While the Rocky Mountain Rally returns to familiar roads in 2010, new directions for the event will bring some long anticipated changes. The organizing committee has worked hard to be able to balance the desires of the competitors with local resident and environmental concerns to make the rally the best it can be.
While the organizer supplied ‘Jemba’ notes are computer generated and offer consistency and predictability, teams that regularly write their own pace notes often have difficulty adjusting to them. For the first time at Rocky, competitors will have the opportunity to make a single, low speed, notes familiarization pass on all of the stage roads. Many teams are expected to use this optional pass to adjust and modify the notes.
“Thursday will be a long day for the teams that want to see the roads,” said organizer Shabir Haji. “But being the only event in the Canadian Rally Championship without two-pass reconnaissance we thought it was important to make the single pass available.”
Friday night will see the teams showing their skills to spectators on the Jumpingpound Forest Demonstration Loop in Kananaskis Country. The short five Kilometre stage features a range of viewing opportunities and the ability to run nearly non-stop action.
“We wanted to keep the teams on real stages and show rally fans what rally action is truly about,” said Routemaster Shawn Bishop. “Just like Race City at rush hour, The Jumpingpound stage is about an hour from downtown Calgary and is an excellent venue to show off the cars and what they can do. ”
There have been a number of changes behind the scenes for Rocky as well. The organizing committee has grown and includes the loyal familiar faces as well as new ones. Spreading the responsibilities over a greater number of volunteers is important, but not the only reason for the change.
“More people means more ideas,” said Haji. “We have people from all perspectives on the committee. We can look at the event through the eyes of drivers, co-drivers, service crews, control workers, organizers and spectators. Talking about the event from all of those perspectives is an important part of making sure the event is a success for everyone.”
The 2010 Rocky Mountain Rally is the second round of the Canadian Rally Championship, the second round of the Western Canada Rally Championship and the sixth event eligible for scoring points in the North American Rally Cup and is sanctioned by the Canadian Association of Rallysport.
The Rocky Mountain Rally is supported by Subaru Canada, Yokohama Tires and Mitsubishi.
Rocky Mountain Rally 2009 will be broadcast on TSN and RDS
Rocky Mountain Rally on TSN Sat., June 20 11:30 Tues., June 23 00:30 Fri., June 26 03:30
Rocky Mountain Rally on RDS (Quebec) le dimanche, 21 juin 10:00 le lundi, 22 juin 16:30 le samedi, 11 juillet 09:30 le dimanche, 12 juillet 00:30 le mercredi, 15 juillet 16:30
Full Canadian Rally Championship television schedule is available www.carsrally.ca
Yokohama Rally Photo Contest Download the information flyer and submit your photos from the Rocky Mountain Rally to win cool Yokohama prizes.
Spectator Stage at Race City Speedway While running the spectator stage at Race City, we were able to get 1/4 mile times for everyone. Best time was Pat Richard at 14.104 closely followed by Antoine Lestage at 14.125. Fastest 1/4 mile speed was Simon Losier at 98.36 mph. Race City correction factor for altitude is .4 seconds. Scoring sheet with all the times is here.
Rocky Mountain Rally 2009 will be broadcast on TSN and RDS
