Day 2 of the Corey/Ullman Old Age & Treachery Road Show, Great Race 2012 Edition.

Today began rainy and chill.   We ran from Sault Ste Marie and over the border into Canada, where they use real metric measure (including distances in km), like the rest of the civilized world.  Only the USA and the Sultanate of Brunei have retained the old Imperial measures.  Sigh.  But no matter!  We ran some fine Canadian back roads, past approximately 1, 653, 457, 879 pine trees, 200+ lakes, and 1 lovely trout stream – which we crossed twice on little one-lane bridges.  We successfully removed all loose parts and finish materials (undercoating, paint, some steel) from our cars’ underbodies over a loooong stretch of gravelled, unpaved road taken at 30 mph (or, if you prefer, ~50 km/hr) or more.  All the teams whined about he rough ride – and there were some broken cars – except those guys in the Imperial who recall noticing some increase in road noise…).  Notably, only one of the two Jaguar E-types in this race actually failed immediately on the beginning of rain today.

Gray Skies, Raindrops, and Gravel Through The Piney Woods!

We had an emergency change in lunch venue in the city of Elliott Lake, sadly.  The main mall there which has on-roof parking, partially collapsed the night before our arrival, with at least one fatality.  We relocated to the Senior Center and carried on.  We can hope for the best for the good people of Elliott  Lake, too, with appreciation for our good fortune and sympathy for their losses.

On the way out of town after lunch, we were warned to watch for moose, but only had to dodge one coyote.  This part of the world in NOT heavily populated.  We passed one place with a sign ‘Lake #2’ – apparently no one has yet showed up to actually name it!  If you have some spare time this weekend, come on up and build a cabin – name the place yourself!  We moved on.

Rallymaster John Classen pulled a classic switcheroo on us today, too.  After two long morning legs, the first leg after lunch was an incredibly short 4 minutes!  We missed our Ace for today there, by just one second.  The rest of the day’s runs were challenging, too – with one sequence of stop-and-turns that came just seconds apart – followed by a checkpoint: no time to correct!  We did OK, except that last leg (18 seconds early), but our 2-day Ace-winning streak is broken.

We were beaten by less than a second by our 2006 mentors and friends the Fredettes, giving them two days of wins over our scores, versus just one for us over theirs (but when we win, we win bigger, so we’re still ahead in overall score).  We’re 16th overall right now, and 4th in our Sportsman class.  No mechanical issues with the mighty Imperial, except I discovered the ventilation blower is off line, so we kept our windows open in the rain, to keep the windshield mostly clear.  The sun is back tomorrow and we will be, too.

We ended our racing day in Sudbury, Ontario – site of the world’s largest nickel deposits (thanks to a very big meteorite landing here about 1.5 Billion years ago).  The mines and smelter dominate the city skyline, but if you’ve ever eaten with stainless steel utensils or enjoyed food cooked in any restaurant, it’s likely you’ve used some Sudbury nickel!  Nice folks up this way.  Tomorrow we’ll get up early – we need to find a Canadian flag to match the US flags we run on our windshield header.  Seems neighborly, if we can find one (likely as Canada day is just a week away!).

Sudbury Sky at Sundown

Now, you may be wondering about the title of this posting. I prattle on here about the race, and how we do, and all the fun we have – but it’s also about a race for Autism Research!  Teams are raising money for this cause, and you can help out, too, at this site:

https://vcra.ejoinme.org/?tabid=357362

We’re very fortunate to have the ability to come out here and play together.  We would like to share that joy in this small way.  Thank you!