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ROAD RALLY eNews • December 2020
Your Road Rally Roundup of News, Views, and How-Tos
SCCA San Diego Region Takes on Second Rally
by Tracey Kretch, Co-Rallymaster
Avocados, Vines & County Lines Road Rally
The SCCA San Diego Region #57 held our second road rally of 2020, Avocados, Vines & County Lines, on Saturday, December 12, 2020. The rally course started in Fallbrook in Northern San Diego County, home to many avocado farms, and traveled through the back roads of Temecula in Southern Riverside County, well-known for a range of scenic wineries.

We also held a toy drive to benefit the Camp Pendleton Marine Base chapter of the Toys for Tots Foundation. Our Road Rally teams were very generous, and we amassed over 100 toys and books.

The Course
True to road rallies, teams comprised of a driver and navigator, plus a vehicle, were given route instructions just before their start. Their goal was to maintain speeds for the correct arrival time at selected checkpoints, with penalties for early or late arrival.

This course, spread over two counties, was an interesting mix of regular Southern California streets (read: traffic) and more scenic and zippy two-lane back roads.

With a course created by Rallymasters Michael and Tracey Kretch (new SDR SCCA volunteers), and tested by the entire San Diego SCCA Region #57 Road Rally Team: Ric Senior, Peter and Diane Bollenbecker, Bob Rose, Jeff Lonsdale, Eric Sakariasen, Steve Pharr and Jeff Lonsdale, it featured our highest road rally turnout yet.

Results
This road rally drew a large number of novice teams as well as first-time road rally teams. Fifty-seven entrants were spread over four classes with 25 entries in both First Road Rally Event and Novice classes, three Expert Class, and four in CAM Class.

Utilizing correct arrival time at checkpoints as the basis for rally scoring, our teams posted some impressive scores over the 68.4 miles of the course:
  • CAM - Car #54 Aaron and Erika - 39 points
  • Expert - Car #62 Paul and Lim - 66 points
  • Novice - Car #23 Nima Abrahim and Heather Abrahim - 14 points
  • First Road Rally Event Car #52 - Ethan and Brooke Law - 40 points
 
Congratulations to all participants, plus a special shout out to the Novice team of Nima Abrahim and Heather Abrahim and the team Ethan and Brooke Law, with their class win as first-time road rally entrants. While we couldn't celebrate in person with all participants after this road rally, we hope to do so in future events.
What Did the Teams Think of the Avocados, Vines and County Lines Road Rally?
Several participants provided the San Diego SCCA Board and volunteers with encouraging feedback to help us improve future events, and our newer road rally teams enjoyed the course:

"I want to make sure you know how much fun the rally was and how much we appreciate all the effort you obviously committed to making the event so special. The route was fabulous, the instructions impeccable, and the scenery was amazing…since it was our first real rally, we learned a lot and are prepared to try again next time another rally is scheduled." — Pete

Tom (navigator) and I had a great time in our first rally together. The course and instructions were outstanding. Thank you and your team for all the hard work putting on an event of this caliber. We are definitely looking forward to the next rally." — David G.

Thanks again to all of the volunteers who made the Avocados, Vines & County Lines Road Rally possible - it was a lot of work, and everyone pitched in, so a big thank you to all!

Should you have any questions on this event or future San Diego Region events, please contact Ric Senior. For more info on future San Diego Road Rallys, click here.
A sampllng of our teams' donations for the Camp Pendelton Marine Base Toys for Tots Foundation toy drive!
From RReNews - The SCCA San Diego Region Road Rally Team, given the current constraints of Covid, meet via zoom! We asked for a team photo of the Rally Clan. We ask you, would not you like to have a road rally crew that large and certainly enthusiastic to build a program?!

Registration is already open for their next event — the Rose Petals and Gas Pedals! Anyone care to guess the date?
Teddy Bear Rally Turns 30!
Northern New Jersey Region - USMC Toys for Tots "2020 Teddy Bear Road Rally"
by Peter Schneider, Rallymaster
December 6, 2020, marked the 30th Annual ‘Toys for Tots’ Teddy Bear Road Rally, hosted by the Northern New Jersey Region of the SCCA and the Motorsport Club of North Jersey. This year's sponsor and the sponsor for the past eight years was Route 46 Subaru in Hackettstown, New Jersey.

Forty-nine (49) teams competed in this year’s event, and it looks like the event was a little harder than anticipated because not one of the teams ran the rally ‘clean’; everyone fell for at least one of the seven planned route following traps.
 
The NNJR-SCCA/MCNJ’s "Toys for Tots" Teddy Bear Rally is the longest-running charity rally associated with SCCA. It is the longest-running event hosted by the Northern New Jersey Region and holds the honor of the second-longest rally conducted by the same event organizer! Ted Goddard organized the SCCA New England Region Cover Bridge Rally for forty-nine years. Since 1990, NNJR-SCCA/MCNJ have collected over 3,700 toys with an estimated value of $27,000. This year alone, we raised more than $1,800.00 due to the rally community's generous support. We hope to continue the event for many years to come.
 
This event is a simple to follow RoadRally using the back roads of Morris, Warren, and Hunterdon Counties. The event started at 46 SUBARU in Hackettstown/Budd Lake and ended about 57 miles later at the Long Valley Brew Pub in Long Valley, NJ.
 
The rally is open to the general public and requires only a car or light truck with a working odometer and a pen/pencil to compete. The event is not a Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) rally but a lightly trapped Social "gimmick" rally. The entry fee, per car, is a brand new Teddy Bear or new toy worth at least $35.00 retail, donated to the USMC Reserve Toys for Tots Program.
Toys for Tots began in 1947 when Major Bill Hendricks and a group of Marine Reservists in Los Angeles collected and distributed 5,000 toys to needy children. The idea came from Bill's wife, Diane Hendricks. In the fall of 1947, Diane crafted a homemade doll and asked Bill to deliver the doll to an organization, which would give it to a needy child at Christmas. When Bill determined that no agency existed, Diane told Bill that he should start one. He did. The 1947 pilot project was so successful that the Marine Corps adopted Toys for Tots in 1948 and expanded it into a nationwide campaign. 
 
The Teddy Bear rally is a mileage-based course rally. One hundred points are 'awarded' for each mile variance from the official route. The contestants note their car's odometer reading at unmanned (DIY) checkpoints as listed in the route instructions. The club utilizes an odometer calibration leg to compute corrected leg mileages and compare them with the official leg mileages to determine the score.
Since 2016, the Region has been posting event notifications on Facebook and targeting individuals in the NJ, NY, and Pennsylvania area with low-cost ads and email blasts on Constant Contact. We have been able to maintain a steady list of entries for our events.
 
Since its inception, the Toys for Tots rally has used "Photo Clues" (a format borrowed from the Metro Porsche Club - Snowflake Rally, which has a 65-year history) to provide contestants a little extra challenge. These Photo Clues can be compared to "Lettered Route Instructions" used on SCCA National Course events. The Photos are of signs/scenes along the rally route, which at times are hard to spot (but not impossible), or are taken of easy to see common everyday signs that have slight variations due to weathering or defects. All of these features must be taken into account when correctly executing a Photo Clue instruction. In addition to the Photo Clues, the rally has also used standard route following traps based on the ‘Onto’ rule and reversed numbered route instructions. All route "traps" are self-correcting, with the difference in the official on-course vs. off-course mileage helping separate the scores.
 
This year's event had an odometer leg and three scored legs that contained simple route following traps and could be driven in about two hours. Since some of the route following traps 'short cutted' the course, several teams shortcutted to finish the event in less time.
 
Due to Covid-19 precautions, the route instructions and all event paperwork were emailed out to the 35 teams that signed up for the event in advance; the idea was to limit personal interaction the day of the event.
Leg 1
The first route following trap on the rally was a simple reversed Route Instruction numbering trap. Since this happened at the very beginning of the event, it caught the majority of the teams, including several experienced teams. Inst #2 and Inst #3 were listed on the Instruction Sheet "out of order." If you did not notice the "trap." you made a R out of the 46 Subaru dealership and turned R FOPP on Harris Lane, and a L FOPP just like we have done in the past and then came to the SIG at Route 46 and Naughright Rd. (Inst #4).
 
If you did notice that the instructions were out of order, you make a R out of the driveway and a L FOPP (at SIG) and then a R FOPP (on Drakestown Rd). You then traveled downhill on Drakestown Rd to a Forced R on Route 46 East to the SIG at Route 46 and Naughright Rd. (Inst #4). Yet either way you did Inst #2 and Inst #3, you would now be looking to execute the first Special Instruction, which was Photo A the crossroad sign for Flocktown Rd. Falling for this trap caused the contestants to shortcut the route by 2.44 miles.
 
The second trap was a Special Instruction Clue – Photo B. The three signs shown in Photo B were all attached to a Telephone Pole and, per the Cover Sheet, were not valid and should have been ignored. If you did notice that the Special Instruction Clue was not valid, you would have proceeded straight at the intersection of Stephensburg Rd and executed Instruction #7 on Route 57 East. If you did not notice the Telephone Pole, you made a right on Stephensburg Rd prior to executing a right for Instruction #7 on Route 57 East. Falling for this trap caused the contestants to shortcut the route by 3.9 miles.
 
The third trap was also based on a Special Instruction Clue, Inst #9, R FOPP after passing the sign in PHOTO C. There were two blue signs for the Rockport Train Wreck Memorial. The correct sign was immediately after you turn left on Hazen Rd. If you noticed that sign, you would have made the 1st right turn to remain on Hazen Rd. If you missed that sign, there was a second one a little further down the road. By turning after the second sign, you would have made a right on Blau Rd and gone "off-course." No matter which signed you turned after, everyone made a Left at STOP an Inst #10 and got back on-course for Inst # 11. The penalty of the trap was only 0.30 miles under the official route.
 
The next self-correcting trap was Inst #13 "L FOPP after Parke Rd." To execute this instruction correctly, you need to pass the actual road (since we told you to turn after the actual road and not the road sign) and turn left on Janes Chapel Rd, and not turn after the sign for Parke Rd, which would have put you on Parke Rd. No matter where you turned, Inst #14 put you on Valley Rd heading towards Inst #15. Falling for this trap resulted in the teams shortcutting the route by 0.90 miles.
Leg 2
The first trap in Leg 2 involved two Special Instruction Clues (Photos D & E), which were activated simultaneously. While Photo E was the second one listed, the sign depicted "CIRCA 1865" was the 1st sign you should have seen. “CIRCA 1865” was hard to see on the side of a house at #189 Mitchell Rd. If you missed the "CIRCA 1865" sign, you would have encountered the "SHY HOUND FARM" sign and turned left on Hoffman Rd. Either way, the route self-corrected by heading north on Route 629. Failing to see the sign in Photo E, you would have added 2.7 mileages (270 mileage points) to your score.
 
The sixth trap of the rally was a simple "Onto" instruction. Inst #19 "L onto Watters Road," since you were placed onto a road by name or number, you should have remain onto Watters when it turned left at the intersection of Watters Road & Heiser Road. The rally reconnected after everyone turned left on Route 57 East. This also added 90 mileage points (over mileage) to your score.
Leg 3
The seventh and last trap of the event occurred just after Inst #26. A Special Instruction Clue instructed you to turn left after passing "PHOTO F." Per the General Instructions, words and/or numbers contained between quotes refer to a sign and not an object. So instead of turning after the black and yellow tractor sign depicted in Photo F, which was a red herring, you should have turned after a sign that contained the words PHOTO F. Yes, this was a little tricky, and the 1st time in 30 years that a trap of this type was used on the Teddy Bear Rally. Only one Expert Team (Jim and Rose Wakemen) did this trap correctly.
 
Leg 4
This was the Odometer Leg. No route following traps on this leg, but it did include two simple Photo Clues that needed to be correctly executed to stay on-course. Everyone got a zero on this leg. Since the rally organizers utilize an Excel Spreadsheet to compare the contestant's leg mileage to the official mileage, any leg that does not contain a route following trap can be used as the odometer leg.
Final Results
The rally is scored by totaling the team's mileage penalty (using an absolute value formula) for each leg. The Rallymaster cannot mix "over" and "under" mileage traps in the same leg; else, they will cancel each out.
 
The event was scored in three classes: Novice, Intermediate, and Expert, with Special Awards for Best First Timer, Best Subaru, Best Porsche, Best Family, Best Husband & Wife/Partners, and Dead Last But Finished. Since this was the 30th Annual Teddy Bear Rally, each of the eight teams that got ‘Place Awards’ (four deep in Novice Class and two deep in Expert and Intermediate) received a framed Toys For Tots poster and two medals to hang around their necks. All Special Award receipts received medals.

Click here for the complete standings from our Teddy Bear Rally!
 
The SCCA-NNJR and the Motorsport Club of North Jersey would like to thank all that participated in the event, as well as Route 46 Subaru, our sponsor these past nine years.
 
Thank you to our Safety Stewards Eric and Pat Sjogren, who also worked two Passage Controls and Bob Shore, who ran sweep. Special thank you to Joanne Schneider, my wife, who checked out the event with me several times, worked registration, and for her assistance with the event over the last 30 years.
Friday Night Run of the Month
From the Armchair Rally Archives of Gary Starr
I have always enjoyed teaching those new to our sport the Road Rally concepts for Course and Tour rallies. 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, so they get frustrated and never return. There is just no way to practice and learn rally traps before running the actual event. And Rallymasters don't help by making the traps way too hard. These Armchair Rallies are an excellent tool to introduce the concepts and show how to navigate trap rallies without even getting in your car. And believe me, the traps in these mimic the actual traps on real events. After doing a few of these, you will be ready to take on the challenge of Course rallies!

Again this month, I'm offering both an easy rally for those new to our sport and a harder one for those ready for more challenge. All these Armchair rallies were scanned in from my original paper generals, so some are a little faded. I have also added handwritten notes on some, circled important Generals sentences, or put obvious arrows pointing to the Generals' areas you'll need to do the Armchair Rally.

The simpler rally is the 1985 Aquatennial Tour du Lac, by Dave Fuss. This rally has no Main Road. You just follow the course using the “Following the Course” section in the rules.

The hard rally is the 1975 Appalachian, by Dave Teter and David Laffitte. Laffitte sent me this Friday Night Run back in April 2020, upon reading this column. He was involved in designing it and drew the map himself. This rally has a Main Road and a very unique Course Following Priority list, which uses four different "Modes" to move the position of the route instruction in a variable Priority List for course following. Use my circled items (with my arrows pointing to them) in the generals to execute the instructions properly. Study these circled items (or rules) carefully as traps will be based on them and they can get tricky.

You can certainly do this from your screen by clicking on the images below, yet I encourage you to print it out and head to the "START" line with a pencil. Depart on Route Instruction #1 and enjoy the adventure!

Send me an email at maprallies@comeroadrallywith.us. I would love to get feedback from you on these rallies and this column. I have heard of various rallyists having archives of these, and I encourage you to share them with us!
There's an App for That
Richta Apps at Year End by Rich Bireta
I want to provide you with a year-end update on the happenings in the world of GPS timing and scoring and a peek at the enhancements planned for 2021. 

2020 App Usage
Rallymasters of 56 events used the Richta GPS Timing and Scoring System, timing 812 cars through 1,911 checkpoints.

Over 32,000 timeslips were generated in 2020, bringing the total number of timeslips created since April 2019 to over 45,000. The speed of adopting this system has been very gratifying to me personally, and I view it as an indication that we got many things "right" in the system design.

Road rally programs from coast-to-coast have adopted the Richta GPS Timing and Scoring family of apps! SCCA Regions include Cal Club's Santa Monica Sports Car Club, Milwaukee, Detroit, South Jersey, Northeast Ohio and Southern Indiana. The Cascade Sports Car Club, based out of Portland, Oregon, used the system for their TSsD (Time Speed Social Distance) Saturday Series throughout 2020 and their annual events. Three Porsche Club of America Regions have been using the system successfully. With apologies to any club I may have missed, we are grateful for each of you! I am especially heartened to see the SCCA San Diego Region, which is new to the sport of road rally, the SCCA Texas Region, which has reintroduced TSD rallying, and the Mercedes Benz Club in Atlanta start their programs with our system. As well, we have many testing and training events, as Rallymasters and organizers evaluate the system.

Thank You
The Richta GPS Timing and Scoring System is the product of more than me alone. While I do take credit for the overall architecture and design of the system and all Android programming, we would not be where we are today without several key individuals' contributions.
My oldest son, David Bireta, is an iOS (Apple) developer in Chicago. He is responsible for the Apple implementations of both the Competitor and Rallymaster apps. David also deserves credit for several key system design decisions: the use of the Google Firestore database, the design of the Map in Rallymaster (which shows CP and entrant locations in near real-time), and the design of the Competitor app user interface. By the way, I shamelessly copied that design for the Android version in the summer of 2019.

David also designed the Apple version of Rallymaster from a clean sheet of paper. His implementation is easier to use than the Android version (Cars and Checkpoints, to name two). More on this topic under Planned 2021 Enhancements.

Jim Crittenden, 2020 SCCA RoadRally Board Chair from the SCCA Milwaukee Region, has been instrumental from the very start of development, participating in the system's design, testing, and support. Many new Rallymasters were tutored in the use of the system under his guidance.

Gary Starr has spent his time and professional skills testing the system, and he has made several useful suggestions for the system design. Gary has also found several bugs in the system, which avoided discovering them in production use. Gary uses his attention to detail and his extensive rally experience to explore the boundaries of the system's use. 

Thank you, David, Jim, and Gary! We would be where we are today without your contributions!
 
2021 Planned Enhancements
New releases of Competitor, Rallymaster, and Scoreboard are planned for release in 2021.

Click here to read more about the upcoming enhancements to the Richta Family of Rally Apps, Pre-Event Final Preparation Tasks, and Hints, Tips and Emerging Best Practices. It is worth the read!


From RReNews — Bireta provided us a wonderful piece for the There's an App for That!, and we bring the balance of it to via a pdf-file. We sure hope you clicked above to keep reading. The App has truly transformed our sport and many Rallymasters are planning for it's use in 2021!
History in a Dash Plaque
Inaugural Column by Clyde Heckler
Some Old, Old Dash Plaques and Awards
I took a look at some old dash plaques that I had in a scrapbook. There wasn't always a story involved; some of the plaques just seemed unique, clever, or whatever. The scrapbook also contained some photos of awards taken in a space-saving effort to photograph and discard some of them. I'm going to separate them into two sections, Buckingham Sports Car Club, a local club in the Philadelphia area to which I belonged, and some Sports Car Club of America National and Divisional events.
This rally featured a "Total Overlap" concept. Example: after executing the first part of a multi-part instruction (Left, then Right at Stop), the next instruction became eligible for execution. Note the use of common letters N and O in November Nomad and T and L in Total Overlap.
This was a Pennsylvania Rally Championship Association (PRCA) event. The instructions were contained in a triangle format as depicted on the dash plaque. After executing one execution, you could then execute the instruction triangle either to the left or right of that instruction, moving back and forth across the page.

The General Instructions also stated that all Checkpoints would be indicated in the route instructions. The final three instructions left to right were: Checkpoint, Right at T, and End Timed Portion of Rally at Stop. I was the lead car and was observing cars entering the referenced Checkpoint. Outgoing RRB chair Jim Crittenden said to me, "Make sure the crew doesn't give me a quick restart time. I don't want to be late at the next Checkpoint." Jim had figured out the trap. After doing the Right at T, you entered another Checkpoint.
This rally featured a "Democratic Main Road," a concept that Mike Thompson has used for some past Oktoberallys. Several Main Road Rules were used, such as Onto, Protection, Curve Arrows, and T Rule. All rules had the same priority. You were to proceed in whichever direction the most rules took you.
In addition to the regular classes, there was an additional class called the Team Class. Two cars formed a Team, and a "Checkpoint" occurred each time they "passed" their other team member, and they noted that time. You could pass your team member by approaching them head-on or overtaking them because they were at a slower speed or pausing. Those that ran the Team Class seemed to enjoy it, although few entered the class, even though Buckingham offered to pair up entries wanting to run that class. Of course, the dash plaque repeated the event name twice.
NER scheduled their Double National on Thanksgiving weekend (note the shadow effect of the word "Double"). The rallies were trap/course rallies and were on Friday (with a later start) and Saturday, allowing competitors to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner at home on Thursday and return home on Sunday.

One problem, though, it snowed, and the roads were snowy and icy. NER invoked emergency speeds and promised a sweep car with a winch, but things were still a bit dicey. At one point, while coming around a bend, we tried to avoid another vehicle in the ditch on the right and banged hard into a snowbank on the left, pushing the left front fender perilously close to the tire. We were afraid that almost any turn would scrape the tire against the fender. So we jacked the fender away from the tire and were on our way if a bit late. Later we came into an uphill T trying to decide which way to go. The next thing we know, we're sliding backward on the ice into a ditch.

No one seems to be coming as we are running late—no sweep car and winch in sight. Maybe we're off course. I decide to take the spare set of routes and start walking while driver Bob Fink stays with the car. I stroll into an on-course passage control. The crew isn't sure they should give us credit; they "want to see a car." Just then, here comes Bob, a farmer pulled him out. I always wondered what would have happened if we didn't go the same way?
I'm sure today's Insurance and Risk Department would frown upon it, but Old Dominion Region's Colonial Trail included, at some unknown point, a "fastest through the forest" section.

A flagger with a green flag would start the section, and another flagger with a checkered flag would end the section, which was a free zone. Awards were given for fastest and slowest through the forest. We were traveling in a section of unpaved roads, and the Generals had specified that only unpaved roads with a name or number or controlled by a stop or yield sign existed. The next instruction was just a plain Left. All of a sudden, out jumps the flagger with a green flag. We hit it, and then I yell, "Stop, there's a left!" But no criteria for existence, so we hit it again and soon find the checkered flag. We complained, but hands down won the slowest award.

Still don't know why no one else investigated the potential road. A nice touch by ODR (Norfolk, VA), they took pictures of each car in a cloud of dust and presented them at the finish.
The Search (for the Great Pumpkin): Another NER event, which started near Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. It was a night rally. The late Mark Rerick was the Rallymaster. Mark's usual partner, Jim Friedman, talked me into running, and we did well. Awards were canvas bags, orange of course. Can't recall much about the rally, but I do remember Kit Caruthers and Bill Todd running with a lighted pumpkin attached to their car's roof throughout the event.     

Hope you found something to chuckle about in these stories of long ago events!
Good News across the Internet —
Sports Car Club of America

The 2021 SCCA National Convention will be conducted virtually with training and sessions taking place throughout the month of January. Stay tuned for more details and full schedule coming December 1st, 2020 The virtual convention will include...

Read more
www.scca.com
SCCA Virtual Convention Road Rally Sessions
by Cheryl Lynn, RReNews
After founding the Arctic Alaska Region to provide a home for Road Rally in Alaska, I have attended most of the SCCA Conventions since becoming an SCCA Member.

I have made new acquaintances at Conventions, some of whom have become friends. I have spent hours catching up with long time friends at Conventions, in hallways, over dinner and drinks, and in hotel rooms. It has provided the chance to speak directly with the SCCA Board of Directors and had them seek me out to assure me, "Cheryl, we support your road rally program. It is not going away. Come to us with a solid direction, and there is money available!"

There are memories from Boston "walking the streets," the San Antonio River Walk 'n jalapeno eating contest, the Baltimore Aquarium, departing the Boston Convention and zipping out to dinner at Jim and Gloria Barbour's home, dinners out with Region members at a BBQ restaurant in Kansas City (which has since blown up) and San Diego's SeaWorld. Meeting BOD Steve Harris and having him "believe" in me. Guest speakers, technical speakers, and speakers who stunned their audiences! There was great joy in celebrating evenings with friends when they won awards for their volunteer spirit and contributions.

And this year, we who hold an SCCA Membership will be allowed to attend without leaving our families, work, and homes. We can dial into a myriad of sessions from SCCA Administration, RallyCross, Solo aka Autocross, Club Racing, and...Road Rally!

Times shown are CST, where the SCCA National Office is located:
Saturday, January 23rd
Convention Kick-Off Uniting to Fuel our Future, 10-11A
RRB Town Hall, Mike Bennett, 430-6P
SCCA Honors & Hall of Fame, 7-9P

Monday, January 25th
How to Organize Your First Rally, 7-730P
Introduction to Trek Rallies, 730-8P
How to Build Attendance at Your RoadRally, 8-9P

Tuesday, January 26th
Events in the COVID Era and Beyond, 6-650P

Wednesday, January 27th
SCCA Sanction & Audit - Navigating the Process, 7 PM

Thursday, January 28th
Marketing - 2021 SCCA Digitial Strategy, 630-8P

Friday, January 29th
The Future of Training and Communication at the SCCA, 9-10A
Risk Management, 12P

Saturday, January 30th
RoadRally Safety Steward Training, 2-4P

Monday, February 1st
SCCA Membership Products and Processes, 12-1230P
RoadRally - Intro to TSD, 7-8P

Thursday, February 4th
Marketing 101 - Region Strategies, 630-8P

Monday, February 8th
Introduction to GPS-Based RoadRally, 7-8P
Advanced GPS-Based RoadRally, 8-9P

Monday, February 15th
RoadRally as a Social Activity, 7-8P
RoadRally Wrap-Up/Q&A, 8-9P

Thursday, February 18th
Marketing 202: Email Marketing, 630-8P

Need more? Click here for the entire agenda, yet signup today!
Goss Goes Digital
Hey! We paid good money for this when it came out – and it is still a valued resource. In case you missed this last month, "After 27 years in print, we just made the Road Rally Handbook available as a free PDF download. It's 400+ pages and faithful to the original ... Clint Goss"

Many of us have a copy on our shelves, and now you can click the image above and have a copy on your computer or smart device too!
Dash Plaques Revisited in 2021
With many having free time during "work from home," retirement, or perhaps just well organized and "know where they are," we would like to have readers submit photos of dash plaques from past events and share a short (or long) story about the event! A humorous tale, legendary story, special memory of the rally – told as a Competitor, Checkpoint Worker, or Rallymaster. We welcome all!

We are very appreciative that Clyde Heckler took on the challenge for our Inaugural column, and we hope you enjoyed the stories he shared!

Please help us share the history of rallying across North America and send us your dash plaque photo and its story. Click here to send them on their way. Our plan is to run a few in each edition, as we're optimistic that you'll be sending in your contribution to Dash Plaque History to us!
Great Lakes Division Championship Standings & News
by Gregory Lester
2020 Great Lakes Division Championship Series Points
2021 Great Lakes Championship Series
The year's Championship Series will kick off with the Detroit Region's Son of Sno*Drift XXIII, on Saturday, January 16, 2021. The rally will start at the Days Inn in Whitmore Lake, MI. Registration is open on motorsportreg.com and pre-registration is required – there will be no walk-up entries this year.

2020 SCCA Great Lakes Rally Championship Schedule
Our very preliminary 2021 GLD Championship schedule is ready. We look forward to the return of several events that were canceled in 2020. Expect date and venue changes as the schedule firms up!

Please address any questions about our standings directly to me by clicking Greg Lester.
Smuncher's Attic
A look back to 1968 by Handley, and 57 Events Scheduled Before Season!
Smuncher's Attic is our gift from the Archives of Bruce Gezon. A National Champion (many times over), Rallymaster, friend, worthy competitor, and has a treasure trove of rally history. And in 2021, he will also be an inductee in the SCCA Hall of Fame!

From Bruce, to go along with the January 1969 Rallyist Newsletter, “Harry M. Handley was our cheerleader in the hallowed halls of SCCA Headquarters in Westport, Connecticut. His annual wrap-up was always full of useful information, and much of his wisdom still hits home today.

Note that 57 events were calendared by January 15, 1969. After this years' problems, wouldn't it be great to have half that number scheduled for after July 1st, 2021?

Enjoy another edition of Smuncher's Attic! Click on the image to view the Rallyist Newsletter.
Motorsportreg on Speed Waivers
Enhancements and Special Pricing
It’s been a quick four months since we officially launched SpeedWaiver, our innovative motorsport-specific electronic signature system. In that time over 67,000 waviers have been signed, across 148 organizations and 1541 events.

We unveiled this product quickly in order to meet the demand for safer events, while ensuring secure storage of signed waivers. Since launch, we’ve solicited feedback from you, our customers, and have taken that feedback and put it into action. We’re happy to announce the following enhancements have been completed:
  • To ensure your check in process is lightning fast, we've added the ability to filter your waivers to both specific event and/or waiver statuses when viewing signed waivers. 
  • We now support annual waivers and "daily" waivers. These are commonly used at race tracks and organizations utilizing a waiver covering multiple events on a day or throughout the year. 
  • If you'd like to integrate SpeedWaiver with your CRM or other 3rd party software, we've released both an API and webhooks that will allow your technical team to keep things in sync. 

We're not stopping there! The following future enhancements are also in the works;
  • Adding the ability to issue minor waivers. 
  • Enhanced filtering with the ability to see waivers directly in your MotorsportReg event attendee listing. 
  • We're also hard at work to allow waiver signing invitations to be issued directly at registration time.
Special Pricing 
While 2020 is winding down, motorsports events have been heating up – September registrations on MSR were up 23%, for example. We’re optimistic that this will continue into next year, bringing more events and more opportunities for enthusiasts to get behind the wheel.

That said, looking at the COVID forecast for the upcoming months, with an anticipated rise in cases expected, we want to remove all barriers to using electronic waivers to ensure motorsport events can continue to safely operate through these challenging times.

To help keep the momentum going, we’re happy to announce a special offer on SpeedWaiver for ALL organizations (new and existing). Starting 10/1/2020 and running through 5/31/2021, SpeedWaiver fees will be waived, regardless of number of waivers signed.

Already using SpeedWaiver? No need to do anything, you’ll automatically have your fees waived. Not signed up yet? Click here to go to our webpage and learn more about SpeedWaiver today! Or send us a note at info@speedwaiver.com.  


A few words from RReNews: this is wonderful news for our road rally programs, as it further reduces the contact point at Registration, as well as the worry of storage of Waivers post-event.
United States Road Rally Challenge News
What is the United States Road Rally Challenge (USRRC)?
The SCCA’s United States Road Rally Challenge, or the USRRC as it’s commonly known, is an opportunity for road rallyists from all around the country to come together to celebrate road rallying with 3 days of rallying. The annually held USRRC is hosted from year to year by the various SCCA Regions with road rally programs. This year the Detroit Region was proud to once again host the USRRC over the November 13-15th weekend, having done so previously in 2012.

Click here to view the 2020 standings from the Detroit Region's sanctioning of the USRRC!

Where will the USRRC be held in 2021?
We heard from Mike Thompson, who shared that SCCA Land O'Lakes Region will be sanctioning the 2021 United States Road Rally Challenge. The Sturculinus Creek Road Rally will be a National Course Rally on July 30th, Tomah Trails will be a National Tour on July 31st, and The GR8 Purple Cow Road Rally wraps up the weekend on August 1st as a National Tour. Mike and Clarence Westberg will serve as Rallymasters. The USRRC will be based out of Sparta, Wisconsin. Stay tuned for more information as they work out the details.
Upcoming Road Rally Events for YOU!
Post Your Upcoming Rally Dates and Invites HERE?
After the middle of March, we saw 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.

Our goal is to share news about our beloved sport of Road Rally across North America — be they sanctioned by the SCCA, PCA, BMW, Furrin Group, Cascade Sports Car Club, or any of the many local marque clubs or as community events!

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!
VT: Winter Challenge Rally, February 27, 2021

John Buffum. Winter Challenge Rally. Do we need to say anything further?

Read more
winterchallengerally.com
NY: Ithaca Winter Rally, January 23, 2021

Road Rally w/ SCCA - Finger Lakes Region - Ithaca, NY - This will be an awesome TSD road rally of approx. 185 rally miles using mostly unpaved roads in the southern part of Central New York.

Read more
www.motorsportreg.com
GA: The Dahlone GALLOP Rally, January 31, 2021

Road Rally w/ MBCA - Peachtree on Sunday, January 31, 2021 at Lot 16, Dahlonega, GA 30533, Dahlonega, GA - The Peachtree Section of the Mercedes Benz Club of America and Silver Star Motorsports presents The DahloneGALLOP Rally: A 2021 MBCA...

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www.motorsportreg.com
MI: Son of Sno*Drift XXIII, January 16, 2021

Saturday, January 16, 2021, at Days Inn, Whitmore Lake, MI - Son of Sno*Drift XXII A Winter Rally (we hope), and is intended to be a winter rally. As such, it is hoped...

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www.motorsportreg.com
MN: Minnesoata Valley Winter Rally, January 30, 2021

Road Rally w/ SCCA - Land O' Lakes Region - Road Rally on Saturday, January 30, 2021 at Henderson RoadHaus, Henderson, MN - Minnesota Valley Winter Rally is a Regularity Rally run in the Minnesota Valley near Henderson and Le Sueur. The course...

Read more
www.motorsportreg.com
CA: Rose Petals & Gas Pedals Road Rally, Feb 13, 2021

An SCCA San Diego Region sanctioned Navigational (Time/Speed/Distance) RoadRally. Saturday, February 13th, departing in the morning and finishing before noon A beginners meeting (an introduction for newcomers) will be held online the week before ...

Read more
www.motorsportreg.com
SCCA RoadRally Championships Crowned for 2020
by B. Gezon
December 20, 2020 - Today, the Sports Car Club of America announced the winners of the 2020 RoadRally National Championship. The winners scored the most points in the season-long series of events. Awards for the Tour Series are presented in three classes and the GTA Series by overall standings. The Course Series was not conducted in 2020 due to event limitations because of COVID-19.
 
National Tour Rally Championship series consisted of two National and nine Divisional events hosted by five regions.
                        Class E  Rob Moran - Brunswick, OH 

                        Class L  Satish Gopalkrishnan - Jersey City, NJ - tied
                                       Savera D’Souza - Jersey City, NJ - tied

                        Class S Alison Lee - Northville, MI - tied
                                      Sawyer Stone - Plymouth, MI - tied
                                  J Toney - Woodland, CA - tied
                                    Jessica Toney - San Carlos, CA - tied           
 
National GTA Rally Championship series consisted of three Divisional events hosted by three regions.
 
                        Overall: R. Bruce Gezon - Murrysville, PA -tied
                                      C. Robert Morseburg - Seattle, WA - tied
                                      Chris Regan - Salem, CT - tied

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.

SCCA Manufacturer Championship by B. Gezon
The recent years of the Championship have shown team preference based on performance, whereas the early years were greatly influenced by sponsorship and contingency monies paid out by various marques to reward top finishing positions. The first three years, in the mid-60s, were dominated by Chrysler with their Chrysler 300 Rally Team. Volvo had one year of success before the Ford Rally Team, and Competition Limited entries in their Ford Mach 1 team cars took the honors for a couple of years. Soon Datsun was paying out monies to top finishers, be they members of formal teams or not. After Ford dropped its program Datsun (Nissan) swept the next eleven years. In 1977 SCCA Manufacturer Support Programs consisted of Chrysler, Datsun, and Toyota. Support money eventually disappeared, as did the award. Revived in 1989 but separated into Course and Tour, it was mostly dominated by Toyota with one win each by Audi, Nissan, and two by BMW.

Enter Subaru. They won their first in 1994 but lost out to Toyota and Pontiac for a couple of years during a brief rejuvenation of the award. When the RoadRally Board brought the award back to stay in 2004, Subaru was the rally car of choice and dominated the Championship while losing only once to MINI.

But times are a-changing, in case you haven’t noticed. The new normal had only one hundred ninety-one cars entered in 2020. Nineteen percent of them were a Subaru, but winning was Volkswagen with twenty percent of the points gathered by just twelve percent of the entries. Are they the new normal performance winner? 2021 is here, and many more events than last year are already on the calendar. Will the new normal produce a new winner?

Click here for the complete 2020 Manufacturer Standings.
SCCA Matters — Words from the Wheel: SCCA Natl News, Rally Planning Calendar, and RRB Minutes
Update from RRB Chairman Crittenden
The schedule of rallies for 2021 is already looking very good - see the SCCA Planning calendar from Jeanne English below. Please keep Jeanne informed of your Region's plans for upcoming rallies. You will see on the calendar that the 2021 USRRC has been approved and hosted by Land O'Lakes Region. It will feature two National Tour Rallies and one National Course Rally from veteran Rallymasters Mike Thompson and Clarence Westberg.

The SCCA Board of Directors has approved the rule changes that the Road Rally Board requested. These changes mostly relate to updating the Road Rally Rules for the new GPS checkpoints. The 2021 Road Rally Rules will be available on the SCCA website by January 1st and in print form from Amazon by the end of January.

The RRB has chosen the recipients for five RoadRally awards: Robert V. Ridges Award, Divisional Achievement Award, Best New Regional Program Award, Regional Achievement Award, and the W. David Teter Best Tour Rally. Recipients for these five awards will be announced at the Annual SCCA Convention.

Jim Heine will be retiring from the National Events Committee and will be replaced by J Toney. I will be retiring from the Road Rally Board and will be replaced by Larry Scholnick. Mike Bennett will assume the Chair of the RRB. Thank you to Jim Heine for his years of service on the NEC, and thank you to J Toney, Larry Scholnick, and Mike Bennett for stepping up in service to SCCA and our beloved sport of RoadRally.

Best regards,
Jim Crittenden
Chair - Road Rally Board
SCCA RoadRally Planning Calendar
SCCA RoadRally Board Minutes
From the Home Office at Cohoe Beach...
All is white, yet the days are getting longer...
Short. Not that everything will change with the simple "flip" of the calendar page, yet here is to an upcoming year when our freedoms return – to congregate, fly at the drop of the hat to other parts of the world, dine with friends and the camaraderie at the end of our road rallies!

The passing of Jim Jurgenson, on December 10th, added to the grief and loss of four others in my year of 2020. I shall miss his smile at Milwaukee Region events, conversations - live and via email, love of the Datsun 510, following his adventures of motorcycle and racing treks, his grandchildren and family photos, surprising him with Secret Santa gifts, Facebook interactions and comments, and our friendship that was being forged. In November he wrote, "Really amazing to see how this publication has grown since its conception. Keep up the great work." Jim and I had talked of running a rally together in the Midwest, and "there will be time for that."

We received the news of the SCCA Hall of Fame Selection Committee and were delighted that a road rally member was going to be inducted; we believe it is the first inductee who earned this honor solely for their competition honors and longevity of service to the sport of road rally. Congratulations to R. Bruce Gezon on being inducted into the Class of 2021 with Tom Campbell, John Fergus, Lloyd Loring, and Donna Mae Mims!

We are not quite sure when this edition of RReNews will get out the door, yet we are already working on the January edition! Please, in 2021, make it a priority to send in road rally dates in your area as soon as you can. We know of three rallyists, who saw an event in RReNews and trekked to catch an event. Post-event, send us your wrap-up and standings; we understand they may already be shared with competitors or your clubs' webpage.

Something else to consider? Write a piece for our Dash Plaques with History, My First Road Rally, First Time as a Rallymaster, There's An App for That, or a piece of rally news or history from your part of the world! We are going to start a piece in January gathering input on the longest-running road rally (with a few categories), and hope to hear from many of you with leads!

Last month we shared RReNews is a volunteer effort, yet we have a few hard costs each year! Should you be using Constant Contact as your clubs' email service, consider working with us – thank you to SCCA Kentucky Region and Northern New Jersey for their support and for joining us! Should your business or non-profit organization be with CTCT and not working with a Partner, I would encourage you to place your account with us! Interested in reaching your membership or business clientele via CTCT – let's talk! You'll be helping a fellow motorsport enthusiast, and it won't cause your club, region, or organization to change the way they handle their account. Our magnets have arrived, and we hope some of you will purchase some of our upcoming merchandise and there are some vintage tee shirts we talked of last month too!

For those of you who are SCCA Members, I hope to "see" you at many of the road rally sessions during our 2021 Virtual SCCA Convention. We have the Monday night slot, and SCCA has made this a no-registration fee event, so please choose to join in! You can register by clicking here!

Our friends at Hagerty Motorsportreg are offering three-weeks of high-speed learning customized for motorsports organizers and promoters! Click here, check out the offerings, and register today! The classes are February 2-18, 2021, and have no fee. Keep in mind that fees are reduced for the Hagerty Motorsport SpeedWaivers into May 2021, a great means to keep our road rally enthusiasts safe!

Congratulations to Peter and Joanne Schneider on the 30th Annual Teddy Bear Road Rally. The West Coast rallyists got us started on collecting a bit of history on longevity rallies, Rallymasters, funds raised through rallying, highest number of teams (perhaps this one should be by decade), and we ask that if you know of a long-running rally, please send us the details! Click here to send me an email today.

Our passion for road rally continues, and I know that schedules are filling. Be sure to drop us a note and share your event dates and details with us! Be well. — Cheryl Lynn, a member of the RReNews Clan
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? Checkout the lastest #comeroadrally search!
We wondered too, so we pulled the hashtag today 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:
Road Rally eNews, produced in association with the Sports Car Club of America, since 2013