on maintaining the car (with Planet Motorsport). The car has everything you need to run at the front of the field and is priced $30-40k lower than newer equally spec’d equivalents. Full specification is available under the “Car” tab. Spares include 20 wheels and over 30 tires all ready to use. The car is rally ready and entered for Black River Stages. The car is registered in Canada (but easily transferred to the US) and has a CARS logbook. Please contact me at rallyxmark@aol.com for price. 1994 Subaru Impreza (ex Last Ditch Racing) This car has not been used since I bought it with Iain from Planet Motorsport a little over six months ago. The car is affectionately known as “Tulip” and was the first rally car of John Cassidy (Last Ditch Racing) and later campaigned by his co-driver turned driver Dave Getchell. Full spec on request but some highlights are a 2.5 litre engine from a 1999 Subaru RS with standalone engine management via a LINK ECU; DMS 50mm suspension; front and rear skid plates; aluminum hood; RS front bumper and RS rear wing. Many other things make this a great rally car at a very affordable price. The car is registered in the US and has a SCCA logbook and is ready to rally. Please contact me at rallyxmark@aol.com for price and confirmation of spec, etc 13th September 2008 General Update: Black River Stages We have decided to enter the Black River Stages (Harrisville, NY) a round of the Atlantic Rally Cup. The rally is one of the closest to home and the pictures and youtube coverage of the rally last year shows that there are some great roads. Indeed Greg Healey (of Datsun 260Z fame) believes these are some of the best roads he has ever rallied on. I want a ‘shakedown’ event before the Rally of the Tall Pines and the attraction of great roads and night stages makes Black River Stages a natural fit. Although the entry list is a little thin right now, I am hopeful that some of the great New York Irish drivers will enter the event and I can enjoy battles similar to those at Rally West Virginia. New Sponsor Although we reveal full details next week, I am pleased to announce that we have a new sponsor coming on board for the Rally of the Tall Pines (and for Black River Stages). A new name to rally the company is known for innovation and understands the challenges that rally gives to the driver, co-driver and team. Please pop back for the news release next week. Rallye Defi 2008 Photos Surprisingly there have been few pictures surfacing from Rallye Defi. I have posted some pictures from Tom Hayston, James Drake and Claude Lamaroux and will post more as we come source them. The first run of the television coverage will run on RDS in Quebec on September 28th, and so far this year the French version has been shown on www.flatovercrest.com a couple of days later. I don’t know for sure if we will feature but we did manage to crash in front of a cameraman and there are only two ways to get on tv – win or crash. Haven’t managed the former yet but have now done the second one! 8th September 2008 What A Difference a Year Makes...? Last year at Rallye Defi (Ste Agathe, Quebec), my rally ended on Stage 7, when I decided to prune the top branches of several trees. So this year I approached Stage 7, in heavy rain, and... ended up destroying some mailboxes and dropping the car into a 5ft deep water filled ditch. Does the year make a difference? Yes, last year we retired on the spot. This year after a great tug from our fellow Planet Motorsport driver, Nick Mathew, we continued on to the end of the event. Rallye Defi was the 4th round of the Canadian Rally Championship and the entry list was incredibly strong. We were allocated a start position of 22nd (off the 44 car field) and having recce’d the stages on Thursday looked forward to the start of competition on Friday afternoon and evening. Friday is a series of short stages just outside of Ste. Agathe where the rally can’t be won but can most definitely be lost. However, you can’t take these stages easy because the organizer reseeds the field based upon Fridays times. So if you want good road position for Saturday, you have to push a little on Friday. Fridays stages were relatively uneventful and a lot of fun! Without doing anything silly we set some strong times and were re-seeded up from 22nd to 13th. It was a very early start on Saturday morning (in car from 6am) and we headed to the first stages under the dark skies and heavy rain courtesy of Hurricane Gustav. I set 13th fastest on the mornings first stage and headed to my least favorite stage telling Jeffy to tighten his belts especially hard. I intended to drive well within myself to get through the stage and get the mental monkey off of my back. We were over halfway through when we went up a slimy 400m straight into a tight left hand corner. I braked very early, probably too early, and was turning in as usual when the car just washed away underneath me. I accelerated as the back tried to become the front and we began knocking down mailboxes as effectively as a twister on the great plains. But a combination of the water, the slime and lack of room meant the very clever differential couldn’t save us as we plunged right corner first into a deep water-filled ditch. I tried to move the car but we were too far in. We scrambled out the car and posted triangles to warn other drivers and started to get the tow strap in the hope someone would pull us out. Thankfully Nick Mathew, who had his own problems on Friday night, was five cars behind us and stopped. Nick gave us a great pull and got us out in one go – thanks Nick! As we were getting back in the car another competitor came past and went through the small lake next to us and sent a wave through my open window and over the roof of the car soaking Jeffy and I. However, we were able to drive away and finish the stage eventhough we had lost 7 minutes that effectively ended our rally in terms of a good finish. On a side note, I picked a better place this year to crash. Last year no-one saw it. This year I crashed in front of spectators and better still a television crew, so hopefully we will make it on television (mum – I could be famous!). Iain and the Planet Motorsport crew (and the Tonik crew) jumped on the car and amazingly beyond bending a right-rear hub we incurred no further damage. We now focused on finishing the rally rather than times and to use the day as a test session for rallying in wet mud as well as learning the stages. After slowing in the next two stages (18th and 20th fastest) we then started to push again as the rally headed out into the woods and the longer stages. We were 14th on stage 10 and found stage 11 incredibly slippery – almost as bad as ice at 100 Acre Wood – and we were only 16th. Stage 12 was the hardest stage for us with the car wanting to turn sideways on straights when the tires lost grip on the slime and once again we were only 16th fastest. On stage 13 we got better and set the 13th fastest time. We changed tires to my beloved Pirelli’s and set out for the same four stages again. There were no dramas and I was beginning to adjust to the conditions and the stages and set the 11th, 14th, 12th and 9th fastest times. The strategy of not doing anything silly was working. We couldn’t make up a 7 minute deficit so we could only hurt the car and our strategy was to run our own race and let others succumb to the conditions. We now began the hardest stages of the rally. Narrow, rock strewn, filled with water splashes that the storm had turned into small lakes, dips and lots trees of to end your rally. Caution was the word of the day. I have to confess I love these technical and tight stages but only drove around 85% to preserve the car. We were 14th in the first stage of the series but unfortunately I hit a dip incredibly hard and it threw me into another dip and the result was bent front suspension where both wheels were visibly tilted in with the naked eye. We had to now drive sensibly through the dips – literally down to first gear and tip toe – and make it through the stage. We set the 13th fastest time but on the longer stage we dropped to 14th place and then 11th on the last of the series. We made up several places in these stages not because of our times but because so many people who were ahead of us were falling off or having mechanical issues of their own. While you hate to see someone else off it reinforced our ‘slow’ish and steady’ approach to the day. We went to service with a laundry list of damage to be fixed. The Planet team descended again and fixed the front suspension, rear brake caliper, sump guard and all the usual stuff and we headed back out. We were flying through the long Lac Barbiche stage (28km) when unfortunately the stage was stopped 2km from the end due to safety issues. We may have made up a place if the stage had been run but either way it was great to end the rally on a stage that you absolutely loved. I find this is the best way to get out of the car. So we ended up 14th of the 44 starters which would usually be an acceptable result. It was even better when you realize that only 17 cars finished a rally of attrition and we would have been 7th overall if we hadn’t had our problem. But if everyone else hadn’t had there’s we would probably have been around 14th so everything strangely worked itself out! Also, we had a big off and managed to keep going with minimal damage unlike most of the others who are left with large repair bills. On a positive note we finished 3rd in the Ontario Performance Rally Championship (Novice) and now lead that Championship with one round remaining. There are an awful lot of thanks after this rally. To Iain, Phil, Carl, Troy and Donna from Planet Motorsport; to Warren and the Tonik crew; to Nick, Lou and Nick at 2 Brits Racing; to John Vanos for his coaching and the organizers and workers of Rallye Defi. We hope our next event will be Lake Superior Performance Rally, a round of Rally America in October. For more information please contact rallyxmark@aol.com 19th August 2008 Willowdale Subaru – Car Show The problem with rally is that, if you want to see the cars you have to walk into the woods! Iain of Planet Motorsport contacted me last week in relation to taking my car to the Willowdale Subaru dealership for a car show. Below is the link to the site and also an extract from the event write-up. “The sporting side of the Subaru community was well represented
with all manner of street tuned cars and a couple of special guests.
Planet Motorsport graciously sent over a couple of full on rally cars
to show what the truly hard core enthusiasts have to offer. The 95 Subaru
Impreza of Mark Williams is quite a special car, with a very unique
history that will be the subject of an upcoming post. It was joined
by the Impreza 2.5RS campaigned by MaNick Rally. With a DJ pumping out
tunes, great food, great cars and an enthusiastic crowd. We had all
the makings of a great day. Here at Willowdale Subaru, we couldn’t
be happier with how the day went and can’t wait until next year’s
event.” 14th August 2008 Galway-Cavendish Forest Rally Pictures Pictures from the Galway-Cavendish Forest Rally have now been added online. Please view the picture gallery section of the website. Thanks go to Tom Hayston for providing the pictures. 11th August 2008 Galway-Cavendish Forest Rally Just six short days after returning from West Virginia we packed the car, including the girls, and head off to Catchacoma for the Galway Cavendish Forest Rally, a round of the Ontario Performance Rally Championship. Held on an 8km road into and out of the limestone quarry the road is truly magnificent for rally. Fast and flowing, with some technical pieces the stage road rewards commitment to maintaining momentum. Our starting position of 3rd was the highest of our career to date and we had strong competition in front of us and behind us, especially Martin Donnelly who had been our benchmark in 2007. We headed to the stage under uncertain skies and the spectators told us it had rained for some time before the stage started. The first stage was fun. The road felt slippery but the first stage of a rally usually does. I made one mistake when after having my left foot on the brake for the first half of the stage, I went to change up to 5th and tried to use the brake as the clutch pedal. This doesn’t work very well and Jeffy was pleased for his HANS device as well as thinking something very strange must have happened to the car! Despite this silly mistake we managed to set the second fastest time just 8 seconds off of Peter Thomson and 11 seconds ahead of the 3rd place car. This was enough to elevate us to second place on the road, a place we weren’t too relinquish. We had some fun moments especially on Stage 2. First we had a mix up on the notes that made what I thought was a left 5 (and therefore FAST) was all of a sudden a 5 into a 3 (far slower). This resulted in a spin that lost us more time. A few corners later, in front of the spectators, I took a right 4 a little quicker than planned and the back drifted in peril towards a ditch. In front of my crew (and father and children!) I left a few gasping as I kept my foot in and let the diff work its magic and pull away. On the next stage, we broke the previous stage record by two seconds and on the next stage bettered it again by six seconds. Of course, Peter Thomson was creating new records with each run but it was still nice to be below the old record, especially as it was set by driver coach John Vanos! By the end of the day I had met my goals. Not only had we finished 2nd for the second rally in a week but I had also progressed by driving speed to gain more speed on the stage. The technique is still far from perfect but we are on the plan we set out before STPR back in June. As always thanks to Planet Motorsport (Iain, Tucker and Buckeye) for prepping the car to such a high standard, to Beth, my dad and my girls for their support on stage, to John Vanos for the coaching (and Alan and John for the notes) and to our sponsors DST Output, Gary Numan and Elle Belle. Our next event is scheduled to be Rallye Defi in Ste Agathe, Quebec. This is a phenomenal event but this year the entry list is shaping up to be the strongest in North America for several years. 4th August 2008 Rally West Virginia – Another Improvement After our recent strong showing at New England Forest rally, Jeff and I were both keen to compete at the Rally of West Virginia, a round of the United States Rally Championship (USRC). The event didn’t have recce so we were reliant upon organizer produced ‘Jemba’ notes but reading previous years comments and watching youtube.com suggested that these roads would be a lot of fun and very challenging. Being a USRC event meant that we were also racing against a lot of new faces, especially the incredibly quick Irish contingent from around New York, and we were looking forward to benchmarking our progress against these guys. Although new to USRC we were pleased that the organizer gave us a start position of 8th. The first short stage claimed a lot of casualties including Enda McCormack who was running in front of us and slid off the road. Thankfully Enda would be back on Saturday as we had a great run against him. At the end of the stage we were 4th overall and pleased that not only had we survived but also moved up a number of positions. A number of cars weren’t so fortunate both Kennedy and Burke suffered car destroying accidents (all crew walking away) and more bizzarely the ambulance managed to roll on the stage at the end as well when the ground slipped away underneath on the outside of a corner. The rest of Saturday proceeded without further drama for us and with strong crew work at each service we ended the day in 4th overall. The Saturday portion of the event included 12 special stages and lots more drama was to afflict the front runners. We suffered a puncture on the left rear – which seems to be my favorite tire to puncture of late – but we drove out of the stage without losing too much time. A little later I managed to clip a rock on the right front that bent the front control arm and knocked the camber seriously out of line. We had to run two stages like that and prepared for what we knew would be a busy service. Thankfully Iain and the crew managed to change the front control arm and fully service (and wash!) the car in the allotted time and we didn’t incur any penalties. After the next series of stages as we transited to the next stage we started seeing smoke from a car ahead. Turning a corner we came across a slowing Paddy Brennan and as we pulled alongside their stopping car it was evident it had an engine fire. We pulled up in front and grabbed the extinguisher and got there just as Paddy and Fintan lifted the hood. The flames shot up from the split turbo hose and they released their fire extinguisher. It took two bottles to put the fire out but thankfully the car wasn’t too badly damaged and off we went for another stage. We were heading toward the end of the day and faced what turned out to be our favorite stage by a long way. Known as ‘Bone Turkey’ (and Turkey Bone when run the other way) this stage was fantastic with lots of flowing corners and some serious technical stuff thrown in. A little way in we saw triangles indicating someone was off and were sad to see Otis’ co-driver Dominik waving us on. We went round the sweeping corner and to see Otis’ Impreza on the inside and a lot of debris in the road. It turned out that he had rolled four times before coming to rest and while Otis and Dominik were ok the car obviously wasn’t. It sounds callous but your mind immediately realizes that you are in 2nd on a national event and that you don’t want to throw it all away with just three stages and less than 14 competitive stage miles left. We knew Martin Donnelly was too far in front to catch and that similarly we were too far in front of Eric Burmeister to be caught – unless we did something stupid. This meant I backed off to 90% to bring the car home although we still heard every noise! With stages 10 and 11 cancelled due to radio issues we headed to Turkey Bone knowing that if we could complete the final 6.5 mile stage and the following transit we would have exceeded our goal by some margin. Thinking the same thing, Martin made sure that this was the slowest transit in history as we went for a Sunday drive to the stage taking care of every part on the car! We both made it successfully through the stage bringing the Planet Motorsport/Williams RallyRacing Subaru Impreza home in 2nd place overall. As always we would like to thank Planet Motorsport and our crew of Iain, Brian and my Dad! Our sponsors DST Output and Gary Numan; and the organizers and workers of Rally West Virginia who put in hours of their own time to make it possible for us to rally. We thoroughly enjoyed the roads and the friendly atmosphere created by the officials and the other crews. It was great fun racing with Martin, Enda and Paddy and we hope to race against them again very soon – although perhaps on our ‘home’ turf of Canada – before meeting them again in New York. It was also excellent to see the MaxAttack! two wheel drive championship and the speed and camaraderie of the crews. Two wheel drive is too often overlooked and these guys show that that is a very big mistake. Congratulations to Messrs Burmeister and Shindle for their dominating win. 19th July 2008 Rental Car Program I have recently purchased an Open Class Subaru Impreza GC8 to provide a back-up car for the primary should anything happen during the busy schedule - to use on test days for new parts and set-up and to provide sponsor rides – saving the primary car. However, rally cars are made to rally and not sit in garages so I have decided to offer the car on a rental basis to other drivers. In conjunction with Planet Motorsport, we will be able to offer everything from a low cost Standard package where we provide the car and the customer provides crew/service through to a Gold package where we provide service crew, new tires and everything that my primary car has. I believe that our rates will be very competitive for an Open Class car that in the right hands should be very competitive. The car will be available for most events in eastern Canada and the US and prospective events would be: Galway-Cavendish Forest Rally If you would like more information, pricing and terms please contact me at rallyxmark@aol.com 17th July 2008 NEFR Pictures now in the gallery A selection of excellent pictures from Pete Kuncis (onalimbracing.com) have been uploaded to the gallery. 15th July 2008 Mark Williams Rally Racing press distribution list If you would like to be added to the email distribution list please send your email information to rallyxmark@aol.com 15th July 2008 Achieving new heights!
It is probably not good when your dad sends you an email from 4,000 miles saying ‘what were you thinking’ after reading the Rally America update of the jump on Stage 2 of the New England Forest Rally the 6th round of Rally America. The answer was this weekend we achieved new heights in more than one way… The New England Forest Rally (NEFR) is organised by US rally legend John Buffum and team. JB is famous for pulling together a series of logging roads that include incredibly fast and flowing with great rhythm and then throwing incredibly tight and technical stages where you are no sooner out of one corner before you are thrown into the next. And of course, being NEFR the rule is simple – DON’T CUT – there are rocks of every size and shape just off the road and in many stages actually on them. So on the back of our 3rd place finish at Black Bear, Jeff and I were looking forward to testing ourselves against the Rally America regulars. The first two stages were ‘SuperSpecial’ stages for the spectators to see the car close and personal. The first through the Sunday River ski resort was uneventful. The second at the Mexico Recreational Park includes a rather infamous jump and JB reminded us not to destroy the cars when the next 103 miles really mattered. However, when I sit in the car driving slow doesn’t seem to make sense plus there was a huge crowd so we took the jump a little faster than planned (but still slow) but the launch angle was more severe than expected and as you can see from the picture we certainly got some air and a very loud cheer from the crowd! The landing was heavy but the car was more than happy to fly through the rest of the stage and record the 10th fastest time overall. We then headed to two long stages in the woods. I was a little rusty on the first stage into the woods and wasn’t happy with our speed. The low light was hitting a culvert pipe hard which was marked with a caution but after a fast L5 into a R3 over culvert. I thought my tire had burst or my finger had broken but thankfully once again the car was strong enough for the abuse we gave it. Disappointed with my time I made up over 30 seconds on the reverse stage that took us back to service in so doing set the 13th fastest time. The last Friday stage was Concord Pond that was a mix of tarmac and gravel and was fun although keen to see the end of the day I wasn’t as fast as I would like. But at the end of the first day and the important re-seed for Saturday morning I had improved for a start position of 23rd to a re-start position of 14th – a very healthy move up the field. Saturday morning started with a stage in Berlin that began with a huge spectator section before transferring out for a long ride into the woods. This was a really fun stage and set the 14th fastest time. Coming back out was a little more eventful as we went over a crest carrying more speed than I expected and realized that there was no way I was going to make the left three coming at me about 50 meters ahead! I flicked the car sideways and we slid the 50m scrubbing off speed and sending the spectators running (sorry guys!). No damage done and we shot off again. Despite the spin we set the 10th fastest stage time and how new note annotations and my new driving techniques (thank you John Vanos) things were going very well. The legendary NEFR attrition was now starting with Ken Block off with an accident; Mathew Johnson with engine failure and Kenny Bartram (in the ex-Iorio car) going slow in the stage. Stages 8, 9 and 10 were run from the same start point with different endings. The crowds here were amazing and the organizers were claiming over 7,000 watched the event. Certainly on the 15 miles in on stage 8 there were people all the way out to the 10 mile marker! This was a classic JB stage – wonderful beginning so fast and flowing and then a very technical middle. We pulled up at the end of the stage to see ominous smoke coming from Dave Mirra’s car. A very wet and wide eyed Dave was getting out of the car and explaining that his throttle stuck open (!) 8 miles in and instead of stopping and fixing it he drove out of the stage with his foot on the brake trying to the hold the car back. That was one hell of a ride and two wheels were on fire! Of course without brakes it didn’t seem possible to get back to service but Pat Morro came up with a great idea…that Dave could ‘tow’ Jeff Moyle and use Jeff as his brake. Dave must have looked such a nice guy towing Jeff out of stage but the funniest sight was Alex (Dave’s co-driver) trying to get out of the car at the time control only for Jeff to slam the brakes on (so as not to be early) and have Alex thrown from the car and into the workers. No one knew Vermont Sportscar fitted ejector seats! In the middle of Stage 8 we had an off where the car bit coming out of a left 5 before I could rotate the car and we went off on the only grass in the whole of Maine and stopped about 1ft from a boulder the size of a mini-van. Despite this we set the 11th fastest time but we were disappointed. So we were looking at the final stage. We couldn’t catch Jeff Moyle in front and unless we screwed up we couldn’t be caught by the amazing Chris Duplessis behind and being in 10th overall we wanted to make sure we stayed on the road and finish. We had to change our right rear tire as we had a slow puncture and got ready. Pat Morro – 3 cars in front – had a turbo issue and started the stage with his warning lights on and he admitted he didn’t know if the car would last but would see how it went. Off we went and just 1.5 miles into the stage we came across Antoine L’Estage broken down by the side of the road so I knew we were now up to 9th. Carrying on a mile 3 I shouted to Jeff that there was a car ahead of us. The dust was heavy but it was evidently Pat nursing his car and we were closing very quickly. Great credit to Pat for seeing me and moving over to the side so I could pass without losing time. I now realized that if I caught Pat 3 miles in I had made up at least 3 minutes on him and with another 10 miles to go I could take enough time to actually get 8th overall. So instead of relaxing we pushed hard and of course Maine had to have one last kick in the teeth and about 2-3 miles out we got a puncture on the left rear. We went through a right five and the back wanted to be the front. As I held the car I noticed Jeff had started to brace himself for the impact and smiled as the car straightened itself out. We ended the stage on the rim – but we finished. We now had 4 miles of transit on the public road on a totally flat tire and the rim. We managed to burn a whole in the mudflap but did make it back to the service. So at the end of the rally we finished 8th overall – exceeding our goal and more importantly bringing the car home safe and sound. Many thanks to Iain and Phil of Planet Motorsport; Beth, Lou and Kelly for their great support and showing the flag of St. George and confusing everybody! To Last Ditch Racing for working with us throughout the service times and of course to JB and team for a great event. Congratulations to Niall McShea on winning his first US event and to John Cassidy and Dave Getchell on their top 5 overall finish and two regional wins. We can now look forward and if all goes well we will be at Rally West Virginia on July 31st/August 1st If you would like to receive regular email updates and receive more team insights and pictures that are not published in the gallery please send an email to rallyxmark@aol.com 29th June 2008 More Black Bear Photos Maciej “Matt” Janiak sent us these great pictures. Plans are progressing well for New England Forest Rally and can’t wait for the days to pass. 24th June 2008 Black Bear photos uploaded in the gallery We have uploaded several photos from the Planet Motorsport Black Bear Rally. Thank you to Anton and Beth for use of their photos. 16th June 2008 First Podium Finish One year after making our debut, we achieved our first podium finish with 3rd place on the Planet Motorsports Black Bear Rally in Dorset, Ontario. The first step to the podium was taken over 10 days ago as we began preparing for STPR. After learning a lot and getting quicker at STPR we headed to a test day on Friday so we could try out some new things on the car and entertain our faithful sponsor DST Output and prospective sponsor Paymentflex. We met our aim of developing the car and headed to Dorset for Friday night recce in good spirits. It was then a catalogue of quirky events started to take over. Firstly, we had some transport difficulties that meant the race car arrived four hours late; then we discovered that Jeffy’s seat was broken (how does a race seat break?) and a replacement seat would be needed; then a massive thunderstorm struck where we were staying further delaying everything. Finally we had everything set up by 11pm and the Planet Motorsports team went to work on changing seats and working on the other team cars. Unfortunately the ‘new’ seat that Jeffy needed wouldn’t fit in the car so we had to replace with a narrow seat that wasn’t suitable for Jeffy. Fortunately, Alan Ockwell was scheduled to co-drive for John Vanos, and kindly agreed to move over to my car while Jeffy graciously stood aside (and ran fast sweep). Alan and I had never sat together before but having raced with Pat Richard, Otis Dimiters, Dave Mirra and John Vanos I knew I had to be on top of my game if I was to do him justice and if I was to learn from his huge experience. We were seeded 8th but the organizers moved us to 7th so we set off to the first stage that was short and twisty with a very rough ending. The car ran really well, although the new anti-lag map caught me out a couple of times, and we achieved the 5th fastest time just 1 second behind Mathieu L’Estage and 2 seconds behind Peter Thomson. We were very lucky on Stage 2 as approaching a Right 5 I got the corner all wrong and went off luckily not hitting anything major but needing a diff re-set into full lock and back out to get out of the mud. We ended the stage 8th fastest and lost 28 seconds to L’Estage who was our target man. We repeated this stage (in/out) a total of four times and set the 5th, 5th, and 4th fastest times before setting the 3rd fastest times on the reversal of stage 1. This left us heading to the one service of the day in 3rd overall after L’Estage retired with mechanical issues. We were 1min 11 seconds behind Thomson in 2nd and 30 seconds in front of Mathew in 4th. There was nothing too dramatic at service and we headed out to the final four stages which we knew from the recce, it would be very rough. I was keeping an eye on a flying Nick Mathew behind because unless Peter Thomson had a major problem he wasn’t going to lose over one minute in the remaining 30kms of competitive mileage. On Stage 7 I eked out another 2 seconds, 11 on stage 8 and a further 7 on stage 9. With one stage left and with the roads in a pretty rough state Alan and I agreed to be sensible and bring it home and – all being well – finish in 3rd place. Despite being our slowest time it was still 4th fastest and we breathed a sigh of relief as we crossed the line. Unfortunately Nick slipped off just into the final stage and didn’t get the great result his performance deserved. So we ended up 3rd overall 4mins 26 seconds behind the flying Urlichich/Shindle who took first and 2 min 33 seconds behind Thomson/Maxwell but 2 mins 6 seconds ahead of Kishkarev/Swann in 4th. So overall a great day! Spraying the champagne was fun even if Leo and I both needed lessons from Alan in how to do this right. Lots of thank you’s – to Alan for stepping up; to Jeffy for stepping down and being a great sport; to Iain, Tucker, Jared and Brad for prepping and keeping the car going; to John for driver coaching; Teg who retired from the crew last year but still worked on the car for us (!); Beth for waving the flag of St George even if I did miss it for once; to Andrew and DST Output for their support and to my wife without whom all of this wouldn’t be possible. 13th June 2008 STPR Photo’s – Pete Kuncis We would like to thank Pete Kuncis for permission to use his excellent photos of us at STPR 2008. Check out more of Pete’s great work at www.onalimbracing.com
The crowd shown in the gallery was from the Super Special that was the final stage on both Friday and Saturday. An organiser said that they had over 2,100 paying customers on Friday night and over 3,000 on Saturday night. The stage was short and twisty but excellent for spectators with handbrake turns, a small yump and the ability to see the whole track from the bank (that also had grandstand seats for 1,500 people). The organisers also arranged for “Cowboy” Kenny Bartram to perform some stunts on his bike. I only caught him on Saturday but given that he rolled his car during the day it was pretty cool to see him do a 360 backflip… Please visit the picture gallery to view pictures from the STPR 2008 Rally. The team would also like to thank Artek Photo for the use of their pictures. 9th June 2008 11th Overall – STPR – Rally America Round 5 We have now returned from the fastest and hardest rally on the Rally America schedule. STPR is known to have some of the best stages in North America. They are fast flowing roads up and down mountains with a great combination of incredibly fast 5’s and 6’s and a total of 13 switchbacks or hairpins. Add a SuperSpecial on each day with over 2,500 people in attendance and everything was set for a great event. It is nine months since I last ran on gravel and that was the crash shortened Rallye Defi so the aim was to finish and learn ahead of Black Bear Performance Rally this coming weekend. The day started with two new stages of just over 9 miles that most people wanted to survive. We were glad we did especially after I got a lot more air over one of the jumps than expected and landed nose first with a very loud bang. Fearing a flat or worse we were pleased to find that neither was true. By the end of the first day we had made up 5 places from our start position. The first stage of Saturday, the legendary Asaph stage, was cancelled after Travis Pastrana had a huge accident and his co-driver (Derek Ringer) was clipped by a passing car and required medical treatment. The next two stages were great and we continued to move forward. However, it was really after service in Germania and a de-brief with the team that I diagnosed what was slowing me down and on Stage 10 I set the 11th overall. Going to the penultimate service the team told us to apply our night lights although it seemed unnecessary. However, it was a great call as we definitely needed them on the next stage (a re-run of stage 2). I wanted to push all the way to the end of the rally and four miles into the stage we caught the car that had left one minute ahead of us and who had been trading times with us all day. He very kindly moved over for us and we continued our way to setting the 9th fastest stage overall. We finished the rally with no major issues with the car, a motivated driver and co-driver, and a high-performing but very tire service crew. We are now ready for Black Bear sponsored by Planet Motorsports. Thank you to the organisers of STPR, Rally America, Iain, Natalie, John, Dean, Phil and Brad for making it all possible and successful. 15th May 2008 Winter Slumber is over! It feels like forever since we finished 17th at the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood, the 2nd round of Rally America. However, the team has been busy and will be busier still over the next few weeks. Since 100AW, we have worked on increasing the power and torque available and we are now running on race fuel and have fully mapped the anti-lag system. This significantly increased the torque which is so important in rallying. In addition, STPR (our next rally) has an awful lot of hairpins and switchbacks so we have installed a hydraulic handbrake to hopefully help us gain some time. We recently completed a full test, at a day sanctioned by Rallysport Ontario, and spent the day working with John Vanos on suspension set-up and we will feel we have the right set-up for a dry STPR and will use the shakedown stage to validate our settings and tire choice as we will be running Pirellis for the first time. Forthcoming Schedule: June 6-7 - STPR (Rally America), Wellsboro, PA 19th March 2008 Itchy Feet! I am suffering from itchy feet – itchy to get back inside a race car!
I am flying to the UK Saturday to watch the first round of the MSA British Rallycross Championship. I was so desperate to race in Rallycross – still the best form of motorsport! – that I tried to rent a car or even buy a Stock Hatch just to get out and enjoy the rush to Chesson’s Drift or down Hairy Hill and into Paddock. However, it was unfortunately not to be, so I will just adopt the role of spectator. I will be cheering for former Minicross Champion David Binks who will be out in the ex-Jan Huybs Mistubishi Lancer EVO VII. At the moment my next planned event if STPR, the 5th round of Rally America, in early June in Wellsboro, PA. From there the car will go to Black Bear Rally the week after which is where I made my debut last year. In between we are working on some test dates but I am also trying to enter the Kearney Village Rally Sprint on April 12th. Although relatively short in terms of miles this will give me some competitive mileage on gravel/forest roads ahead of STPR and should be fun. Held monthly, if the first event goes well I would take in more events through the summer as the schedule allows. 10th March 2008 100AW Photo Update We came back from 100AW with a whole list of things to do to the car and the team to make everything better for STPR. It seems strange that our next event isn’t until June! With work being so crazy I have chosen not to enter Rally New York even though it is just an hour up the road. I guess I will in the role of the spectator. Please find new photos uploaded from 100AW courtesy of Marcin at mcpimage.com 26th February 2008 Rally in the 100 Acre Wood After the 2007 Rally of the Tall Pines, I promised myself that I would not enter anymore rallies that are thought being on snow and ice. For this reason I skipped both Snow Drift Rally in Michigan and Perce Neige in Quebec and prepared for Rally in the 100 Acre Wood in Salem, Missouri. The 100AW is known as one of the fastest gravel rallies in America and is the second round of the Rally America Championship. 2008 saw lots of changes with a new co-driver (the experienced Jeffy Secor) and new preparation (Planet Motorsport) and crew Dean Miller, Phil Jeffries and John Vanos (also from Planet Motorsport). What didn’t change was the weather...in the 24 hours leading up to the Rally, Southern Missouri was covered in snow, ice and freezing rain. The drive from the airport was interesting and didn’t give me a good feeling about the rally! I had one mission for this rally – to finish! So we started out - Friday afternoon was on ice covered roads removing the rust of not driving the car for four months and feeling the conditions. I wasn’t expecting to be fast, although we were respectable. The first night stage (and it really is dark in the Ozark Mountains in February) brought the first problem when the left light pod failed about 1 mile into the stage. Let’s say Friday night was forgettable but we finished with everything intact. After a nice send off in Salem – complete with Marching Band, an invocation, etc – we set out for another day. I was focusing on trusting the notes, picking up the speed and finishing. While not spectacular we started picking up the pace and places as more of the front runners took risks for that extra second. We had a couple of interesting moments – flat in 5th through a L6 on ice when the rear of the car caught the edge of a ice rut and tried to come past the front on the straight – but after having some fun in the spectator stage, the car was still in one piece with two night stages to end the rally. We had inserted cardboard in front of the radiator to keep some heat in the engine. Unfortunately this worked too well and as we started stage 13 the engine was misfiring due to the excessive heat. I drove in higher gears to minimize the impact until enough cold air could get in to cool things down, but it obviously cost us time. The last stage at 11 miles was the longest and most challenging and strangely, although driving for a finish, I really enjoyed it and set our most competitive time. And so the rally ended with us finishing in 19th place overall in our first Rally America and 10th in the Open Class. We achieved our aim of finishing and while I would like to have been a lot more competitive re times I was happy to start to come to terms with racing on ice. A new set of AO34’s and not changing the suspension set up for Saturday afternoon would probably have helped but you live and learn. We now look forward to STPR in June – which should be a real gravel rally ! – and where I will want to set much more competitive times. A big thank you to Nigel Mathew for the loan of his truck and trailer after problems with our regular cube van. Also, thank you to the crew and Jeff who did a magnificent job over the weekend. And the list would not be complete without thanking DST Output, Cleanairpass and Gary Numan for their continued support. 12th February 2008 10 Days and Counting We are now 10 days away from our debut in Rally America and it is an interesting world. Firstly, at the weekend it appears that I have sold my Subaru Impreza – although I am still waiting for the cheques to clear – so not 100% sure. Obviously this provides me with a dilemma! My new Lancer EVO VIII will not be ready in time so I am very thankful that Iain from Planet Motorsport has stepped up and offered me the use of his 2006 Subaru Impreza STI. This a great car that John Vanos utilised to great effect last year and that Andrew Wallbank had in the top 10 at Perce Neige at the weekend. It was a particularly kind offer as the car needs work after not finishing on Perce Neige. Fingers crossed... For my English readers the logistics of a US rally are very much different from Rallycross in the UK. The Rally in the 100 Acre Wood (named after the wood in Winnie the Pooh) takes place in Salem, Missouri. You realise how big America is when you look at distances to run at the event. For instance my longest regular race in the UK was to Croft which was 265 miles from Southend. Compare this with the 1,150 miles that Salem, MO is from my house or the 911 miles that Iain will tow the car from Toronto. In addition my new co-driver (Jeff Secor) will drive down from Michigan. I have purchased a bullet camera to capture some great in-car shots on 100AW. We aim to post some of the footage on youtube, etc so you can see how fun the stages are for yourself. Next week will be fun. I am in the Czech Republic on Monday through to Thursday and fly via New York straight to the Rally. Iain will leave Toronto on Wednesday for the long drive down to Salem and Jeff will do the same as he will do the recce solo and make the appropriate amendments to the notes. I have already warned Jeff that I have a tendency to cut corners (legacy of Rallycross!) so he knows to shout don’t cut or be prepared to change the punctures! I will try and keep you posted as we move toward next weekend. 1st February 2008 2008 Season Plans Change – and New Partnership Unfortunately my plans to build a new Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX have been put on hold after two timewasters spent 8 weeks ‘buying’ my car and then never followed through. The car is still for sale and I have the Lancer ready to go, but no budget to build with the sale of the Subaru. So now I just want to go rallying! I am very pleased to announce that in 2008 Mark Williams RallyRacing will partner with Planet Motorsport (Guelph, Ontario) to run in Rally America and Canadian Association of Rally Sport Championship. My season will start on February 22nd at the Rally of the 100 Acre Wood in Missouri, the second round of Rally America. I am also pleased to announce that joining me in the ballast seat for 100AW and other US events will be experienced co-driver Jeff Secor. 2008 First Half of Year Schedule Obviously plans change but the tentative schedule for me for the first half of 2008 is as follows: February 22/23rd - Rally of 100 Acre Wood - Rally America More dates will be announced as the season progresses. CARS Schedule In addition to the Rally America events, Mark Williams RallyRacing will support John Vanos in the Planet Motorsport Subaru Impreza 2006 STi. The Championship assault will ironically seek John start the season at Perce Neige in a borrowed P4 Eagle Talon as the Subaru Impreza is committed elsewhere and the MWRR car is being prepped for 100AW. The mission for John at Perce Neige will be to accumulate any Open Class points that he can to support the Championship assault that will swing into full effect at Rocky Mountain rally in June. Jeff Secor "Jeffie" began co-driving in 1997 with good friend Colin McCleery in Colin's Group 5 Ford Sierra, but his interest in motorsports and rallying began long before that. As a child, Jeff's Grandfather and father took him to Indianapolis, M.I.S. and a number of other racing venues in the Midwest. The hook was set. In 1986 Jeff joined the Furrin Group, a sports car club based in western Michigan, from there he began running gimmick and TSD rallies, autocrosses and ice races. He also joined the SCCA and started working corners and marshalling at many rallies in Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio. It was thru the Furrin Group that Jeff meet his wife Deb (Boris), who had also been a ralliest co-driving and driving in several events a few years earlier. In 1995, with the help of fellow Furrin Grouper Bob Shedd, Jeff built a Vintage Formula-Vee car. One-year later Jeff's driving instructor was none other than Vic Elford, the 1968 Winner of the Monte Carlo Rally. "I remember the school well," said Jeffie, "There were about 60 of us in all and I think Vic gave me more time talking rally at the bar than all the other students combined. It was easy to see that he still had a passion for rallying almost 30 years on". Jeff became the 1998 O2 class Champion Co-driver in the Central division of the SCCA and repeated the honour in Group 5 in 2001. When he is not co-driving for Colin, Jeff has co-driven for a number of other drivers including Brian Vinson, Russ Hodges, and Gail Truess. He even drove in two Canadian Nationals in his 1991 VW Gti production class car, "Rally of the Tall Pines" in November of 2001 and 2002 with Mark calling the notes! "It was a chance for me to experience what a driver goes through, and it was very educational." Jeff is a classically trained musician and teaches geography. When not rallying, he can often be found autocrossing with Deb or his dad. "My dad and I both have Mazda RX-7's and just have a blast racing around the pylons." Jeff and Deb also enjoy sailing and cross country skiing. Deb comes to many events and assists with service. Jeff and Deb live in Hudsonville, Michigan with their German shorthaired pointer "Molly" and black lab "Abbie". His favourite rally driver is Juha Kankkunen, and favourite co-drivers are Juha Pironen and Nicky Grist. 16th January 2008 Cars for sale Some of you will have noticed that my current Subaru Impreza WRX is up for sale. I have had a few enquiries and a couple appear serious and am hopeful that the car will be sold in the next few weeks. The car was a fantastic introduction to rallying and I continue to be so impressed by the quality of the Can-Jam motorsport build and maintenance. This does not mean I am exiting rallying however. There is a brand new car in the offing of which more will be revealed over the coming weeks and which I hope will make its debut at Rocky Mountain Rally or Black Bear. As with any new car every always takes twice as long as you think it will and costs twice as much! Not telling you which car it is yet, but I have lots of experience with Cosworth’s, Ford Motorsport is based in my home state of Essex, WRC 05 bodykits come easily from my Rallycross friends in Europe and it would turn heads... I will post build shots as the car progresses as this will be an exciting venture for all of us involved. Continuing the theme of change by the time you read this I will have sold my BL Mini on eBay. I had intended to get the car ready for an attack on the SCCA North East Region Rallycross championship. Unfortunately the travel demands of my job mean that when I am at home I want to be with the family and not working on the car or racing it. The sale also brings in some useful funds for rallying.
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