Having an "off" day
In rally competition, we call little incidents like the one pictured here having "an off." Mild understatement for when we have a "moment" that goes bad and turns into a potential race-ending crash.
At the Rallye Perce-Neige in Canada a couple of weeks ago, we had an off very early in the race. We followed defending Canadian champ Pat Richard's tracks right off the road on an extremely slippery corner right at the start of this snow and ice rally. We went deep into the ditch and our rally could have ended right there, but for the awesome help of a whole bunch of enthusiastic fans under the co-ordination of one Sylvain Erickson -- an incredible rally driver with mad skills who spanks us all when he's out racing.
When he's not competing, Sylvain knows all the good corners for the best action so it came as no surprise he was right there when we slid wide and landed in the ditch.
When we went in, Jeremy and I knew right away that there was no hope that we'd get out under our own power. This was a deep ditch and traction? Eh. Not so much. We tried, but just spun our wheels.
But rally fans are a really amazing sort of spectator. Not only will they stand out in the freezing cold to watch us drive, but they'll also lend a hand when we get into trouble. These guys came to our rescue right away, pushing and shoving and shovelling with their hands to get us back on course and into the race.
Under Sylvain's expert guidance, these guys grabbed a tow-rope and physically muscled the car back onto the course. It was like a giant game of tug-of-war, with all these guys hauling on the rope. I normally wouldn't place a bet on manpower over horsepower, but in this case it was manpower that won out.
It took the guys about seven minutes (only!) but they got us back on the course and on our way. Thanks so much to everybody who got in there and helped and to Sylvain for masterminding the operation.
We were hoping for an amazing come-from-behind story and by the end of the day we had clawed back all the way to second-place overall heading into the final stage. We were on pace for the win... If only these guys were at the race-ending corner just six kilometers from the end of the rally, too... Ah well, you win some, you crash some. And it was totally worth it just for the experience of being hauled back onto the course by some of the best fans in motorsport.
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