Looking for new and intense thrills or maybe just a change of scenery? Then consider Aventures Plein Air in St. Hippolyte, just a few kilometres north of St. Jerome, Quebec. The owner, Alexandre Saey, partnered with François Peloquin, director of Auberge du Lac Morency, to offer visitors a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Specialized in ATV rental, Aventures Plein Air has been renting Jeeps for three years now. ''This is not a tourist trap,'' Saey quickly insists. ''We have real challenging trails with lots of mud, rocks, and river crossing.''
You don't need to be an avid off-roader to take part in one of the various outings, however. Most participants are first-timers, and many of them have never even stepped into a Jeep.
Photo: aventuresenpleinair.com
Of course, you won't be left alone out there. Three options are on the table: you can either hop in the same Jeep as your guide, rent a vehicle and follow him on the trails (with radio contact at all times), or bring your own Jeep and set up a raid with a guide.
The vehicles on hand have all been modified to handle the demands of off-road driving. Suspension travel is increased, and various parts have been added to make sure participants safely enjoy the adventure.
The trails used during the summer are reserved for Aventures Plein Air customers. For more information about the company including rentals, activities, tours and raids, visit www.aventurespleinair.com.
Pirelli has indicated its desire to stay in formula one beyond its current contract.
The sport's controversial sole tire supplier returned to F1 at the beginning of last year, having won a three-year tender from governing body the FIA.
"Our current contract ends at the end of the 2013 season, but we still want to be in F1 in the medium and long term," motor sport director Paul Hembery is quoted by the French-language website autohebdo.fr.
"If the sport wants us to stay and we can convince the management to continue, then we intend to keep going," the Briton reportedly added.
Jaime Alguersuari driving the Pirelli R30. (Photo: Pirelli)
"(Since Canada) There's been a huge amount of work carried out back at the factory, analysing the data to check everything was as we thought it was," team operations director Simon Roberts told reporters on Wednesday.
He said no flaws were found on Button's MP4-27 or even with the basic setup, "But, subtly, there are differences with these cars," he confirmed.
"And I think going into Valencia we are quite optimistic we have identified them. I think we can have a slightly different way of getting Jenson's car under him for both qualifying and the race," added Roberts.
Jenson Button, McLaren MP4-27, winner in Australia. (Photo: WRi2)
Some analysts claim the 'topsy-turvy' results seen so far in 2012, with seven different winners including Button winning the opening seven grands prix, is due to the Pirelli tires only working within a tiny operating 'window'.
"We think we've stepped nearer to understanding it all," Roberts continued. "Whether we've cracked it, only time will tell.
"It's been a painful but interesting learning exercise for us."
Jari-Matti Latvala admits he will start Brother Rally New Zealand this week still not completely recovered from the broken collarbone he sustained in a cross-country skiing accident back in April.
Speaking in Auckland on Wednesday evening following the three-day reconnaissance, which was affected by light rain, the factory Ford driver said: “The power is 90 per cent, the movement 100 per cent and the healing at about 80 per cent. Another two to three weeks everything will be 100 per cent so definitely I will be ready by the time we get to Rally Finland [in August].”
Latvala is a distant fifth in the WRC title chase following a largely frustrating campaign in the Fiesta he shares with co-driver Miikka Anttila. He says he's hoping for a trouble-free event.
Jari-Matti Latvala, Ford Fiesta. (Photo: WRC)
“We had a good fight in Greece then unfortunately I had a puncture but in the end I finished third,” he said. “For sure, I would be hoping to fight for the victory here but I need also a clear rally. So if the speed is not enough and things don't feel right then I won't push.”
Latvala says the route of this year's event will provide a stern test for the stars of the FIA World Rally Championship and highlighted the opening day around the surfing town of Raglan south of Auckland as being particularly tough.
“The roads are in a very, very good condition but the first day in the south has quite a lot of loose gravel on the top,” said Latvala. “Then the second and third day are very good. They are a bit cleaner so the grip is better. Friday is a hard day - it is 100 kilometres stage kilometres, then there is a remote service and another 100 kilometres so it's really 200 kilometres which is 50 per cent of the rally. But then on Sunday there are a couple of new stages and it'll be very challenging. Girls School is very demanding stage, not “girly” at all!”
If this weekend's Valencia street race is the Spanish city's last, the cries of disappointment will be barely heard.
Instead, the opposition to the race has been shrill in the build-up to the 2012 running.
A residents group calling itself 'Circuit Urba No' has published a letter to Fernando Alonso complaining bitterly that the race should be scrapped amid Spain's financial crisis.
"The grand prix creates an illusion of fantasy accessible to very few people," the letter to the Ferrari driver pleaded.
All the signs indicate that Valencia will not be on next year's schedule, with Mexico slated to take up the 2013 date if as expected F1's two Spanish hosts move to an annually-alternating scheme.
Photo: Pirelli
The first Valencia street race in 2008 was attended by well over 110,000 fans, but organisers this year are struggling to fill the vastly-culled 45,000-capacity.
The latest dark sign for the event is that some firefighters are refusing to accept 'volunteer' status for their duties this weekend.
The city "has turned its back on formula one", the El Pais newspaper headlined, estimating that actual attendance on Sunday could be below 30,000.
'Circuit Urba No' urged Alonso to "take off your helmet" in order to discover "the humiliation, inconvenience and hardship" endured by those around the circuit.
And a spokesman for another opposition group urged Valencia president Alberto Fabra to "stop looking the other way" in order to realise that F1 is "a disaster for all Valencians".
'2012 tire lottery' is not a term one would hear seriously deployed this season within the garages of traditional midfield teams including Sauber, Lotus and Williams.
Until now, as an unprecedented seven different winners scooped the honours at the opening seven grands prix of the year, top teams including McLaren and Red Bull have referred constantly to the tiny 'window' of operation of Pirelli's 2012 tires.
But "The window for the tires has not become smaller," Sauber's technical director Matt Morris is quoted by Germany's Auto Motor und Sport as insisting.
"No, it's the cars' (operating window that has changed)," he argued.
His boss Peter Sauber said the top teams "underestimated" the cost of losing the advantage their blown diffuser and flexible front wings had previously given.
Pirelli engineers analysing Ferrari tires. (Photo: Pirelli)
Indeed, even Dr Helmut Marko, energy drink Red Bull's motor sport consultant, had to admit all the talk about the tires has been overstated.
"Sauber seems to understand them (the tires) -- and almost all of the time," said the plain-speaking Austrian.
Pirelli motor sport director Paul Hembery agrees it is not true that the top teams don't "understand" the tires.
He said it's just a matter of balance.
"He is probably spot on," said German journalist Michael Schmidt. "Lotus, Sauber and Williams are not shining because of a special trick, but because of well balanced aerodynamics."
Pastor Maldonado won the Spanish Grand Prix with Williams. (Photo: WRi2)
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