Hello, and thank you! It was not entirely foreign to me, as my Dad and I (Sealed Beam Rally Team) shared Chief of Controls duties at Nemadji Trail Winter Rally (stage rally) in early December. I found that work satisfying and knew I had to try TSD organizing.
One of the things that attracted me to TSD organizing was that, unlike stage rallies, anyone could compete with any car and organize an entire rally wherever they like. That allows us a far broader potential audience and almost infinitely more road options than stage rallies while retaining the basic event structure, feeling of speed, and, notably, email list! So, as I begin my TSD organizing career, I aim to carry over the things I love about volunteering at stage rallies and incorporate elements of those exciting events into the ones that are more financially accessible.
Chad Peron and Colin Threine are enjoying the route of the Flamethrower Rally in a 2002 Porsche 911, a good choice for winter roads! 
The 2018 GTI of Ian Anderson and Landon Dinger 
We like it, Ben and Dan Eggan! Nice to see a Corvette out “playing” in the snow vs. “harboring” in a garage awaiting summer pavement! 
Brett Corneliusen and Pat Cook “hillclimbing and staying on time” in their 2002 VW Golf 
Just cuz! We liked this shot by Tyler Linner! 
Rally Camaraderie at the Fuel Stop. We love the mix of vehicles out on a winter rally! 
Gavyn Gill and Alex Summers 2019 Miata, out of St Cloud, MN 
Car 3 • Erik Less and David Capesius in their Toyota RAV4. Great shot, Tyler Linner, it looks like they are out on an ice road in the Arctic! 
Scenic Vista on the Flamethrower Rally as Ty Masters and Gabrielle Adkins ready to head downhill in their 2016 Mustang 
Sweep Car of Gary Starr “sweeping around the corner” and up the hill!
I had been playing around in Rabbit Roadbook Designer (RBD) last fall when Clarence Westberg offered a decade-old Flamethrower roadbook to get me started in the short term. He invited me to translate the Bush-era roadbook into Rabbit while updating it and adding any changes I wanted. Since my Dad has been my TSD Navigator for half a dozen RoadRallies, I roped him in as Safety Steward. Building a roadbook in RBD is easy, but building a good one takes much more care, especially as a newbie. I’ve been through the entire course six times now! That’s almost 800 miles of driving, not including the 45-minute commute each way to and from Red Wing.
I had only made a few changes from the 2011 version of Flamethrower, which was also an SCCA Land o Lakes Region RoadRally. Red Wing had converted an intersection to a roundabout, and a few signs had changed. I moved the start controls up, and some finish controls back. I added a stage or two, which used to be transits—simple stuff like that. Then, one week before the event, Clarence and I had to cut out a stage and make an emergency route change when a bridge closed one of our transits!
Overall, the rally went off quite well for us on the day of Flamethrower, Saturday, February 25th. With the Westbergs covering Registration and Scoring, my Dad and I were free to teach almost half the teams how to use Rabbit, as we did at this year’s Yucatan. It’s awesome to get some new people in, and Rabbit is easy and fun enough to use that new teams can finish mid-pack without previous RoadRally experience.
We got a lot of teams with interesting sports cars this time despite the cold and snowy conditions, including a C4 Corvette, Porsche 996, MX-5 ND, Mustang S550, new BRZ, and more. Two new teams from Yucatan returned for this event, which was great. Gary Starr was kind enough to run sweep with his 2G Eclipse GS-T and thankfully only had to provide minimal assistance when a couple of competitors had, shall we say, road holding issues. To capture the variety and excitement of the event, my Dad and I scrambled from stage to stage during the event so I could photograph as much as possible. With my decade-old DSLR, I captured four locations, including at least one photo of every car!
I look at entrants to these events as customers. I have been focusing on improving outreach/marketing, customer satisfaction, and holding entertaining events that may be a little out of the norm. Taking a page from the stage rally volunteer book, I offered free die-cut event stickers featuring artwork I made up in GIMP. Each competitor got one (two stickers per car). The people I heard from loved the stickers, so we will see stickers again at some future events.
As for customer service, my Dad and I ensured everyone was reasonably comfortable with Rabbit before they got in their cars. In case they forgot something, I built on previous work to make a half-size 8-page Rabbit Quick Reference Guide booklet that includes common mistakes and processes found with the app. On top of that, my first photo opportunity was the slippery uphill start of SR2, meaning I could personally assist teams with any timing questions before they got too far into the rally.
I am working on one or two ideas for future events. They may not fit the cookie-cutter SCCA RoadRally canon, but I want to help grow the sport in ways that bring a broader base of enthusiasm and competition. I’m happy to be a part of the community and add events to the calendar; the more Rallymasters hold quality events, the more people can run them. Flamethrower was a great event, but I will try to get the Roadbook done in fewer passes next time!
Rally folks are welcome to check out my YouTube Channel, Sealed Beam Rally Team, and contact me at sealedbeamrallyteam@gmail.com.
Press On,
Tyler Linner, TSD & Stage Rally Organizer
