TX: The Horse Country Challenge Shortest Distance Map RoadRally

The Texas Region of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) invites you to a fun drive in the country in Denton County, Texas. All are welcome and no prior rally experience is required. We give you a map with several waypoints and you visit these specific locations on the map. With this year’s theme, locations to be visited are in Denton County horse country. Plot your thriftiest rural trail!

You determine your route and drive to each location, which will be verified by the Richta GPS smartphone app. The team who visits all the required landmarks in the shortest distance will win, and the winners will receive awards. A trail driver’s version of the traveling salesman problem! It is not a speed or racing contest. Scores are automatically reported to the Rallymaster John Poulos. No score sheet to fill out. As we did last year, we will encourage all contestants to download and use a GPS-based odometer app, as a way to ensure consistency of mileage measurements across all entrants, instead of our usual pre-rally odometer calibration check. We will send you information on these apps and procedures for their use after you pre-register.

If you’re new to road rally and/or still deciding whether to sign up, we plan to conduct a brief Rally School via Zoom (August 9th) to help prepare for the rally (for details and to pre-register for the School, go to  https://msreg.com/DMR26RSmsr). For those who can’t join the live session, we will post a YouTube video recording of the session.

• Rally Day: Saturday, August 15, 2026. See the registration link below to enter your team and learn more about the rally details for The Horse Country Challenge.
• Registration and Starting Place: Prairie House Restaurant, registration opens at 9:45 AM. You will receive your maps and instructions for locating seventeen or so locations in Denton county that you must visit.
• Take 30 minutes to determine your route from maps provided. No GPS/electronic aids permitted here.
• Cars leave the official start whenever you are ready, in any order (but at 1-minute intervals). First car out about 10:30 am. Length: as short as you can make it in miles, probably about 3½ hours in time
• Rally type: Shortest-distance map rally. SCCA calls this a GTA (Games, Tours, Adventures) rally.
• Route: You choose your route from maps provided. You may use any public road you wish in your attempt to log the shortest distance on your odometer. Depending on your chosen route, you may encounter short stretches of unpaved road, though we think that the shortest-distance route will be all paved.
• Classes: First-timer, Novice (3 rally trophies or less), General, and Master (this is an optional class: no trophies). GPS and other electronic aids welcome in any class once you’re on the road.
• At least two people (a Driver and a Navigator) are required in each car; contact roadrally@texasscca.com  if you have a minor child (<18) in the car, as a form will need to be signed.
• Vehicles: Sports Cars, Family Cars, Classic Cars, Antiques, Hot Rods, Cruisers, Convertibles, anything with 4 (or even 3) wheels that’s street legal is OK in this Rally. Note: speed is not a factor.
• Rally entry fee (per vehicle): $45.00; regular SCCA Members: $15.00 discount. A $5.00 late fee will be assessed to anyone not preregistered on MotorsportReg.com.