Results and thank you's

The 2012 instalment of The Trail of the Gnu is now in the books. We are happy to announce all 20 cars that started the rally finished, though some finished quite differently than expected and or hoped. The detailed results can be seen here  

Congrats to Taisto Heinonen and Leanne Junnila for taking the top spot with just 36 points. Great job by a great team. 

Anyone who was there could tell you what a mixed bag of conditions there were. Dry gravel, mud, snow, crazy ice and some large water splashes thrown in for good measure, and that could be all in a 5km stretch.  From what I heard from talking to people last night at the banquet / awards. It sounded like everyone have a great, yet challenging time. Some even creating their own extra entertainment on the nearly 500km route we created in the back country in and around Rocky Mountain House. 

We would like to say thanks for all coming out to our TSD Rally this year. It is really encouraging to keep seeing the regulars trying again at the Gnu but just as exciting are all the new faces that show up every year. This event is round one of the RallyWest TSD championship and round two of the BC TSD Rally Championship, please go and support the other events put on by the CSCC,  ERC and WCRA

Last but not least is our volunteers, they deserve a huge thank you from us and all the competitors. Without them you would have had scoring from maybe two checkpoints and still waiting for the scoring to be complete.

Carl Barrell and Adam Cless for those of you who were lucky enough to meet them with their tow rope and truck as the sweep vehicle, you may still be out there.  

Kurt Schantz for adding up, subtracting, fixing up, tearing down reconstructing all of the scores to give a final result that makes sense.  

Alex Schubel for being the steward of the event. Having someone there to make the final call on any issue was more valuable than we ever thought imaginable 

To our Checkpointers who drove around finding the locations that were given to them in areas that were completly foreign to them, Dan Bobyn, Graham Bruce, Mark Ward, Shawn Bishop, Jaclyn Schofield along with Kurt, Carl and Adam doing double duties.  With out these people there would have been a rally with no scoring.

Also to our Sponsors for the event RallySport.ca and Open Geo Soloutions  

See you all next year.  

Kris & Eric 

The Start Order

Hey everyone. The long awaited start order has been posted. You can see it in the menu bar. Or click here

- Kris & Eric

Trail of the Gnu Competitor's Bulletin

Hello Gnu 2012 Competitors,

This bulletin is to advise of a few important items ahead of Saturday's TSD rally.

-The novice seminar has been canceled (was originally scheduled for this evening at the CSCC building).

-The Official Steward of the Trail of the Gnu is Alex Schubel of BC.

-The Trail of the Gnu 2012 will be scored with Winter Scoring. Details will be covered during the driver's meeting before the start of the event. Similar to last year, the intent of this scoring system is to prevent the need to drive unreasonably quick to get back on time if you are late for whatever reason. The scoring system will assess the full late points at the first check point you pass if you are behind schedule, but will then open a larger penalty-free grace window between 'on time' and '10 seconds closer to on time then you were at the last check point'.

-The driver of the sweep truck is a long time Gnu volunteer. It is fully appropriate to purchase him alcoholic beverages at the end of rally banquet, especially if his extrication services were solicited by yourself during the running of the event. Also, please avoid the need to use his extrication services. Remember, staying on the road first is first priority, then worry about staying on route, or keeping on time.

Finally, drive safe everyone, and we'll see you at Rocky Mountain House on Saturday Morning!
If you need to get in touch or have any questions, our contact info is as follows:
Eric Grochowski, errik1@gmail.com, 403-808-2710 cell.
Kris Schofield, istarallysport@gmail.com, 403-466-5747 cell.

Thanks!
The Trail of the Gnu.

On the fence?

Are you on the fence about entering this years trail of the gnu? Maybe this will help. We just finished the route check for this years rally. We have approximately 25% more rally miles. Included in that are some of the classics that everyone loves. We pulled some others out of the vault. But the most awesome we think are the 3 brand new regularities never used before. The conditions, maybe not as snowy as we would have liked, but the challenge factor is defiantly in there.

Also if you are planning on not driving home after 9 hours of rally. The block if rooms at the Best Western in Rocky Mountain House has been great to us and extended the deadline for getting a discounted room until March 19. Don't delay. Call ASAP to book.

Well that's it for now. Just about to hit the road back to Calgary. See you all in a week!

A request from a competitor

“Hello TSD rallyists! I’m happy to announce that Taisto and I will be running the GNU Rally again this year in calculator class. There are 2 items that Taisto has asked me to help with:
1. Is anyone driving past Hope B.C. on their way to GNU who could fit a spare set of tires in their car and would be willing to take them to GNU and back?
2. Taisto’s Toyota MR2 is for sale and he has asked me to help advertise it. I don’t have any details at the moment, but please email me at l-e-j-u-n-n-i-l @ u c a l g a r y.ca (remove dashes and spaces) and I can put you in touch with him.
See you all in Rocky Mountain House! -Leanne Junnila”