Halloween rally was held on Saturday, October 26 we had 34 cars showed up to start the rally.
The road over the dam was heavily patrolled, but was open this year. This caught a few people by surprise. We are still not sure if the surprise was extra law enforcement or the fact that the road was again opened. To mix things up a bit, there was a mid-rally checkpoint.
First half:
The non-reflective, but clearly visible Mill St. countered with the reflective Cooper St. directly across from it caught many of you. German in Germanic font also caught more than a few of you. We had several people swear they were going to make an appointment at the optometrist on Monday. Still 30 cars reached the mid-point check, some running hot, others an hour plus late.
The Second Half:
Well 23 finished, so only 7 cars got lost on the final leg. We did not hear about any major problems on 2nd half although someone who could not find the bicycle sign, grumbled about needing to get his vision checked.
Off -course signs - Rally drivers as a whole located 6 of the 7 off-course signs. Many of you recorded off-course signs, please read your generals and understand what an on-course sign is. Hint: if it is not on-course then its off-course.
There were 59 on course signs, only one was not found by anyone and this was the "VC" announced at the drivers meeting, several of you thought you saw it and incorrectly noted it. It was not scored. So, therefore there were 58 on-course signs. No one found all 58 and a number of signs were located by a select few drivers; eagle-eyed novices and experienced rallyists alike.
For the other numbers:
Total Miles - 67.3 1st Check Point - 33.6 miles and Time: 1:24:00 2nd Check Point - 33.7 miles and Time: 1:24:15 The Rally was scored as 2 separate sections. Your score on the second section was based on the time you "left" the first check point.
The Final checkpoint was a great location at a Metro North parking lot. We did have a few late night commuters who inquired about the rally and wanted to come to the next one. The transit police drove by four times with out batting an eye.
All in all it was a good rally with no mistakes. Several novice teams finished, typically late, but hey they finished while some experienced club members got tripped up finishing late or not at all.
It was a great evening for a rally, not too cold and still relatively clear. The parking lot allowed participants to linger for a few minutes and talk rather than getting shooed off for space.
Special thanks go to Debbi and Gary for doing registration, and to Ed and Frank for helping with the 1st check point and for help putting up signs, etc.
Hope to see you all next year,
Pat Slaven and David Trezza