|
Want off the RReNews mailing list? Scroll to the bottom of this message and click on the Unsubscribe link!
You are receiving this as an enthusiast of Road Rally in North America!
|
|
|
Checkpoint Chat - April RRB News
with Rich Bireta, RRB Chair
|
|
2018 Rule Change Proposals
Beginning April 1st, the Road Rally Board will accept proposals and suggestions for changing the Road Rally Rulebook for the 2018 competition year. All proposals must be received by the RoadRally Board by June 30, 2017.
If you have a suggestion for a change to the rules, please submit it by sending an email to [email protected].
Following receipt of all suggestions, the RRB will review the proposals and send them to the National Events Committee for review and comment. As we did last year, we will actively solicit comments from the rally community and make a final recommendation to the SCCA Board of Directors at our October meeting. The BOD will make the final determination regarding these rule changes at their December meeting.
We are looking forward to your suggestions.
There Might Be an App for That
There have been two interesting developments in the area of road rally technology recently. Those of you who are members of the Twin City Rally Club on Facebook received notice that Rallymaster Clarence Westberg was broadcasting on Facebook Live during the final seven checkpoint locations from the March 25 March Muddy Waters event. There were about a half a dozen of us watching the activity and posting questions and comments which Clarence could answer as the cars looped around the Wisconsin countryside back to a common control location. Personally, I had the NCAA Elite 8 game on the TV while I watched the rally on my laptop.
I think it would be interesting to have a similar live broadcast from the control location of a National Course Rally. Alternatively, a view of the Alaskan countryside during the 2017 USRRC would be interesting.
On the topic of rally apps, in February I released a new app to the Google Play Store for Android devices. The Richta CPA Checkpoint POC app demonstrates the potential of a worker-less checkpoint. It is available at no charge. To use it, drive to the checkpoint location; press the Set CP button to capture the GPS location. Drive away and perform a U-turn. Drive past the checkpoint location and the app will time you as you pass the checkpoint location.
By the way, CPA stands for Closest Point of Approach.
The accuracy of the time will depend on the GPS device being used. A standard phone/tablet will have a timing resolution +/- 1 seconds, based on the rate at which GPS signals are being delivered to the app. A Garmin GLO or Dual external GPS receiver will deliver locations 10 times per second, giving a resolution of +/- 0.1 seconds.
This app is not intended to be a product by itself. It was developed and released to demonstrate current, commonly available technology. This code could be imbedded into another app, like a rally odometer or a simple rally computer. Combine this code with a data connection, cloud-based computing and storage services and one could deliver real-time scoring and scoreboards available to all competitors and organizers.
Food for thought.
As always, I look forward to your comments on this or any other item of interest or concern regarding the SCCA RoadRally program.
Rich Bireta, SCCA RRB Chairman
|
|
|
USRRC – September 15-17th - ANC to the KP!
|
|
|
The United States Road Rally Challenge, sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America, is a mere one hundred and sixty-two days away! Do you have it on your calendar? Registered? Have more quesitons for the organizers? Still deciding?
The Teams – The 2017 USRRC prepares to welcome teams from Florida, Tennessee, California, Maryland, South Carolina and West Virginia, as well as teams from Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Kasilof, Alaska! Will your team be the next to register?
We have heard from more teams via calls 'n emails and messages, yet their promised registrations have not come through yet. Currently, we have individuals registered as follows, which brings us to 8.5 USRRC Teams:
- 13 Cheechako (Stock)
- 04 Sourdough (Equipped)
- 03 Raven Clan (Checkpoint Wrkrs)
The Finances – The $100 early-registration discount closes out on April 28th, is based on teams registering by that date and making their non-refundable deposit at our official USRRC 2017 registration site: www.msreg.com/usrrc2017. Registrar prior to April 28th (which is coming quickly) for the $100 discount and then we offer a $50 early-registration dicount until June 28th, when the fee goes to the full entry.
The Lodging — Registration fees cover your lodging for Friday and Saturday evening, and we will be resting at the Seward Windsong Lodge and the Ocean Shores Motel in Homer.
The Course - Rallymaster Cheryl Lynn and RRSS Gail Engblom will be spending much time on the Anchorage to Kenai Peninsula Highways and ByWays in three weeks, with all wrapped and ready for our Pre-Checker Peter Schneiders' arrival June 1st! We have our deadline and at this time are not feeling time-crunched! We have spent some time out on course already, with the coolest temps at -16° last December. While there are no car-breaker roads, we need to wait for a few to dryout from their winter coverings of snow.
Update on our Rallying to Preserve our Historic SCCA Rally Archives Fundraiser – As one who has been involved with road rally for 44 years, our Rallymaster hopes you will choose to support our efforts with a donation through the SCCA Foundation for the IMRRC made directly through this effort. We have had one contribution mailed directly to us (RPM Alaska, PO Box 220108, Anchorage, AK 99522) and we welcome that to save transaction fees, yet we'll be equally delighted to find your donation through the usrrc2017.causevox.com!
Should you be interested in setting up a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign as an active rallyist, or perhaps one who may be in those archives, or even one who wants to have access to them yourself — you can do so without even entering the USRRC!
In closing for this month, we hope you are considering the trek north for the USRRC. Please direct your questions to Rallymaster Cheryl Lynn at [email protected].
|
|
2nd Request! Online Registration — Are YOU Using dlbracing, myautoevents, or motorsportreg? We “need to talk”!
Or, perhaps there are other online registration systems out there rally organizers are using? We are working on a piece about the online options and the value to all enthusiasts of Road Rally in using them for events.
Please let us know if you are using online registration, and take a moment to answer some questions for us. Click
here
to send an email to today; we are hoping to run this in an upcoming
RReNews
.
Thank you Sasha Lanz and Mary Shilhoff for replying to our first request.
We have you "on our list" to contact!
|
|
USRRC Map on FB
For those of you who are on Facebook, you may have seen the USRRC Map and updates in recent months! We are please to have teams registered from Tennessee, Alaska, West Virginia, Florida, Maryland, California and South Carolina.
Will your State be the next on the map?
|
|
USRRC on Official 150th Cessation Treaty Celebration Calendar
The USRRC 2017, celebrates the 150th Anniversary of the purchase of Alaska from Russia, and the Anchorage Museum of History and Art has a special Polar Bear Garden display in it's honor. They even have the original purchase check on loan from the National Archives!!
|
|
In This Issue —
RReNews April 2017
|
|
Road Rally Across North America
• Checkpoint Chat by RRB Bireta
• Mark Haas Weekend WrapUp • March 18-19th
• SoWeLa Road Rally WrapUp • March 12th
• The Magic Mile Road Rally WrapUp • April 1st
• USRRC Updates, Rallying to Preserve the SCCA Rally Archives Fundraising Effort!
• 2nd Request for Online Registration Useage
SCCA Contributions this Month
• NEC Thompson on the 2017 Season
• SCCA Road Rally Calendar by English
• Minutes from the March 9th RRB Meeting
• Standings for SCCA RoadRally Championships
• Manufacturer Standings for RoadRally
•
Words from the Wheel
by Mullin
RReNews Requests
• Please click the Update Profile at bottom of this email for your Annual Update. Thank you!
• Remember to send in your upcoming rally dates 'n details for all Clubs across North America.
• And, too, to share the post-event rally wrap-up of the events and photos too!
A reminder that RReNews succeeds through the support of contributions for our fellow Rallyists!
|
|
|
Two Regions Reclaim Their Road Rally Programs — Cheers to SoWeLa and Atlanta Regions!
This month, we share the outcome of their efforts with our fellow road rally enthusiasts...
|
|
|
|
|
Southwest Louisiana
Hits the Road after 30 Years!
|
|
The Region
last ran rallies in the three months between road race season (a Drivers School and two Regional/Nationals) and a 9 event autocross season. In 1986, after losing their road race facility to progress, they continued their autocross program and let the rallies fade.
After a 30 year layoff from rallying, the
Southwest Louisiana Region
held their
March Hare (Hair) Rally
, with a field of 11 cars, on Sunday,
March 12th
, with
Leon LeDoux
as Rallymaster.
Click
here
to see their rally route, which was a combination of closest to official distance and time, fill in the blanks, counting bridges and railroad tracks. Rallymaster LeDoux felt that was enough for their first rally.
Here are their attractive trophies for their first event!
|
|
|
The Magic Mile Rally is History, yet Rallying is Here to Stay!
by Mark Johnson, Rallymaster
|
|
|
After what we think was a 25 year gap, SCCA rallying returned to the Atlanta Region on April 1. We started 30 cars, 28 finished (two had commitments they were worried about making later in the day) and no one got yelled at. We even had a local walk up to a checkpoint crew, ask what was going on and then offer to help.
With 30 mostly-inexperienced crews, this was more of a challenge than I think they were expecting. Course following was pretty easy so there weren’t too many excursions reported, but the clarity on how to use time allowances was lacking on my part, I suspect. Only four teams used them correctly, some more used them incorrectly and many just didn’t even try.
The questions, though … three of the 31 questions everyone got right, but one of them none got right. The overall average was 63% correct, much lower than I expected. As we went through the answers at the end, there were a lot of groans. (Did you know that squiggly-line black-on-yellow signs actually tell you which way the road will turn first so they aren’t all the same? And if you have to count them, you better count only the ones that match the pictogram in the question.)
When I talked with several competitors after the event, they said they glanced at the general instructions but didn’t read them thoroughly - even after I told everyone to read them carefully. The GIs specified what side of the road some types of signs needed to be on in order to exist and that government-erected signs needed to be associated with legal roads. Legal roads were defined elsewhere in the GIs as through, paved roads - so signs for unpaved roads didn't exist, nor did signs for dead end roads.
Overall, I was thrilled with the turnout - 60-plus competitors for the first event in the region in 25 years was great. No one was mad at the end, everyone was laughing and all had a story to tell. When I asked if they would do it again, there was a pretty loud cheer.
Almost three quarters of the participants were not SCCA members, so this was a great marketing tool for the region. And add in that the event turned a profit for the region and everyone should wander down the road happy.
This week, I’ll send a survey out to all the registrants to see what they liked and didn’t like, that will help me decide what comes next. I suspect it’ll be another GTA in the fall, maybe with a different timing model. (The Magic Mile was essentially a series of one mile long TSD segments interspersed along a 100 mile course. At seven points along the route, competitors were told to reset their odo, given a start time and a speed to follow for the next mile. Three of those segments had checkpoints on them, the rest of the scoring was done by answering the questions.)
Rallying has returned to Georgia … now I need to figure out the next event. I was amazed at how many typos on road signs I found, wonder what I can do with that …
|
|
|
Mark Haas Memorial Rally Weekend
|
|
|
On March 18 and 19, South Jersey Region hosted two SCCA RoadRallies: the Saturday March Lion, and the Sunday Spring Fling. The Lion could be run as either a National Course or Tour event while the Sunday Spring Fling was a shorter Divisional Course or Tour event.
A predicted late-winter snowstorm in the northeast threatened both events, but only cold temperatures greeted the dozen or so teams for the two-day event headquartered in Vineland, New Jersey.
Mark Haas passed away April 16 of last year. March Lion Rallymaster (and Event Chairman) Jim Wakeman and Spring Fling Rallymaster Clyde Heckler on almost every leg used the style, traps and tricks that Mark Haas brought to the sport in his nearly four decades of involvement.
Mark Haas started his SCCA rally involvement in 1981 by being named SCCA RoadRally Course Rally Rookie of the Year with Jim Doan. He went on to win 14 SCCA National Championships and four straight Northeast Division year-end awards.
His 13 wins in the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre Map Rally ties him for second most wins ever in that event. He was equally good in the Fourth of July Fireworks Map Rally, being one of only two contestants to finish in the top ten percent for every one of the 19 rallies. Both of those events draw 250 to 500 entries and in the past have exceeded 1,000 participants.
Haas was as passionate about writing the events as running them.
He wrote his annual invitational rally to keep the spirit of the Buckingham Sport Car Club (BSCC) alive. He wrote a total of 32 Spring Fling rallies for the BSCC and South Jersey Region, SCCA along with three Fall Foliage Fling rallies and an equal number of Bucks County Explorer rallies. He was a big part of the success of the Dave Teter Memorial Weekend two years ago.
Either of this year’s rallies could be run as a course or tour. The committee did a great job of capturing Haas’ technique.
Jim Crittenden, the eventual Class E winner of both events with Jack von Kaenel, described Haas as “clever and innovative” and one trap may best justify the compliment.
The general instructions specified that quotation marks would not be used to distinguish between a sign and a landmark and that a landmark could be referenced by color without such identification on the sign.
Contestants instructed to pause a quarter minute at each red bird encountered a sign reading Red Bird Egg Farms high on a silo in red lettering with blue trim. The correct execution was to pause three times: once for the sign “red bird”, once for the red bird farms themselves and once for the red-lettered word “bird.”
Heckler explained in the leg critique that the trap was from an old SJR Bad Taste Rally, but the damage had nevertheless been done as all but two of the course competitors “bought” that one.
|
|
|
The March Lion and Spring Fling tour rallies used the same route as their course counterparts. Those routes almost exclusively took advantage of well-maintained paved roads through rural forests and farmlands in southern New Jersey.
The route of the Spring Fling passed by the Seven Stars Tavern where local legend has it that General “Mad” Anthony Wayne negotiated the purchase of cattle for Washington’s Continental Army encamped at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-1778.
Class E course honors and first overall both days went to the team of Jack von Kaenel (driver) and Jim Crittenden with a score of 180 and 66 on the Lion/Fling respectively.
Class L honors on both course events, with scores of 664 and 407 on the Lion/Fling went to Jeanne English (driver) and Brian Nogrady, while first in Class S with 542 points on the March Lion course event went to Edward Sain (driver) and Douglas Sain.
Jim Friedman (driver) and Marc Goldfarb took first overall and first in Class E (the only class) on the March Lion tour with just ten points. The next day on the Spring Fling tour, John Emmons (driver) and Lois van Vleet took first overall and first in Class E with just six points, and Peter Chezik (driver) and Frank Bochanski took Class S with 97 points.
According to Jim Wakeman, Haas’ long-time rally driver, his favorite accomplishment was being Rallymaster for 32 Spring Fling rallies.
Said Wakeman, “I miss him every day.”
|
|
Thank you to David Head for providing the photos for the Haas Weekend: The teams gathering a days' end to review scores and share stories, and above Jim Wakeman eulogizing his friend and rally partner Mark Haas during the evening.
|
|
|
Words from the Wheel
with Jamie Mullin
|
|
|
|
|
Greetings from the SCCA National Office! Hard to believe April is already here!
At this writing, there are 59 Rallys sanctioned for 2017. This is 21 more than we had sanctioned at the end of February. Great work! Keep it up!
Here is a breakdown of the type of Rallys sanctioned for 2017:
• 13 Divisional
• 1 Charity
• 12 National
• 11 Regional
• 22 Social
There were 13 Rallys with 212 participants in the months of January and February. With a couple of audits pending, these numbers will increase. Please remember to submit your audits timely after your Rallys. The sooner the better!
There are 11 Rallys scheduled to take place in April. Check out the event calendar for dates and locations near you.
Should you have any general RoadRally questions, I invite you to check out the newly revamped RoadRally section on our website here or contact me via
e-mail
or telephone M-F 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. CDT at 800-770-2055 x371. Please continue to direct any Event, Sanction, and Insurance related items or inquiries to
Deena Rowland
800-770-2055 x 331 M-F 7 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. CDT.
|
|
|
The National Scene AZICIT
with NEC Chairman Mike Thompson
|
|
|
|
|
NEC Appointments
Jim Wakeman (South Jersey Region) has replaced Ron Ferris (St Louis Region) on National Events Committee (NEC) pending approval of the RoadRally Board. The members of the NEC would like to extend their thanks to Ron for his service with the NEC (can we put in the number of years he served Mike?).
RRB Requests to NEC
In its response to a request from the RRB, it is the opinion of the NEC that we repeal the restriction prohibiting the scheduling of National and Divisional events one week before and one week after the USRRC.
Pass on Delta Definitions
The NEC decided not to recommend a definition for Deltas (a.k.a. Triangles, Grassy Triangles, etc.). Given the vast differences in road configurations, the NEC feels that a one-size fits all definition is not appropriate.
Classification Discussion Revisited
There was a vigorous discussion regarding the current class system. One of the dilemmas we're facing is the classification of the newest app from Rich Bireta. It's essentially a Zeron 880, but it does not have quite the accuracy as the Timewise and Alfa computers. One suggestion was to combine what is now classes E and L and create a new Class L in which there would be no limitations on computational equipment and mileage measuring devices limited to GPS devices.
Your thoughts? We'd like to hear from you! Click here to email me.
That's AZICIT
March 1, 2017
Mike Thompson
NEC Chairman
|
|
|
SCCA Matters —
Minutes, Planning Calendar, Championship Points
|
|
|
SCCA Road Rally Board Minutes
by Jeanne English, RRB Secretary
This month we present March 9, 2017, RoadRally Board Minutes.
|
|
2017 Road Rally Planning Calendar
All SCCA Regions are encouraged to Sanction their events through the National Office as soon as the date is known – it will get it out on the planning calendar, a listing in SportsCar and let fellow Rallymasters know that date is already taken. And, perhaps most important, it helps fellow Road Rallyists plan their travels to attend your Rally!
Jeanne English
maintains this calendar, with input from
Deena Rowland of the National Office as sanctions come in from Organizers. Seek out the latest calendar off the www.scca.com website! And while there — checkout the new RoadRally page layout for our programs downloads and information!
|
|
|
SCCA National Championship Standings and Manufacturer's Points
The RoadRally Competition Season is now a calendar year – January to December.
As promised, RReNews has the standings for the SCCA National Road Rally Championships from
Bruce Gezon,
Points Keeper. We look forward to working with him to get the Standings in a timely manner for your perusal.
The official Excel spreadsheet for sending in your standings will be sent by Deena Rowland when a Sanction number is issued. Organizers may also find the spreadsheet to report National and Divisional RoadRally results in the Rules and Documents section of the www.scca.com website!
|
|
|
From the Home Office —
Road Rally eNews
|
|
|
Thank you to those who took the time to "write" they enjoed the March edition of Road Rally eNews. As shared, the generous time given by the contributors each month is the reason we are successful and beginning our fifth year of service to the Road Rally Community on North America.
Thank you to those who sent their contributions this month, I know that I enjoyed reading your contributions! And a big HURRAH to our fellow rallyists in the SCCA SoWeLa and Atlanta Regions for successful rejuvenation of their rally programs. Keep up the good works!
Safe travels, Cheryl Lynn, Road Rally eNews
|
|
|
Road Rally eNews is produced in association with the Sports Car Club of America
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
