On Sunday, May 19th, the Northern New Jersey Region of the Porsche Club of America conducted its first rally in the 2024 Rally Series. Seventy members and friends of the club turned out for the event on a gorgeous sunny day. 100% of the entry fee was donated to the Cheshire Home, New Jersey’s premier special care nursing and rehabilitative services provider for young adults with spinal cord injuries.
The event was 38 miles long and could easily be driven in about 90 minutes and covered the scenic roads of Morris, Hunterdon and Somerset counties, ending at the Long Valley Brew Pub. Nestled at the foot of Schooley’s Mountain in the heart of scenic Long Valley, the Long Valley Pub and Brewery resides in a breathtakingly restored 200-year-old barn. The rally route featured the Epicenter of the April 5th Earthquake and several of the 160+ Aftershock locations along the road.
What is truly amazing about New Jersey is the amount of history packed into the nation’s most densely populated state. Yet, we have hundreds of square miles of forests and farmland that many of our residents and members never get to explore, unless they take to the back roads on a road rally. Believe it or not, New Jersey has 4.48 miles of roadway per square mile, the most of any state in the nation, while in comparison, Alaska has only 0.02 per square mile. So we have a lot of roads we can explore in a compact area.
The Region’s Road Rally Series consists of five events, with the best four out of five counting towards the Series final standings. Members receive series points as a Driver or Navigator in the Expert or Novice Classes. To do well in the series, you need to run all five events in the same class and on the same side of the car to maximize the possible number of points you can obtain. Switching classes or crew positions during the series will split your points across the four categories.
To do well on an individual rally requires a good sense of humor to get the jokes and a sharp eye to observe the hard-to-see answers to the questions along the route. Since teams obtain 100 points for each mile driven ‘off-course’ and 25 points for each incorrect question answered, doubling back along the route to find a missed question could cost you more mileage points than the penalty for getting the question wrong. Adjusting your odometer reading at the end of the event is a ‘big no.’ For those cars that do not have a working odometer or one that only reads the whole mile, we strongly suggest you download one of the many free GPS apps online. You can purchase a used Garmin Nuvi 660 Automotive GPS from eBay that reads mileage to the hundreds and is what the club uses to measure the route. Due to rising food costs this year, the event price is $75 per car, with an additional fee of $25.00 per person over 12. For that amount, you get an enjoyable drive and awards at the end, snacks at the beginning of the event, and a buffet lunch while you wait for the awards to be presented.
There were awards in Novice and Expert classes, with special awards for Dead Last But Finished and the best-placing 4-door Porsche.
In looking at questions, here are some that stand out —
The most straightforward question on the rally was Question #17: IN THE JUNGLE, THE MIGHTY JUNGLE, WHAT SLEEPS TONIGHT? This was a reference to the 1961 hit The Lion Sleeps Tonight by the doo-wop group The Tokens, which became a number-one hit in the United States. The song was originally written and first recorded in 1939 by Solomon Linda under the title “Mbube” through the South African Gallo Record Company. Lyrics of Linda’s original version were written in Zulu, while those of the English one were later written by George David Weiss. Two large lion statues were found along the route on Lake Road, which paralleled Lake Ravine in Far Hills.
Question #7: WHAT COLOR ARE THE HORSES? Nineteen of the 32 teams missed it. The answer was found on two weather vanes along the route, and the correct answer was ‘Black.’
The most challenging question of the rally was Question #14: WHAT TYPE OF FIELD IS CAST IN STONE? The answer was ‘Honeyfield,’ carved in two stone pillars in front of a large home on Mountain Top Road in Bernardsville. The pillars were only visible for a split second as you passed a break in the hedge row, protecting the home from the prying eyes of local traffic.
The answer to Question #13: HOW DO YOU HALT A RUNAWAY LETTUCE? Received the largest ‘negative’ reaction from the contests in the form of moans and groans. The answer was ‘STOP AHEAD’. Five teams did get the joke and answered the question correctly.
All in all, everyone enjoyed the event. The Overall rally winners were a Novice team with only three questions wrong and a near-perfect mileage score of .38 points, based on a penalty of 100 points per mile off the official rally route. Congratulations to the winning team of John and Christine Stockmal, who were on their 1st rally with the Club!
