Christmas Lights

A very Merry Christmas to the readers of this blog wherever you are in the world. I wish you everything that you wish for yourselves at this festive time of year.

Things have been a tad quiet hereabouts due to the pressures of work and preparations for the holiday season. Plus, the writing muse has deserted me of late so I had trouble putting together pieces for the blog. There are at least two blog posts hanging in limbo right now.

But last night, Saturday December 20th, we got out on a rallye. The Holiday Lights tour in the suburbs of Saint Paul, Minnesota. 

The Holiday lights tour is a hybrid. Part road Rallye, part festive fun. Put on by Mark Larson, who also puts on the highly successful Tombstone Trails tour Rally in the region around Halloween. This  event consists of driving around the local holiday lights displays and answering a series of questions about them. This tour is very popular and the thirty places available were quickly over subscribed.

Lorrie and I made some seasonal effort. She dressed up in one of her many Christmas sweaters and I, lacking a suitably festive garment, sported a Santa Hat. We reversed our usual driver/navigator roles. I like to think I'm a better than average map reader and Lorrie isn't comfortable map reading. Swapping roles is all part of the fun.

The event appeals to a wide spectrum of people. The local Road Rallye community, retired rallyists and the general public. All pay their three dollars for a map, instructions and questions sheet and set out at one minute intervals to navigate the 25 mile course in about two and a half hours.

You'll be thinking that 25 miles in a 150 minutes would pose no problem. 

Think again.

You're not the only 30 cars on this adventure. There's Stretch Limos, mini buses and large coaches on the route as well as well as other members of the general public checking out the same lights as you. Getting to the displays can be quite the adventure. Once, we even parked our car 100 yards away from a particularly large display and walked there because that was as close as we could get. 

But no matter, the whole thing was a great deal of fun. The map was easy to follow and the questions were a good mix of simple and testing. 

The displays ranged from the simple to the complex, sometimes the simplest of displays providing the most testing questions to answer.

A race car themed display in one yard.

How many candles can you count?

We made it all around the course without too many problems, we took a wrong turn once, but that was because the street sign had been twisted around and because I was following the map I could quickly see what had happened. We also missed a turn in South St. Paul but thanks to the map and the layout of city blocks it was easy to get back on course. 

Because of all the other people out and about I don't think anyone made it around the course in the allotted time, so it's a good job there were no time penalties assessed. Everyone had a great time and after enjoying some tasty pizza at the finish point there was an informal answer giving session where it was discovered that The Westberg sisters, Gwen and Liz were the winners with only two of the 70 questions answered incorrectly.

The post race question answering session.

If, like the Twin City Rally Club, you don't have an official "Holiday Party" you should perhaps consider an event like this. No prizes, just some friends having a good time doing what we usually do. 

Quote of the night comes from Liz Westberg during a discussion on counting candy canes. 

"A shepherds crook is not a candy cane. It says so in the generals". We burst out laughing. This gives you an idea of the good humor that the event was conducted in.

So a big thanks goes out to Mark, our organizer and his crew of helpers. We had a great time and plan to do the event next year.

I, my friends will see you next year. Wether it be on these pages or out on the roads at a rallye. I hope that your roads will be clear and your motor runs smoothly.

Iced Rum Runner 2015

Due to work commitments and a jam-packed Land O' Lakes region winter rallye schedule. Sadly, there will be no Iced Rum Runner in 2015.

Larking about.

Ever since I bought FG the MGB, my 1976 MGB roadster (the most beautiful rubber bumpered MGB in Minnesota) I've been after a collector car from 1963, the year I was born. It's been a long search. For British sports cars, the early sixties are prime years. The E-type Jag was introduced in 1962, the MG Midget in 1961 and the MGB itself in 1963. Add to that British Classics like the Bug Eye Sprite the Austin Healey and great Triumphs like the TR3 and TR4. It doesn't take a genius to realize that prices on these cars are at a premium and as a consequence out of my budget.

So I looked around for anything from 1963. Saab, Citroen, Renault, Volvo. Nothing. Well nothing that fit the budgetary requirements. After a while, a few 1963 American cars started to appear. Fords, Chevys, Caddys. All huge dreadnoughts of a car that would struggle to fit in our garage. So they were  out. Then a few vehicles I wasn't really aware of. An AMC Rambler caught my eye for a while until I took a closer look. It wasn't as good as the pictures made out. Then I saw this...

A 1963 Studebaker Cruiser. I knew the name Studebaker of course. Some of the most exciting and striking automotive designs of the 50's and 60's came out of South Bend, Indiana. The 1950 Champion Starlight Coupe being the most obvious example. I didn't know what a Cruiser was though. It was the top of the range of the Lark models. So much so that it didn't even carry the Lark name. It was just the "Cruiser". It was marketed as a more compact rival to the bigger limousines of the "big three" makers. Studebaker even coined the term "Limousette" to describe it.
I was captivated by the design, that Mercedes-esque grille and all those curves around the grille, headlights and chrome bumpers. So, my wife Lorrie and I decided to go and take a look at it. It didn't disappoint. The car is a stalled restoration project that hadn't run in some 20 years. But that body is sound, very sound. The paintwork is a joy to behold.
One word. Patina. The colour is known in Studebaker circles as Rosemist. It's officially a Purple. A Brownish Purple. But research seems to suggest that back in the day finishing a cars paint job with a clear lacquer was not done, so the shiny grayish purple has faded to a satin lavender grey. It's a brilliant looking finish that I love. It has to be kept like this. 

Needless to say we both fell in love with the car. So the price was agreed on and a few days later a friend and I made the trip from Princeton to Le Sueur, MN with a trailer to collect it.

The car hadn't been run in some 20 years and the fuel tank smelled like paint thinners so it was a good idea not to drive it. Right now, the car resides in a workshop, being cleaned up to get the motor running after 20 years of neglect.

Now research has begun to reveal the rallye history of Studebaker. The makers achieved great success in the Mobil Economy Run of the 50's and 60's. The successes of Studebaker and AMC cars in this event caused their vehicles to be put in a new, separate class because the big three automakers couldn't even come close to the figures (up to 25 mpg) recorded by these cars. 

Greater success was accorded to the Studebaker Lark winning the Shell 4000 rally outright in 1961 and 1962. 

So there you go, quite by accident I've ended up buying a car with a Rallye heritage. Quite the bonus. So perhaps once it's running we'll end up turning up to a road rallye in the car. Perhaps having been inspired by the whole experience of the Goodwood revival we will turn up to road rallies in a 1963 car wearing 1960's clothing, using 1960's navigation equipment. Who knows? 

Rum Runner 2014 Rallye report

Sunday October 5th dawned bright and sunny, it looked like a great day for a road rally as the organizing crew of my wife Lorrie, and I headed down to Coffee Corner in Princeton, MN to set up registration. Novices, being novices were showing up early and before the allotted time for the beginning of registration I was busying myself with some Road Rally 101 classes for them. The coffee shop filled up with entrants and crew very quickly and with the weather being as nice as it was people spilled over onto the tables outside to review their instructions in the bright sunshine. 

Lorrie starts work at registration 

Crews work on the instructions outside

Twelve cars of varying sorts had registered for the event (a new high for the Rum Runner events) and all of them set off on the rally at 1pm. This included a Fiat Spider, and Alfa Romeo Spider as well as a Ford F-150 and the usual Saabs, Subarus and Audis. 

The Rum Runner, being a relatively new event can still be relied on to turn up a whole new set of roads, indeed all but a few miles of this course were new and those that had been used before had been travelled in the opposite direction. The vast majority of the roads were gravel and I was quite proud of the route that I had put together and the colors of the fall leaves and the sunshine made for a very scenic drive.

Fall colors on the Rallye route

For the most part the event proceeded without too many issues, a control point worker took a wrong turn going to their control point and nearly missed setting up at one of their locations. But we were on it and there was a contingency placed that wasn't needed in the end. 

So, everything was going well until control 10. As I approached the control Kerry Freund told me that he'd just seen a deputy who was asking about what was going on. He had explained to the officer what was happening and gave him my phone number if he had any further questions. Which he did. I talked to the guy on the phone and he was mad. He shut the Rallye down there and then or issue us with a citation. I wasn't going to argue with that. He came back to the control where I got the chance to talk face to face. 

Apparently he had received complaints from some people about "loud cars with big numbers on them" driving recklessly. He had (mis) understood that this was a time trial or some kind of race and was adamant that we needed a permit. He proceeded to give me a long winded explanation as to why a permit was required comparing us to bike races and charity motor cycle rides. 

He did even check one of the cars over that answered the description of a "loud" car. But let them off with a warning.

When it comes down to it the officer was only doing his job. Someone had complained and he was doing his duty to investigate. I apologized for the confusion and work I had caused for him and we parted on civil terms. 

With that the event was done and I sadly ordered everyone back to the Neighbors Saloon in Princeton to see what we could salvage from the day. It was a long, depressing drive back from control 10 to the end point. Plenty of time for me to mull the situation in my head. Yes, a letter to the local Sheriff letting him know of the event might well have stopped this from happening, but the sending of a letter hadn't been mentioned by my "mentors" on previous Rum Runner events so I never gave it a thought. Besides, this deputy was so angry he could've even stopped the event if we had filed a letter with the Sheriffs office.

Thirty miles of thinking things over meant I was quite depressed when I arrived at the bar, but I needn't have worried, every one was more than happy with the event, the roads came in for many compliments, and everyone had had a good time. 

As the Rallye had passed through nine controls we decided that we would score the Rallye as far as there. We had some very experienced scorers able to work with the truncated scoring and a timing error that had crept into the tulips unnoticed. Tulip for iPad is a great App but support for it has ceased. That's a pity, its simplicity of use made it great for me when putting on the first Rum Runner.

In the end everyone was happy with the results and the winners in Stock, and also overall with just 4 points were Louis Hardin and Priya Bansal, they'd come all the way from Madison, WI in their Fiat Spider.

Hardin and Bansal arrive at control 8

Winners in Equipped were Mike Thompson and Fred Rosevear scoring 7 points. Fred and Mike too, had come from Madison.

Thompson and Rosevear at Control 8

Novice winners with just 11 points were TJ Oistadt and Jeff Nordlie also from Wisconsin. 

Oistadt and Nordlie arrive at control 4

As Rallymaster I'm very grateful to all the winners traveling all for several hours to get to our little rallye. I hope you're telling everyone back home what a fun little event the Rum Runner is and will persuade more of you to come over in February for the Iced Rum Runner.

Once again, my thanks go out to everyone who took part in the Rallye and my crews of control point workers. Clarence and Kate Westberg, Kerry and Katherine Freund. Not to mention my wife Lorrie, who in addition to working a control has to do all the post event paperwork. Last but not least Ben Wedge who was wanting to learn how to work a Rallye and got to see first hand many issues as well as what could be seen as one of the worst case scenarios. I hope it hasn't put him off.

For a couple of days afterwards I was pretty low once what had happened had sunk in. It was one heck of a blow. But we're now making plans for the February Iced Rum Runner. We hope to see you then.

Prepping

Tschhhk, Tschhhk. Tschhhk, Tchhhk...
That's the sound of the printer down in the basement running off instructions for the Rum Runner Rallye in a few days.
All the hard work has been done. Plotting on the maps, going out for the leisurely drives  and checking the roads out. Then the route finalizing and measurement and then the pre-check.
It's been quite hectic.
The original plan was to have the event on the 4th, the Saturday but then the pressures of work took over and my employers instigated a mandatory overtime policy which not only moved the event to the Sunday but also curtailed any other road rally competition on our part as well.
(It also put me in the emergency room with a overwork related stress issue which wasn't very nice and caused me to miss the final pre-check but that's another story.)
Lets not forget that in the intervening we've also had a trip back to the UK and attended the Goodwood Revival.
Things have been so overwhelming that I'd even forgotten when I'd set the registration for the event to open. So imagine my surprise when I received an email notification telling me of the first entry for the event while we were on holiday in England!
So we're getting quite excited now. Right now I'm surrounded by delay forms, Tulips, waivers, General Instructions, and the event speciality. Fridge Magnets.
I think it's nice that everybody who runs gets something from the event. I'd like to get everyone T-shirts but not enough competitors get their entries in in time for me to get an order in to the printers. Fridge Magnets I can cope with at home. Though printing magnetic stock on a home inkjet printer can be fraught with "issues"...
Still, the fridge magnets are popular and I like to think that contestants take them home, stick them on their fridges and when a fellow rally competitor comes around for a beer to watch the game he sees the magnet and says.
"Rum Runner? Where's that one then?" He will then be told by his friend about the good time to be had on the Rum Runner and there you go, another potential entrant for next year.

The soon to be legendary Rum Runner 2014 Fridge Magnet.

That's how it should work anyway.

Now if you'll excuse me the printer has stopped running. There's some more papers to collate.

Goodwood Revival 2014

I'm going to step away from Road Rally for this next post and cover something I did on my holidays. I'm sure you won't mind, given the subject matter.

Most of us who know classic British cars and love motor racing know about the Goodwood Revival. A three day celebration of motor racing set in the delightful scenery of the Sussex downs at the world famous Goodwood circuit.

I've wanted to go to this event for a few years and having put a lot of overtime in at work for quite some time I decided to treat my wife and I to a couple of days there as a part of our 2014 trip back home. 

Right from the outset you are made aware this is something special. When you receive your tickets, you find they are printed in a facsimile style of race tickets from the 1940's to 1960's and are presented in a information packet/wallet that that looks like it is at least 40 years old complete with wear and scuff marks on the cover.

Our tickets with wallet and race programme

Revival always sells out so you should get your tickets early. Ours had been sat in the house, teasing us for a good six months before we left for the UK.

What makes the Revival unique is that nearly everyone who attends makes an effort to dress in period costume, (period being defined as 1948-1966 when Goodwood was originally open) and when I say nearly everyone I mean over 90% of attendees make an effort. Whether they have an outfit of genuine vintage clothing or have just bought a pair of white overalls and smeared some black make up on their faces to attend as a period race mechanic, they have a go. I looked at a few books of the era in question and my wife and I made several visits to thrift stores and trawled eBay looking for clothing that might pass muster. We also have a friend in a historical society in Wisconsin who kindly looked out some suitable items of clothing for us.

Here we are trying to evoke some colourful 1960's style

I left it a bit late to book a room in the area and so we ended up in Portsmouth, about 20 miles away. That was OK, but it would have been nicer to have been a bit closer so we didn't have to fight the race day traffic on the way home. But I wasn't the only one in this situation as also parked up at our hotel when we arrived was a D-type Jaguar and an AC Cobra.

With tickets, clothing, and accommodation sorted we were ready to go.

Come the morning of the event we decided to get there early as we had no idea what things would be like, and we made the decision to be there when the gates opened at 7:30am with the first race about 10:00. 

So here we are, we have made it. Saturday morning and we've just got out of our car at the circuit car park (it's a car park not a parking lot, we are in England don't forget) and the first thing we hear is the sound of a military brass band wafting through the air. Then as we pass through the main gate there they are.

The Royal Marine band

A Royal Marine military band greeting you. But are they a Royal Marine band? Perhaps they are a local brass band dressed up. That Policeman, is he a real policeman dressed in period clothing, or is he a civilian and that is his outfit for the event?

Are these real policemen?

It's overwhelming, it really is. You are surrounded by people dressed from the 1940's to the 60's. All of a sudden you don't know what year it is. You cannot help but smile or laugh to yourself. 

Everyone is in on this, staff, traders, everybody. Go and have a cup of coffee in a 1950's coffee bar. Go and do some shopping in a 1960's Tesco supermarket, you can even buy chocolates and other confections (even beer) in period packaging.

A black and white shot of the start line. What year is this?

 Seeing the race track for the first time took my breath away too. The start straight lined with its immaculately white painted structures, control tower, pit boxes, and grandstands,  with flags fluttering in the breeze. Mintex, Girling, Champion, all the correct names and logos for the period.

Behind the pit boxes and stands are the pits themselves. The cars. Ferrari, BRM, Lotus, Maserati, Allard, Connaught and those are just the single seat open cockpit formula race cars. The names of the saloon cars there are just as legendary, Alfa Romeo, Jaguar, Mercedes Benz, Warwick... (I'd never heard of that one either). Another surprise was a Russian car. A Gaz, it didn't set the track alight in its races but it just goes to show they were racing most any type of car.

Old Mercedes at speed.

What of the races? This is what we came for. 

At this three day celebration the first day is mostly given over to practice, with just one race. A 90 minute event that races into the twilight. The famed Goodwood 9 hour race used to run into the dark, this race evokes some of that history.

Saturday and Sunday are both full days of racing. Each race is devoted to a different class of car and a different time period in the history of the Goodwood circuit ("in the spirit of the period" is a popular phrase used to describe the races). From 1930's single seat cars to 1960's saloons and sports cars, each take their turns. The races are timed, not run over a number of laps which keeps everything on schedule. The race lengths vary depending on the car, some single seater races are just 20 minutes long. The saloons can go up to an hour with a driver change in the middle of them. The confined spaces of the old pit lane makes this very entertaining and can even turn the race standings on its head. Thinking back, I still don't know how they managed to find the space to fit the big American cars like Ford Falcons and Plymouth Barracudas two abreast in there.

Every single one of the races was good, entertaining, exciting stuff. These car owners really know how to push their cars to the limit. Some of the cars may be over 60 years old but they really do race them. Crashes are not unknown, we watched a 1930's Alfa Romeo and Parnell MG dice together in front of us coming out of the chicane onto the start straight, the outcome of which was a broken front axle for the MG and the Alfa ended up upside down.

Aftermath of the dicing between the Alfa and the MG

Neither driver was hurt. We saw an AC Cobra over cook it at Madgwick corner and crumple the back end and then spin around to crumple the front end too just for good measure. 

Without a doubt the best race of the weekend was Saturdays St. Mary's Trophy. A race for saloon cars from the 1960's in which a couple of Jaguars, Austin A40 Farinas and an Alfa Romeo Guilietta battled cleanly between themselves for all of the 25 minute race. We watched transfixed as the cars passed us and on the large TV screen in front of us.  Who won wasn't important what really stood out was the effusive praise each driver had for each other during the finish line interviews. 

"This is what Historic racing is all about." Said ex-formula one driver Emanuelli Pirro. If that's the case then I want more.

Action in the St. Marys Trophy

Let's not forget that there was also a couple of races for 1950's motorcycles. If the look of the bikes compared to modern day ones wasn't odd enough these races saw both a Le Mans start and a rider change at half distance!

Saturday saw a tribute to the legendary Scottish driver Sir Jackie Stewart. A parade of almost every car that he had raced in his long, illustrious career. It was quite something to see those cars parade around the track I can tell you. On this day Sir Jackie led the parade in his Formula One world championship winning Tyrell 006. Quite emotional.

Jackie Stewart at the wheel of his Tyrell T006 

But nothing like as emotional as what occurred on the Sunday. A special celebration of the wartime airbase RAF Westhampnett, whose perimeter track formed the basis of the Goodwood motor circuit. Over 100 wartime military vehicles of all types paraded around the circuit, and taking centre stage were 23 jeeps, each one with a D-Day veteran on board as a passenger. They circled the track to rapturous applause and then to cap it all the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight passed over with the visiting Canadian Avro Lancaster. Two Lancasters, Spitfires and a Hurricane and 23 veterans. There was hardly a dry eye in the house.

The stars come out in force for Revival too. Whether they were drivers or TV stars with a passion for cars. In addition to Messrs. Stewart and Pirro already name-checked were legends Sir Stirling Moss and John Surtees. Race drivers, Mark Weber, Tiff Needell and Paul Stewart, all of whom have been at the wheel of a Formula One race car in their time. From the world of entertainment Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) was at the wheel of one of his cars, as was Nick Mason of Pink Floyd and Geri Haliwell, one time Spice Girl was seen there too.

Two days of this just left us wanting more, and we were both very sad to be leaving at the end of the final race on Sunday.

As we sadly walked out of the circuit after the final race we took a look at what is known as "over the road", where there are even more traders and a big top with live entertainment. Then behind that was the real goldmine. The car park for classic cars. Yes the festival was over, yes, the cars were leaving but I have never seen so many classics in one place. I must have counted 20 E-types, another half a dozen XK Jaguars. As well as your MG's Triumphs, Rovers, Jowetts and more. Classics as far as the eye could see. Two days and we hadn't had a chance to check all this out! 

The memories are many from attending the Revival. Here's a few personal favourites.

There's a couple of sounds I won't forget. That's the sound of the Lancia Ferrari in the Richmond trophy race on Sunday morning, and the sound of the BRM V16 engined car as it circulated on its demonstration laps.

There were a few cars that will stick in my mind too. The Marcos Xylon in the Jackie Stewart tribute parade and the Lotus 11 GT Breadvan in the RAC TT race are a couple of unusually shaped cars, and I really did like the Warwick GT350 even though I'd never heard of one before then.

Marcos Xylon

Lotus 11GT Breadvan

Warwick GT 350

Saturdays St. Mary's Trophy race was utterly brilliant and I hope I can find a recording of the entire race on YouTube or some such place soon.

Even as I read this through I realize there is so much I'm forgetting. The Mods and Rockers on their scooters and motorbikes parading the circuit along with some period police cars. The Canberra and Hawker Hunters fly past. The kiddies Pedal car races. I'm sure there's more.

So, for all of you who say "I'd really love to go to the Revival" or "It's on my bucket list" or something similar. Just go and do it, and to help things along, here's Ian's handy dandy pointers to help you prepare.

1. Book early and go for as many days as possible (all three if you can) You can use day one to check    out the exhibits, before spending the other days trackside.

2. Book your accommodation just as early and find a hotel as close as you can to the circuit. Though they do have a very neat traffic management system at the circuit, once you get on the main roads traffic can slow right down and travel can be very slow.

3. You must make some kind of effort to dress up, you'll enjoy things even more if you look like everyone else.

4. Visit the Goodwood road and racing website (www.grrc.goodwood.com) it is packed full of helpful tidbits of information to help you make the most of your visit. 

Revival is something you won't forget.

Time to turn to the tables.

Sometimes I wonder why I'm so fascinated by the sport of road rally. There's a lot of maths involved and mathematics and I do not get along terribly well. Is seven multiplied by eight 48 or 56? I'm having to count it out in my head right now, and now confirm it on a calculator 7 x 8 is 56. So, how does a mathematical nincompoop like myself cope with this? (Apart, of course from turning the calculating over to the navigator). If you are like me then fear not for these below are here to save you.

Larry Reid's Rally Tables on my dining room table...

These tables do all the hard work for you. I suppose it's not dissimilar to using the logarithm tables that we used to have in school. (Log tables and slide rules? It's getting just like school maths class.)

The book is a plethora of numbers and rallye calculations already worked out for you.

The riveting chapters include: Hundredths of minutes converted to seconds. Seconds converted to decimal parts of minutes. Miles per hour converted to seconds per mile and minutes per mile. But the biggest proportion of the book is given over to the Navigation Tables. Some 89 pages of tables where each speed between 12 and 59.75 mph is listed in tenth of a mile per hour increments along with the time it takes to cover a distance between 1 and 40 miles. 

About as interesting as watching paint dry to the uninitiated, but bread and butter stuff for the Rallyist. Three miles at 23 mph? 7 minutes 50 seconds. 

In the past, having these facts easy to hand must have been quite helpful to a navigator if they were trying to look out for landmarks and follow Rallye instructions while at the same time being bombarded with requests from the driver about their speed and progress. 
Also, you needn't go thinking that modern high tech equipment has replaced them. For one of the first things I was shown on my first Rallye, by a friendly fellow rallyist, and was advised to buy, was a set of Navigation tables on an iPad.

There you go, more Rallye fun, and more maths. I really should have paid more attention at school...

An old rule for a new rallyist

This is probably one of those posts that will be of interest to those friends of mine who don't road rally and are curious as to what makes it such a fascination for me (and my wife). For you more experienced rallyists the article might illicit a wry smile or two.

The road rally world of today is driven by expensive computers. Big black boxes that sit on the dashboard and tell you how fast/slow you're going in relation to your actual time, how far you've gone/got to go, even counting your time to the perfect arrival time. Even now though these big black boxes are being replaced by iPad apps that do exactly the same for 5% of the price. So it's fun to think back the old days and see what rallyists used then.

This is one of those pieces of equipment. A Stevens Rally Indicator or Stevens Wheel. 

It's basically a circular slide rule. They came in two sizes 6" diameter and 10". This is the six inch version. The ten inch was more popular because of the larger size meant larger, easier to read numbers, especially at night. 

What I'm doing with a slide rule I don't know after my brushes with them in school. I can well remember having a small circular slide rule, when everyone else had a straight rule. 

"So Holmes." Said Rob Morton, maths teacher at Queen Elizabeths Grammar School Alford. " A circular slide rule. Whats three multiplied by two?"

I diligently set to rotating the wheels and sliders to do the calculation.

"Six" I said proudly, having  worked quite hard to get the calculation right. 

"Well done." The teacher said. To this day I'm not entirely sure if he was taking the Mickey or not. I think I heard a few giggles go around the classroom. 

So, how does this disc of plastic work for the rallyist?

As you see, there are three arms. The large one is marked T the two smaller ones E and M. 

When you go out on a rally the first thing you do is check how accurate your cars odometer is compared to the rally official distance on a special "Odo Check" section. This is what the E and M arms are for. At the end of this stage you set the M arm to read the official miles and the E arm to what your cars odometer reads. This takes care any measuring errors. Now set the T arm to the speed for the section of the rally you're ready. In this picture it's set at 43mph. A somewhat brisk pace.

Right, let's say you need to know how long it's going to take you to drive 11miles at the 43mph pace. You move the E arm to 11 and then read off the T arm. It says 19.8 minutes. Point eight minutes? You sound confused. Don't forget you also have the Galco hundredths reading stopwatch from a few posts ago. That's what you'll be using to time the leg.

Easy.

Now let's say you need to know how far you've gone in a certain time. You set the T arm to the amount of time that has passed. Let's say 11 minutes. Then if you look at the reading on the smaller E arm you see it says 6.45. You've travelled 6.45 miles! Calculations like this are the bread and butter of road rally, and I know of contestants who, in this world of the high tech black boxes I referred to at the start of this piece, still use the Stevens Wheel today to great effect. Road Rally is a sport that doesn't have to be run using the highest of tech.

To me it's just a bit of a novelty thing to have at the moment. It would though, be rather fun to compete in a road rally using one. 

After my first brushes with the slide rule at school all those years ago, I never thought I'd buy another one let alone consider using one.

Chippewa Trail Road Rally report

Sadly, die to last minute other occurrences, the wife and I were not able to attend "The Chip" fear not though for one of the first time competitors posted a report on their own car related blog.
It's a really good write up, it sounds like everyone had a great time. I'm definitely disappointed we missed it.
Blog report is here.

Big Road Rallye Weekend

Labor Day weekend is coming up fast. The end of summer.

End of Summer Already? It can't be.

Though it may be thought of as the "unofficial" end of summer, it's going to be a great weekend in the Road Rallye calendar, for down in LaCrosse Wisconsin there's a weekend of double road rallye fun taking place on the Tarmac roads of the Coulee country of Wisconsin.

On the Saturday August 30th is the Oktober Rally. This is a National Rally. But regional and novice contestants shouldn't be put off by this fact, for there will be a separate class for Regional runners. 

The Oktober Rally is a trap Rally with tricky clues to solve to help you navigate the course. For the regional contestants there will be help with solving these instructions.

On the Sunday, August 30th is the Badger Trails a tour rally with no complicated instructions to solve.  

The Roads in Coulee country are some of the best road rally roads around. It should be a real treat. We hope to be there one day, but we're also packing for a vacation back home in England starting the following Friday. So for us, it just depends how the packing goes.

Here then are the details for the event.  

Counting to one hundred

Confession time.

Do you know what the thing is I struggle most with in road rally? 

It's counting to 100.

To be more specific, it's counting in hundredths of a minute that's the problem. After a lifetime of knowing that there are sixty seconds in a minute, having to think that there is another way to count a minute is very difficult, especially at the end of a rally after a five or six hours of hard concentration on driving. 

So, for those who read this blog but don't road rally, here's my latest acquisition. A hundredths reading stopwatch. 

If you're anything like me it looks weird the first time. A one hundredth of a minute is six tenths of a second. If you're counting in hundredths and the time to a checkpoint reads 2.33 minutes that's not two minutes 33 seconds that's really two minutes 20 seconds, a whole 13 seconds difference! That piles on the penalty points for sure. So you can see the need to be accurate and totally unconfused by your timekeeping. 

The stopwatch in the picture is reading 0.84 minutes, which in normal time is 50.4 seconds. 

My stopwatch acquired from a member of the Minnesota Road Rally fraternity is a Galco.  It was made in Switzerland by the Gallet company. Although Gallet are unknown to most, they are the worlds oldest watchmaker, their history can be traced back to Humberto Gallet who became a citizen of Geneva 1466, and began making timepieces there. From the 20th century onwards they have become noted for military chronographs and timepieces. President Harry S. Truman even wore a Gallet watch during his presidency. Gallet chronographs were supplied to members of the US Military in Operation Desert Storm. The Galco name on my timepiece indicates the watch was assembled in the USA, probably by the Excelsior Park company, a subsidiary of Gallet, who themselves had the highest reputation as a producer of sports related chronographs. Mechanisms for the watches were made at the home factory in Switzerland and shipped to the factory in Chicago to be placed in the cases that were specially tailored for the American market. The Excelsior Park company went out of business when the sports timekeeping world went digital. Gallet however goes from strength to strength. It's a fascinating history that I have only skimmed in researching this blog entry.

In these days of digital timepieces it's refreshing to listen to the relaxing tikka-tikka-tikka of a quality clockwork timepiece.

An interesting find.

In Steve McKelvies blog the other week he gave mention to an old Rallye book. "Sports Car Rallies, Trials and Gymkhanas" by David Hebb and Arthur Peck.  It's a book that was first published back in 1956 and outlines the motor sports mentioned in the title for those interested in getting started in them. Of course the language used in the text in the book is from a different time and reflects some social attitudes from then. Some might say that some bits might seem to be just be a tad sexist looking at them with a 21st Century eye. But that's not what I'm writing about.

I was impressed enough with Steve's write up to seek out the book from an online used book retailer for myself. 

When it arrived I was treated to a surprise, for when I opened the book up some pieces of paper fell out from inside the dust jacket. 

This particular one I thought I'd share with you. Dated from 1959, and nicely typed on some vellum is the first owner of the books critique of his performance in the Bristol Rally. There are some very interesting comments on there. Many of which are quite relevant to the beginner even today. 

I particularly like number 8. "After each rally, take the time to run it again theoretically... Try to see what we could have done better... Where we goofed." I did this after the Summer Solstice Rally and found a turn that we missed that tacked on perhaps half a dozen miles to our driving and caused us to arrive at a control from the wrong direction, thus scoring some penalty points.

Of the other comments number 4 resonates with me as a plea for clear concise instructions. Keep it simple. Sometimes it's hard enough just to keep going on the route at the prescribed average speed, without having the navigator perform complex calculations, wading through baffling instructions. I recently saw some rally instructions that were presented as a flow chart. Right now I can't conceive that we would be able to run a rally like that.

From what I can gather many (not all) Rallyists are Rocket scientists, Computer Programmers, Engineers and Biochemists all with incredible abilities with numbers without thinking. Alas, Team Holmes Rallye is not so gifted. But we cope and we bear in mind point 7. "Ask the stupid questions". Sound advice for anything.

Finally, comment number 6 is worth a mention of. "Learn Rally definitions." A comprehensive list of rally terms and definitions for instructions wasn't published by the SCCA until 1963 or thereabouts. Before then you were very much at the mercy of the Rallymaster and his use of the English language in instructions. So this seems to be an appeal for consistency in terminology. A point that is borne out in some of the other letters that fell out of the dust jacket covering this very issue.

This piece of paper was a delight to find and along with the other letters, has provoked some interesting discussions among some of my Road Rallying friends. I hope you all get something out of it too.

Forthcoming Event. Chippewa Trail Rally.

A new Rallye for the region will take place on August 16th out of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The Chippewa Trail.

When I say "new" this is really an attempt to revive road rallies in the area. The Chippewa Valley Sports Car Club (CVSCC) used to put on rallies in the area and in the 1970's The Chippewa Trail National Rally (put on by the Land O' Lakes region of the SCCA) was noted for its great roads and brisk speeds. The Chippewa Trail National moved to Menomonie and ran until 2006. It came back for 2010 in Durand.

There was also, in the words of one who competed in this event many times, some "epic" hospitality, this included throwing the Rallymaster into a swimming pool at the end of the event.

The Rallye is being put on by Rallymaster Clarence Westberg of the Twin City Rally club for the CVSCC  as it appears that putting on a road rally may be a lost art among the club members since the demise of the Chippewa Trail National Rally in the 1980's. The hope is that this new Chippewa Trail Rally will renew interest in road rally. 

The day promises much with all entrants invited to partake in "Cars and Coffee", the Saturday morning social gathering of the CVSCC before the car zero time of noon. Beginners will be able to partake in a Road Rally 101 course to learn all they need to know to get them through the event.

The CVSCC have promised to lay on catering after the event. This looks like it could be quite the day, and Team Holmes Rallye hope to be there in FG the MGB.

Registration is now open at Motorsportsreg 

Post Script: I've added some extra information as previous entrants get in touch with me because their memories have been jogged and they remember the good times of the old Rally. If you've got any memories of the old Chippewa Trail Rally pop them in the comments below.

Forthcoming event. The Coulee Classic

It has come to my attention that The Coulee Classic Road Rallye is next weekend, Saturday June 28th. Short notice I know, but it has only just come to my attention. Sadly I won't be able to be there due to work commitments.
The event covers some wonderfully scenic roads in the Coulee Country of Wisconsin. It is the event that got my wife and I interested in Road Rally. It's where we met many of our fellow competitors that we now call friends.
If you own a classic/collector car it is the event for you. Modern cars are welcomed too. It's a drive that you will enjoy.
Details can be found here.

Out in the night - Summer Solstice Rallye 2014

June 20th was the shortest night of the year. The Summer Solstice. The Solstice rally is a looked forward to event in the Land O' Lakes region calendar.

Although this is only the second running of the event you know that it is something special when a post appeared on the Rallye FaceBook page the morning of the event stating "I'm so pumped about tonight I can't wait."

Team Holmes Rallye were looking forward to the event too. But we both had to put in a days work at the office before we could head out to the start in Baldwin, WI. 

We arrived at the A&W shortly after 7pm to register and receive the instructions. The event was of two types. Conventional tulip instruction sections at the beginning and the end with map reading and plotting sections in the middle based upon the instructions for this years Tulpen Rallye (Tulip Rally) in the Netherlands. Even though we had two hours to plot the route on the map before the off I feel it wasn't enough, and perhaps that came back to bite us later. 

We were so busy with plotting and socializing that the 9pm car zero time came along all to soon and ourselves and seven other cars headed out on the route. 

Competitors and workers ready for the off.

What a great start we had! Scoring perfect zeros at two of the three timing controls even managing to adjust our time to allow for some time delays we had to take.

Then came the map reading sections. For those unfamiliar with the Tulenrallye GI's they can be found on the Tulip Rallye website. A quick Google for "TulpenRallye instructions" should find them easily enough. They are an excellent read, particularly if you are, or have designs on being a Rallymaster.

They include instructions to the effect of a road once travelled in one direction cannot be travelled in the opposite direction in that section of the Rallye. This makes you think, for if you need to get from route point 13 to 14 but the shortest route takes you along a road you've already used in the other direction then you then have to review all the roads around and find out which you can use. Sometimes it's not as easy as you'd think. Looking at the scorecard it looks like we went through a control or two in the wrong direction (I didn't think we did but no matter). 

These map plotted sections took place at night, in the middle of nowhere, in the dark. This made it all very hard work indeed. You can't use a map as it's meant to be used, to relate to your surroundings, so concentration on where you are on the route is of paramount importance, and at 2am after a hard day at work already, that commodity can be hard to keep up. Case in point, as we passed through the final manned route control on section 3 we both relaxed and momentarily forgot wether we had passed through route point 16 or 17 and even though we were only 2 miles from the section end we got lost and ended up doing an extra seven or eight miles to get to the section end. If the section had taken place in the daylight we may have been able to use the map to get a bead on some local landmarks to find out where we were. But it was totally dark out there, all I could do was point the car in the correct direction, courtesy of the information from the GPS and hope we got there in time. Which we didn't, a late penalty of 30 points putting paid to a low score. But we did make it to the section end.

For a few miles there in the dark roaming around lost, the atmosphere was a little fraught inside the Scion, but we got through it and after some miles of passing through points correctly things returned to normal inside the cabin.

Timings allowed for these map plotting sections turned out to be very lax and (aside from the section where we got lost) the competitors were always arriving early. This lead to some event timing adjustments being made as we progressed. 

Section four from Ridgeland to Boyceville seemed inordinately long, as we seemed to loop around parts of Ridgeland several times before heading onwards. At one point we met fellow competitors coming the other way, the brief exchange between the cars was along the lines of.

Me: "Are you lost?"

Them: "Are you going the right way?"

Me: "We thought we were until we saw you coming at us"...

I was sure I was right so with that we headed on. A Mile or so later they passed us so we figured we were right.

Arriving in Menomonie at the end of section five meant the map plotted section of the Rallye was over and in order to get to the finish point in Baldwin we were faced with a rather long break here in order to reach the diner when it opened. A long break rather destroyed the flow of the event and we started to flag, with some of our fellow competitors napping in their cars. Like I've said in previous Rallye reports Menomonie is a town of many personal memories for us and I'm sure I've walked the streets of the town at 4am but that was over a quarter of a century ago, those days are long gone. But we always love a return to the town whatever the time of day.

Dawn approaches in Menominee, the final leg is about to start:

As dawn broke, it was onwards from Menomonie to the finish at Baldwin. We passed through the first timing control on time. That was three out of four so far. No way we could complain about that level of performance. Then a short way down the road it happened. We hit a deer. To be more exact, the deer hit us. It came out of the blue and hit the side of the car by the front door pillar, destroying the wing mirror and cracking the windscreen. The deer then bounced off the roof of the car. A quick check of the car confirmed it was still driveable and we carried on. 

However, that experience shook us up and put a damper on things and our concise communications and even paced driving went out of the window and we arrived at one control early and one late, we weren't even thinking clearly enough to take a time delay for hitting the deer.

However, the surprises weren't over yet. We arrived at Rays diner in Baldwin to find it closed down! However a quick 10 mile drive to Hudson, WI found a Perkins that was open who were happy to accommodate some 20 hungry road rallyists and workers, even though there was only one wait staff and cook on at that time. She even put us in a side room all by ourselves. Votes for using this Perkins as the finish point next year?

There are no prizes for this Rallye. Finishing is enough and all entrants receive the same "Survivor" T-Shirt. The lowest score was 4 points achieved by the father and son team of Tony and Nash Stamson. The low scoring novices were Matt Pfiefer and Ryan Hughes scoring 19. 

The "Survivor" T-Shirt

The event is a lot of fun, the different methods used to traverse the route make you think. In particular I would like to try the map plotting method in the daylight so that you can actually use the map as a map should be used if you experience problems.

The usual vote of thanks goes out Rallymaster Clarence Westberg and crew of his wife Kate and Dave Fuss with his wife, Rachel. That so few people can put on such an event is a testament to their organizing skills. 

In short, if you are a road rallyist in the Land O'Lakes region you really should be doing this event. Perhaps we'll see you next year?

Post script:

There is no doubt that staying up all night road rallying can take it out of you. The drive back from Hudson was tough even with some help from Starbucks. We arrived home about 9:15 am after leaving the house at 7:15 the previous morning, and went straight to bed. I got up shortly after mid-day. But this is akin to being jet lagged. I spent much of the day welded to the sofa in a zombie like state so my wife tells me. There was three World Cup matches on TV that I can't recall much of, so she must be right. However after a proper nights sleep things quickly returned to normality. A day in a zombie like state will not put us off competing next year.

On through the night.

Coming up on Friday June 20th is one of the most unique events on the Midwest Road Rally calendar. The Summer Solstice Road Rally out of Baldwin, WI. What makes this so unique is it takes place in the hours of darkness on the shortest night of the year (or as near as the Rallymaster can get). An all night rally.
Speaking from last years experience I can tell you that this is an event not to be missed. The Rally is a mix of Tulip instructions and map based course plotting with route checks along the way to prove that you followed the correct course. In the event that you get lost there are pick up points along the way to get you back on course. You will find it advantageous to use a GPS of some description.
Some of you less experienced and beginner road rally crews may well be concerned about staying awake all night. Last year my wife and I felt the same and we carried a cooler with us containing several cans of caffeinated beverages in it. But really they weren't needed. For during the event we were concentrating so hard that we didn't notice any tiredness. However, we did miss a couple of turns that may well have been down to a lack of concentration due to being awake in the "wee small hours".
This is a very unique event and one you should do.
You can enter over at MotorportReg using the link here
I hope we'll see you there.

Waterloo Rally Report.

Iowa (noun). A place people pass through when they are going elsewhere.  

This is certainly what we were thinking as we set out to take part in the Waterloo Rally out of Davenport, Iowa. 

The start point, being a good four hours from home, meant that we drove down to La Crosse, WI the night before to be nearer to the start. This gave us plenty of time to think about what might be ahead of us as we drove down there. Reports of the Mississippi River being just above flood level in La Crosse conjured up images of flooded Rally roads in my mind. This was not to be the case.

Dorchester, Iowa, the start point, is a small town. A very small town. A couple of dozen houses, two bars and a church. Re-inforcing the image stated in the opening sentence that there is nothing much in Iowa. In fact, as we drove into the town, we passed the Wings bar, where registration was and didn't notice it. 

Wings is a great place. As traditional and small town Ma and Pa a place as you can find anywhere, with good food to boot, their burgers were complimented by everyone.

The now legendary "Wings" bar.

When we arrived all the "usual suspects" were there. The social aspect of rallies is something we like it's always nice to see the same friendly faces always pleased to see you. For me, it was also really nice to "meet" Jay Nemeth Johannes properly. As you know, Jay has contributed a couple of Rally reports to the blog. We've exchanged many a comment on Facebook but not actually shook hands and said "Hello". 

A few other entrants drifted in as start time approached and 2pm a small field of five cars, two in Limited class along with ourselves and two novices in stock, were heading out on the Rally. 

So to the roads. We had heard tales that the roads were good out there. It quickly became apparent that this was a severe understatement. The roads were excellent. Wide strips of limestone gravel winding their way along wide river valleys, adjacent to lively trout streams, (as a matter of fact we came across so many trout fishermen out and about I think "trout fisherman" would have been an acceptable delay reason). The strips of gravel would then rise away from the valley floor up steep slopes, running along a ridge, before dropping back down into another valley.

A panoramic view of the start of CZ2

The course was compact, we came back to the start point in Dorchester twice before returning there to finish. Waukon, the other break point was only 14 miles from Dorchester as the crow flies so you can gauge that the area covered was very compact indeed.

The sun was shining as we set out, and we were feeling good about the day, our DNF at the Escape to Wisconsin a few weeks ago, was well and truly forgotten and as these roads opened out in front of us we were pretty quickly in awe of the countryside. 

Too much in awe perhaps, for as we approached the start of CZ1 we didn't count the 45mph signs by the road side. CZ1 started at the second sign. We missed the first one, counting the actual second one as the first. So we drifted off down the road looking for the second sign which, of course, we never found and ended up getting into the timing control almost one minute early. Perhaps that minute had already put us out of the running even in a small class of three. 

We quickly put that behind us and carried on. The wonderful day helping us forget that cock up. By the  time we reached the first rest stop we were very happy again.

First break point and a chance to chat and compare experiences.

Break points are a good chance to get together and share stories to find out how everyone else is running. Even more so in a rally with such a small field for all the entrants can gather together. The old hands can quibble and moan about some irregularity or something, while at the same time offering words of advice to the less experienced and the first timers.

First break done with, we headed out again and the great roads and scenery just kept coming. We started to string together, what we thought was a respectable string of scores. Twenties and Thirties when you're being scored to the hundredth of a minute was quite acceptable to us. At one point we even posted a 7 so we really started to feel good about ourselves.  

Scoring the seven was a little cause for concern for me as going around some S bends uphill on the gravel we slid about a bit out of control. Nothing serious, but I'm still a little nervy about driving on gravel as it is. So that moment made our hearts race a little. 

Back on the course something unusual happened. We started posting some twos and threes! Communications were working better between us and I was getting better at keeping the average speed even. We started to feel good about our finish.

More great Road Rally scenery.

As we returned to the Wings bar for the final time we had mixed feelings, sadness that this short (110 miles) rally was over, but also a tad excited that we might actually have done quite well.  Scoring though, it has to be said is not our strong point and however well we thought we had done, this all could go up in smoke if we'd done our maths wrong. 

Well as it turns out we did do our maths wrong, but luckily it didn't affect the outcome and we ended up 1st in class S. Quite the turn around from the DNF of our previous event. A certain navigator was seen grinning like a Cheshire Cat as the results unfolded. She was grinning even more when she received her prize T-shirt.

Our winners T-shirts

Class win notwithstanding, this is an excellent road rally, and a huge thanks has to go out to Rallymaster Mike Thompson for putting the event on and also to Fred Rosevear and Jay Nemeth Johannes for working the controls. Dates are already being sounded out for another running over these roads later in the year. If you live within 5 hours of the start point and can spare a weekend away in the name of Road Rally I would seriously recommend that you turn up for that one.

So, what did we learn from this Rallye? Obviously, we learned that coming first is pretty cool. But more than that our faux pas at the very start taught us the importance of concentration and observation right from the outset. For if we had seen that first 45mph sign and counted properly we might have scored better on that leg and increased that small gap in points between first and second.

Badger Burrow report.

Due to work commitments we were unable to attend the Badger Burrow Rally out of Madison, Wisconsin recently. So once again I turn the blog over to Jay Nemeth Johannes for his description of the days events. Thanks Jay.

After a long, hard winter, we were definitely ready for spring.  The problem was, spring was refusing to emerge.  Rallys got postponed, and then run as winter events.  We were getting nervous as May 3 approached because we had no backup plan.  This was going to run as a spring event.  Fortunately, the sun finally emerged, and Saturday turned out to be a perfect day, with scattered clouds and highs in the 60’s.

Seventeen cars gathered at Dunn’s Imports in Middleton WI, ranging from New Camaros to a 1973 Plymouth Duster.  BMWs outnumbered Subarus for once.  While we waited the start, contestants admired the selection of exotic cars and Moto Guzzi motorcycles in the shop.  Jason Dunn provided a continental breakfast to help folks get in the mood.  After a short rally school, teams were off at 11 AM on their 7 hour journey.

Hosts and contestants Jason and Beth Dunn.

Rallymaster Fred Rosevear provided a 200 mile course that wound through the driftless area west of Madison.  The roads are narrow and follow the terrain up and down through the many small canyons.  Nothing is straight.  The event had longer transit zones, followed by short timed ‘stages’.  The timed sections, usually a couple of miles, were chosen to be the twistiest roads available.  The speeds were set from 38-45 MPH and teams needed to be alert to maintain them.  Controls were placed around curves and over crests.

Approaching Control 3.

We are working to establish a local program here in Milwaukee Region, and have started building a loyal group of regulars.  When we decided to make this a national, our main concern was encouraging that group to run.  We decided against telling the locals that this was a national, and writing the event with the locals in mind.  The only advertising we did that was aimed at the national crowd was the SCCA calendar listing and a single posting on the national road rally mailing list.  All of our promotion on social media and to the car clubs emphasized that this was a driver’s event with an emphasis on brisk driving on the roads you wish you had time to find for yourself.  It worked.  12 of the 17 cars were from the region, most of them entering in the novice class.

Dan and Alieca Bailey showing great enthusiasm

I ran as sweep car, and we solved a few problems.  A blown tire, a carsick navigator, but nothing major.  Fred’s course was rock solid.  CZTs after every control kept the rally running on time, and everyone arrived at the finish line just before 6 PM as promised.  

S Class winners Dave and Rich Bireta prove you can get good results with a GPS and Apps.

People really seemed to enjoy the event and there were many stories of the great roads and cool exploits during the day.  We awarded trophy “kits” consisting of a Lego car (complete with little man holding a trophy) on a mat containing the place award.

An example of one of the "LEGO" trophies.

Thanks for the write up Jay and I love those Lego trophies. I'm jealous. I want one.