The rally-car racing event through area backroads attracts thousands of live spectators every year. According to Rally co-ordinator Bruce Leonard, car drivers usually come from across Ontario, the U.S. and Quebec.
This year a European will also be competing for the first time.
“Max McRae from Scotland is competing in a Peugot, which is the first time in Ontario that this car has been rallied….Max McRae comes from quite a storied rally family. His uncle was a top level WRC champion, so to have him coming should be a good show.”
Leonard also said it’ll be a tight race with three drivers close in competition for the National Championship.
“This weekend any of them could win it: Antoine L’Estages, Jerome Mailloux and John- Sebastien Besner…they will be pushing it, so it should be good.”
With the weekend calling for rain, Leonard says the milder temperatures are a bit different from what drivers are used to.
“It’s usually ice in the morning and milder through the day. But this weekend, looks like it’ll be some rain. So it’s gonna make for some muddy conditions on the roads…. as we say with the Tall Pines ‘bring every tire you’ve got: gravel, snow and ice tires.’”
Throughout the day teams have three opportunities to service their cars, changing tires if they need to.
“They’ll do a few stages, come in for 30 minutes….At the service they can repair anything, change tires, change suspension setups, get something to eat, then they head out again.”
Leonard went on to explain how teams may vary in size and resources.
“The smaller teams, if they’re really on a tight budget, it’s just the driver and co-driver, but people could bring friends to help service. But the bigger teams, they bring the big rigs with the tents and the whole bit and proper mechanics to be able to change things in 30 minutes. I mean, they can swap out a transmission in 30 minutes. They can do a lot of stuff in 30 minutes.”
The official send-off for the rally cars is at 8:30 a.m., from Tall Pines Rally headquarters at the Dungannon Recreation Centre in L’Amable.
Cars will be passing the first spectator areas around 9:30 a.m., but Leonard says spectators should get there early.
People are also welcome and encouraged to check out the headquarters at the start of the race, or throughout the day.
“The bigger the crowd here, the better because we send the cars off one at a time, one minute apart. And you know, we have a little podium here that cars drive up on to. We talk to the drivers before we send them off. So we usually get a pretty good crowd here.”
Leonard says people can walk around, look at the cars and talk to the drivers.
“You know, it’s awesome. It’s different than road racing in that you can really get up close and personal at the service park.”
Rally of the Tall Pines takes place Saturday. You can find out more here.
