Pacific Forest: RSport Rally event summary

RSport Rally Wins Western Canadian Regional Rally Event, Finishes Fourth Overall at 2010 Pacific Forest Rally

[Merritt, BC] RSport Rally driver Scott Trinder and co-driver/father Bob Trinder won the Western Canadian Rally Championship portion of the 2010 Pacific Forest Rally this past weekend. The father and son pair from Vancouver, BC completed a very successful weekend of rallying by also finishing fourth overall at round 5 of the 2010 Canadian National Rally Championship: the Pacific Forest Rally, held on October 1st and 2nd 2010, in Merritt, BC.

Thanks to Scott's consistent driving style, the RSport Rally team posted many competitive stage times and moved steadily up through the ranks during the rally.

"I am very pleased with these results," declared Scott. "Not only did we beat several teams with greater resources and much larger service crews, but we did it with a bare bones effort in a fifteen year old car!"

"Scott drove a fast, clean race," observed Bob. "He avoided inflicting any serious damage that would have left us struggling to make repairs during the handful of time-limited pit stops."

Despite the strong finish, drama ensued while Scott was giving the car a quick check prior to the longest, and final, stage of the rally.

The RSport Rally team was waiting at the start of the 23km long "Helmer South" stage when Scott noticed that the car was leaking coolant. With the clock ticking down, he leapt into action, pulling away the under-body protection to see if he could find the source of the leak. With just seconds to go, he topped up the coolant reservoir and checked into the start control. As heavy dust hung in the air over the road, organizers suddenly called for an extension of the gap between competing vehicles from two minutes to three minutes.

"We were on tender hooks waiting for the final stage to start," recalled Bob. "Once you check into the start control you are not allowed to work on the car and, with the three minute intervals we had to sit for nearly twelve minutes before the start of the stage...all the while leaking (bio friendly) coolant".

The team held off running the engine until within fifteen seconds of the start and watched as the coolant temperature finally dropped while underway on the stage - knowing all the while that no coolant meant the engine could let go anytime. "When the temp guage drops off it ussually means their is no circulation near the temperature sender," said Bob.

Meanwhile, fears of a rally-ending engine meltdown were soon forgotten when the pair came across a huge boulder in the middle of the road after a long, fast 4th gear bend. They hit the basketball sized rock dead on and were sure their rally was all but over.

"We were committed to our racing line and I knew we had a choice of either hitting the rock or crashing while trying to miss it," Scott exclaimed. "We hit the thing so hard that the front of the car came off the ground and Bob's head hit the roof!"

"Fortunately our gauges showed that everything was fine and luckily the oil pressure light did not come on, so we kept the hammer down and continued through the dust to the finish," commented Scott. "I really owe a huge thank you to our sponsor Pennzoil and their Euro Blend Pennzoil full synthetic oil, which clearly did its job helping to prevent catastrophic engine damage."

The team's engine held together during the final transit to the finish, where the Trinder's received a champagne spray reward at the winner's circle for finishing first overall in the Western Canadian Rally Championship round. They also completed the Canadian National portion of the Pacific Forest Rally in fourth place overall.

"We had a lot of fun this weekend," Bob noted. "It has been a long time since Scott and I have rallied together and his speed and consistency is very impressive."

"I would like to thank my sponsors, including PIAA for the lights that let us get through the Friday night stages, and all of our other dedicated supporters who's contributions allow our team to continue rallying and be competitive with some of the top national teams," said Scott.

-source: rsport rally