Navigating deer. Dealing with ice. Coming upon blind crests.
A Sunday drive in the North Okanagan?
Nope.
The Vernon duo of Dave Barg and Matt Lunde and their Siegeweapon Rally Team travelled to Alberta on Oct. 26 and drove away in their 2002 Subaru WRX with the Kananaskis Rally, a high-speed race of more than 100 kilometres distances on gravel- and snow-covered mountain roads spread out over six special stages.
“We got off to an early lead over the current Western Canada points leader, Joel Cates,” said Barg, who does the driving. “It was a tight race with two teams swapping the lead from stage to stage. In the end, we came out on top with the win.”
Conditions, Barg said, were extremely challenging.
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“With areas of ice, snow, water splashes and gravel, traction was always changing,” he said. We also had an extra challenge of navigating through three virtual chicanes (turns on road) where, for safety reasons, teams had to slow to 30 kilometres an hour speed in predetermined GPS locations.”
Co-driver Lunde’s job is to make notes the day before the race at the technical meeting and when the pair get a chance to drive the course at normal speeds. He then reads those notes at the course points at high speeds during the race to Barg.
Lund had the task of navigating the team at high speeds around the neighbourhood deer, slippery ice, blind crests and those virtual chicanes. Speeds reached up to 160 km/h on some straight stretches.
This was the pair’s second stage rally race. They finished first in the production four-wheel drive class and fourth overall out of 17 vehicles.
They had earlier in the year taken part in a race in Merritt and finished 15th overall.
The guys thanked their spouses, Tara Barg and Sara Lunde, their pit crew of Alex Neely and S.F., B.C. regional rally director Martin Burnley and the Interior Rally Sport Association.
Huge thanks went to their sponsors, siegeweaponmotor.co; BeautyCounter (beautycounter.com); 925R Design Inc. Fishers Hardware; Makita.ca; Speedy Glass Vernon; Industrial Paint and Plastic Kelowna; Vernon Auto Wreckers.
The team is looking forward to future races, and is currently looking for food/beverage, hospitality, auto parts, lifestyle sponsors.
If interested please contact Dave at dtbarg@mac.com. The final event of the 2019 Canadian Rally Championship is the Big White Winter Rally, Dec. 6-8, in Kelowna.
@VernonNews
roger@vernonmorningstar.com
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