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ROAD RALLY eNews — July 2019
Your Road Rally Roundup of News, Views, and How-Tos
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History of the Great American Mountain Rallye
The flag dropped on the very first GAMR on Thanksgiving Day of 1953 and the rally continued every November through 1957. Described in the April 1956 issue of
Auto Age
as “America’s longest, toughest, and coldest rallye,” the races attracted driving teams from across America, Europe and Scandinavia. Conducted the weekend of American Thanksgiving, the rally typically featured challenging snowy weather through New York’s Adirondack, New Hampshire’s White, and Vermont’s Green Mountains. Tire chains were an absolute must!
In its day, the
Great American Mountain Rallye
attracted top teams from around the world. The Rootes team entered
Sheila van Damm
in 1953 and 1954.
Stirling Moss
also competed in this rally in 1954. The great
Maurice Gastonides
, the 1953
Monte Carlo Rally
winner, was a competitor as well. One year, multi-time world driving champion,
Juan Manual Fangio
was the official starter.
The current event (our second year of the revival) includes 3 days of rallying, October 24-27, 2019. Day 1 will start in the Capital District of New York State and run Northerly thought the center of the Adirondack Park to Lake Placid; the site of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics with lodging at an exclusive inn.
Day 2 of the event will include a loop from Lake Placid North and West to the Saint Regis and Saranac Lake Regions and will end back at our exquisite host inn. Day 3 will see us traveling East through the High Peaks and Keene Valley to Lake Champlain where a short ferry ride will take you across the lake to Vermont.
The last leg of day 3 will take us South through the Western edge of Vermont and the Green Mountain Forest, including a number of the infamous ‘gaps” that traverse the Green Mountains. The culmination of the rally will once again end at Hemmings Motor News (our host from last year) with a scoring and a reception in the museum.
Mileage for the 3 days will be approximately 500 miles. (mileage subject to change based upon final reconnaissance runs.)
With lodging constraints, the event will cap out soon (if it hasn't already gotten there)! Click
here
to checkout some of the team bios for this year. To view the registration page, click
here
! And keep tabs on their progress and updates on their
Facebook
page.
And from last years event, a great piece from
Hemmings:
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Restarting a New England tradition with The Great...
Editor's note: This story comes to us from Dr. Gregory Davis, a dentist and 1948 Hudson Commodore owner from Maineville, Ohio. The 2018 Great American Mountain Rally Revival was the first time-speed-distance rally entered by Greg and his wife...
Read more
www.hemmings.com
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Under the Hood of the July
Road Rally eNews
!
• Smuncher's Attic
• SCCA Championship Standings
• Time to go on a "Trek"
• There's an App for That!
• Passing of Picton and Holmquist
• Upcoming Events Request
• News from the Home Office
• RRSS Manual Updates
and, a bit more!
Coming Next Month
• IMRRC Update by Ms Jennie
• Walt Kammer Tells it Straight!
• My First Rally by Robertson
• RRB - Road Rally Breakfast Gang
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- Join us for the oldest continuously run rally (71st running) in North America.
- First run in 1949 – The Press On Regardless® has a history like no other rally.
- Points awarded separately for each half of POR®, each rally counts toward the National RoadRally Tour Championship, the Great Lakes Division and Detroit Region series.
- Not a car breaker, but vehicles with low ground clearance are not recommended!
- The roads are fun and challenging.
Click
here to download the Press on Regardless flyer! Wow! Seventy--years of adventure and camaraderie.
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Mountains to the Sea
Join us for the 54th anniversary of
Cascade Sports Car Club’s
classic
Mountains to the Sea
road rally. This
year's rally offers fun driving roads, beautiful scenery, a ferry crossing, and a BBQ beach party at South Beach Park near Newport, Oregon.
The 2019 Mountains to the Sea rally is dedicated to
Karen Levear
. To honor her support of Cascade’s road rally program and her affection for this event specifically, the winning trophy will be awarded on the beach by the light of the fire with the Karen Levear Memorial Mountains to the Sea Trophy Dance.
This beginner-level tour-style rally includes TSD regularity sections with GPS-timed passage controls, time of day restarts, and a Monte Carlo finale. Route instructions are accompanied by official mileage. Passage controls are identified in the route instructions. The rally includes about 10 miles of unpaved roads.
The 2019 Mountains to the Sea Rally introduces a new, state-of-the-art method of timing and scoring road rallies. Each rally team will be required to bring a smartphone equipped with the “Competitor - Richta GPS Checkpoints” app. Download the flyer
here
, yet pre-registration closes August 7th!
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Smuncher's Attic by Bruce Gezon
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Many of you know that
Bruce Gezon
has been active in our sport of Road Rally for quite sometime, and that he holds some wonderful archives in his collections as well as National Championships.
He writes, "We have many rallies that have a lot of history but we no longer take the time to advance that knowledge to our current entrants.
This historical info on previous
Virginia Reel’s not only highlights the longevity and success of the Virginia Reel but gives credit to the organizers and winners of the past. It would be nice to see this annotation encouraged and resumed for future events."
All of us here at the home office enjoyed reading this selection from the 'ol Smuncher's Attic, and we hope you do too!
Simply click the image to enlarge the article.
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In this 1970
Sports Car News, you can read the article "Competitors Still Reeling from Top Notch Virginia Reel."
Bruce wrote, "SCCA rallying was changing in the early 70s and this
Virginia Reel was a facilitator."
The article covers that, "Tiny' maxes but timing in seconds ensured that 'zip code' scores were going to become a thing of the past.
'Obtuse' after-the-fact claims were still a major problem that would persist for decades."
Simply click the image to enlarge the article.
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News has reached our Shores...
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Tyrone Patrick Holmquist
Ty Holmquist passed on March 26, 2019 with his family at his side in Murrieta, California at the age of 73. Ty was born in Deadwood, South Dakota on May 19, 1945 and named Tyrone Patrick Holmquist. His family soon moved to Southern California where he was raised, the oldest of 5 children.
Ty joined the Air Force in 1963 and was stationed primarily in France and Germany in a communication role. He told stories of traveling around Europe with his backpack on leave mingling with the locals and learning their language. When discharged, he returned to California and was hired by AT&T for an underground cable communication center outside of San Luis Obispo. That was the beginning of his AT&T career and he retired from AT&T after 35 years. He then worked in Real Estate for a few years before starting Country Rose Gallery and Frame in downtown Hollister, CA.
Ty's many special interests outside of work included SCCA Rallies and SCCA Pro Rallies. Ty was always the navigator and was famous, or infamous, in the Rally Navigator world. Always ready to help others learning the ropes. He won awards in Rally events that then that led to a long relationship with the Great American Race (GAR). The GAR is an antique car rally that went coast to coast every year. Ty was a top performer on this event for 25 years with over 10 of these years with his wife Pam in the driver's seat in their 32 Ford Open Racer.
From the time Ty and Pam moved to Hollister, he was active in the Hidden Valley Homeowner Association. He was generous with his time and willing to drill in and investigate the best solutions to problems. Ty was also active for many years in the San Benito Mounted Search and Rescue Group. He was funny, sharp, enjoyed having a good time, and loved music. Most of all he enjoyed helping others. Ty is survived by his 3 children; Lisa Carter of Pleasanton, Sherry Holmquist of Hollister, Justin Holmquist and Justin’s wife Melissa Holmquist of Temecula. Ty had 5 grandchildren; Tyler Holmquist, Hayley Holmquist, Alex Carter, Luke Carter and Julia Carter.
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Len Picton, RIP, 6/14/19
Not sure how well many of you actually knew him, but we went back to the mid-1960s when he showed up in WNY due to his job at Bethlehem Steel in Buffalo.
In any case Len passed away yesterday; while we communicated frequently on phone and email, I didn't even know that he had been in hospice for several weeks, although his emails stopped a while back; which was not unusual for him due to his various health related episodes. This time it was different.
I am at least happy that he got to see his Saab Story video put on YouTube anyway a few months back. He and a buddy of his worked on it for quite some time from the first time he mentioned it to me; he and his pal did a nice job on it.
Len has been on the threshold of death many times over the last 10+ years so in some ways it is amazing that he had the endurance to last as long as he did after he got ALS, heart disease, and various organ problems. He also fell several times breaking major bones, but alas his ongoing rally is now a DNF. Actually I guess he did finish the last MTC. RIP Len.
Regards,
Walt Kammer
Rally Geezer
From RReNews: Months ago we posted up Len's SAAB YouTube clip to the Vintage SAABs of Alaska Facebook page. We can share that it traveled the world through social media. Len can be proud of the time and effort to share his "library" of wealth with the motorsports world.—through this video and through Road Rally.
From Jim Wakemen: Walt, thanks for posting this. I only knew Len the last few years. He was a true car enthusiast. He brought his SAAB to some of the New Jersey "Pine Barrens Express" rallies. He also was involved with some TSD events by the Washington DC Region along with Eric Salminen. Len will be missed by the car family.
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From the Desk of Moca “The Rally Dog”
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It was a Saturday morning, I was enjoying my kibbles, and my humans had their coffee. Talk moved to what was happening, and it was mentioned
The Snake Charmer Road Rally
was today, this got me excited. A chance to see old friends, meet new ones and spend the day riding in the car, one of my favorite pass times.
We picked Dave up early and joined the rest of the rallyists at Anchorage Audi. A great meeting place, with coffee, donuts, and new cars, and who doesn't like the smell of new cars! After a relaxed time, where I received a number of pats, pets, and scratches from new friends, it was surprising to me there were none of our old rallying partners. It was time to get ready to rally. The time before the start was laidback, and it seemed to happen at a slower pace than usual. We didn’t synchronize timers, organize clipboards, and the like, to ensure we were out at the exact time. Instead, it was a friendly conversation with the rallymaster leading up to our start. The object of the rally was to find where pictures were taken by referencing odometer readings along a course to Portage Glacier and back. There was no Odometer check, so how could we correct our cars odometer to the rallymasters? The directions were simple and seemed to lack any challenge. What could become of a rally that started like this?
Waiting for the start, we identified our first photo and put it in the envelope. The mileage for the picture locations were really more mileage windows, of about two miles, rather than exact locations, guess we didn’t need an odometer check and the ensuing calculations. The drive to Portage was pleasant, and it was interesting finding specific locations along a stretch of road we had driven so many times over the years. Turning off the Seward Hwy there was some confusion about the odometer readings, causing a discussion about what the rallymaster was talking about, but it was easy to see where he intended us to go, so we pressed on regardless, identifying the picture locations.
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Leaving the Visitor Center, we found the odometer reset point and started the drive back to Anchorage. It was a surprisingly quiet, comfortable ride. The directions were plain and there were no arguments among the humans. We were tasked with finding more photo locations, based on the mileage gates, and again there were mileage errors, ie. the mileage for O’Malley exit was on the southside of Potter Marsh, but we knew the exit we were looking for, so we pressed on, finding the end point correctly. The rally ended at
Culmination Motorsport
,
a vintage Porsche restoration center. The owners were gracious with cold drinks and snacks, or if you wanted something more substantial, the bakery next-door was very good.
After a tour of the facilities and scoring, we were third; it was time to head back to the valley. During the drive, the conversation started out negatively. As a rally, the morning was mostly a waste of time. It was more like a social gathering you would expect from a ‘run.' Where auto enthusiasts gather, drive somewhere, to enjoy the comradery of like-minded people. However, the tone changed as my humans talked. They noticed that the participants today were like those who attended the end of the year rally in December. It was mostly humans who spent the afternoon in a car by themselves running around cones. Never did understand that, they wouldn’t let me ride along, so what’s the use.
The experience in December took these loners and added a second human to their car. Even though the instructions were simple, it introduced a new concept, spending time with not only your car but a driving partner. And where instructions were in written form rather than orange cones. It introduced checkpoints, where you arrived at the designated point, received your poker chips, and became the checkpoint crew until the next car arrived — several new concepts for the novice rallyist. Today's rally, where most of the attendees were of the cone persuasion, introduced new concepts while continuing the need to work with a navigator, creating a partnership while touring with your vehicle. References to specific distances made it necessary to think about where you were, not just drive in circles. There were two sections that used the new phrase ‘CAST,' requiring you to drive at a specific speed to find a location at the end of a precise amount of time. The odometer errors in the instructions needed the team to work together to find a solution. Maybe this new rally steward was dumb like a fox, bringing the coneheads into rallying slowly, teaching them some of the new vocabularies needed, getting them to work with a partner in their cars, and still have fun. After nearly two years without much of a rally program in Alaska, I am developing a feeling of guarded optimization that the region is on the right road. Developing a program and bringing new participants into the sport through an educational process.
The current schedule has another gimmick rally, a hound and hair event in the valley in May. It is followed by a return to the ‘Bear Paw' festival with a full TSD rally in July. A fall rally weekend, rallying to a destination spending the night and rallying home the next day, could be a great leaf peeper event. Then wrapping up the year with the second ‘Year-ender’ in December.
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"There's an App for That" –
Richta GPS Checkpoints Hits the Streets
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"Boppa" Bireta, Zach Bireta (4) and parents David Bireta and Karen Bireta from Evanston, IL.
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Rallymaster Jim Crittenden at the April Scamper addressing the teams and answering questions
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From a Competitor after the MKE Region's Scamper in June
"Scoring was with Rich Bireta's "Competitor - Richta GPS Checkpoints" app on your smartphone. Immediately after you pass a control it gives an audio ding-a-ling ring and displays your leg score and whether your early/late. It also continually displays your current total rally score. And you can enter a TA right on the phone before the next control while you're moving. It was WONDERFUL!
All "E" cars ran just the Timewise 798A. This was one of the most fun tours I've ever run in my life. Extremely well done. Everything was thought of. Very intense, required total concentration and complete team effort the entire time. Exactly what we want at the national level. I hope more people will put on an event exactly like this one, both in SCCA and locally using the Richta GPS scoring system, which is so easy to do."
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The first use of the Richta GPS Checkpoints apps to perform the timing and scoring of a road rally event occurred at the
SCCA Milwaukee Region’s Spring Scamper event in Verona, Wisconsin, chaired by
Jim Crittenden.
The event was a great success with 35 cars starting from the parking lot of the Verona Ice Arena near Madison, Wisconsin. The 100-mile event used the great hilly and all-paved roads in the area. The event included 12 time-of-day restarts and 44 timed and scored checkpoints. Competitors followed the route instructions to the restart points, left at their indicated time and then proceeded through one to five checkpoints where the Richta app timed their arrival , computed their score and provided immediate feedback as to whether they were early or late, by how much and their score for the leg.
The event included many relatively short timed legs leading to low scores by many. Rallymaster and Chair Jim Crittenden reports that the median score of all cars was 5 (seconds). This was on a rally that prohibited the use of pulse-driven rally computers. The winning SOP and first overall score was 66 for the 44 checkpoints, an average of 1.5 seconds error per leg.
At the end of the event, the Rallymaster app produced a scoreboard spreadsheet, viewed on a large TV, that allowed the scores to be posted and updated as the cars arrived at the restaurant.
A post-event review of the Contestant Evaluation Forms showed that the competitors appreciated the immediate feedback on their performance at each checkpoint. Many also appreciated not having to stop and check-in at each checkpoint. (The steady rain through the afternoon of the event probably contributed to this view.)
Several critical success factors contributed to the smooth use of this new timing and scoring system. Rallymaster Jim Crittenden encouraged all competitors to download the app and load the event before their arrival at the start. (The Rallymaster app provides a list of cars which are ready to start the event, so their progress the week before the event could be monitored.) At the event start each competitors’ phone was inspected to ensure that they had the checkpoint locations loaded and that the devices GPS services were enabled. All competitors showed up ready to go.
As the designer of the apps, it was interesting to me to see the types of devices in use. All but one competitor used a phone with only one using a tablet. The smartphones were about an even split between Android and Apple devices.
Jim Crittenden displayed the scoreboard on a large TV screen as the scores were finalized. The only problem encountered during the day was that scores for one car were not received. A quick inspection of their device revealed it was in airplane-mode, preventing the transfer of their scoring information to the central database – quickly resolved.
The successful first use of the apps at scale (35 cars, 56 checkpoints) can be credited to a solid design, solid implementations and comprehensive testing. The contributions of
David Bireta for the implementation in iOS (Apple) and Jim Crittenden for his extensive field testing and feedback were critical success factors. I'd like to express my heartfelt appreciation to David and Jim for their efforts.
With the launch of these road rally timing and scoring apps my plans for the summer are coalescing. David and I have a list of improvements and enhancement to write, including adding 0.1-second timing resolution and a new type of restart checkpoint suitable for course rallies with automatic assignment of out-times.
As of this writing, there are five more events (to my knowledge) planning to use this timing and scoring system this year. Supporting these organizers and using their questions to improve the documentation will consume some of my time this year. Several others are creating pilot events to familiarize themselves with the use of this system.
If you are interested in using this system for an event or just kicking the tires on a test course, you can best reach me via email at rbireta@gmail.com.
Rich Bireta
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Upcoming Road Rally Events for YOU!
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2019 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. Click
here
to view the SCCA Manufacturer Championship standings.
We want to thank Bruce for being faithful to
RReNews
and for providing the Standings so timely each month!
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2019 SCCA Course Championship
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2019 SCCA Tour Championship
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2019 SCCA GTA Championship
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SCCA Matters — Words from the Wheel, RoadRally Safety Steward Manual News, NEC Update, Proposed RRR Changes for 2020, Rally Planning Calendar, RRB Minutes
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Words from the Wheel
• News from the SCCA National Office
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Thank you to
Jamie Mullin, of the SCCA National Staff for providing rally stats this year. Our September edition will have the up-to-date sanction and participation numbers for January through July (all audits should be in by August 28th), as well as listing of pending events that have received sanctions yet this fall.
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 2019 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. You can find the new forms
here.
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Updates to TSD & GTA RoadRally Safety Manual and Safety Check List
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Greetings RoadRally Safety Stewards and Instructors,
Changes were approved by the SCCA National RoadRally Board at the June 2019 Meeting with input from the RoadRally Safety Steward Instructors over the course of the prior months.
As you know we updated the TSD Safety Manual and Check list last year, this version includes updates to the GTA portion of the Manual/Check List with some minor changes to the TSD section to reflect additional input from the RoadsRally Safety Steward community over the past six months. Click
here to download your copy today!
If you see any issues/concerns, please reach out to the RoadRally Board and will can address them in an upcoming version of this document.
We are opening these documents for annual review/updates with input from the RoadRally Safety Steward Community beginning in 2019.
Regards
NEDIV Road Rally Steward
SCCA National RoadRally Board Member
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National Events Committee —
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Here we are halfway through the
2019 National Championship
season and it’s time to start planning for 2020. If you are even thinking about presenting a Championship event please let us know.
The NEC has been quite busy preparing suggested changes and clarifications for the 2020 RRRs. Some a mundane, but there are a few that are certain to create some conversation. Many of you have received those proposals from RRB Chairman
Jim Crittenden
. None of these proposals are set in stone. The RRB really needs your comments before any action is taken on any of these proposals.
Mike Thompson
NEC Co-Chair
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Proposed Rule Changes for our RRR's —
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Members of the rally community have submitted six suggestions for changes to the SCCA RoadRally Rules.
The RoadRally Board has not approved or endorsed any of these proposals. We are publishing them and asking for your opinions on them so that we can have the benefit of that input when we discuss them later this year. Download your copy of the proposed suggestions
here
.
Please email your thoughts on any or all of these proposals to rrb@scca.com, no later than
August 30th
.
Best regards,
Jim Crittenden
Chair - SCCA Road Rally Board
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Regional Development Updates from the RRB —
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Treks —
A New Sanction Option for Rallying
At the request of
Arnie Coleman
from the
Continental Divide Region
and a member of the SCCA Board of Directors, the SCCA RRB has drafted a set of Rules for SCCA Sanctioned Treks.
For those of you who are not acquainted with the term, Treks are non-competitive driving events intended to foster social interaction among the participants. They provide a path to new memberships and increase awareness of the general public to SCCA.
Participants will follow a pre-determined route using a "convoy style – follow the car ahead of you" format. The lead car in the convoy is driven by a person who knows the pre-determined route. This is typically the event's Chairperson. A sweep car will run in the last position in the group. As a non-competitive event, there may not be any system for scoring, nor may there be any awards based on performance. Unlike TSD and GTA RoadRallies, Safety Steward pre-checks are not required.
The Trek route includes one or more stops to allow for activities such as sightseeing, meals and/or refreshments, and (of course) pit stops. Events can range in duration from a few hours to several days. As with all SCCA on-road activities, event Sanction Application and Insurance will be required.
Howard Duncan
has reviewed the Trek Rules document and has submitted it to the SCCA Risk Management group.
What’s Next?
Once Howard and Risk Management are satisfied with the Trek Rules document, Howard will submit a proposal to the SCCA Board of Directors to request approval to create this new SCCA event.
Update: This has been approved.
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Expansion of RoadRally Events into non-Rally Regions
In 2018,
Kristen Poole, the Regional Executive of the Susquehanna Region, conducted a nationwide survey of the SCCA Regions. Twenty-Regions had an interest in developing a RoadRally program within the next 3-5 years.
Peter Schneider
, who also serves as the NeDiv RoadRally Steward, is leading the effort on behalf of the RRB to assist these Regions in setting up their first rally or to expand their existing program. He is joined by
Eric Salminen
,
Steve Gaddy
, and
Michael Mazoway
to reach their fellow Northeast Regions.
The RRB is now working with the remaining Divisional RoadRally Stewards to assist the other 25 Regions identified in the survey. We have determined which of these Regions currently have licensed RoadRally Safety Stewards and which will require assistance from neighboring Region’s RoadRally Stewards.
What’s Next?
If you are contacted by your Divisional RoadRally Steward to provide support, we hope that you will. Funds from the National Office to offset out-of-pocket expenses are available. Contact Peter Schneider (
NJRALLYE@AOL.COM
) or your Divisional RoadRally Steward if you are willing to help.
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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 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.
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SCCA RoadRally Board Minutes — April thru July 2019
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From RRB Chair Crittenden
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All:
The
2019 SCCA RoadRally Rules
(RRRs) is now available. You can view and
download it for free
from the SCCA website.
You can also purchase it in paperback form from Amazon. You can find it by searching for "2019 SCCA". The price remains the same at $5.95. (You can also click on the image of the book).
I'd like to draw your attention to the new Welcoming Statement on page 8 of the 2019 RRRs. It is an excellent description of our mission, vision, and values.
Best Regards,
Jim Crittenden
Chair - SCCA Road Rally Board
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From the Home Office Near Kasilof...
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What a summer! Locally, we have had the Swan Lake fire, which has torched over 70,000 acres. Visiting with rallyist
Kathy Carlisle
, who hosted the end of the USRRC at her Ocean Bluff Bed and Breakfast, we had to travel through fifteen miles of poor visibility and smoke-related issues. Fortunately, we did not experience the reported hour-and-a-half traffic stoppages like some travelers.
Across the United States, we have heard of some rallies rerouted for floodwaters and passage concerns for the entrants! Here is hoping the "hell heat" of summer temperatures, the droughts, the tornadoes and thunderstorms reported have not been too much for you and yours.
RReNews
Are you navigating around this mailer okay? We don't want to presume that all of you know that a red link (
send your event listing to us
) may mean "click" to 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!
USRRC Update
"Bueller? USRRC Bueller?" Yes, that is the reference from the movie
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
. The teacher, played by
Ben Stein
, is calling roll for attendance. As of this writing, it appears we are still missing a
United States Road Rally Challenge
on the schedule too.
We have not been shy in seeking a Region from taking on the moniker of the 2019
25th Annual USRRC
, yet the news has not yet reached us that one has stepped forward. I wrote an impassioned plea to the
Milwaukee Region
with a list of why they should take the name this year, as it is sad to see the one event our SCCA-sanctioned program has, of length, cease at 24-years. Not many events make the 25th Anniversary, and it saddens me to see no National Rallymaster taking on the "challenge" in 2019!
Alas, that means the claim of an enduring SCCA RoadRally event will be lost after twenty-four events and the works of many Rallymasters and Crews to make it happen since 1995. Then again, perhaps it is time to change the name or give the SCCA back the USRRC "brand," for it's beginning was as the
United States Road Race Championship
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My Navigator,
Clara Engstrom
, glancing backward on one of her first rallies.
Jake Engstrom
and
Jeff Lynn
were known as
The Boys
back then, and they were the team to beat.
True story — my husband I beat them by
one point
on a rally, and Jeff was quick to point it was
only
by one point. Without planning, a few in the room chimed together, "Yeah! But they still beat you by one point!" Ah, I miss the camaraderie and rallying of the 'ol days.
Really! CL
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My Navigator,
Clara Engstrom
, glancing back to confirm what she "thought" was on the sign. Note the smile? I think we have a young rallyist in the making!
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Promise Made; Debt Paid*
She was my Checkpoint comrade. That started 11+ years ago and certainly before the desire to drive!
Clara Engstrom
, now fourteen, was to be my Rally Navigator this summer at the local
Bear Paw Road Rally
. We learned just a month before her Alaskan holiday that the local club had once again canceled their program. Ever the adventurers, we didn't let that stop us!
We snuck in a few hours with
Michael Young's
GPS Rally Computer on the 'ol iPad, a set of old School Daze Road Rally route instructions from 2007, and off we went! A bit of "trial by fire" given our short time, although in less than 20 minutes she was putting in casts and add times without issue. The asterisk in the header? I still owe her another "true" road rally adventure — with me as Driver and she as Navigator. At least the first time!
Who knows? Perhaps this little afternoon adventure may be a spark to getting road rally restarted in Florida! As we all know, it only takes one sparkplug to get a program started, yet it
does
require an enthusiast with endurance and willpower!
In Closing…
Our
RReNews
website did go on "do not disturb." It had many events current throughout summer, yet articles are outdated. Yes! We heard you
Pablo
, and with this issue out the door, we will give it our attention! Our
Facebook
page, which appears on the right side of the home page will always have the current feed. Of course, with you sending in your event notices (hint, hint), we will get the calendar fueled through the end of the year and into 2020!
Many of us are jonesing for a TSD road rally, so here is hoping we'll see some of you down the road yet this summer!
Thank you for your time.
Safe travels,
Cheryl Lynn and the
RReNews Team
#comeroadrally #wefoundtheroads
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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)!
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Road Rally eNews,
produced in association with the Sports Car Club of America, since 2013
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