Rally Club

I've written before about the great camaraderie amongst my fellow Twin Cities Rally Club members, and the great fun we have at events and the Rally Club meetings. 

The TCRC has been around since the 1970's and was just one of the auto groups in the Minneapolis metropolitan area putting on Road Rallies. The University of Minnesota and 3M were just two places that had active road rally programs. But students left the University, people left their jobs, left the area and soon it was just the TCRC which gradually evolved into the social club it had become with rallies being sanctioned by the SCCA.

Recently the TCRC has reappeared on the scene to become more than a social club. Disquiet over the amount of money paid to the SCCA and perceived lack of return for what a person pays out, (next to no coverage in Sports Car magazine is a prime example). The TCRC has reached out to the Metropolitan Council of Auto Clubs to put on road rallies under their auspices. A move that has been welcomed by the "Met Council".

But I digress a bit. 

The meetings take place on the second Tuesday of the month, most frequently at a Green Mill Pizza restaurant in the SW Twin Cities, we've tried other places but keep coming back here. We've been there often enough to be members of the loyalty program and the "beer club". We aways get the same waitress, and she is quite capable of competing with the jolly, good-natured badinage that goes on amongst us.  Attendance generally runs to about a dozen folks, and this number can rise quite steeply in the summer months. In the past, evenings had been full of jolly banter about varied subjects like great rallies of the past. What are the SCCA doing for us? Even questions on how to use that old, old piece of rally gear you found on eBay. We've discussed and been shown how to use Rallye Tables as well as Stevens Wheels. 

But now we are once again an "official" club we have proper club business to discuss and have to a have a short formal meeting before getting back to the socializing. New members are always welcomed into our midst. I well remember the first time Lorrie and I went to a meeting. We were both definitely a little nervous about meeting all these people but clearly those worries were unfounded. Our group is a great mix of people of all ages and backgrounds and interests in motorsport.  Road racers and stage rallyists come along and join in the fun.

If a newbie turns up advice is freely given on how to take part in varying types of rallies that might be coming up, some people even actually turn up to the events! his is good, it means that they weren't to overwhelmed by the explanations of CAST's, the difference between "ONTO" and "ON" and myriad  Rallye terms. 

The meeting in full swing

Clarence Westberg explaining map reading for an upcoming
Rallye to new members Larry and Cindy Walter

Rally Club meetings are an essential part of being a member of the club, and if your local group of Road Rallyists doesn't meet up like this you probably should.