Any other board members going to make it to Rallye Perce-Neige in Maniwaki this coming weekend? I'm crewing there for the first time. If you've been there, any pointers, other than "dress warm"?
If you are going to be there, keep an eye out for a white Dodge SRT-4 in the service area. I'll likely be close by.
Still not sure if I'll be able to go. Perce-Neige is the only local rally I've never been to, and I really want to remedy that. If I go, I'll look out for you and your crew.
Only suggestion (except the dressing-up warm part) is to try and find a guy that speaks french. Around those parts, you can have real problems finding someone that understands english, and even then, you won't get the same service.
Unfortunately I can't make it. I went and spectated a few years ago.
I'll keep in mind the language. I was a little concerned. Other than hello, goodbye, thank you, and "Do you speeak English?", I know very little French.
Seriouse piece of advice. Good enough is good enough. My first time crewing the driver had whacked a bank and knocked the tracking out. I was trying to get it perfect. Driver came up as time was getting short. "berkeley that road race perfection E36 M3, just get me out of here on time" Good point. Do what needs to be done and for sure make sure someone is checking the basics, fluids, leakes, pressures and giving things a good once over.
eastsidemav wrote: I'll keep in mind the language. I was a little concerned. Other than hello, goodbye, thank you, and "Do you speeak English?", I know very little French.
Didn't want to scare you. If you know that much, you should be OK. As long as you don't have the "the entire world speaks english, why don't you?" attitude, you should be fine.
I don't know how much Canadian rallye experience you guys have, but make sure you have tires for every possible road conditions imaginable (ice, hard-packed snow, loose snow, slush, gravel, all the above...). You just won't know which kind of weather you'll get until the very morning.
In reply to Adrian_Thompson:
Oops, I probably should have qualified that with "first time I'm crewing at that location". Done the crew thing before, once the event is underway, yeah, if all four wheels have tires on them, the engine runs, and we've got a forward gear, then we can work on the other issues, if we've got time. 
In reply to fanfoy:
As for tire selection, I'm trusting the driver/owner and the crew chief on that one. I'm just a wrench jockey 
In reply to eastsidemav:
Opps, sorry, didn't realize it wasn't your first tango. You know more than me then
Probably won't need the gravels for Perce-Neige.
Finally mostly recovered from the rally, but still a little tired. Wow, was it cold up there, but I was glad it was as cold as it was. Another 10 degrees warmer, and it'd probably be pretty muddy and wet. We also got to make it a two day trip up there, as the highway east of Windsor was iced over. As I understand, Toronto got record-setting snowfall last Wednesday. Driving up the rest of the way Thursday, we saw lots of trucks and cars off the road.
The race got off to a bit of a rough start, with our car going off on stage 3. We were temporarily out of the race, but apparently that was a mistake by one of the officials, and we re-entered on stage 7. Managed a 3rd place finish in class. Services were a little rough, due to the cold, and a bit of slipperiness, but we made it through. Other than being way too cold, Maniwaki was a great place, and full of friendly people.
A few pics:
Pulling into Parce Ferme:
A really cool 1973 Corolla rally car:
The 2WD open class winner:
Here's my whole album
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