December 3, 2023, marked the 34th Annual Toys for Tots Teddy Bear Road Rally, hosted by the Northern New Jersey Region of the SCCA and Motorsport Club of North Jersey. Subaru World of Hackettstown was this year’s sponsor and has been for the last eleven years.
Twenty-eight teams competed in this year’s rainy and cold event, and only two teams ran the event “clean.”
The NNJR-SCCA/MCNJ’s Toys for Tots Teddy Bear Rally is the longest-running charity rally associated with SCCA, the longest-running event hosted by the Northern New Jersey Region, and the second-longest rally conducted by the same event organizer (Ted Goddard organized the New England Region’s Cover Bridge Rally for forty-nine years). Since 1990, NNJR-SCCA/MCNJ has collected over 4,000 toys with an estimated value of $29,000. We hope to continue the event for many years to come.
This event is a simple-to-follow RoadRally using the back roads of Morris, Warren, and Hunterdon Counties. It started at Subaru World of Hackettstown and ended about 50 miles later at the Long Valley Brew Pub in Long Valley, NJ.
The rally is open to the general public and requires only a car or light truck with a working odometer and a pen/pencil to compete. The event is not a Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) rally but a lightly trapped Social “Gimmick” rally. The entry fee per car is a new Teddy Bear or new toy worth at least $35.00 retail, donated to the USMC Reserve Toys for Tots Program.
Toys for Tots began in 1947 when Major Bill Hendricks and a group of Marine Reservists in Los Angeles collected and distributed 5,000 toys to needy children. The idea came from Bill’s wife, Diane. In the fall of 1947, Diane crafted a homemade doll and asked Bill to deliver it to an organization that would give it to a needy child at Christmas. When Bill determined that no agency existed, Diane told Bill that he should start one. He did. The 1947 pilot project was so successful that the Marine Corps adopted Toys for Tots in 1948 and expanded it into a nationwide campaign.
The Teddy Bear rally is a mileage-based course rally. One hundred points are awarded for each mile variance from the official route. The contestants note their car’s odometer reading at unmanned (DIY) checkpoints as listed in the route instructions, and the club utilizes an odometer calibration leg to compute corrected leg mileages and compare them with the official leg mileages to determine the score.
Since 2016, the Region has been posting event notifications on Facebook and targeting individuals in the NJ, NY, and Pennsylvania areas with low-cost ads and email blasts on Constant Contact. We have maintained a steady list of entries for our events.
Since its inception, the Toys for Tots rally has used Photo Clues (a format borrowed from the Metro Porsche Club – Snowflake Rally, which has been run for the past 68 years) to provide contestants a little extra challenge. These Photo Clues can be compared to the “Lettered Route Instructions” used at SCCA National Course events. The Photos are of signs/scenes along the rally route, which at times are hard to spot (but possible) or are taken of easy-to-see everyday common signs that have slight variations due to weathering or defects. These features must be considered when correctly executing a Photo Clue instruction. In addition to the Photo Clues, the rally used standard route following traps based on the “Onto” rule and reversed numbered route instructions. All route ‘traps’ are self-correcting, with the difference in the official on-course vs off-course mileage helping separate the scores.
This year’s event had only four legs, an odometer leg, and three scored legs that contained simple route-following traps and could be driven in two hours. Since all the route-following traps shortcut the route, most teams could finish the event in less time.
Leg 1
The first route-following trap on the rally was a simple reversed Route Instruction numbering trap. Since this happened at the beginning of the event, it caught most of the teams, including several experienced teams. Inst #2 and #3 were listed on the Instruction Sheet as ‘out of order.’ If you did not notice the ‘trap,’ you made a R out of the dealership and turned R FOPP on Harris Lane and a L FOPP just like we have done in the past and then came to the SIG at Route 46 and Naughright Rd. (Inst #4). If you noticed that the instructions were out of order, you make a R out of the driveway, a L FOPP (at SIG), and then a R FOPP (on Drakestown Rd). You then traveled downhill on Drakestown Rd to a Forced R on Route 46 East to the SIG at Route 46 and Naughright Rd. (Inst #4). Either way, you did Inst #2 and Inst #3, and you would now be looking to execute the first Special Instruction, which was Photo A, the crossroad sign for Flocktown Rd. Falling for this trap caused the contestants to shortcut the route by 2.44 miles.
The second trap was a Special Instruction Clue – Photo B. The three signs shown in Photo B were all attached to a Telephone Pole and, per the Cover Sheet, were not valid and should have been ignored. If you noticed that the Special Instruction Clue was not valid, you would have proceeded straight at the intersection of Stephensburg Rd and executed Instruction #7 on Route 57 East. If you did not notice the Telephone Pole, you made a right on Stephensburg Rd prior to executing a right for Instruction #7 on Route 57 East. Falling for this trap caused the contestants to shortcut the route by 3.9 miles.
The next self-correcting trap was Inst #13 “L FOPP after Parke Rd.” To execute this instruction correctly, you need to pass the actual road (since we told you to turn after the actual road and not the road sign) and turn left on Janes Chapel Rd, and not turn after the sign for Parke Rd, which would have put you on Parke Rd. No matter where you turned, Inst #14 put you on Valley Rd heading towards Inst #15. Falling for this trap resulted in the teams shortcutting the route by 0.90 miles.
Leg 2
The trap involved two Special Instruction Clues (Photos D & E), which were activated at the same time. Photo D was the picture of a Mailbox, which was invalid per the special instructions. If you noticed the trap, you would have seen Photo Clue E “SHY HOUND FARM” sign and turned left on Hoffman Rd. Either way, the route was self-corrected by heading north on Route 629. If you failed to remember that a mailbox was invalid, you would have shortcut the route by 2.7 miles and added 270 mileage points to your score.
Leg 3
This was the Odometer Leg. There were no route-following traps on this leg, so everyone got a zero. Since the rally organizers utilize an Excel Spreadsheet to compare the contestants’ leg mileage to the official mileage, any leg that does not contain a route-following trap can be used as the odometer leg.
Leg 4
The last trap of the event was based on the fact that the route following instructions per the General Instructions needed to be executed at an intersection. The “Straight” at Instruction 28 could not be executed at the same place as the quoted sign used for the Checkpoint because Shenandoah Court was a marked Dead End and not a valid intersection. To do this correctly, you must proceed to the next intersection (which was a Stop), proceed ‘Straight,’ and then look to execute Instruction # 29. Those who did it incorrectly saw Photo F.
The event was scored in four classes: Beginner, Novice, Intermediate, and Expert. Special Awards were given for Best Subaru, Best Porsche, Best Family, Best Husband and Wife/Partners, and Dead Last But Finished. All Special Award receipts received medals; the top two in each class received a bottle of New Jersey Wine.
SCCA-NNJR and the Motorsport Club of North Jersey would like to thank all who participated in the event, along with Safety Stewards Eric and Pat Sjogren and my wife, Joanne Schneider, who did checkouts of the event with me several times and worked registration and her assistance with the event for the past 34 years.
