Lost in Lunenburg Report

– written by Chris Pye

Organizing the 2025 Lost in Lunenburg rally was, in theory, a simple process. Take the route and documents from the cancelled 2024 rally and just update them. Various government bodies changed that. Road construction in Mahone Bay and Bridgewater required some significant re-routing and the start location being booked for a craft fare added more. The result was – a better rally route!

Seven teams registered for the rally and arrived at the scenic Indian Point Firehall start location. Cars ranged in age from new to 46 years old. The range of entrants ages was even larger. Road rallying is open to just about everyone!

The championship leaders in Experienced (Clarke and Rylee) and Novice (Matthew and Chris) classes were both there.

Teams left the Indian Point Firehall and headed into the spectacular Lunenburg County countryside. The fall colours were close to their peak, ensuring some great scenery along the 225km route.

Taking the title of the rally literally, you could argue that the teams that got lost were the most successful. On that basis, most teams were a failure, staying very close, if not, completely on, the planned route. A few were more successful at getting lost, but everyone made it to the finish, Boston Pizza in Bridgewater.

The route included some challenging tarmac and some (relatively) fast sweeping gravel roads. A couple of short rough sections, with low target speeds, required some concentration.

The teams enjoyed a brief break, just outside of Lunenburg, in the middle of this 4hr rally and then headed back inland to explore more of Lunenburg County.

The use of the Richta timing system meant that the results were available shortly after the last car finished. Four of the novice teams had better scores than the winners of the experienced class, but the novice teams did not have to untangle a jumble of tulip diagrams, convert distances from miles to km or rearrange the order of the instructions, all things that keep the experienced navigators busy.

The teams leading the classes cemented their positions by winning their classes. Full results can be found here!