The April 17 Saturday Rally provided a beautiful scenic drive that started at Milwaukie Lowe’s and ended at the Cruise-In Diner in Hillsboro. The route was about 90 miles, took just a bit over three hours, and included a mid-rally break at Bald Peak State Park. The route’s twisty windy roads challenged even the best rally teams to be on time at 17 checkpoints.
Thirty cars ran the rally. A few explored some alternate routes along the way. All arrived at the finish. The route crossed over itself and even backtracked on short sections of road in a few places, so teams had an opportunity to see other rally cars going in the opposite directions. The Rallymasters, Monte and Victoria Saager (that’s us), were amused, watching these encounters on the Rallymaster Map, imagining that ralliers were asking themselves, “Are we off course or are they off course?” A good reminder that everyone is running their own rally.
Challenges:
This was a lightly trapped, mostly tour-style rally, meaning it included no route following traps. All the route instructions included official mileage, so following the route was straightforward. But the rally did include a few easy challenges.
The rally included three notes which overlapped the numbered route instructions. While a note is active, you are looking for two things at the same time; you’re looking for the reference in the note while you’re also looking for the reference in the next numbered route instruction. Things can get kinda busy when a note is active.
The first note instructed you to PAUSE 15 seconds at “NUEGEBAUER.” There was a sign for Neugebauer Road while the note was active, but since the sign and the note were not spelled the same, the note was not used there. In fact, there were no correct opportunities to execute the note while it was active. (Always check the spelling of signs quoted in the route instructions.)
The second note instructed you to PAUSE 15 seconds at FERN HILL CEMETERY. There really is a Fern Hill Cemetery (complete with a sign identifying it as such) along the route while the note is active. Teams that did not see it (or forgot they were looking for it) earned a 15-point penalty.
The third note instructed you to PAUSE 15 seconds AFTER OAK KNOLL WINERY. You drive by the winery (correct sign and everything) while the note is active. However, the Road Rally Rules define AFTER as the first intersection beyond the referenced sign or landmark at which the instruction could be executed. So even though you saw the winery, you cannot pause until you get to the next intersection, which doesn’t happen until after the last checkpoint. If you pause before the checkpoint, you earned a 15-second penalty.
Questions:
Q: The Rallymaster Notes state: Also, there are no unintentional spelling errors in the route instructions. What do we do if we find a mis-spelling? Ignore it? A: Maybe you haven’t found the right sign yet. Keep looking.
Q: Please review how and why to take a time allowance. A: Why take a time allowance? Use a time allowance to “make up” for being late to start a CZT or to “make up” time you lose during a leg for any reason (traffic, off-course excursion, nature stop, etc.). It’s the “get out of jail free” card for a road rally. If you can calculate how late you are or how much time you lost, you can use a time allowance to put yourself back “on time” as if you were never late. How to take a time allowance is explained in the Competitor Richta App Instructions.
What ralliers said:
• We are having so much fun doing the rally each month. We are learning so much and it is fun learning new roads to travel. As a kid we did a lot of family drives for entertainment. I have truly enjoyed each rally.
• Thank you for planning and shepherding all of us on last Saturday’s rally. We enjoyed it immensely.
• We had a great time! Challenging roads, well placed traps. Thanks for all you do!
• It was great fun! Thank you Victoria and Monte for all the work you do so we can have fun.
• Fantastic roads with great speeds on some twisty bits had a lot of fun today!
• Nice event as usual Monte and Victoria, thank you for all the work you do to bring these together. Great day for a drive and it was fun.
Congratulate the winners:
Congratulations to all 30 teams. You all completed the rally and found the finish. You are all winners.
Finishing first overall and first in the GPS class is the team of Bob Morseburg and Cheri Eddy. They zeroed four legs, got a score of 1 on eight legs, and finished the rally with a total score of 45. That’s an average of 2.6 seconds per leg over the 17-leg rally. This is rally driving precision we all aspire to. Congratulations, Bob and Cheri!
Second overall and first in the SOP class is the team of Marcus Gattman and Kerrie Steffenson. They had single-digit scores on 14 of the 17 legs, including one zero. Nicely done, Marcus and Kerrie.
Jason Krieg and Justin Wiezorek finished third overall and first Novice. With just 10 points more than the first place SOP team and 13 single-digit leg scores including two zeroes, this is the Novice team to watch this season. Two rallies into the six-rally Series, Jason and Justin are in first place Novice Driver and first place Novice Navigator for Series points.
To complete the top three teams in each class, Robert Paxman and William Pollard finished second in the GPS class. They had eight single-digit leg scores, including one zero.
The only entry in the Unlimited class was the team of Michelle Rand and Doug Covey. Doug was a last-minute stand-in as Navigator for this team and this was his first road rally. (What’s a road rally?) Nevertheless, they had six single-digit leg scores and only two maxes. Not too shabby.
Brian and Jamie Anderson finished second in the SOP class, with twelve single-digit leg scores, including one zero. Third in SOP was the team of David and JoAnn Gattman, with twelve single-digit leg scores, including one zero. They had just 11 points more than the Andersons. Close competition!
The second-place team in the Novice class was Angelique and Kevin Ortega, with nine single-digit leg scores including two zeroes. Third Novice was Robin and Jon McDermott, with eight single-digit legs and one zero.
The top three winners in each class received car wash coupons. Clean rally cars! Click here for the complete results and click here for the Season Point Standings.
