Day 2: A relentless effort undermined by costly mistakes
We got another early start to the day to familiarize ourselves with the route. Thanks to the instruction of Ian Pavelko, Fastco Product Director and organizer of several navigational rallies for the SMCC (Sports Motor Car Club), we were feeling confident about the day's adventure.
We had a 122km journey ahead of us from Montreal to St-Eustache, and then on to Lachute. On top of keeping our fuel consumption firmly in check, we needed to reach certain waypoints at an exact time, and pass various regularity tests.
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| Photo: Auto123.com |
For the regularity tests, we were required to maintain an average speed that would be verified by unknown observers hidden across the route. A point would be deducted for every second we arrived either late or early.
When we reached our destination we were satisfied with our performance, despite a small mistake that forced us to travel a few extra kilometres and put us 5 minutes behind schedule. Ouch.
We took a welcome one-hour break before the next leg of the journey, a loop around Lachute.
It was, by far, the most difficult stage of the entire rally as it was comprised of very winding and sometimes heavily damaged roads. Given the conditions, Olivier had to use every ounce of energy he had to keep focused on the route and pay attention to the directions being given to him by Marc-André.
Marc-André was in charge of calculations, continuously adjusting the distances in the logbook according to those on the odometer, guiding Olivier when needed and always knowing where we were.
A far cry from a leisurely Sunday drive, that's for sure!
All in all, the second day went pretty well – until we got back to Montreal.
When the preliminary results were revealed (which didn’t include fuel consumption), we realized we weren’t following the correct procedure and we'd lost more precious points.
We had a Herculean task ahead of us the next day, it seemed.