Komorowski wins Kananaskis Rally and WCRC title

Coming into the Rally of Kananaskis, the top three positions in the WCRC where separated by only 10 points. Making for a fantastic final shoot out for the Western Canadian Championship. Driving a 1988 Mazda 323 GTX, Janusz Komorowski cleaned up the competition winning 10 of the 12 special stages, leaving close rival Dave Koszegi over 3 minutes behind.  Winning the WCRC for the second year running.

In past years the Rally of Kananaskis has been known for its cold weather and snow and ice covered stages. This years event would see temperatures of up to 15 degrees Celsius, unheard of in this area of Alberta in mid November.  The crystal clear skies and warm temperatures attracted large amounts of rally fans to the hills to take in the rally action.

Road conditions were sketchy with most of the roads covered with gravel, but lurking in the shadows was the hidden terror, wet ice, making the down hill runs particularly dangerous. The first 2 stages up Moose Mountain saw Janusz Komorowski and co-driver Tomasz Karzynski, win both the first stage and the second with a commanding 19 and 15 second victories respectively. Soon after the rally had its first casualty, Mile McEwing left the road in his new Volkswagen Bug, damaging the suspension, and ball joint, which would later cause the team to retire. No significant body damage was sustained as the VW slid into a ditch at a bugs pace.

Special Stage 8 saw the rapid retirement of the Toyota Celica All Trac of rookie and first time driver Dave Grier. Grier over shot the flying finish of the stage, launching his car into a natural chicane and rolling the car 3-5 times into oblivion. "We were keeping up a good pace until this happened, it couldn't have been such a bad crash if I still had the route book in my hand when it was all over" says rookie co-driver and Calgary Herald photographer Phil Morrison, after experiencing his first rally off.

Through out the day, Bill Westhead, co-driver for the Subaru Legacy, was suffering from stomach problems, caused by a slight case of the flue and the rolling terrain with large climbs and falls. Even with driver Dave Koszegi slowing  to allow his co-driver to disperse any material that may have been left in his stomach, out the door at speed, the team managed to sneak 2^nd place overall away from Celica driver Zbigniew Szewczyk, by only 1 second.

But the rally had one last cruel trick to play. Peter Hills 1973 Toyota Corolla had been running well until after the 6^th stage, the engine started to run badly and  spew smoke. The team pushed the old car the rest of the way through the rally until finally at the end of the final stage of the day the tired engine gave in. This marked the first DNF for co-driver Barry Gurnsey and the only DNF for the Toyota in 12 events.