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.

Escape to Wisconsin report. Our first D.N.F

Saturday dawned bright and sunny. Not terribly warm mind you, it was only 34F when I went out for my morning run. We even took our MGB out for a spin (with the roof up). It was looking like a great day for a road Rallye.

As we arrived at Paddy Ryan's bar in Hudson, WI we were even further cheered to see so many new faces turning up for their first attempt at road rally. Seventeen cars were registered for the event and about two thirds of them were new. Good news for anyone who would think that road rally is on the decline. The hope is, of course, that they come back for their second and third rallies. 

We were allocated number 17 to run as a kind of sweep to help out any of these newbies in case we found any looking lost by the side of the road. Our little Scion was not equipped to handle proper sweep duties like hauling someone back on to the road.

At 3pm we were treated to the sight of some 14 other cars heading out on the rally. As the last car, we waited around with paperwork just in case the late arrivals turned up. They didn't, so at our appointed time we set out. 

It had been a long time since our last rally so we used the odo check leg to get used to reading the instructions and communicating the information needed between the two of us, and by the time we reached the start point of the rally we were feeling pretty good about how things would go.

The sight that greeted us at the start point was quite impressive. A line of many and varied cars, Porsches, Subarus, a brand spanking new Camaro, a Fiat 500 and even a Mazda MX-5 with the roof down. Of which mention has to be made of the crew of Randall and Van Hagen for staying out with the top down. The cars heater was needed, but not all the time apparently. It did kind of make me feel like we should have taken the MGB. But as any MGB owner will tell you, the heaters in one of them aren't the best.

As the rally route unfolded in front of us we were treated to sweeping vistas, and steep hills both up and down. Grit and dirt on these steep hills from winter road care made me wonder if we wouldn't come across a car that had run off the road at one of the many hairpin bends on these slopes.  
Running last, we were presented with reasons to take time delays wether it be passing information between control points or getting stuck behind farm equipment and locals out for a leisurely drive. Sometimes I'd sit back and take the delay and sometimes I'd try and get back the time. I found it very hard to be disciplined enough to stay back and keep the delay constant. In the end trying to get back the time probably contributed to our downfall, but we weren't to know that at the time.

One of the most enjoyable parts of a road rally is the breaks along the route, where you get a chance to mix with the other entrants to share experiences, socialize, and make new friends. As for the most part before the race you spend so much time going over the rally instructions it's difficult to find time to stop and chat. Even by the first rest stop in Knapp there were stories to share of wrong turns and other hiccups. 

The second rest stop in Menomonie is the one that the wife and I look forward to the most. For UW-Stout there is where we first met. There have been changes in the town but it still looks like the place we hung out together all those years ago. 

With memory lane tripped along we joined the other competitors at Riverside Park in the town. We had a chance to socialize a bit more and I even met a rally beginner who was a reader of this blog! I know many of the local Rallye regulars read along with this to humor me, but to meet someone you don't know who reads and enjoys these ramblings makes you feel pretty good. The clear consensus among the entrants was that everyone was enjoying themselves. So hopefully everyone will come back for more.

One by one the cars headed out on the third leg of the rally. We were feeling pretty good about our progress not knowing we were about to become very disappointed. 

The hilly nature of the course has been noted already and our little Scion, with almost a quarter of a million miles on it, was certainly feeling every one of those miles, and a short distance before the final timing control the car gave a cough, the check engine warning light came on and it decided to travel at no more than 30 mph. I suspected that perhaps we'd cooked the automatic transmission fluid, but when the check engine light comes on for something as innocuous as not getting the fuel filler cap on correctly you can't be too sure. So we forlornly coasted into the timing control and told Rallymaster Clarence Westberg of our woes and that discretion was the better part of valour and we'd withdraw and limp home. 

Suspecting the tranny fluid as the issue we rested up in Elmwood to give things a chance to cool down. Restarting the car after 10 minutes or so my suspicions were sort of confirmed as the warning light stayed off. I suppose we could have rejoined the rally but knowing there would be more of the same hilly terrain in the next section, and not wanting to make things any worse (should it not have been the tranny fluid) we drove away from Elmwood. It did not help our low spirits to see the cars lined up ready for section four as we turned right up Highway 128 and headed away out of town.

Our first D.N.F.  The drive back was glum and quiet. Not even the sight of the Wallace and Grommit Austin A40 Van on our Garmin could raise a smile amongst us.

By the time we reached Elk River, 20 miles from home we had cheered up enough to get some amusement from our Garmins breathy pronunciation of the words Ramp (R-Haamp) and Ten (T-Hen).

Now a few days later things aren't so bad and we are looking forward to our next event. Very probably the Waterloo rally in Iowa on May 17th. I'm sure we'll get the Automatic transmission fluid refreshed before then.

Spring has sprung.

The title of this post is not a sad pun on anything that has happened to the suspension of our car on an event. Far from it. We haven't even been out on a Rallye since our time assisting on the Lucas Flamethrower.

At long last the snow is disappearing from Minnesota and the Spring time road rallies are starting to appear. These are the ones in the Minnesota/Wisconsin area aver the next few weeks.

April 26th Escape to Wisconsin out of Hudson, WI

May 3rd Badger Burrows, Madison, WI

May 17th Waterloo, Davenport IA.

I fear that work commitments may well preclude me from entering all of these events. But after what has seemed an age without anything going on it is good to have activity again.

Springtime also sees one of the great European classic car rallies. The Tulpenrallye, or Tulip Rally in the Netherlands. This years event runs from May 4th to 10th starting in the Netherlands, passing into France and Germany before finishing in Noordwijk in the Netherlands. 

The Tulpenrallye was first run in 1946 which was among the "golden years"of road rallying. Winners in the past have included legendary rally names like Roger Clark, Walter Rorhl, Timo Makinen and Pat Moss. However since 1992 the rally has been limited to cars built before December 31st 1971, and the event became known as the Historic Tulip Rally. 

Rules for the event are pretty strict. You can't use cellphones (only in an emergency) and the timing and measuring equipment is limited too, These restrictions however, don't have an effect on the number of entries. There are 216 entrants in four classes for the 2014 event. 

The event can be followed through its website, Tulpenrallye.nl where you can select an English language version of the site, there is also a full set of race regulations on the website to follow. On the other hand, if you have an iPhone there is an App for the Rallye available from the App store. With it you can review the entrants, keep up with their progress, and watch videos of the event too.

Perhaps the Tulpenrallye should be on my road rally bucket list. All I need to do is find a family member or friend with a pre-December 1971 car who will let the wife and I drive it through Europe for four days.

Classics come to Minnesota

This advert appeared in this months Classic and Sports Magazine. A Trans America Classic car rally. The cars registered include a 1936 Bentley and an Aston Martin DB6 Vantage. The entrants include a one time English political leader, now a Lord. The cars should be in Minnesota about the 17th June. Maybe book the day off work to see some great classic cars.