It's the day after the January Jaunt on a snowy Sunday afternoon as I'm writing this. The Jaunt was postponed by a little over two months due to the COVID-19 Omicron case spike and was held in the spring for the first time. However Mother Nature knew we were trying to hold a winter rally and, with a cold rainy morning and flurries during the outdoor awards ceremony, gave us the weather that matched the rally's original season.

Thirteen teams came out for the 63rd anniversary of the January Jaunt. With twisty roads for the drivers and farmland to smooth out the navigation a tiny bit, the 200 km course was focused in the rural area south of Hamilton. There were 10 ½ sections with a variety of interesting instruction types ranging from “normal” tulip diagrams to Nick's “film noir” type story about a Heist, where “Woodburn was a lefty from wayback” started the section with a left turn.

The seven Novice class entrants ranged from first-time beginners to rallyists with a couple of seasons under their belt. The beginner teams depended on the pre-start Beginner's school where we went through all the instruction types, while the experienced Novices were still challenged. Congratulations go out to TACcies Elgin and Connie Dewar, who placed first in class with only 4.3 points. Daniel Stiplosek and Naseem Amani were a few points behind in second, while father-and-son team of Andrew and Alex Snur claimed the final podium spot on their first-ever rally. Well done all!

The Intermediate class was resurrected so that Expert drivers could run with Novice navigators, and keep the competition separate from everyone else running Novice instructions. Congratulations to Brooke and Claire Jacobs for taking first overall with only 1.7 points.

The challenge was ratcheted up for the Experts (although maybe a couple of notches too high in a couple of sections). A couple of sections relied required an accurate odometer, diligently measuring distances between intersections and speed signs, and applying some complex logic. Feedback was received and future rallies will focus on improving the flow and in-car experience. Congratulations to Roger Sanderson and Barry Spinner for taking top spot. The podium was filled out by Alain and Louis Cabardos, and Jane and Bruce Leonard in third.

Most motorsport is based on volunteer effort, and navigational car rallies like the January Jaunt are no exception. Please join me in thanking all the workers who helped out on the event: fellow TACcies Nick and Ingrid Beck, Rob Jones and Janet Tse-Jones, Brian Maxwell and co-organizer Nick Parry. Also friends of rallying, the KWRC contingent of Darin Mayes, Gary and Christina Thomlinson, Martin Loveridge and Teresa van Rees for scoring, and greencrew Murray Dammeier and Ian Lalonde for doing the rally pre-check.

It was a good turnout with weather that was colder than about half the other January Jaunts of recent years. Thanks to everyone involved for kicking off another ORRC season!