The RPI Equipped Rally Team placed 8th at the June, 14 2008 Mountain Rally Trials in Merrit BC! They also placed second in Group 2, raising their VW Golf into third position overall in the Group 2 Western Canadian Rally Championship and fourth overall in the Group 2 Canadian Rally Championship!

Congratulations to our driver and co-driver, Dwane and Michaela, who received top honors for being the fastest Novice drivers and who finished the race after rolling the car!

Pushed across the finishing line by driver and co-driver, the car had experienced a hard roll, knocking out several windows and damaging the body, several broken wheels, broken suspension pieces, blown brake caliper and two fires that gave co-driver Michaela second degree burns to her hands. Finally, within meters of the finish line, then engine gave up.

Video will be posted soon so be sure to check it out, you can see all the photos including some of the damage in the Gallery or Rally pages.

 

We also have a 1600 x 1200 wallpaper from the event and added it to the new wallpaper gallery in the Gallery section. We will be adding more wallpapers for your enjoyment there. Just click to make it go big, and right-click to save to your computer.

We have a bit of footage from the 2008 Cochrane Rally race where the RPI Equipped! Rally Team attended, you can check it out on our YouTube Channel or feel free to watch below:

We also added a few more photos to the Cochrane race gallery, and you can view them here

Thanks,

Team RPI

Cochrane Rally of the Ranchlands marked the start of the 2008 Western Canadian Championship. The morning of the rally started off with an unexpected fresh layer of snow, which had not been there the day before during recce. This resulted in the first few stages of the rally proving to be a challenge, as the high-speed stages were combined with very slippery conditions. The second leg of the rally was also very slippery, resulting in a few minor offs. However, as it started to warm up and a few runs were completed, the snow started to clear and the grip level increased substantially. This allowed us to become increasingly comfortable with road conditions and the car, which lead to faster stage times, comparable to the top runners. Resulting in a second fastest stage time just before the second service stop. In the afternoon stages we were unfortunately plagued with gearbox problems, which finally gave out in the third last stage, leaving the golf stuck in 3rd gear. Despite running the last 2 stages in only 3rd gear, the RPI Rally Team finished off the rally 10th overall and 5th in Group 2.

We are looking forward to a successful rally season. If you would like more information about the team or our upcoming race schedule please check out our Rally page. We also have lots of photos of this event, and previous events on our Rally and Gallery pages.