Lucas Flamethrower Volunteer duty

The Lucas Flamethrower, at 19 runnings of this event, is one of the longest running, if not the longest running, road rallies in the Midwest. People keep coming back year after year to enjoy the roads around Red Wing, MN.

We would have liked to have run it, but the annual recommendation is to run with snow tyres and driving lights, none of which are fitted to the Scion. So we decided to volunteer to work control points. It would be good to get a view of how someone else runs a rally. We might learn something to incorporate into the organisation of the Rum Runners.

When Rallymaster Ed arrived at the registration point, his first words were. 

“I’ve left the rally route instructions for the competitors at home. Not to worry. I’ll sort something out.”

Ed’s 19 years of putting on this event clearly meant he had no problem dealing with any unexpected issues that may arise. So we weren't bothered. After we had signed, and received  all our papers and received our clocks and checkpoint signs we could head out to the first of our three checkpoint locations.

Setting up a checkpoint is simplicity itself. Place the checkpoint sign and viewing mirror at the designated point by the roadside and retire a safe distance away as in the photo and await the arrival of the cars.

There you sit with checkpoint clock in hand and when a car passes the checkpoint you stop the clock, make a note of the time and hand it to the navigator of the car. 

“How do you know when the car has reached the checkpoint?” I hear you ask. “You’re a couple of hundred feet away from the sign.” 

Simple. You know that mirror by the side of the checkpoint sign? You look in that for “the flash”. Watching for the flash or blink is best described in the attached photo sequence below.

Some competitors are cheerful as you hand them their timing slip. They thank you for volunteering (always nice for a worker to hear) and may even pass a cheery comment before they briskly head on their way. Others will be less cheery either because they had a delay on the way or the time you’ve recorded for them doesn't agree with what they have. These people are experts they know what time they did. Some will accept what you told them. Some will pass a comment.

The locations of the checkpoints had been worked out well and we had no problems with traveling between our assigned locations. As a Rallymaster, this is something I’m always concerned about in my events and I always err on the low side for checkpoints so the workers will have plenty of time to travel between them and not be rushed in setting up. I was happy that Ed thought much the same as I in this regard.

When night comes things change. Sighting the car as it passes the marker board is different for a start. Instead of looking for a blink from the tyre in the mirror you’re looking for a flash from the lights of the car. Seeing the checkpoint board is made easier by shining a flashlight at it, made all the easier in the winter by being able to stick the flash light in a snow pile so it shines on the sign perfectly. 

Car headlights can certainly cause a problem in the dark too. Many entrants are very considerate and will dip their headlights so you can see as they approach but some others are not so thoughtful. When a car comes at you with its headlights on full beam as well as 4 driving lights full on it can blind you momentarily making it very difficult to see the exact moment when the car reaches the checkpoint board. You can take precautions agains be blinded by headlights but I don’t think there’s anything you can do agains a full barrage of driving lights.

For us the whole thing was pretty uneventful. My wife did loose a contact lens just after we arrived at our second checkpoint assignation, which meant that we swapped duties as I was the only one who could see when the cars passed the checkpoint board.
There are many different tales told of unusual happenings for control point workers. Being quizzed by law enforcement is a very common tale, (just think about it for a moment, two people sat in a car on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. It just asks to be investigated), and when a Sheriffs car passed by us at our final checkpoint, we thought we were in for some questioning. But no. He just drove on by. After everything we’d heard, I have to confess to being a tad disappointed. We even had our explanation worked out and everything. Perhaps after 19 years of this event checkpoint workers parked on a dark road in the middle of nowhere was nothing new to him.
There’s nothing too taxing in being a control point worker. Just be organized and everything should be easy. It was an interesting experience. There’s no doubt we would rather compete but it was nice to get a look at another rallye from the inside.
Big thanks to Ed Solstad for putting the event on.