WSCC 2005 SUNday Rally Master Letter
We had 21 cars enter the 2005 SUNday Rally. 15 cars completed the rally, but 3 of those missed a checkpoint and had a penalty enough to throw them out of the running. Getting to checkpoint 1 proved to be tough as there were some nasty tricks thrown into the first 10 miles, and a error in the instructions. Those that made it through the tricks were faced with the error, and many cars were late to checkpoint 1. Cars who made it through were mostly all within 5 min of checkpoint 2 time (one car was 11 min early!). There were 44 on course SUNNY signs, after subtracting out the ones stolen. There were 2 “off course” signs. Many of you are familiar with the off course “C” hidden by the invalid ped-xing sign. J Congratulations to the Johnstons who won the rally. These guys had perfect sunny signs. They didn’t miss one. They were also the only rally team to get every single SUNNY sign in the 2004 rally, even the one I had to climb a cliff to hang. You guys have eagle eyes!
Its hard to defend a tough rally that had an error in it. But here we go. All the tricks after the 10 mile marker (where only Novice class had mileage) were negated by helpers. The tricks within the first 10 miles were left in, since it was assumed that you’d be checking the mileage and they would be easy to catch. The very first instruction was a trick. There was a very hidden right turn by the firehouse when you’re making your “third right”. If you missed it and turned at the light you’re now looking for a bear left within .4 miles. That should instantly tell you you’re in the wrong place. I had two SUNNY signs (one by the bear left, one by the firehouse where you turn) so I can tell who had to go back and who made the right at the light and then caught on. The next trick was second left after “Samantha”(SOL). When I made the rally there was a nice “NO OUTLET” sign on the second left, making it not a valid road per the rally generals. The day before the rally they decided to replace a bridge on that road and put all kinds of constructions signs including a “ROAD CLOSED” even though the road went around the down bridge. But the “NO OUTLET” was still hanging. So the road never existed. You should have skipped it and gone to the next left, especially if you were watching the mileage for the correct turn which was .6 miles further down the road.
Here are pictures taken from either side of the road:
The next trick was killer for many of you. I went way out of my way at the drivers meeting to prepare you for it. I said signs had to be exact. I even used a ped-x’ing sign as an example that if one had a dog and one didn’t, its not the same sign. This one goes mostly to the navigators who should have seen that one sign had a crosswalk and one did not. Many people turned right into a school entrance. I even hung a nasty little off-course SUNNY there, a “C”. I had one ralliest insist that the mileage also matched the sign with the crosswalk. The mileage to the turn was 1.1 miles. The mileage to the off- course turn by the second ped-x sign is .6. Its another .5 miles to the correct turn by the ped-x sign without the crosswalk.
And now to the error, “RIGHT AT EDWARDS” where it was “Edward”. After carrying on about signs needing to be the same, lots of people thought that was a trick and passed it, when I meant for you to turn there. A few cars said they didn’t notice and made the turn, but for some that became a rally killer. I had three cold runs by experienced ralliests, and nobody caught the error. Sorry about that. Anyone who asked for a time allowance for that section of the rally got it.
A few more places that were controversial:
-After you turn “left at Grove(SOL)” the next instruction is “Left”. A few people thought there was a T at the next intersection, and a forced right. I meant for you to go straight there. After looking at it again (during SUNNY sign cleanup), they have a point. Not enough for a time allowance, but a point. Here is a pic:
-There was an instruction “Keep making lefts until ‘STATION’”. Someone asked me if Station was a street and the next instruction was “RIGHT”, should they not turn on THAT street and make that right? They had a point, and allowance time was granted.
-At “LEFT AFTER BLIND(SOL)” someone complained the road that went straight had no street signs and looked like a park entrance. Here is the evidence:
-There were one or two people who complained about 90 degree turns vs acute and bear turns around the “LEFT AFTER ‘FEED THE ANIMALS’(SOL)”. To them I say: read the generals! I even had that as a helper in the instructions.
I’d like to thank Frank and Ed for working checkpoint 1. And Pat,Ken, and Frank for doing cold runs. And everyone who ran the rally for not killing me over EDWARDS.
-Mike
Here are some funny rally stories I heard:
---A ralliest left checkpoint 1 and came across another rally car north of West Point. They pulled over and were asked “Did the guards let you into West Point? They told us we couldn’t go inside” to which the ralliest replied “Oh yeah we went through the middle of WestPoint, you better go back there and talk to the guards again!” Pure evil.
---One car (driven by my nephew) came into the last checkpoint 11 minutes early. When I asked for their SUNNY sheet they said they didn’t want to turn it in. They said they only had one sign written down. They saw a whole bunch but were going so fast they didn’t bother to write any of them down, they were just trying to not get lost. I got an eyeball of their sheet as they tossed it in the backseat, the one sign they had one it was the offcourse “C” at the ped-x’ing sign. I didn’t have the heart to tell him.
---The biggest truck, an Expedition, said the navigator was hanging out the passenger window looking up as they went through the tunnel to make sure they didn’t leave it as the only convertible Expedition.
---The navigator of the white Jeep with way too many foglights has a cellphone that takes movies. Theres an interesting movie clip of the inside of the tunnel with 20 foglight beams splashed all over it going by about 30mph, way too fast for that little tunnel. At there end theres a scarey “WHA hooooo!!!”, Dukes Of Hazzard style.