Rally Master mentoring

In order to learn how to put on a rally I strongly suggest that you solicit a mentor to help you. I have run far too many rallies put on by people who have read a bit about a rally and maybe having run one in the past think it would be fun to be a rally master. After all who can resit the power trip of having people driving around dong exactly what you tell them too.

Before you let your ego get carried away, take some time to think about the logistics of your rally. Do people have enough time to safely get form one place to another. What will the traffic be like on rally day. Does the route pass by churches at noon on Sunday? Is there a fair or horse show scheduled the same weekend on your route?

Think also about parking for the contestants at breaks and pauses.

Remember that people run rallies to have fun and see new scenery. Make sure you deliver that to your customers.

For a chance to put on a rally in Middle Tennessee and learn form a great rally master, contact Charlie Cooke in Bel Buckle as he is looking for someone to help with his November rally. Or in the Atlanta area contact the Georgia Sports car club.

Rally Navigation Clock Trick

Setting your clock.

By now I am sure you know it is important to correctly set your clock when running a road rally.

Here is a trick we used this weekend to make things much easier for us all day.

Anytime you are given car zero times, set you clock to match these car zero times. That way you don't have to remember to add your car number all day.

Jeff added a subroutine to our compurally program to handle this trick but you can do it on any rally computer or even in stock class.

For example if your are car 5 and you are setting your clock to 10:00 am set the display to show 9:55 instead. That way when it is your time to leave, your clock will show the correct car zero time.

Less math is less chance to make a mistake. More focus on having fun and getting zeros.

I win!

GSCC Rally Results

The trophy presentation at this weekend's GSCC Rally looked like a BMW party. Every class was won by a BMW.

Stock class was taken by veteran ralliests in a Z3. Limited by a M3 and Novice class by another BMW convertible.

Robert and I won overall and equipped class with me driving Robert's BMW. We finished with 14 points 7 of those coming on one leg where I was not paying attention to how much time I lost at a stop sign. I did not let that happen again as later in the day we lost some time at a traffic light and I was still down within sight of the control. I used all the BMW's power and handling and actually got us to the control at the top of the hill one hundredth early!

The biggest drama of the day was from the Tennesseans Wayne and Vanessa who attracted the attention of a county sheriff deputy while juggling route instructions, a cell phone and a shift lever. Due to their ability to talk their way out of a ticket and return to the rally, they received the not so coveted Maxwell Trapper award with according to club rules must be proudly displayed on the back of their toilet until they pass it on to the next recipient.

Thanks to Tom for putting on another great road rally.

Georgia Sports Car Club Rally

You are Given the Time V
Sunday July 16th

Registration begins at 9:00 AM across from the Bruster's Ice Cream on GA20 @ GA 400 (East side of 400 Left off Exit Ramp) (In front of the Lowe's / behind the Chili's in Cumming GA Exit 14 off GA 400 ).

Your start time will be 10:00 AM plus your car number in minutes. The rally is about 100 miles and will have Three Short Breaks. You will be given the Time and Mileage at all possible Checkpoint locations.

At the end of the rally we will meet at the Johnny's Pizza ( Same parking lot where we started). We look forward to see everyone at the Rally.

For all rallies, Registration is from 9:00 AM to 9:30 AM, Drivers Meeting at 9:40 AM, First Car Out 10:01 AM Cost: $10 per car for GSCC members. $15 per car for non members.

The Monte Carlo Style Rally

I am not sure of the origin or spelling of the name but, a Monte Carlo style rally is where you are given the mileage and time to all the controls. Your job is to just be there on time.

Sounds easy doesn't it?

Well these have been some of the toughest rallies I have ever run. You see they give you about a hundred potential checkpoint locations where you are given the time to be there. They will only staff and score a handful of these. But since you don't know where they will be until you see the checkpoint sign, you have to be on time all the time. Just like any other TSD rally.

These rallies can be great practice for those just learning the math behind TSD rally calculations. You can check your math at any point in the route by comparing what you calculated to what is given in the routes.

The Monte Carlo style rally always seems to keep my navigator busy correcting the computer to match the mileage and time given at each location. You would think it would be less work, but my navigators always seem to be busy correcting stuff. Maybe they just want to feel important.

For a real life example of a Monte Carlo style rally, run Tom's "You are Given the time" event in Atalanta July 16.

Bell Buckle Rally

Tom and Angie Parrish win Rally round the Park!




Bell Buckle hosted the fourth annual running of rally round the park this year as part of their Independence day celebration.

Charlie Cooke put on a very interesting Photo tour rally in the farm country surrounding Bell Buckle. The winner was decided by measuring the correct mileage for the route. The route instructions consisted of photos of intersections along the route where you determined your direction of travel by either the car in the picture or by a written instruction.

Following the main road as defined in the general instructions was also a factor in determining the correct route.

For pictures and a full description of our day around Bell Buckle see my Bell Buckle rally report.

Rally round the Park

Rally to benefit the Bell Buckle Tennessee Park

Hosted by the Tri Lakes sports car club

The Rally starts at the Bell Buckle Park on Peacock Street in Historic Bell Buckle Tennessee

Tuesday July 4th at 9:30 am

The entry fee is $20 per car.

Satisfaction Guaranteed: If you don't have fun on this rally, contact Bill or Charlie at the awards party and they will refund your entry fee.


For more information contact Bill Bingham at 931-580-6944 or Charles Cooke at 931-389-9551

See the tips on how to run this type of rally in the previous posts.

Rally Round the park details

Charlie tells me this will be a short fun photo rally like described in this previous post. A photo rally is where the route instructions consists of photos of intersections that you must identify form the photos and then determine which way to travel form clues in the photo. Note that the photos may have been taken at a different season than when the rally is being run so things may not look exactly the same.

This type of rally is great for families as the kids are often better at relating to the pictures than adults are.

You can also expect some great fun at the beginning of the rally. There is usually some great entertainment from the students of Webb school. The last time I was there, they put on a very entertaining musical about life with cars.

I am not sure what they will be doing this year, but you will get to hang out in the cool town of Bell Buckle, Tennessee. Just saying the town's name is fun! (read this article about Bell Buckle.)

The rally will take you through some of the scenic farm country around Bell Buckle. The terrain varies from flat to hilly and the roads are always suitable for any kind of automobile.

Be prepared for a relaxing drive in the country and enjoy some of the beautiful scenery that this area has to offer. The winner will likely be decided by measuring the correct mileage or maybe by answering some questions.