Thursday, August 11, 2005 - So it was a hell of a weekend. Untill the end of the race, everything went great. Ole and I spent a long day doing recee. We started with the notes Randy Zimmer ran off last year. At one point Ole asked me if there was a reason I was down gradeing the severity of the corners, and it was on. On the second run through I upgraded everything I thoulght I could get away with, and deleated all but the worst of cautions.



With the long day of recee over, I took the oportunity to jump into the frigid river beside the hotel as Ole rewrote the notes.



Phil and Brian brough the car and service rig up in the early evening and everything was ready to race.



My main focus up to this point has been finishing and getting expierience, but eventually you do have to test your limits. Mechanical problems had prevented me from running too hard at STPR, but if I was going to figure out how fast I could go, now was the time. I took a moment to accept the fact I could go off, and then pushed.



The first couple of stages were a little ragged. I broke my driver's side mirror on a sign post. But, if anyone was to get the award for sheer determination to go fast, it was me. It wasn't untill late Friday that I could relax into a rhythem.



Over the course of the race I did put a rear wheel into a ditch, and rub a bank or two, but never more than “using all the road +”, however a little bad luck could have easily ruined my rally.



Saturday was all out war Sylvain Erickson. Bad luck had put him 30 seconds behind on Saturday, and he wanted 2nd. Having his daughter co-driving for the first time didn't seem to slow him down, and once again it was on. He slowly erroded my lead, but couldn't take it away by the final flat out km. The fight pushed us so hard, that we began closing the gap to Antoine L'Estage.



In the last stage I was flying along through 5+ corners, when a bird swooped infront of the car. Most of the time birds do this maneuver safley. I think it underestimated the speed we were traveling. It tumbled over the hood, up the windshield, and poof! The cabin was filled with feathers as the bird hit the roof vent. I fellt really bad, but couldn't help but laugh as feathers swirled and floated around the car.



Early On Sunday I got a call from Phil that the truck was having transmision problems. It had broken down in of all places, the parking lot to a strip club. Against my better instincts I decided to try to limp the truck home in 1 and 2. 500 miles later, we arived home at 4 in the morning. At times I'd had to stuggle on the Interstate 95 at 20 mph. By the time I got home I was so stressed that my stomach was so tight I thoulght I might have to stop to throw up.



All in all a very outstanding rally. The transmision is still under warrenty, so even better. If you can ever make it to Baie Des Chaleurs, do it.