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ROAD RALLY eNews — March/April 2020
Your Road Rally Roundup of News, Views, and How-Tos
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Under the Hood of the March/April 2020
Road Rally eNews
!
Road Rally News
from the NEOkla Region's
Remembering Garry Deaton Road Rally, two reports from the Rainier Auto Sports Club
Alcan5000,
McGaffey on the
Inaugural
and the Cascade Sports Car Club's
Zing Goes my Heart String
From our Columns —
•
Smuncher's Attic by Gezon — Green Mountain and Appalachia National Rallies
•
There's an App for That! — This month we hear from Michael Young and Clarence Westberg
•
Friday Night Run of the Month — Intro to the Main Road Armchair Rally
•
Upcoming Events — We've lost many scheduled dates, yet we've a few to share...more next month!
•
Words from the Wheel — RRB Chairman, Championship Standings, Lifetime Points and NEC News,
SCCA RoadRally Board February and March Minutes, and a new RoadRally Planning Calendar
• My First SCCA Rally by David Weiman
•
Promoting Your Rally - MSR Webinar Set for April 21st
Known Writings Coming in May
• My First Rally by Garry Deaton, Cornfield Classic Map Rally, Smuncher Attic Goes HOD and SCCA Hall of Fame
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Remembering Garry Deaton Road Rally
by Mike Halley, Rallymaster
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You might find it interesting to know what actually inspired the creation of a rally that was a tribute to long time
Rallymaster Garry Deaton
, wound up with over forty entries from multiple non-SCCA car clubs, gave contestants a lap of a famous road race circuit, ended at a new restaurant promising authentic Italian fare and sent more than half the rally teams home with something more than memories to remind them of a fun day driving paved country roads in perfect weather.
If only Garry Deaton were still with us to revel in such an event.
This particular rally was born when Event Chairman
Mike Halley
visited a friend’s farm near Terlton, Oklahoma, over an hour before the owner would arrive. Once apprised of the delay, Halley decided to drive the 10.2 miles to
Hallett Motor Racing Circuit
and visit the guys at the Race shop rather than commune with the resident Angus cow herd.
Passing through the Terlton metropolis on the way to the track Halley spied an unfamiliar stretch of tarmac angling off before the railroad tracks and decided to get familiar. It turned out to be a fun, twisty, hilly bit of tarmac that intersected with the piece of county pavement that led to the track’s namesake, Hallett, Oklahoma. While chatting with Hallett Race Shop Manager,
Scott Stephens
, the idea for a rally that visited HMRC came to mind. After establishing what it would take for Stephens to open the gates and welcome visitors to the track on an otherwise empty calendar date, Halley headed back to the friend’s farm via an acceptably curvy road connecting Jennings, Oklahoma, with Terlton. After returning home via a country lane and a couple of chunks of State Highways, it was clear that over half the rally’s anticipated 75 miles had already been covered! A starting point and a post-rally gathering place were all that was left to do.
Thanks to reactions from international friends who have visited Tulsa, the pre-rally gathering place became a popular Route 66 attraction, the
Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza
, which celebrates "the father of the mother road's" successful campaign to have Route 66 pass through the oil capital.
The plaza features flags of the eight Route 66 states and boasts bronze sculptures created by Texas artist
Robert Summers
. The larger than life display – “East Meets West” – recreates an encounter the Avery family had when their Model T encountered a local trader’s wagon and rearing horses. The plaza’s large parking lot, atop what Tulsa Tough bicycle competitors call Crybaby Hill, became a key piece of the rally route puzzle. When
Alfa Romeo Owners Club of Oklahoma
members offered to host the post-rally get together at their
Little Venice Restaurant
on Sand Springs, Oklahoma’s Main Street, the final piece of the puzzle was in place.
The rally had several goals, not the least of which was to attract new competitors and entice other car clubs to get involved with SCCA programs. Another was to introduce non-race folks to Hallett's unique 1.8-mile road race facility. While yet another was to introduce folks to a unique, new Italian restaurant where organizers could hand out swag, competitors could swap rally tales, and everyone could remember Oklahoma's most prolific Rallymaster, Garry Deaton. To that end, the
Northeast Oklahoma Region
Board of Director's authorized a $1000 budget so Halley and crew could offer teams a free entry, gain access to drive a slow, timed lap around the Hallett circuit, hand out Hallett and NEOkla Region swag and treat everyone who made it to Little Venice Restaurant to a free taste of Italian cuisine along with soft drinks supplied by the Region.
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Garry Deaton and his wife Robin.
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Arriving at the Plaza parking lot over an hour before registration was scheduled, Halley found half a dozen teams already congregated! With help from NEOkla Region members, rally Co-Chairman
Bob Strattan
, Alfa Romeo Club friend
David Simmons
and Deaton’s widow,
Robin Deaton
, forty teams were registered, forty cars were inspected and numbered, and more than 80 rally hopefuls attended a brief competitor meeting. Over three-quarters of those assembled held their hands up when asked who was there to do their very first road rally, and since there was equal representation from the
Alfa Romeo Club
, the local
Miata Club
, and the host
SCCA NEOkla Region
— the first goals set for the event were already met!
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The first leg covered over 40 miles of everything from paved back roads to limited access highways, but thanks to Pawnee County road crew's turning two miles of pavement into a muddy, unpaved mess, teams never got to see beautiful downtown Hallett. Exchanging their first leg route instructions/time card for the second leg sheet at the Hallett Motor Racing Circuit mid-rally break teams found instructions for gender-specific restroom assignments along with their assigned self-start departure time for completing a clockwise lap of the circuit in not less than 2 minutes 42 seconds.
Roads for the final leg were much like the first minus anything boasting a 70mph speed limit or limited access. Without mentioning it to competitors, the final leg took teams past Halley’s friend’s farmhouse on the Terlton truck route, which marked the beginning of the most curvy, hilly, stretch of pavement on the entire rally. When it ended at a “Turn Right at T” the teams had seen the last of rough pavement and embarked on an uncomplicated cruise through Mannford, Oklahoma, past the Keystone State Park and then across and behind the Keystone Dam. Those final miles not only completed a near-total circumnavigation of Oklahoma's large Keystone Lake, but it also ushered teams to the final checkpoint just past the Army Corps of Engineers headquarters.
The manned checkpoint turned out to be one that many teams recognized enough to smile and wave as they drove past - without stopping! Passing that checkpoint meant those teams missed their final route instruction sheet exchange, which offered, “CONGRATULATIONS! You have completed the Remembering Garry Deaton Road Rally! These instructions will direct you to the get-together in Sand Springs” and included a shortcut to the Little Venice Restaurant. Minus that piece of paper a bunch of teams were treated to a trip north toward Prue, Oklahoma (where two teams decided they were lost), a right turn onto Water Tower Road at a large water tower, an interesting traverse of the single-lane Shell Creek Dam, and a trip halfway around the William R. Pogue Municipal Airport before arriving in downtown Sand Springs.
Based on comments made at the restaurant along with post-rally reactions shared on social media, via email, text, or phone calls, the rally was a complete success. Thanks to the number of "when's the next one?" queries every goal set for the event was surely met! First-time rally teams now want to have another go. Many visited Hallett Motor Racing Circuit for the first time, folks who have been to the race facility but have never driven on the circuit remedied that, even fewer have been around the track “bassackwards” in any capacity, and at least fifty folks now own Hallett or NEOkla SCCA swag. There is no doubt that the Little Venice Restaurant has a group of locals anxious for the "EATalian” diner to open to the public!
If only Garry Deaton were still with us to revel in such an event.
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Post Event Update
— The NEOkla Region SCCA Road Rally co-chairmen have begun working on the second event of the 2020 season, a little something Garry Deaton dreamed up that he called an
Average Joe Rally
.
It makes a timed event a lot more like a simple tour since there is no set average speed teams are expected to match. Nope, every team drives whatever pace they wish and once everyone has completed the course the organizers calculate each team's average speed and assigns the team right in the middle of the average speed spread the overall winner! This means no one can know what average speed will win until everyone is done!
NEOkla Region has run this style event a few times and it's always fun and well received. As soon as a date is set we'll be contacting you all via email, advertising the event like we did the RGDRR and spreading the word to the various car clubs.
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2020 Winter Alcan5000 —
Something to think about when the weather gets warm (or how I spent my Winter Vacation)
by Peter Schneider, Navigator
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On Monday, March 9th, in New Jersey, we received our first taste of spring. The temperature hit 62°, the sun was out, we had the windows open to air out the house, and I started planning the route for
Northern New Jersey Region SCCA
May TSD rally
Second Hand Roads
. But part of me was still on the
Alcan5000 Road Raly
, a 5,200-mile winter Time-Speed-Distance road rally in the Canadian/Alaska Arctic billed as
The
World's Longest, Coldest Rally
, which I had just returned from the day before.
About 296 miles north of the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories lies the Inuvialuit hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk, the northernmost point in North America, which can be reached on all-weather maintained roads. Tuk was the ultimate destination for the 42 teams and ten full-time support staff on this 10-day event.
The road to Tuk opened in November 2017, to provide year-round service to the local community and the oil and gas exploration sites on the Arctic Ocean and Mackenzie River Delta. As stated in the Christian Science Monitor before 2017, "the paved road ended at Inuvik, 92 miles south of Tuk. Up here at the top of the world, things didn't get moving until winter catches the mighty Mackenzie River in its grasp and brings it to a halt. Then you can drive on the ice roads. In summer, an ice road is better known as a "river." But in winter, the river freezes. The ice is a least a yard thick, and often much thicker. That's strong enough to make a good road even for heavy trucks. Ice roads are maintained by the highway department, just like regular paved roads farther south. (There's a notable difference: The Mounties - Canada's police - do not have any speed traps on ice roads.) It's a funny feeling to be driving past frozen boats and onto the ice road near Inuvik. All that was between us and a
very
cold bath was four feet of ice. But four feet of ice was probably enough.”
While the Ice Road no longer goes to Tuk, it still goes to Aklavik, which is 92 miles west of Inuvik. The Ice Road is plowed 8-10 lanes wide, smooth and flat with soft snowbanks for those that take the curves a little too fast and end up in the embankment.
While the details and additional stories about the rally are located at
www.ALCAN5000.com
, the event is a combination of TSD sections and long transits, with 12-14 hours days in sub-zero temperatures. Some come for the competition while others focus on the adventure/challenge of the event.
This year, due to prior performances on the rally, I was slotted as Car #1, but without a driver a month before the event. As luck would have it,
Dave Cole
, the owner/event organizer of "King of the Hammers," and the Ultra4 off-road racing series was looking for a Navigator, so we teamed up for the event. I met Dave during the 2018 Alcan, which was his first TSD rally and assisted him with the basics of the sport. Needless to say, TSD rallying is entirely different than all-out desert racing.
Dave's choice for the event was a Ford Raptor, the official truck of "King of the Hammers," equipped with Nitto’s Grappler studded tires. We arrived in Seattle several days before the event to set up the Raptor and install the Timewise Rally Computer. And with any luck, get some practice time using the prior year's route instructions before the start of the event on Wednesday, February 26
th
.
The route started in Kirkland, WA, and headed north to "Tuk," then south to Anchorage, AK via Fairbanks and the Arctic Circle in Alaska. Ten very long and cold days.
Days on the road started as early as 6 AM and at times, did not end until past 10 PM, covering distances up to 850 miles in a single day. Once we hit the Yukon, the temperature dipped as low as -42°. Believe me, that's cold. The Raptor was able to maintain a comfortable +70°, making the difference between the internal/external temperature of over 110°. You had to mentally prepare yourself every time you wanted to leave the truck to get gas or take a picture.
While there was time each day for a quick breakfast and something to eat in the evening, lunch was taken on the fly or you lived off snacks on the 300+ mile transits between TSD sections. The event does not allow Bought Time/Time Allowances, so you needed to be “on time – all the time,” so you could be at the start of the next section to avoid the maximum TSD penalty. Each vehicle carried a GPS tracking unit so the organizers and loved ones at home could following the progress of each team via the event website.
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Weather and long days are always a significant factor for both the vehicles and the teams, and friendships of long-standing are put to the test under the long hours, intense competition, and the weather. It is also a great way to know someone new while sitting in a Raptor for 12+ hours a day. In addition, it was a common occurrence for teams to go ‘off,’ due to the icy conditions and blinding snowstorms or on-coming truck traffic, who felt that they “owned the road.” But we traveled in “buddy groups” for safety, and you were never stuck by the side of the road for long. Unfortunately, on a long night north of the Canadian Arctic Circle on the way south from Inuvik one experienced team went off the side of the road, while passing truck traffic and was rear ended by one of their buddy team vehicles who was temporary blinded by the trailing cloud of snow in the wake on the semi-truck, and had followed their tail lights over the edge of the road. No one was hurt, but the car that was rear-ended, a Subaru Forester, was minus a rear window and had to rig up temporary weather protection to keep the wind and cold out for the remainder of the trip, over 2,300 miles. They finished the event in third overall, and won the admiration of the individuals on the event for their “Press on Regardless” spirit.
There were twelve TSD Sections and a 1.2 kilometer Ice Race in Dawson City on the frozen Yukon River. Due to the nature of the Ice Racing regulations, the Raptor was in the same Ice Racing Class as a Subaru Forester which, needless to say, gave the advantage to the Subaru, due to the design of the course.
While we were in 1
st
place at the end of Day 1, with ten points over 19 controls, we placed lower in the standings after all was said and done.
On the ninth day of the event, while most teams were relaxing in the Chena Hot Springs, myself, along with a dozen others, drove up the Dalton Highway north of Fairbanks. We went past the frozen Yukon River and the Arctic Circle, alongside the Pipeline to Wiseman, AK, an old mining community 270 miles north of Fairbanks to help film a Nitto video. If I am lucky, you might spot the back of my head in the final cut, just another 14 hour day on the Alcan5000. It was fascinating watching a camera drone flying eye level towards your vehicle at speed while driving on ice-covered roads of the north. Now that is something that does not happen to me in New Jersey.
The winners of the event were the team of
Garth Ankeny / Russ Kraushaar
driving a bright yellow two-wheel-drive 1973 Mercury Capri. Rumor has it, the last day from Fairbanks to Anchorage (-20°) the car had no heat, and during the event, it consumed oil by the quarts, yet it finished and won the Alcan5000 in style and with grace, a well-deserved victory.
The next Alcan5000 is August 23 to September 1, 2022 - Celebrating 38 years of the event and the 20th anniversary with cycles in the summer event! If you are thinking of trying the Alcan, signup now; I am told that almost 50% of the slots are taken. But be prepared, the entry fee for two in a car is $3,300 and $2,000 for one motorcycle & rider. Your total cost for the event, including entry fee, fuel, meals, and souvenirs, could and does exceed $6,000. From the East Coast, factoring in airfare and a rental car, I always budget $8,000 for the two+ weeks that I am away. Just, for example, a case of bottled water was $6.00 USD in Kirkland, WA, and $35.00 CND in Inuvik, NWT. So plan ahead!
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Zing Goes the Strings of My Heart
by Monte and Victoria Saager, Rallymasters
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The March 21st Saturday event was the first-ever TSsD (Time Speed social Distance) road rally.
Recognizing that we’re in a Coronavirus emergency here in Oregon, the entire event experience was designed to eliminate contact with other humans outside of your own car. The rally was promoted as an opportunity to get out and go for a fun drive in the country, while maintaining social distancing.
Online registration was required. Day-of-event on-site registration was not available. (We stayed home.) All check-in procedures and transmitting of route instructions occurred via email.
Teams timed themselves out from the start location and followed the instructions through the route. All timing was done using a GPS app, so there were no manned checkpoints.
The Rallymasters used data from the GPS app to monitor each car’s progress. We sat at our kitchen table, following along on our laptops.
At the mid-rally scenic break at Bald Peak State Park, total scores up to that point were emailed to the teams. They had a chance during this break to order take-out from the Cruise In Country Diner where the rally route ended.
The rally route included some simple rally traps. A misspelled sign offered an opportunity to incorrectly pause 30 seconds (how do you spell NEUGEBAUER). An ONTO trap elicited another 30-second penalty. What do you do when told to change your speed for 0.5 mile? You go back to the previous speed after the half mile - or not for more penalty points. A note told you to pause 30 seconds at a sign reading “CEMETARY”. Who knew there was actually a sign like that on the route.
Congratulations to first Unlimited and first overall
Paul Eklund and
Yulia Smolyensky. First SOP and second overall was
Bill Ferber and
Simon Levear.
Robert Paxman and
Will Pollard finished first GPS and third overall. First Novice was
Ben and
Kyle Overton. Congratulations to all the teams! And a big thank you to
Brandon Harer and
Ben Bradley for checking out the rally.
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Promoting Your Road Rally - Getting Exposure
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First in the Series: Why YOU must use MotorsportReg for your Events!
We started by sharing
why you must use MSR
, as it is an opportunity to get promotion for your event that doesn't cost you anything, and for those that value offering online registration — you can do that as well without cost. From there we went in depth on the benefits to entrants and organizers from start to finish of your road rally.
Second in the Series: Setting Up your Rally on MSR
We covered it a bit last time — the grousing by some of laying out your event and that some found it difficult to understand that you
don't need to burden entrants by having them "re-enter" their personal contact and vehicle information each time! Templates exist and are being developed to make layout easier. With the new Template Builder it is an even smoother process.
While they do offer exceptional customer service, the continued training opportunities are invaluable in helping users get the full advantage. I attended one on reports; I was stunned, as I thought I was was using them to their fullest, ha!
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I received this notice just today. Perhaps you have some free time in your schedule next Tuesday, April 21st to attend? No charge to register, and it will be added to their training videos later the week:
Greetings MSR Event Organizers!
Registration is now open for our third webinar (and quite possibly the most exciting one yet)! A couple of weeks ago we released the new form builder we've been hard at work on. After it's launched, you have have caught the quick demo Chris and Brian did to give you a quick overview. To build on that demo, we'll go more in depth on how to build an event from scratch using the new form builder. We'll show you how to move around using the new form builder and some handy tricks that will make things easier for you.
You won't want to miss this one! Register & reserve your spot
here
. If you are unable to attend but would still like to see the recorded video - no problem! The webinar will posted
here
as soon as it's available.
We hope to see you there!
The MotorsportReg Success Team
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Friday Night Run of the Month
From the Armchair Rally Archives of Gary Starr
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I have always enjoyed teaching those new to our sport the concepts of road rallying both Course and Tour. Perhaps you have seen my
Tips for Novice TSD Rallyists
in these pages? I am hoping to do the same teaching with these
Armchair Rallies
in each edition of
RReNews
. I would love to see more people try Course rallying. But it often is too hard to understand for people who have never done it (and there's no way to learn and practice doing traps before running the actual event), so they get frustrated and never return. And Rallymasters don't help by far too often making the traps too hard. These Armchair Rallies are an excellent tool to introduce the concepts and show how to do them without even getting in your car. And believe me, the traps in these mimic the actual traps on the real events. After doing many of these, you will be ready to compete.
This edition, I offer
An Intro to the Main Road
armchair rally. It has two more Main Road Determinants than the last one and new traps and map. This is probably the best learning armchair rally I have for newcomers because an explanation of how to go through every single intersection is included. Click on the map image to open the file.
I believe
Dave Fuss
made this one up for a local rally for
Twin City Rally Club
in the 1980s (it has road names of then TCRC members which some older rallyists may recognize). You can certainly do this from your screen, yet I encourage you to print it out and head to the "START" line with a pencil in hand.
Depart on Route Instruction #1 and enjoy the adventure!
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Gary Starr, circa 1981, was featured in Contact, the Control Data employee magazine. The RReNews Clan thought it was a great photo, as it clearly sets the era of the Armchair Rally! We hope some of you will take on the challenge to build some new ones!
For those of you who may have missed a "history" of Armchair Rallies,
click here
for that article.
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Alcan Adventures in the Arctic
by Jeff Zurschmeide, Rallyist
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Peter Schneider
has eloquently covered the factual details of the 2020
Alcan 5000 Rally
in this issue, so I'm going to tell a different story.
The Alcan is a great rally; no doubt about that. The TSD sections are fun and held on some of the best roads in Washington, western Canada, and Alaska. But let's get serious for a moment – just about no one would choose to go on this event only for the TSDs. This rally is much more about the adventure than it is about getting zeroes. You can get zeroes anywhere – why do it in freezing weather out in the middle of nowhere?
People choose the Alcan 5000 because it's one of the most extreme events on the world's motorsports calendar. Maybe it's not as well-known as the Baja 1000 or the Dakar Rally, but those guys have never seen 40 below zero at Tuktoyaktuk. The fact is that no other event attempts to do what the Alcan does. It's the genuine, accept-no-substitutes, rally to the Arctic Ocean in the worst part of winter. To borrow a well-turned phrase,
those who outlive the Alcan and come safe home will stand a tip-toe when the rally is named
. Attending the Alcan confers membership in a unique fraternity, and only those who have done the drive really know what it's like.
Going on the Alcan this year meant pausing to appreciate the majesty of wild American Bison and the snow-coated peaks of the Richardson mountains. It was soaking in the hot springs at Liard and Chena, enjoying an impromptu potluck dinner and staking out a piece of floor for the night while stuck at Fort McPherson. And yes, it was experiencing 40 degrees below zero while watching the dawn break over the Arctic Ocean. It meant watching your friends drink that whiskey with the mummified toe in the glass, and maybe deciding to do it yourself. It was pulling each other out of snowbanks so that everyone made it home safely.
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
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Not everyone made it all the way to Tuk. The weather was not friendly along the way, and some turned back on the Dempster. No shame in that. Some of us who went on came back with bent sheet metal from snowbanks and from each other's vehicles. That just serves to prove my point: the Alcan Rally is legitimately one of the most intense adventures this world has to offer.
And gentlemen in England now abed shall think themselves cursed they were not here.
If your heart's beating a little faster now, if you're just the tiniest bit jealous, and if you're imagining yourself standing on the edge of the world at the end of all roads, there's a summer Alcan two years from now. Then the next winter Alcan is planned for 2024. Start getting your act together now, because those events will be here before you know it.
Once more into the breech, dear friends.
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My First SCCA Road Rally by David Weiman
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I do have recollections of starting running road rallies; however, the most vivid remembrances are of my first SCCA National Rally. First road rally was in 1965 in the Chicago Metropolitan area put on by a club called the RAT’s standing for
Rally Addicts Team
. My memory is there were only rallies back then, no difference between tours or course; they were just rallies. Depending on who put on the rallies, they varied from trap (course today) rallies to what we called zero-hero (tour today) rallies.
RAT’s was a group of old-timers at that time who only did trap rallies, and my Navigator and I at that time had no idea of what we had gotten into. We got our routes and headed out. We didn’t find a single control, and we were lost for most of the day, but we did find the endpoint in Elgin, IL. It was a place called The Embers, which had great charcoal-broiled chopped sirloin steaks that were called “chopped guys." My wife and I eat them to this day, and they are still called chopped guys. Never found a control, but we were hooked. Tried a few more and finally found our first control and first control slip, which told us what we did right or wrong.
Became friendly with some people from
Concourse Plaines Rally Team
(CP), the originators of the
St Valentine’s Day Massacre Map Rally
, and got invited to a meeting and immediately joined. Started learning about traps, timing, and the like. Started seeing the traps and how to do them correctly. In 1967 a team from CP went to an SCCA National, I think
Andiamo
in NW Ohio, and they did reasonably well finishing in the top half of about an 80-car field and raved about the rally.
Walt Carolus
, a friend who drove a TR-4 IRS, and I decided to go try to run the
Steel Haul
out of Pittsburg, a long drive in those days. We had no computer or hundredth-reading odometer in the car, so we entered in Class B. In those days there was only A or B. Class B was car odometer, pencil & paper or Stevens Wheel. Class A was unlimited with an underwhelming computer or Curta.
While from the beginning, I had been the Driver, for this rally, we decided I would navigate and use what we called a paper Curta. I added minute-per-mile factors on and on and compared the results to our Heuer Sebring split action watch. Did pretty well on day one, and then day two had a long map section. The unfolded map was bigger than the inside of the TR. I struggled with folding and refolding the map while trying to do the calculations to keep us close to on time.
At the end, we were very surprised to find we had won Class B in our first SCCA road rally. It was late Sunday, and we both had to be at work Monday. I vividly remember listening to the radio on the overnight drive home as every station was covering the beginning of the Six-Day War in Egypt.
Amazingly in 1968,
Tom Francel
and I decided to drive to Houston to run
Coastal Masters
put on by the infamous
Russ Brown
with a Halda and Curta, with me where I do best — as Driver. Russ was a complete master at creating enjoyable and challenging trap rallies. We were lucky enough to win Overall and Class A.
In 1970,
Bernie Rekus
and I, as members of Ompition Limite Rally Team, won the Class A and Overall National Championship. The late
Gene Henderson
ran the team, and in those days, SCCA banned commercial advertising so we couldn’t put Competition Limited (Gene's company) on the cars. Ford also had a road rally team that year, and it was the Ord Rally Team. Ford won the Manufacturer's Championship that year.
Have been running TSD’s and later Performance rallies ever since although fewer and fewer as do not like the timing contests which IMHO are a lot of luck.
RReNews Comments — While preparing the article, David shared that he ran his first rally in 1965 with a 1964 Opel Kadett. He had left College and had his first real job as a draftsman. The Chicago Tribune published listings for local rallies. We followed up on his memories, and the 1967 Andiamo Rally mentioned received the
Arthur J Gervais Course Rally Award
with Rallymasters
Wayne Zitkus
and
John Toepfer
, and the 1970 Coastal Masters received the Award with Rallymaster
Russell K Brown
.
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The
Inaugural
, was held on Saturday, February 22, 2020. An SCCA Divisional Tour Rally, it was sanctioned by the Santa Monica Sports Car Club and the SCCA CalClub Region
Lockwood Valley Road was the centerpiece of the rally and is one of my favorite roads in the world. The terrain varies tremendously from one end to the other. We traveled it from the west end, where it crosses
under
Reyes Creek. Other creeks cross it in several places, and it is often closed when there is heavy rain or flash floods. So, I wrote a complete second half of the event in case this road was closed.
As you travel east, you climb over the saddle between Mt Pinos and San Guillermo Mountain. The climb is quite dramatic, and you see an amazing rock formation called “Sandcastles." The road reaches an altitude of 5079 feet, and there are patches of snow on the sides of the road in places.
Inaugural started in our usual location behind Bank of America in Mission Hills and headed due west down the 118 to get to rally roads ASAP. We passed through Moorpark to Bradley Road and up to the Windy Hills Alpaca Ranch and the end of the odometer check. You were invited to converse with them by humming "Hello" as they do.
When your start time came up, you make a quick left to drop into Balcom Canyon for a dramatic twisty descent through the gorgeous sandstone rock formations. After an "L at T" on South Mountain Road, the Richta GPS Checkpoints app started. As you pass the designated signs, your score pops up on your cell phone running the app. You got a break in the timed checkpoints to pass through Santa Paula and then started again on Highway 150 to Ojai. The road follows Santa Paula Creek in very pleasing arcs through the hills as you pick up more checkpoints then plunge down another dramatic descent into Ojai.
A sharp right on Reeves Road takes you into a beautiful section of Ojai with ranches and farms and some very interesting roads. We picked up a bunch of checkpoints while cruising through tunnels of overhanging trees and across narrow bridges. Then, on the "Banana Leg," you drop into one of the biggest dips you have ever seen just before getting to the stop ahead sign for a score. Surprisingly a few teams were not fazed by the dip and got scores less than 1 second! A bunch of bananas were awarded at finish.
After severe traffic slowing going into Ojai, a left gets you onto Montgomery Road and around to Creek Road. It is a beautiful river road passing by a golf course and incredible ranches. With 20 checkpoints done, you catch a right up Encino Drive and over the hill onto Highway 33 for an hour-long lunch break.
So many great restaurants in Ojai! Then, off to the Restart on Maricopa Highway at the ominous “Road May Be Closed Any Time” sign. People rave about the "Tail of the Dragon," which takes you from North Carolina into Tennessee in about 12 miles of twisty road. The roller coaster that is Maricopa Highway is three times that long and has much more dramatic elevation changes up to 5160 feet. The views from the higher elevations and across the pristine valleys are just awesome. We had a little rain here on rally day and got up into the clouds at times. But, Highway 33 is right up there with the very best driving roads in California, if not in the whole world.
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You got a 3-minute pause before turning onto Lockwood Valley Road. Then, you hit one checkpoint before getting your tires wet on the creek crossing. There were a bunch more before getting to the mountain pass. A 10 MPH sign on a very steep road put you in a free zone to enjoy another roller coaster ride over the top. After cruising through the snow patches and a million varying radius curves, you dropped into the valley and a straight road!
The next checkpoint was at a cattle guard sign, and more were spaced across the valley. The 38th one was at the "Frazier Park" sign as you entered the town. The Richta GPS Checkpoints app limits you to 200 checkpoints, and I tried to pack in as much fun as possible. However, I made sure that each checkpoint sign could be seen from at least 100 feet away and had a shoulder area where you could pull off to lose time if you needed to. Many possible locations were not used because of these criteria.
After a 20-minute gas break in Lebec, we restarted at the HUGE Flying J sign on Ralph’s Ranch Road. After a checkpoint at the “Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation Area” sign, we crossed under the 5 Freeway and down Gorman Post Road and a series of checkpoints as the road romped over the hills. In a "Free Zone," we followed Lancaster Road east to the Old Ridge Route and 8 miles of driving nirvana. There are very few signs on this road and no center stripe either, just endless curves up and down the hills.
The restart gave you a great view of Neenach Volcano and told you how it was ripped in half by the San Andreas Fault 20 million years ago. The other half of it is now 195 miles northwest and is known as Pinnacles National Park. The rally continued down Pine Canyon Road all the way to Lake Hughes and Elizabeth Lake, picking up lots of checkpoints. Then, we turned onto San Francisquito Canyon Road and another series of checkpoints, including the hidden Sherman Oakes and my favorite, "A Place to Shoot."
After 63 checkpoints were in the bag, you got 10 miles to cool down and enjoy the scenery through the canyons and horse ranches into Santa Clarita. We finished at Black Bear Diner, where we met in their conference room, ate good food, and awarded T-Shirts made for the occasion.
I made five trips setting up this rally course over these fantastic roads. One of them was late at night, and the wind at the Pine Canyon Summit was blowing so hard that a steel road sign was flapping like a piece of paper and a rock the size of a toaster was rolling across the road! Those are memories that will last the rest of my life.
Paul McGaffey, Rallymaster
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"There's an App for That"
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GPS Distance Measurement: Practical Considerations for Rally Apps
by Michael Young
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More and more rally teams and even a few prominent rally organizers are using GPS to layout courses and tracking progress while competing. Almost any smartphone or tablet has the capacity to acquire latitude and longitude coordinates and, with suitable apps, those devices can serve a wide variety of rally-related needs from simply tracking time, speed, and distance traveled to full-blown rally computers.
Unlike the GPS navigation systems commonly found in cars today, GPS systems (apps) for rallies require more timely and accurate signal processing. Distances must be measured in hundredths or even thousandths of a mile. Time must be measured in fractions of a second. And, all this and more must be processed and displayed to the users at car speeds of say 0 to 60 miles per hour in TSD rallies or as high as 150 miles per hour in “open road races.”
A rally car going 30 mph is traveling 44 feet per second; a rally car going 60 mph is traveling 88 feet per second. It is not unusual to have timed controls measured to the nearest 1/10th of a second, so GPS rally apps must be capable of measuring distances of less than say 4 feet repeatably.
Fortunately, GPS coordinates are computed from satellites in degrees to 6-decimal place precision. That may sound like overkill, but a difference in latitude or longitude of 0.000001 degrees is about 4 inches, and the diagonal measurement with a difference of 0.000001 degrees of both latitude and longitude is about 6 inches.
With GPS signal receivers, it is quite easy to locate geographic coordinates (timed controls, if you like) to 6-decimal point position while standing still. However, it is quite another matter to measure the distance between a moving rally car and those coordinates in real-time. Merely comparing the geographic coordinates from the GPS receiver with the timed control coordinates will, at typical car speeds, produce considerable variation among rally teams using different apps unless three sources of position error are mitigated.
I’ve dubbed these sources of position error: GPS Receiver Position Error (RP_Error), Time Stamp Error (TS_Error), and Hertz Error or Cycles Per Second Error (Hz_Error). All can be mitigated and effectively reduced to zero within app software.
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RP_Error is simply the distance (and time) error between the physical GPS receiver, perhaps mounted on the dashboard, and the point on the car where timed controls are measured, like the front bumper or the front wheels. The distance may only be 4 feet, but remember that that is the distance that a car will travel in 1/10 of a second at 30 mph.
TS_Error is the distance traveled from the time the GPS signal is generated by the internal or third-party GPS receiver, and the time that the app actually processes the signal. Fortunately, GPS signals also contain timestamps measured in milliseconds. The app will have to perform some trigonometry with GPS course information in radians, which many of us have forgotten, but, if done correctly, it only requires a couple of lines of code.
Hz_Error is the distance traveled between successive GPS signals. For example, Apple's internal GPS signals are generated every second (1 Hz), while the Dual 150 GPS receiver generates signals four times a second (4 Hz), and its bigger sibling the Dual 160 generates signals at ten times a second. It is possible to estimate the distance traveled between GPS signals by "oversampling" and computing distance increments based on speed and short time intervals. In the past, I routinely oversampled at 16 Hz or once every 0.0625 seconds, which would produce incremental distances of 2.75 feet at 30 mph or about one-half a wheel rotation. Now, I oversample at 100 Hz as it has no noticeable impact on app performance, but does improve distance and time measurements by a factor of six, which I think is worthwhile.
With the advent of software to layout rally courses entirely with GPS coordinates and companion software to allow users to run the rally with numerous, automatically scored controls reported in real-time, GPS measurements for Rally Masters and Rally Teams alike should be as precise and error-free as possible to ensure fairness to all competitors and a more satisfying experience for all. Apps designed for these rallies should certainly measure coordinates to 6-decimal place precision as well as compute to double-precision, 15- or 16 decimal places, before truncating or rounding for visual displays. Rounding off numbers during processing may inadvertently introduce errors and, given the extraordinary processing power of computers in our hands, there is no excuse for oversimplifying the math or failing to account for all curable errors.
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MiRally News by Clarence Westberg
This biggest news this month is the new Smartcontrol boxes.
These boxes contain a battery, a GPS chip, and WiFi. When you turn them on, they record your location and time for the entire rally. Each box has a number on it that we assign to each entrant to identify it.
The battery lasts all day, although you can keep it powered with a USB Micro B connector.
GPS accuracy about 2 meters. The clock is automatically synced to rally time.
Contestants will still use the Crono app, giving each car two inputs to the timing system. The system automatically uses the data from the device that provides the best score. The Crono app now alerts you when you pass a timing point. These boxes cost 75 euros. You get five credits (worth 50 euros), so the net cost to organizers is 24 euros. If you want to rent them, they cost 4 euros per car per weekend plus shipping.
Rabbit Rally 2 has a few new features as well. When you get under two seconds early or late the display shows hundredths of a second. The screen now shows the next speed next to the current speed.
From RReNews —
With much of rallying at a standstill, using the Rabbit Rally app, some have run an online rally as Virtual Rally entrants.
It like any other video car game except the object is to maintain a speed rather than go as fast as you can. The tablet on the left is running the Rabbit Rally app. You use it to stay on time and in the process learn how to rally with the app so you can be proficient when we get to be on the road again.
From Facebook, we share two links:
Team Trabant and
Ready to Rally!
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Upcoming Road Rally Events for YOU!
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CSCC 2020 April Saturday Series Rally - a TSsD Rally
Road Rally w/ Cascade Sports Car Club - Road Rally on Saturday, April 18, 2020 at Milwaukie Lowe's, Milwaukie, OR - Cascade Sports Car Club's Saturday Road Rally Series offers beginner-friendly time-speed-distance road rallies, lasting from three ...
Read more
www.motorsportreg.com
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Driftless Challenge National Rally
Road Rally w/ SCCA - Land O' Lakes Region - Road Rally on Saturday, Jul 25 - Sunday, Jul 26, 2020 at Baldwin WI, Baldwin, WI - 2020 Driftless Challenge National Rally NEWS We have added the Prolog Divisional Tour on Friday the 20th. The rally...
Read more
www.motorsportreg.com
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Post Your Upcoming Rally Dates and Invites HERE?
After the middle of March, we have seen almost all road rally events placed on hold — some Rallymasters have shifted to later dates on the calendar and others have been forced to cancel their rallies and schools.
The
Cascade Sports Car Club
, in the Pacific Northwest, wilil be holding their second "Time Speed "Social" Distance" a TSsD-rally this Saturday, April 18th.
Click here
to read their "CSCC Corona Virus Message."
Please send us news of your upcoming event dates and promotional materials to share, so as to make fellow road rally enthusiasts
aware of your events
. And post event — send your write-ups and photos to share news of the adventure! You can send information to Cheryl Lynn
by
clicking here
!
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Canada: New Scotland Road Rally – September 25-27th, 2020
Check our dedicated page for ongoing updates and news from the NSRR! With what is hoped to become the premier sports car and classic car rally and social event in eastern Canada, the Bluenose Autosport Club (BAC) will launch the New Scotland Road ...
Read more
roadsterrally.wordpress.com
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The Great American Mountain Rally Revival
Road Rally w/ New England Vintage Road Rally on Friday, Oct 23 - Monday, Oct 26, 2020 at Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe, VT - History of the Original Great American Mountain Rallye The flag dropped on the very first GAMR on Thanksgiving Day of 1953...
Read more
www.motorsportreg.com
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Smuncher's Attic by Bruce Gezon
1970 — National Green Mountain and Appalachian Rally
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Green Mountain National
Remember
John Buffum from his early days? Well, here is one of the other things he did while tearing up the stages on Pro Rallies. John was Rallymaster of the June 27-28, 1970,
Green Mountain National
Rally, sanctioned by the
SCCA New England Region, which had 65 entrants.
You will note the word “fast” mentioned a few times in the telling, but what did you expect? I especially like the pipe-in-place photo of our SCCA Westport Headquarters' champion
Harry Handley. What a gentleman he was!
Click here to read the article from
Sports Car News.
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Appalachian National
John Buffum obviously had some other skills than "fast" in his repertoire. This event was sanctioned by the
SCCA Philadelphia Region and had 66 cars.
Loved those days of factory sponsorship. Rallymaster David Teter was up to complicating everyone's rally lives with the typically complex GIs for this 1970 two-day rally. Those of us who continued to run his rallies learned quickly that things would not get any easier.
Click here to read the article from
Sports Car News.
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From Road Rally eNews — All of us here at the home office enjoy the history of
Smuncher's Attic
, as well as studying the photos — habits, styles of dress and haircuts! We hope you do too! Drop Bruce a line and let him know you are enjoying the pieces he sends in via
[email protected]
! Now,
John Buffum
, you have let us know that you may have a "thing or two" to say about the 'ol Green Mountain National rallies — we welcome a piece from you for an upcoming edition of RReNews! Sure wish I could have been a part of the rally scene back then; it would be another three years before life would put me in the path of road rally. CL
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A Question for Penelope Pitstop! What is your Answer?
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Last December we had a request to Penelope Pitstop asking about Co-Sanctioning of events by clubs and organizations with SCCA Regions. We had two organizers write us, we contacted the SCCA National Office as we had not heard from the RRB, and we are pleased to present a draft of the SCCA RoadRally Co-Hosting Guidelines, dated March 31, 2020.
SCCA RoadRally Co-Hosting Guidelines
DRAFT – March 31, 2020
SCCA RoadRallies are typically organized by an SCCA Region and some of its members. Another option is for an SCCA Region to co-host a RoadRally in conjunction with another club or organization.
The following rules should be followed for co-hosted RoadRallies.
1. The SCCA Region’s RE should approve all co-hosting arrangements, including financial arrangements, prior to submission of the sanction application.
2. The SCCA Region must submit the sanction application to the National Office. The other club/organization is named as an additional insured on the sanction application. The Region’s RE, or their approved agent, must still approve and sign the sanction application.
3. The RoadRally must conform to all pertinent SCCA rules and regulations, including the requirement for a licensed Safety Steward precheck. These are outlined in Appendix A – Rally Requirements by Type, in the SCCA RoadRally Rule Book (RRR). Charity, Social, Multi-day and Trek events must conform with minimum standards as outlined for Regional RoadRallies.
The following guidelines are suggested for co-hosted RoadRallies.
1. Financial arrangements such as revenue sharing, expense sharing, and profit/loss sharing should be discussed and decided on in advance of the event. It is entirely up to the individual Region as approved by the Region’s RE to decide how to handle the financial aspects of the event with the co-hosting club/organization.
2. Publicity for the RoadRally should indicate all co-hosting clubs/organizations' involvement, and any event sponsors as appropriate.
Peter Schneider of the RRB, is collecting the responses for the Board, so please direct your replies to him at
[email protected]
and should you wish to pass this along to fellow rallyists and your organization, you can
click here
and download a pdf-file.
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From the RoadRally Board Chairman
by Jim Crittenden
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There has been an increased interest across the country in having a Seat-Of-the-Pants (SOP) Class in rallies. The SOP Class is perfect for teams whose navigators are not interested in spending the rally doing math. The Great Race, the week-long, cross-county rally for vintage cars is essentially all SOP – only a speedometer and watches are allowed. I would encourage rally organizers to consider an SOP Class for teams that don't want to "advance" into some form of calculating. A friend of mine, Jack Christensen, encouraged me to share the following tale that relates to SOP rallying.
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Brandywine Motorsport Club
of Delaware published the following story in its newsletter in 1978. It was written by one of their club members under the pen name of
BIP
. The part about me and my navigator,
Al Greene
, doing well in the SOP Class is true. Everything else in the story is, well, you can decide for yourself.
From the Gasline 1978
—
Every now and again, one of our members puts on a performance so striking and so memorable that it galvanizes the attention of the entire club. Usually, this is done not just in one event, but over a series of events, each more dazzling than the others. When such things occur, there are many questions. Often the hero is approached and asked: "How do you do it?" Seldom does the answer shed light on the question.
We have observed one such series of events this year that deserves mention. We became aware early in the year that a sprinter/rallyist named
Jim Crittenden
was turning in leg times and running rallies in the SOP Expert Class that defied explanation. In event, after event, this local bachelor was consistently averaging less than one point per mile and devastating the competition.
We felt it our duty to have a close look at the situation to assure ourselves that the Spiritual Omnipotent Presence had not invaded the yellow Datsun 240Z. The results of our secret investigation may shock some, but Bip is sworn to the duty to inform, enlighten, and amuse the loyal readership. Further, if the lesser of us ever wish to see silver, it is time the story was told.
We asked for and got an interview with Jim just after the Fun Series ended. He volunteered not only to tell but to show us his secret. We were not prepared for what we found. Climbing into the hatchback of the Z car, we turned out of the Iron Hill Inn early that September morning with Jim at the wheel and his Fun Series navigator, Al Greene, in the other bucket seat. Jim began speaking rapidly, almost at once. "Bip," he began, "after last season ended, I felt I had gone about as far as I could go. I had been running good times, 15 to 25 points per leg, but this was rarely good enough. Beating Helm and Teter, Hudson or O'Leary, Bosworth, or even Irons with scores like that is next to impossible. I was depressed. Then in the offseason, I ran into Al here. He seemed like a pleasant fellow, but not a serious threat to take the "First Time Out" trophy if you know what I mean." We nodded thoughtfully. Al hummed a few bars of "The Continental."
"One day," Jim continued, "we were having lunch, and Al was whistling a chorus from "My Fair Lady," and I commented on his apparent love of music. Without hesitation, he told me that he was only one of four known people in the state of Delaware who had both perfect pitch and perfect tempo. Once he said that he had been clocked at 1.06 seconds off the perfect time to complete an entire rendition of Beethoven's 9
th
on a Mouth Harp. This set me to thinking, and it was not long before we devised a plan. Tell me, what do you hear, Bip?" The questions seemed odd – there was the quiet purr of the yellow Z, 2400 cc's singing in unison, and Al seemed to have switched over to "Aida," but little else. "Nothing," we answered. "Listen again," he chuckled.
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From just under our left thigh, we could discern a faint rhythmic clicking. "Sounds like you picked up a stone." "No," he chortled, "not a stone – studs, placed exactly 180
°
apart on the left rear wheel." "So?" we asked. Frankly, this all seemed a poor beginning to a morning, which earlier had held such promise. "Bip," he began again, "What is Al doing?" At first, we misunderstood and lurched forward to spot some act of unsocial behavior – but were greeted by nothing more than the clenched jaws of the strange little man briskly humming out the second act of La Boheme.
Then we noticed the strange glazed expression and the fixed concentration on the navigator's face. There was something odd going on, yet we couldn't quite tell what. Suddenly Jim barked, "Okay, Al, CAST 27, let's give Bip a show!"
The suddenness of this exclamation caused us to bolt upright in the cramped rear deck, striking our head on the dome light. But we remember the blur of events that followed with vivid detail. On Jim's command, Al produced a pair of castanets from between his legs and in one motion ripped into a near-deafening presentation of "Lady of Spain," clacking and singing with that strange expression we had seen before. Jim seemed intent on something else, something not in the car, but nearby. The studs! In the drowning din of Spanish music, the stud tattoo was still audible. They seemed to blend somehow with the music. Every once in awhile they came out of sync and Jim changed speed, and the synchronization between the castanets and the studs fell in line. "Okay, Al, CAST 40," Jim shouted. From a book inside his shirt, I noticed Al was seeking a reference – CAST 40. It said, "Summertime." Even as Jim accelerated, his navigator broke into the lovely Gershwin tune, now clattering on the castanets at a different downbeat tempo that was almost jazz. The studs fell into synchronization and we had discovered Crittenden's secret. For more than an hour the concert continued. We went through "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (CAST 31), "Undercover Angel" (CAST 29), "Un bel di" (CAST 35), and "Sonata in C" by Chopin (CAST 28.5) until we realized the system was foolproof.
Back at the Iron Hill restaurant, our ears ringing from the ordeal, Jim elaborated on the system that had won him so much silver. We heard of the hundreds of hours of trial and error in the spring of '77, as the system was being perfected. And there was the time on Fun III at the third checkpoint when a passing car of teenagers, radio blaring, almost cost them the rally. "Well, Jim," we said, "now that the secret is out – what will you do to remain competitive?" "Never fear," he chortled. "We're working on a new system that employs the syncopated interaction of a kazoo, a nose flute, and a whoopee cushion – it'll knock 'em dead." "We're sure," we replied, as the two drove off amid the dying strains of the Canadian National Anthem, "CAST 26", Jim screamed as his yellow import sped off into the orange rays of the sunny September morning.
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2020 SCCA RoadRally Championships
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The
SCCA RoadRally
competition season is based on a calendar year – January to December. As promised,
RReNews
publishes the standings for the SCCA National Road Rally Championships from
Bruce Gezon
, Points Keeper.
We want to thank Bruce for being faithful to
RReNews
and for providing the Standings so timely each month! Have questions about the SCCA Championship Standings? Send Bruce an email by
clicking here
.
For 2020, we have the 2019 Course Standings. These will remain until the first Course Rally of 2020. The Manufacturer Championship may be viewed
here
.
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2020 SCCA Course Championship
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2020 SCCA Tour Championship
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2020 SCCA GTA Championship
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SCCA RoadRally Lifetime Points
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This month we are posting the
SCCA Lifetime Points for TSD and GTA Road Rally programs. Names such as
Harry M Handley,
Robert V. Ridges,
Russell K. Brown, and
Victor T. Wallder were involved in their start and their maintenance over the years, with the reigns going to
W. David Teter in 1997, until his passing in 2014. Now maintained by
R. Bruce Gezon, you can view the full listing of those who took the first six Overall Finishes in this two programs. The TSD points go back to 1958 and GTA to 2007. For those who have earned more than 25 points, you can find their names listed in the back of the
Road Rally Rules, which are published as an Appendix.
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SCCA Matters — Words from the Wheel, NEC Committee GPS News, 2020 Insurance Updates, Rally Planning Calendar, RRB Minutes, SCCA Natl News
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Words from the Wheel
• News from the RoadRally Department
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While it is true that the SCCA National office does not have the full crew given the COVID-19 restrictions in place, they are available via phone messge and emails.
Please, be sure to reach out to them if you are needing to cancel your sanctioned SCCA RoadRally so they can update their records with our insurance company.
A reminder that SCCA Waivers
must
be printed in black and red (which is easily handled by requesting the current form from your Region or the National Office prior to your events), and they must have the proper header information filled-in
before participants sign them.
Rallymasters and Organizers may download the latest Sanction and Audit forms for their 2020 events from the SCCA website. Much time has been put in to updating the pdf-forms so that they are fillable-forms for easy electronic submission and processing at the National Office. Please be aware of the minimum sanctioning lead times to avoid filing penalties or perhaps even a date shift of your event.
We have received notice of the new 2020 Insurance information and Sanctioning Fees from SCCA National. You may download them below for the
Participant Accident Coverage,
Program Event Fees, and
General Liability Summary for your upcoming events.
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Participant Accident Coverage
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General Liability Summary
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National Events Committee from Michael Thompson, Co-Chair
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This edition of NEC News is rather limited.
We are nearly finished up with the RRR updates to allow use of GPS timing. This proposal will be published when the 2021 ‘Rule Change Season’ begins. That’s in July if I’m not mistaken.
Last month I stated you could get a copy of the sanction exception need to accommodate GPS Controls from Jim Wakemen. You can find them by
clicking here
this month.
Let the 2020 National Road Rally Championship season begin…eventually!
That’s AZICIT in March 2020
Mike Thompson
, Co-Chair
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Road Rally Planning Calendar from Jeanne English
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Straight from the West Coast, we have the most current
Road Rally Planning Calendar
produced by Jeanne English and is built with formally sanctioned SCCA RoadRally events, calendared events and even a few in the "maybe" category! Click
here
to download your copy.
Contact information for English can be found on the calendar.
As you can visually see, our 'ol rally calendar has lots of red this month for events that have been postponed and sadly, for some, canceled for 2020.
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SCCA RoadRally Board Minutes
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From the Home Office in Jewel Lake...
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We don't know about you and your location, yet we are a part of the "Hunker Down in AnchorTown" campaign. For the most part, our fellow Alaskans are following the Mayor's orders, yet we are fortunate to still be in winter mode. There is a 6-22" base of snow in yards, and folks are doing well to hunker down. I do expect, when we are "freed," that the donation bins to be overflowing at our local Value Village and Goodwill, though!
While our sport would appear one of the easiest to continue with the governmental restrictions in place, each jurisdiction has its own "travel" guidelines. For many of us, camaraderie at that "end of the road" social time — when we learn how others interpreted the course and updates on life is equally a part missing during this time.
We have seen dozens of rallies canceled or postponed.
Some Rallymasters have sought dates "they believe" will be far enough out for their events, yet we don't know. I do know the hours involved in putting together a rally; I do know the disappointment in having to postpone an event due to low registrations. This time it is different. We are all in this together, and postponing is about the well-being of teams and volunteers at registration, of gathering folks for "driver's meeting," and reaching into vehicles for checkpoint slips for those not utilizing one of the GPS checkpoint apps. Of course, there is that social time in the end when stories are shared, and all are unable to maintain "social distancing" rules as we gather around tables and "the scores."
I know folks across the United States, and I know this insidious virus has impacted their lives, and worse, that some will have to deal with this illness directly. All be well. Wear your masks, practice safe distancing, and should your area allows non-essential driving — get out there and layout
your rally route
, for we will return to the open roads, and many will be ready to rally once again!
Thank you for your time.
Safe travels,
Cheryl Lynn
and the
RReNews Clan
#comeroadrally #wefoundtheroads
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From our Facebook Page —
We posted up that we would send a tee shirt to the first post on the
Road Rally Enews
Facebook page with the correct name of the road rally at which this photo was taken!
Not one? Perhaps all four vehicles from each direction were so "lost" (or on an alternate course) outside of Weston, Texas, many failed to recognize there were others pondering the next route instruction.
We had some emails asking the "where," and all we can share it was "somewhere" during the
Texas Region National GTA in the Fall of 2018. To be sure, there is a story in that event somewhere.
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RReNews
Are you navigating around
RReNews
okay? We don't want to presume that all of you know that the red/green links (
send your event listing to us
) mean "click" to open a document, website, or email. Did you give the event listing link a click?
A reminder to all that while we have produced
RReNews
in association with the Sports Car Club of America since 2013, our effort is to provide a community for all Road Rally on North America — independent car clubs, community events, and marque clubs — which SCCA has supported as it brings awareness to the sport for all.
To those of you receiving this edition as your first
Road Rally eNews
, welcome to our motorsports family! We are a collaborative effort. Should you be a Rallymaster, please send in your information months out (as soon as you have the details 'n date), send photos 'n standings 'n post-event write-ups! Rallyists write your experiences, write of a method or style of rallying, contribute to our There is an App for That, My First Road Rally (as competitor or Rallymaster). Join us and be a part of this road rally community!
Simply
click here
and send us your event data or your contribution to a column
today
.
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It's Here, so Let's Use It!
We encouraged all of you to start using the #comeroadrally hashtag in your posts about rallying. One reader wrote to ask what that meant and how it could help! It is a means to easily find information on the internet for common causes. Perhaps you have attended a seminar, wedding, or motorsport event where they have asked you to use a hashtag in your posts? Hashtag is # for those unfamiliar. So should you enter #comeroadrally into your browser, you may find a similar page such as this where you can find articles, images and more about road rally (and a few oddities beyond)!
Does it REALLY Matter?
We wondered too, so we pulled the hashtag to see what was there! Trust us when we say we did some searches before selecting #comeroadrally years back, learning not all links for road rally took roads we wanted to travel, ha!
By simply putting in #comeroadrally in our search window on our web browser, we found a page in Twitter, Instagram, links for www.comeroadrallywith.us, and google had these images which have links for road rally too:
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Road Rally eNews,
produced in association with the Sports Car Club of America, since 2013
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