This letter marks the end of another season of rallies for Westchester Sports Car Club. Without a local autocross site we have been a rally only club for the past few seasons. The attendance for rallies has been dropping in the last few years also, hopefully we are able to build upon this program next year.
The annual club rally trophy was up for grabs this year going into the Turkey Tour, while the rallymasters for this event had their final scoring total at 51 points, several individuals and teams could surpass that total with a good showing. We score the best 2 of 3 events, with a bonus given to rallymasters (since they forego their opportunity to score in 3 events).
The teams that finished the Turkey Tour started coming in with very good times. Car #2 finished first and was about 5 minutes early, car #1 was next, while still early to the check point, they were about 1 minute off the actual time of 2 hours 41 minutes and 41 seconds. Several other teams rolled in and were within a few minutes. When car #10 arrived, their biggest concern was if the big white pickup finished, when I said no, they were psyched because that was their parents. What we didn't realize then is that car #10 was 1 minute off actual time and found all but 5 signs, a combination that won them the rally. Congratulations… and no your parents didn't come through the checkpoint, sorry.
One common theme at the finish was comments on the well hidden signs. The next day when we went to pick up the signs, we saw that about 8 of the 41 posted were very well hidden but found by many of the participants. The best team for finding signs was car #17 missing only 2 signs, but they had the advantage of 10 total eyes belonging to the 2 rallyists and 3 additional passengers.
The biggest trick in the rally was multiple (well marked) dead ends, particularly at intersections that appear to have been T's.
Congratulations to Jessica and Cassie for winning the rally, also to Mike Caroll for winning the year end rally trophy, a big silver cup in which his name will be permanently engraved.
Big thanks go out to Ken for agreeing to prerun the rally at a moment when we really needed help and for helping at the checkpoint, Debbi and Gary for registering everyone, Mike for running the novice meeting, and Frank and Ed for holding down Applebee's while Ken, Barbara and I were at the checkpoint.
If anyone is interested in writing a rally for us next year, we will find someone to guide you through the process and help in all aspects of running the event. Email me at jesse (at) wscc.org if you interested in writing a rally or helping with writing one.
Thank you everyone for joining us at this event and for participating in the 2016 season.
Jesse & Barbara