This month, Bruce Gezon brings us an article from The Stopwatcher, going back to December 4, 1970. The Stopwatcher was a weekly subscription covering Washington DC and Baltimore. We have chosen to reprint it here, as well as sharing the copy of the original column.
We asked all members of the SCCA RoadRally Board, National Events Committee, and the Divisional Road Rally Stewards their definitions of a road rally; we have included those received at the bottom of the column. Please share yours below in the comments, and we’ll include them in upcoming editions of Road Rally eNews.
WHY NOT RALLYE? by Larry Simmons
The word Rally means many things to people, but to most of us who belong to sports car clubs and drive those funny little foreign cars refer to rally with the intention of meaning some kind of time speed distance run.
Several years ago I became interested in finding out a true and accepted definition for the word rally. The definitions I found were not always clear or precise; nothing was found at all in most sources. Two spellings were noted, that of Rally and Rallye.
Rally was found in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language as “a race in which automobiles are driven over a fixed course with specified rules”. Not entirely precise enough for me since the same definition could be applied to any CAN-AM series race. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language defines Rally, also Rallye, as a long distance automobile race; esp. for sports cars, held over public roads unfamiliar to the drivers and marked off by numerous checkpoints along the route. This definition is getting there, but still includes race and is not detailed enough.
Looking further into many articles and publications which were printed about the sport I found that the usually used form is “Rally” and is accepted by all who participate in time speed distance runs. It is generally seen in all publications referring to the sport. On the other hand, “Rallye” the more unfamiliar term refers only to the sport of time speed distance runs and is generally used by people of the sport who have accepted this spelling for its preciseness and distinction.
Webster defines Rallye and only this spelling, as “a competitive long distance auto run; especially of sport cars, over public roads and under ordinary traffic rules with the object of maintaining an exact average speed between checkpoints over a route previously unknown to the participants to the start of the run.” (1968)
I must hand it to Mr. Webster, he sure said quite a bit in a few lines. This definition, unlike the others, sums up the whole sport very nicely. It is very hard to find a definition which fits all of rallying; this, however, states very simply the nature of a rallye and uses good terminology in it’s discourse.
If you noticed I started this article with a use of the spelling Rally. After exploring and investigating for this article, I now use the spelling Rallye and understand its derivation better. I would like to see this term used more in our sport with the meaning Mr. Webster gave it, after all, our sport deserves to be well defined and distinctive.
“A rally is contested by two-person teams in ordinary vehicles on regular roads, within the legal speed limit. The challenge is to stay on course and to drive on time, not early or late. It is NOT a race!”
Mike Bennett, SCCA RoadRally Board Chairman
“Course RoadRally is a Chess game on Wheels!”
Jim Wakeman, Sr., National events committee Co-Chairman
“road rally n. A peaceful drive in the countryside; quasi-legal road race which justifies its existence with judicious use of Average Speed.”
ultimatecarpage.com
“A road rally is like going to Grandma’s house, yet no one but the Rallymaster knows where she lives! By following the route instructions and averaging the speeds given, you will come across checkpoints. Teams earn penality points for being early or late. The lowest score wins!
1973 description
