On September 28th 2013, I was stood at timing control one watching the first car arrive, and get timed on the first Rum Runner Road Rallye. I have to admit to feeling somewhat pleased with myself. After all. I had only been road rallying a year and here I was, my first road rally as Rallymaster. I glowed internally with pride for a few seconds and then got in my car and zipped off to check on the other control point workers.
It was, indeed, exactly 12 months to the day since my wife and I had competed in the Coulee Classic Road Rally, and we were immediately taken with the sport. I’ve always loved driving around, discovering new roads and new scenery, not knowing what was around the next corner. The family Sunday afternoon drive was a staple of growing up. I’m lucky that my wife, Lorrie also enjoys getting out and about enjoying the countryside. The fact that there is a type of motorsport out there where one can drive around on new roads not knowing what’s around the next corner was for me, too good to be true.
Everyone was so friendly and welcoming at that event, making us feel a part of the crowd that I quickly joined up with the Twin City Road Rally club, and attended the monthly meetings which were really just an excuse for a drink, good meal and a natter. Being in with the club we learned more about what to do and competed in a few more road rallies in the midwest. But for us, living North of Minneapolis it was never a short drive for us to get to an event. Ninety minutes was the shortest drive I think, more than two hours was regular. I started to figure that the only way to get an event that I would have a shorter drive to would be to put one on myself. I dropped this nugget into a TC Rally Club Facebook conversation one day and before I knew it the next rally club meeting was devoted to how to put on a road rally. Lorrie and I were the only others who turned up, so we got a lot of one-to-one advice. So much information was thrown at us it was just a blur at times. Much of this we’d pick up later as things progressed.
First thing was to join the SCCA, the governing body. You have to be an SCCA member to get the event sanctioned and insured, in case of any mishaps. So I sent in a family membership for Lorrie and I.
“Why did you do that?” I was asked when I presented her with her membership card. I explained it was no more expensive as a family than for me as a single. Besides, if we were to put on a Road Rally it might be more advantageous for both of us to be members. You, dear reader, should note this apparent lack of enthusiasm with scenes I shall relate that occurred a few months down the road.
So, in my spare time I would go for drives around Princeton looking out potential rally roads and started to read old rallye books for ideas looking at how things were done in the olden days, what I’ve read in these books has definitely shaped how the Rum Runner series of events are developing.
When I started out I had no idea what made a “good rally road”. We’ve driven on some wonderful scenic roads in Southern Minnesota and Wisconsin, along the Mississippi river and close by on the rallies we’ve taken part in. But there was nothing like that around Princeton. Then as I was driving round I began to realize that if I’m enjoying driving the section of road then surely rallye entrants would enjoy them too. Sure enough, interesting fun bits of road began to manifest themselves. Using iPad Apps like Google Earth and Pocket Earth along with RallyTracks on my iPhone plotting a Rallye route became quite easy, and I soon ended up with a course that I thought people might enjoy.
Then it became time to get a second opinion. I took Lorrie out on the course to see what she thought. At this point we still only had no more than four rallies under our belts, but we knew what we liked.
As we cruised around the course Lorrie started to share her opinions and I began to realize that her seeming lack of interest of a few months previous had disappeared.
“Your checkpoint needs to be over there, around that corner. They won’t be able to see it as they approach from here.”
“This is good. They might not even see the turn down to the checkpoint.”
Someone was clearly enjoying this road rally lark more than they were letting on.
With that, we had a rallye. Now it was time to start organizing properly. Organising properly means paperwork.
But let's leave that for another day...
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