1977 PACIFIC FOREST RALLY - THE RALLY 
  
    
If Dave had finished this article could have been entitled "Fairhall beats current Castrol Series leader. " Perhaps another title would be "How not to go rallying. " It was certainly an interesting return to National rallying for me but it could have been more thrilling.
    
Lauri arrived in town about 4:30 AM Saturday, phoned Helge Neilsen at Castor Motors, and arranged for the loan of a box stock Renault 12 with 35,000 miles on the clock. He phoned me at 9 AM and asked me if I wanted to come along, I had been sort of approached the night before but I had to fly to LA on Sunday and I thought that I'd just go out and spectate and come home early, However, Lauri changed my mind. "Come down to Castor as soon as you can as there are a few things we have to do to the car.” That should have been the clue I needed. Lauri is renowned for last minute preparation or lack of it and this was a prime example.
   In the next hour and a half we fitted an, ahem, roll bar, a set of four point harnesses, QI conversions, a fire extinguisher, flares and first aid kit and four new Hakkas on mags. We arrived at tech with about 15 minutes to spare and prevailed upon the kindly inspector to rush us through, Registration was completed with about 1 minute to spare. Lauri had forgotten his driver's license, competition license, etc. and had no written permission to use the car. We were running with dealer plates. Things were eventually sorted out after, among other things, Helge coming down to City Hall to sign the waiver. Fortunately, the rally would be pretty slack at first with lots of transit to sort out any minor glitches.   The cars started off from City Hall with Miss Vancouver and BCTV in evidence, It was a pretty impressive collection of machinery (about 30 starters) and crews with many flashy jackets and stickers and stuff. Satch was there in his Snell '37 flying helmet, Boyce and Edwardes in the TR7, a good contingent from the Prairies and a couple of new Saab 99's from Washington. A spectator stage was held in the gravel pit at the bottom of the Westwood track road but unfortunately it was the usual sand dune effort and we couldn't even get up the first hill! The 500 or so spectators seemed to enjoy themselves but it wasn't much of a demonstration of rallying. Of those who completed it Boyce took fastest time but the results didn't count in the final standings.   A service stop at the Pacific 66 station in Dogwood Valley was next so we took the opportunity to check things over. The first evidence of a water problem cropped up and the first pull on the high beam switch blew the headlight relay. Seems that in the rush one of the QI high beams got wired in backwards. Lots of other people were looking under hoods including Jim Thomson who had his alternator blow on the transit, The rallying really started after this with a set of four stages in the Yale area. The bloody R 12 was the slowest thing I've ever been in! Even the Isuzu could beat it. Lauri didn't have to worry about playing with the gas pedal, he just kept it flat to the floor. We were able to go into every corner 10/10ths and if there happened to be a rock in the way we'd just steer around it. The crate was also rather low slung and we put a few large dings in the pan (no skid plate) and the muffler/exhaust system.   Up there where we should have been, Taisto won three out of the first four, with Roy Donison taking the second one. Boyce, Halle and John Nixon were all right in there. Carson was cleaning the Production class, putting a minute a stage on us and less on Field and Lansdell. On the first stage we we beaten by everyone except Fong and Pittman. Thomson blew his diff before dark, so the alternator wasn't a problem, Watt suffered from over exuberance and stuffed on the first stage, Hartrick broke a Panhard rod on his Fiat 124 (with chrome roll bar! ! ) and Virdi blew Randy Black's old car up in a big way. Someone put their hand through the hole in the block after the lump had cooled and couldn't find the crankshaft.   Supper was at the Miss Spuzzum Cafe in downtown you know where (Yale). The rally was proceeding smoothly except for looonngg delays at the top of dead-enders. At least at the top of the first one we had a fabulous view - straight down into Yale. It was like being in a plane. The Renault had developed vapour lock on the downhill and the Temp and Oil lights were on permanently, This was thought to be a gauge problem The lights were set up by wiring a jumper connector across the relay plug to give us either permanent high or permanent low. We didn't really have mileages there was a trip on Lauri's side but I couldn't read it. It didn't matter that much because the course was well arrowed and we weren't going fast enough to hit the cautions too hard,   After supper we did the big six stages in Williams Logging. We wrong-slotted on one of these thanks to lack of mileages. I had given up trying to lean over and read them because eve time I leaned Lauri would look over wondering what was wrong The delays at the ends of stages allowed us time to pour new water in and fix up the headlights which had come loose in their sockets. Taisto was still leading for the first couple with the same group hot on his tail but he started to drop back when the clutch went out. A few people dropped by the wayside due to mechanical problems but Dave was the only spectacular DNF. A broken ball joint, I hear, caused a sudden inversion in the middle of a stage. The car looked fairly grungy and you could even tell which bends were due to the roll - it was that bad! He was talking about writing it off! By the time this article was written, however, he had change his mind, and apparently had rented a Port-a-power to begin returning it to its former concours condition.   Back at the Miss Spuzzum, the TV crews were buzzing around for interviews. Whilst under the lights, Robin forgot to check in, earning 2:00 late for the TR7. Good to see that the pros get stage struck The battle was pretty close but as the TV crews were given their cues from Weston and Doug Mepham they tended to concentrate on Boyce.   The hour was getting late so with dawn coming the last leg was shortened somewhat. A series of roads just north of the Alexandra bridge provided the last excitement and decide the winner. Taisto had been starting the stages from the start motor and was gradually falling back but Boyce had two flats on the last one and that cost him the event.
 The Renault staggered to a halt, brakes smoking, at the end of the last stage and we thought we had it made. We had moved up a place in the Prod. standings due mostly to Andy Field dropping out with fuel problems.   All we had to do was motor 120 miles to the finish in Vancouver. Well, we went about another mile, the engine gave a sort of a screech, and stopped. After a bit of finagling around, we measured off a precise distance behind Pat Stiles' Datsun with a rope and followed him slowly out to Spuzzum, maintaining a constant distance behind him. As Neil Young says, time fades away, and all this was costing us transit penalties.   Things didn't improve in Spuzzum as we found that the Renault would have to push our service vehicle, a Dodge van, all the way to Vancouver. With the help of an, er, Saskatchewan towbar, we headed off down the highway, a curious convoy of organizers and service crews "shaking the trees and taking the leaves" for us, as they say on CB. We eventually trundled into the Plaza 500 with 13:00 in penalties accumulated at the last two controls. This moved us from a tie for 13th to 20th overall, beating only Ken Fong and Greg Soderling in the Capri.    
The results were finalized quickly and a rumored protest from Boyce and Edwardes over the transit penalty didn't materialize. An excellent buffet lunch was provided by the Plaza 500 and the awards were presented with short speeches. The rally was most enjoyable except for the delays. The roads were first class and the last minute problems with control placement and such weren't really evident to the competitors. Lorne, Rick and everyone else connected with the rally deserve congratulations for a good job. I understand they're planning to do it again. Taisto and Tom did a great job beating Walter in his old car, They won the rally on their own performance, not on the fact that Walter had two flats on the last stage, as the media reports seemed to indicate.
 
    
Oh by the way, neither Dave Weston nor Susan Elliott nor any other Castrol reps were present at the awards lunch. They were present in the hotel 15 minutes or so before the start of the lunch. I'll ask you again, Mr. Weston, how serious is your commitment and that of our sponsors?
    Paul Kluckner   
Pacific Forest Rally Results
    
 
 
1
 
Taisto Heinonen/Tom Burgess
 
Celica
 
116:38
 
 
 
2
 
Sven Halle/Tony Morris
 
Datsun 610
 
117:07
 
 
 
3
 
Burckhard Skowrounek/Walt Leemans
 
Damun 200SX
 
119:09
 
 
 
4
 
Walter Boyce/Robin Edwardes
 
TR7
 
119:15
 
 
 
5
 
John Nixon/Lynn Nixon
 
Datsun 510
 
119:42
 
 
 
Ist Prod
 
Adrian Carson/Janie Rodgers
 
Rabbit 
 
122:59
 
 
 
20th O/A
 
Lauri Paivarinta/Paul Kluckner
 
R12
 
146:31