Westchester Sports Car Club

Halloween Rally 1999 - Rallymaster's Letter

What three words best summarize the second annual WSCC Halloween Rally? Trick or Treat. My best buddy Marguerite Harder agreed again to be my faithful co-chair. If we had any doubts last year, we became clearly convinced of our rally-goers’ conviction as well. You are a bunch of frustrated Halloween partyers. Our call for costumes on cars and teams was met in full force. We had a car dressed as a bunch of grapes (“I drove through a grape vine”) and a black car dressed as a giant spider (“searching for Miss Muffet”.) Both tied for first place costume trophies. We also had a car dressed as “bio-hazard” with orange gooky stuff all over it. The passengers won first place costume trophies as-um-dead monks? Death? They were all good. I skipped cosmetics all together and went as a witch and Marguerite let her true spirit out and went as a rotting, bloody ghoul.

Admitting we were too tricky last year, we presented our extended list of treats to you first: if you traveled more than 4 miles without a witch or bat sign or without being able to complete an instruction, you were probably off course and should retrace. Most people were pleased with this because it put a limit on those long, lonely drives we’re all so familiar with. We redesigned the signs to be basic letters and numbers. We admitted to highway mileage, another treat. We also showed a sign that would replace our check point when we closed it so you would know you had completed the rally and could proceed to Tino’s. All of this we hoped would soften the shock of our tricks, which were many.

We made up trick or treat bags and handed them out at the start under a bright full moon, which delights and enhances tricksters. Each bag contained candy and toys. You all got a sticky eyeball, sometimes it had plastic ants stuck to it. The bag was handed to the navigator and then, usually, passed to the driver. There was one team where the navigator sat, all hooked up in full rally gear with a light around his neck, a nice clip board, a ready calculator and a pen. The treat bag was in the hands of the driver. The driver handed the sticky eyeball to the navigator who didn’t look up and popped the whole thing in his mouth and started chewing. This was not candy. He soon realized something was terribly wrong and pulled sticky, spitty eye parts from his teeth. So the driver, thinking quickly, handed over the foil-wrapped chocolate covered peanut butter eye ball. “Here, this one’s candy.” Pop, right into his mouth, foil and all. I guess the foil tasted pretty bad because he started spitting out shreds of it. Marguerite was on the ground with tears rolling down her face. Next trick followed closely. After distracting you with candy, we alternated the starting directions, randomly of course, between straight, right and left. You were not amused. You wanted so badly to follow that car in front of you and couldn’t believe your navigator could fail you right from the first instruction. “Give me that” and the sheets would get snatched out of the hands of the navigator. So much for trust.

All sections (labeled A, B, and C) joined on Route 22 at West Lake Drive, hence the need for 3 10 mile markers. A short run on the highway took you to Katonah, Somers, Purdys, then back on the highway to Putnam county. We led you up into Connecticut for a short distance. Many of you expressed concern when you read “Welcome to New York” in the instructions. Exactly what state would you be in?? The last dirt road took you to Route 35, then to Route 100, where we met you in our human form. At least half of you finished, for some of you this was your first completed rally. We enjoyed very much taking your virginity and hope you’ll be back. Some said it was the best rally they were ever on. Perhaps they were on a sugar high from the candy? We eventually posted the final sign and left the check point at 11:15, heading for Tino’s. We braced for an onslaught of eyeballs.

One team complained about the average speed, but since they did VERY WELL, we’ll take it with a grain of salt and eye of a newt. You all loved Burdick Road (“use extreme caution”). There were more roads like that one, but the big trickster Hurricane Floyd killed the second half of the rally and forced a last minute scramble to re route around road collapses. Behind the scenes there were some very hard working people who greatly contributed to the accuracy of this rally. Bob Kleinman and Eddie Claridge, who have been awarded many rally trophies volunteered several test runs. We used all of their suggestions. Frank Cardone ran a test in his CRX. This was our acid test. If Frank and his car were able to finish then any car could survive. (He made it.) Fred Heine, a former WSCC member who brought you last year’s Turkey Tour volunteered to help organize the start.

Among WSCC members, team Kanzler took first place, team Lipscher-Gebala took second. My brother John formed a last minute team with GJ Dixon III (an autocrosser) and took 5th place. They actually finished with a better time than first place, but paid the price of missing too many signs. Dave Wooley joined with his son, Dave Gill joined us as did Clair Smith. Clair remains unaccounted for. Thank you for being such good sports. You helped us enjoy the culmination of many hours behind the wheel. Of course, you probably know that we saved some of our best tricks for next year. We are considering a summer rally, perhaps starting farther north, would like your opinions. Drop me an E-Mail at WSCC.org . Day or evening? Longer or shorter? Easier or more difficult. See you at the Turkey Tour!

Val Christou