Westchester Sports Car Club

Bunny Run 1999 - Rallymaster's Letter

Our first rally is now complete and it seems to have been a success. Even the people who got lost seemed to have had a good time, and most of them made it to the finish or at least to Tino’s. We would love to say that their error was a planned "self-correcting" loop that we designed, but it was pure luck.

The actual time of the rally was 2 hours 13 minutes and 15 seconds. Being the first rally that my co-chair and I created, we really sweated out the few minutes at the check point when the first car should have arrived. The traffic at the check point was a little heavier then we expected, so every car that approached with high beams got our hopes up. Then finally a familiar car, an Acura Integra came from behind the trees. It was one of our own, car number 5, and they were 48 seconds late. The second car followed soon after and then a third. We could breath again… the instructions worked.

Several people thought that we were the first check point, which confused us, since they should have had only 5 instructions left. They also spoke of "Off-Course" Bunnies. There were bunnies off-course, but not the ones that they were talking about. After about the 3rd car with this problem, we realized where the error was made.

The most common mistake was made at the "Left at T" instruction, followed by "Right at ‘Lake’". The left that people made was onto Route 35; the actual left was one block beyond Route 35. The road that intersected Route 35 did not terminate at that point, therefore, it wasn’t a T at all. The T was one block later. If you continued on Route 35 for a long time, looking for "Lake" the whole way, you made it to Lake Road, which coincidentally was another road that we used on the rally. Unfortunately, you were going in the wrong direction, thus the mysterious off-course bunnies. I didn’t follow the directions from that point, but somehow people managed to get to the finish with lots of directions left.

The actual distance of the rally was 63.05 miles. The most mileage driven was 170 something. Obviously, way off-course.

The fire hydrant count was a bit of a change of pace. The actual number was 12 and if you missed that number, it cost you 100 points. There were two off-course sections. One was a self-correcting loop that two cars fell for and the other, no one found. We even missed it when we went to collect the bunnies Sunday afternoon. So if you happen to see a bunny on your way to work, please let us know.

We had a great time preparing this rally. There were a few anxious moments, but lots of beautiful roads. We are looking forward to the Halloween Rally in October. See you there…