What a day! Not fit for rallying, let alone rally watching. It rained
from morning till at least 4 pm all down southern Alberta. One person I
spoke to said the rain drops were the size of golf balls! Well, maybe
not quite..... Another friend driving in the same area said the
windshield wipers wouldn't keep the windshield clear enough to see - and
that was in a 1998 Hyndai! The first half of the day would have been on
gravel mountain roads - for the serious competitors at least (see below)
I drove the 20 miles out to Longview, Alberta around 10:30 to try to
see some of the cars. First one spotted was the Ford convertible at an
Esso in Black Diamond (asking directions?) Next was the Bentley of
Richard & Judy Ingham at the next service station - gassing up (and
asking directions). Spoke with them briefly about their route and they
said they took the pavement, being in the Vintage class, and not quite
so competetive as some. Dressed in woollies up to their chin, and from
the top down to their ears. Richard was having to install the side
curtains - which meant opening the boot (trunk), unrolling the curtains
from their protective cloths and snapping them into place. Under a
service station awning was certainly the place to be doing it.
While Richard was doing this, someone getting gas behind him had the
nerve to ask "Is this an MG"? Richard politely and calmly said "No, its
a Bentley". I'm not sure if the questioner was any the wiser or not.
Ten miles down the road at Longview, the only cars I saw were the three
Bentleys lined up in front of the LongView Hotel while some locals eyed
them curiously. The Buick Woody Wagon of Pat & Mary Brooks had stopped
across the road at a little restaurant. The Ford convertible had blown
town.
After waiting for about half an hour to see if any more rallyists rolled
into town, I gave up in the heavy rain and headed for home. Depending
on road conditions, cars could have been rolling through Long View for
several hours. I sure don't envy them in the kind of day they were
having today. Rallying might be fun on a warm sunny day, but not every
day is. Ann Hunt (Healy 3000) yesterday commented that they'd only had
the top up for about 7 days out of the 53 driven so far. I'll bet they
had it up and snapped down tight today!
Yesterday, while watching (and helping briefly) in the underground car
park at the Caribou Inn in Banff, several things struk me. (no not
wrenches or the like). First was the total lack of security. The
carpark was open to anyone who wanted to wander in off the street. And
while it was not publicized, it was known among car enthusiasts that
that was the place to see the cars. There was no yellow barricades, no
security guards, no "pit-passes". You just walked around looking,
admiring the cars, chatting with the drivers and navigators - if they
weren't real busy. They'd poke a head out from under a hood (bonnet),
smile and chat amiably. Several times I saw admirers handed a
flashlight (torch) and asked to "Hold this, just here, please, while I
do this up". The lighting in the underground parkade was not good.
Also noticed yesterday the service people in their support
vehicles. I'm not sure if they were Land Rovers or just what. They
could fix just about anything out of the back of that vehicle. Actually
there were two of them, with two people in each. Believe me, there
wasn't room for more than two people when they got all the tools, bits
'n' pieces, cases, rescue/safety equipment, lunches, etc in them. At
least two of the team of 4 were qualified mechanics "who could fix
anything". The fourth was a woman, wife of one of the machanics who
described herself as a "gofer". She told me it was her job to find,
procure, obtain or otherwise get what ever the drivers needed to get out
of trouble. Every car had to carry whatever spares and tools they would
normally need, but for big jobs or emergencies the support vehicles were
there - and appreciated by the rallyists.
While the day in Banff was a real highlight, today was a disappointment,
not seeing many cars. But at least I did see them. Wonder why there
weren't any Spitfires among them?
Cheers, Fred
--
Fred & Wendy Griffiths,
Calgary, Canada
http://www.cadvision.com/griffco/index.htm
mailto: griffco@cadvision.com
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