Navigating Near Nowthen

Friday April 22nd, saw a new program of road rallies presented by the SCCA Land O Lakes region and the Twin City Rally Club, aimed squarely at newcomers to the sport. A series of short rallies of about 30 miles in length taking about an hour to complete that will introduce beginners to the different styles of rally to run. Tulip, Monte Carlo, Trap etc; each rally is being put on by a different member of the TCRC. Some club members are also using the program as an opportunity to learn how to put on a rally themselves.
The program was originally entitled "Friday night is rally night". But as one of the first two rallies in the program is on a Saturday afternoon the name probably won't stick.
It fell to yours truly to put on the first of the Rallies. I decided that I wouldn't do a rally based on the Tulip instructions that I am so familiar with. I'd use the opportunity to try something new myself. A map based course plotting rally.
Regular readers of this blog will remember that a while ago I wrote a post bemoaning the state of maps in the USA comparing them to the Ordnance survey maps in the UK. The US maps fared rather badly in that article.
Still, I wasn't put off by this. I looked on it as a challenge, and since then I've been studying the maps of the area as well as researching rally instructions from the UK and Europe hoping to find a way to combine the two. This new rally program gave me the perfect opportunity to see what I could do.
The only stipulation I had was that I had to start and end the rally in the Twin Cities metro area to minimize travel time for the entrants. I chose Elk River in the Northwest, as I am quite familiar with the area because I often go for a drive around there in my MGB, so I knew there were good roads to be found in the vicinity. With a route found it was then all down to working out instructions to get the cars around the course. All that should probably be the subject of a totally separate article.
So lets fast forward to Friday evening.
I arranged for registration to take place at the Starbucks in town, and when I explained to the manager what was going on, he very kindly donated a 2 gallon thermos of coffee for us to have before we headed out. The finish point, Northwoods Bar and Grill in Nowthen, was similarly accommodating. They had no problem fitting 30 people in on a Friday night when I called up that morning to double check. We really appreciate the co-operation shown by local businesses that enables us to put these events on. Otherwise we'd just be meeting up in parking lots. My wife and I were back in Starbucks the next day and the staff there said that it had been great to have a full shop on a Friday evening. I've also chatted with the manager in person and He's very happy to have the Rum Runner start there in the fall as well.
TCRC members had done a good job publicizing the event and this was rewarded in the fact that over half of the 13 entrants had not done a road rally before and only three had done more than one. The entrants and their vehicles were many and varied. George Quinn turned up in his 1964 Oldsmobile, Paula and Scott Liptak turned up in a minivan because Scott is wheelchair bound. As it was a rally several people turned up in their Subarus of course.

George Quinn and his 1964 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88

 Kerry Freund and his daughter Katherine are ready to head out.

Much of the registration was spent explaining to the newcomers what road rally was all about and handily there were enough experienced TCRC members there to do this on a one-to-one basis. Registration passed all too quickly, and shortly before people started to head out on the odo check, Lorrie and I headed out to set up the DIY controls that I had planned. Having unmanned controls meant that more people could run the event instead of working timing controls. The controls were simplicity themselves. A standard SCCA LOL checkpoint marker was placed on the side of the road and a post placed alongside with a bag of stickers pinned to it.

DIY control

Upon arriving at the control, the co driver would get out, and put one of the stickers on their scorecard before heading on to the next control.

The DIY control in use.

We got all the controls in place and headed to the final control location to await the arrival of car zero, when, much to our surprise we met car 1 waiting on the roadside a discrete distance from the final control.
"What on earth are you doing here?" I asked.
"Well, we thought we were on the right route, but we seem to have missed a control. We're a sticker short"
Of course they were a sticker short, they'd taken a wrong turn, cut off as many as 6 miles off the course, got ahead of us setting the course up and missed the final control completely.
As Rallymaster it wasn't really my place to tell them where they had gone wrong, but after some consultation with the final timing control crew they decided to go back and look for the missing control, they did have plenty of time after all. Amazingly they arrived back at the final control with the sticker in place just one second late!
Everyone completed the course, some people missed a sticker, and a few people were late to the final timing control but everyone had enjoyed themselves immensely as I was to find out when I asked people in the bar afterwards.

Everyone having a good time in the bar afterwards.

We did tally up the scores, although no prizes were given, as it was all about having a good time rather than the competition. There was one zero score, and from a pair of beginners too! Drew McLaughlin and Taylor Zenz in a Lincoln MKZ. A fine performance in not your typical road rally vehicle.
If we have to talk about the get together at the bar afterwards, then we have to talk about the one bad moment of the evening. Well, it was bad for me.
The bar had booked a singer for the night, and as was his wont he liked to involve the audience in his songs, and we, being large group of people naturally drew his attention, and he gravitated towards us to find someone to accompany him on some of his songs. Somehow, everyone else there decided that it should be me that would go up there and play the cowbell on a couple of songs.
I hate cowbell. I think that the Saturday Night Live sketch "More Cowbell" featuring Christopher Walken is one of the least funny things in the history of television comedy. Still, I gritted my teeth and clanged my way through "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" and "Honky Tonk Woman",  everyone else enjoyed it so that was OK with me.
The event had been a success across the board. The newcomers had enjoyed themselves and discovered something new. They all said they'd had a good time and would do another one. The concept was well received too, so much so that I was told that if I wanted to run the Rum Runner along these lines I should. There's a big difference though, between putting together a 30 mile hour long route like that and a 100 mile plus afternoon adventure. Still it's something to bear in mind.
In closing, I have to thank Clarence and Kate Westberg, Dave and Rachel Fuss for working start and finish controls. Clarence also provided the pictures for this post. Last but not least my wife Lorrie for working registration and doing all the associated paperwork.
"See you next month." Said one cheery soul as they left the Northwoods bar. I certainly hope we do.