| I took a look at some old dash plaques that I had in a scrapbook. There wasn’t always a story involved; some plaques just seemed unique, clever, or whatever. The scrapbook also contained some photos of awards taken in a space-saving effort to photograph and discard some of them. I’m going to separate them into two sections, Buckingham Sports Car Club, a local club in the Philadelphia area to which I belonged, and some Sports Car Club of America National and Divisional events. |
This rally featured a “Total Overlap” concept. For example: after executing the first part of a multi-part instruction (Left, then Right at Stop), the next instruction became eligible for execution.
Note the use of common letters N and O in November Nomad and T and L in Total Overlap.
This was a Pennsylvania Rally Championship Association (PRCA) event. The instructions were contained in a triangle format, as depicted on the dash plaque. After executing one execution, you could then execute the instruction triangle either to the left or right of that instruction, moving back and forth across the page.
The General Instructions also stated that all Checkpoints would be indicated in the route instructions. The final three instructions left to right were: Checkpoint, Right at T, and End Timed Portion of Rally at Stop. I was the lead car and was observing cars entering the referenced Checkpoint. Outgoing RRB Chair Jim Crittenden said to me, “Make sure the crew doesn’t give me a quick restart time. I don’t want to be late at the next Checkpoint.” Jim had figured out the trap. After doing the Right at T, you entered another Checkpoint.
This rally featured a “Democratic Main Road,” a concept that Mike Thompson has used for some past Oktoberallys. Several Main Road Rules were used, such as Onto, Protection, Curve Arrows, and T Rule. All rules had the same priority. You were to proceed in whichever direction the most rules took you.
In addition to the regular classes, there was an additional class called the Team Class. Two cars formed a Team, and a “Checkpoint” occurred each time they “passed” their other team member, and they noted that time. You could pass your team member by approaching them head-on or overtaking them because they were at a slower speed or pausing. Although few entered the class, those who ran the Team Class seemed to enjoy it, even though Buckingham offered to pair up entries wanting to run that class. Of course, the dash plaque repeated the event name twice.
The NER scheduled their Double National on Thanksgiving weekend (note the shadow effect of the word “Double”). The rallies were trap/course rallies and were on Friday (with a later start) and Saturday, allowing competitors to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner at home on Thursday and return home on Sunday.
One problem, though, it snowed, and the roads were snowy and icy. NER invoked emergency speeds and promised a sweep car with a winch, but things were still a bit dicey. At one point, while coming around a bend, we tried to avoid another vehicle in the ditch on the right and banged hard into a snowbank on the left, pushing the left front fender perilously close to the tire. We were afraid that almost any turn would scrape the tire against the fender. So we jacked the fender away from the tire and were on our way if a bit late. Later we came into an uphill T trying to decide which way to go. The next thing we know, we’re sliding backward on the ice into a ditch.
No one seems to be coming as we are running late—no sweep car and winch in sight. Maybe we’re off course. I decide to take the spare set of routes and start walking while driver Bob Fink stays with the car. I stroll into an on-course passage control. The crew isn’t sure they should give us credit; they “want to see a car.” Just then, here comes Bob, a farmer pulled him out. I always wondered what would have happened if we didn’t go the same way?
I’m sure today’s Insurance and Risk Department would frown upon it, but Old Dominion Region’s Colonial Trail included, at some unknown point, a “fastest through the forest” section.
A flagger with a green flag would start the section, and another flagger with a checkered flag would end the section, which was a free zone. Awards were given for fastest and slowest through the forest. We were traveling in a section of unpaved roads, and the Generals had specified that only unpaved roads with a name or number or controlled by a stop or yield sign existed. The next instruction was just a plain Left. All of a sudden out jumps the flagger with a green flag. We hit it, and then I yell, “Stop, there’s a left!” But no criteria for existence, so we hit it again and soon find the checkered flag. We complained, but hands down won the slowest award.
Still don’t know why no one else investigated the potential road. A nice touch by ODR (Norfolk, VA), they took pictures of each car in a cloud of dust and presented them at the finish.
The Search (for the Great Pumpkin): Another NER event, which started near Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. It was a night rally. The late Mark Rerick was the Rallymaster. Mark’s usual partner, Jim Friedman, talked me into running, and we did well. Awards were canvas bags, orange of course. Can’t recall much about the rally, but I do remember Kit Caruthers and Bill Todd running with a lighted pumpkin attached to their car’s roof throughout the event.
Hope you found something to chuckle about in these stories of long ago events!
