Big White Rally Weekend

The teams rolled in from recce in the dark tonight, red cheeked and exhausted, and ready to take on the powder filled, technical rally roads of the first ever Big White Winter Rally. After the cancellation of two events earlier in the year, the new winter stage rally was granted a chance to expand from its initial incarnation as a single stage test day into a late addition to the 2009 Western Canadian Rally Championship.

The snow began falling on the dedicated volunteers, who were still out prepping the stages, at 2AM on Friday morning, and it’s been dumping ever since. High winds blew drifts around all the service vehicles, and pushed cars off the racing line during testing of the Valley Misubishi SnowX course this afternoon. The forecast suggests things will blow through overnight, potentially creating perfect rally conditions with soft, light snow cover and bluebird skies tomorrow.

Saturday’s Valley Mitsubishi SnowX has attracted an diverse mix of cars customarily seen at car shows, including a 2009 GTR and a Porsche. Most of the snowX entrants have some competitive experience, ranging from community autoX enthusiasts to rally driving instructors. The snowX entrants will be competing against the performance rally teams on a sweeping cornered course in the Happy Valley Day Lot. There are some novel rally cars entered as well, including a 1975 Saab, which will be competing in the 2WD group 2 class against the VW Golf of an established and winning team from Calgary.

The event has drawn volunteers east from Prince George and west from Calgary; some of the Albertans, including the scoring chief, have been blocked by road closures, and are still trying to make their way up to the resort. Two and one half American teams have come north for the winter rally, an unusual presence, as rally teams do not typically cross the border to compete. The teams adapted relatively well, although one team did require a volunteer escort to find the stages as dusk was falling. Several rally traditions have also been borrowed from the American Pacific Northwest for the Big White Winter Rally, including competitor driven cash awards for winning teams. The new rally has also drawn unprecedented support from event sponsors including Valley Mitsubishi and Rocket Rally, generating novel prizes such as the ‘Spirit of Rally Award’ and the ‘Studless is Faster Award’.

The Big White Ski Resort has been a welcoming and hospitable host, sending out plow trucks to line the stage roads with snowbanks up to the drivers’ windows, and grooming the boundaries of the Happy Valley Skating Rink for spectators to watch the snowX competition.

The snowfall disrupted recce today, with some stage roads not accessible until the late afternoon. The teams returned to HQ in between stages to receive information about the next destination, an inefficient process which they bore with patience. The adjectives describing the stage roads included ‘fantastic’, challenging, and ‘spectacular’. First car out for the Big White Winter Rally is at 9am.