It’s one of the country’s premier auto rally events.
The 28th Rally of the Tall Pines starts Saturday in Bancroft and is expected to draw thousands of spectators, supported by a team of roughly 200 volunteers.
“We’ve been working on getting volunteers and planning the route since March,” explained organizer Bruce Leonard. “It really is quite remarkable the cooperation we get between the Town of Bancroft and surrounding municipalities, along with the Ministry of Natural Resources.”
Leonard explained each car is loaded with an incredible amount of safety equipment.
“They have full roll cages, racing seats, and six-point racing harnesses. The cars are also equipped with a tracking device so we can see if a car is stopped or has crashed. They are very specialized but at the same time are street legal.”
Because the rally uses public roads, each of the vehicles needs to be licensed just like any other car. Competitors are sent out on the 16 different stages at one-minute intervals. Leonard said there is an incredible amount of teamwork between the main driver and the assistant.
“It could be through a forest, lots of different terrain, and we use Old Hastings Road a lot. The co-driver, we call them the person in the silly seat, is reading notes they have prepared to describe the road to the driver to attack the road as fast as possible,” said Leonard.
The vehicle to complete the stages in the fastest time wins. Last year’s champions were from Montreal, finishing in just over 96 minutes.
The weather can play a major role in the success of the teams, something Leonard said they need to be prepared for due to the time of the year.
“The tire choice is critical. We tell competitors to bring every tire they have because Saturday morning it’s going to be icy, through the day it could melt, and when we get into the evening, it’s going to freeze again.
“There is a huge trust factor there. The driver trusting that the co-driver is giving the right note and the right time, and the co-driver trusts his partner is going to stay on the road. It’s quite an interesting sport.”
More information is available on the event website at https://www.tallpinesrally.com/.
