The Cascade Geargrinders Saturday Road Rally Series kicks into gear on March 18. The March rally is the first of six in the Series. Yet before teams hit the highways and byways, Rallymasters Victoria and Monte Saager held a Road Rally School School Rally on Saturday, February 18th.
The morning of the Rally School Rally was overcast. The skies were grey, but the pavement was dry. Great road rally weather. Cascade’s first rally of the 2023 season attracted 28 entries, including 11 first-timer teams.
After reviewing their assigned homework, teams gathered at a Friday evening Zoom meeting for a Rally School review of rally rules, procedures, and protocols. The Rallymaster Team of Victoria and Monte Saager answered entrant questions to prepare for the practice rally on Saturday morning-.
About the Rally
The rally course was about 85 miles from the start in northwest Portland to the ending location in Forest Grove, and it took about three and a half hours to complete. The route traveled through Washington Park, along Skyline, and into Washington County, on roads used for Cascade road rallies for decades – West Union, Helvetia, and Jackson Quarry. The route then made its way down Mason Hill and into North Plains for a mid-rally break, ending at the Jessie Mays Community Park.
After the break, the course headed out Pumpkin Ridge, through Roy, up Clapshaw Hill and down Hillside, through Verboort, and on to the ending location at the Prime Time in Forest Grove. Several teams met at the restaurant and shared stories, some of which (we suppose) were true. Some teams went from the end of the rally directly to Mike Nagle’s Celebration of Life in Beaverton.
What Ralliers Said
From the rally winners, David and JoAnn Gattman: This was a fairly easy, straightforward rally, but it did give exposure to ITIS, Notes and generally reset the mind to get rally season officially started.
From second place SOP, Russ and Kate Sherrell: Great roads, as usual. Good challenges without being so “trappy” that we felt like we couldn’t do it. It was a great start to the year; we’re really looking forward to learning to rally together more consistently. Rally School was a good reminder of the basic rally rules and the differences between CSCC rules and other rallies we have participated in when first learning how to rally.
From the first place Novice team, father and son duo Jeff and Nicholas Crews: Thanks for the fun event. I was going to wait a bit to see if my son wanted to do another one, but he suggested we do it again as we were driving home, so yeah, we will hopefully attend more!
From third Novice, father and daughter Isaac and Scout Miller: We were on the way home when the email came in with the results. We rolled the windows down while stuck on Hwy26 and started whooping and hollering. It was pretty exciting and unexpected.
From Other Teams
• Thank you for all the work put into keeping this sport alive and encouraging new participants. It was really great to see so many new (to us, at least) faces. Looking forward to the next one!
• Thanks for offering the Rally School — it’s obvious how much work goes into it, and we appreciate the opportunity to participate!
• Thank you for hosting another great rally event!!
• The rally was awesome and exceeded our expectations! We really appreciate all the hard work that must go into creating a rally course and putting together the notes and instructions. The rally course had a perfect balance of straightforward and challenging — it kept us engaged but never so frustrated that we wanted to throw in the towel.
• We like solving puzzles, learning new skills, driving, and exploring new areas — the rally offered all of these and much more! We enjoyed talking with the other teams at the start location — everyone was so friendly!
• Thanks for helping us out today.
• We had a lot of fun on the rally. It was through areas I hadn’t been in for years and many roads I had never seen. It was great to explore, which is something the two of us do regularly during the summer months. Much of it was what I was expecting, though many of the traps sure got me… this time!
• The school taught us everything we needed to know to run our first rally together. The most helpful aspect was probably learning how to understand and work with the route instructions and Rallymaster notes (via all the handouts and the Zoom meeting) — it’s a whole new language that would have been a real struggle to learn any other way.
• We’re already making plans to run the March rally. We had a lot of fun running the rally school route, and we can’t wait to test ourselves with another Cascade road rally!
What the Rallymasters Said
Some of this event may have seemed familiar. We reused parts of an event we put on several years ago. Rally School is a teaching opportunity, so we retained some “tried and true” rally challenges.
A number switch (numbered route instructions printed out of numerical order) had some cars traveling through a rural neighborhood in one direction while others went the opposite way, allowing rally cars to wave and wonder — are we off course, or are they?
A spelling trap offered another opportunity for some teams to go one way while others took a different route. Everyone rejoined a common route, with those who didn’t notice the spelling error getting a few extra penalty points.
Two instructions offered a lesson in defined terms vs. signs. Both opportunities occurred at railroad crossings:
PAUSE 15 seconds at STOP ITIS
In the first case, STOP is a defined term, so you’re looking to pause at an intersection with a legal highway stop sign at which the contestant must stop. Since an intersection is defined as a crossing of rally roads at which the contestant could proceed in more than one direction, and since no such intersection exists at the railroad crossing, the correct action is to skip this ITIS instruction and its pause.
PAUSE 15 seconds at “STOP” ITIS
In the second case, you’re looking to pause at a sign that reads stop. There is a stop sign at the railroad crossing, so the correct action is to pause there and not skip the ITIS instruction.
Two Notes were included. One was used only by cars that fell for the route instruction number switch. The other Note was a sign hunt, introduced near the rally’s end, to pause every time you saw a particular sign; teams could use it correctly three times.
Congratulate the Winners
There are no prizes for this practice rally, but we recognize winners. Fame and glory!
First Overall and First in the SOP Class was the team of David and JoAnn Gattman with a score of 118. With just three more points, Second Overall and Second SOP were Russ and Kate Sherrell with 121 points. Lee and Patricia Nielsen finished Third Overall and Third SOP with 178 points.
All three of the top-finishing Novice teams were first-time Cascade ralliers. The First Novice, with a score of 233, was the father/son team of Jeff and Nicholas Crews. The Second Novice was the Gene and Sandy Buzzelli team, scoring 244. The Third Novice was the father/daughter team of Isaac and Scout Miller with 321.
Congratulations to all the Rally School Rally teams! You are all winners!
Be a Rallymaster
Do you have an idea for a rally route or some favorite roads you love to drive? You could be a Rallymaster. We will help you turn your route idea into a real road rally.
Contact us about your rally route idea. rally@cascadesportscarclub.org
Attracting and retaining new rally teams is essential to the success of the rally program. We promote Cascade’s road rally events through email, social media, the CSCC Auspuff newsletter, and the Cascade Geargrinders website. Please help by sharing our event announcements. Let us know if you identify new outreach opportunities.
A road rally is a fun way to enjoy driving your car. Play the game that takes you places. Once a month, February through November. Affordable fun for a car full.
