WESTCHESTER SPORTS CAR CLUB’S 1998 Bunny Run Rally
April 4, 1998

Fifty-three intrepid bunny-hunters started their quest on the evening of April 4th for the Bunny Run Rally. One of Westchester Sports Car Club’s own members really got into the spirit by transforming her truck into the White Bunnymobile! They lost some eyelashes, and the ears were pretty flat by the time they finished, but the whiskers and tail were still perky! Surprisingly, it didn’t rain, it didn’t snow, but the wind sure did blow! Everyone made it out on schedule from the Kensico Dam parking lot- we even had a late registrant (who was held up in traffic on 287) out on time. Off the rallyists went, only to find that within a few directions (if they made the acute right up Cedar), they were looping back to drive by the start again. After leaving Valhalla, they encountered the dreaded “f” word- follow. Even with two helpers, “not at Columbus, not at Stevens”, some rallysits decided that West Lake ended at Columbus, and several missed the next turn onto Nannyhagen. As we reminded everyone at registration, reading and understanding the general instructions was of utmost importance. Especially “follow” and the definition of “acute”. Ultimately, 33 cars went through the 1st checkpoint. We had 28 check in to the final checkpoint, which was in the parking lot of our friends’ day care school, For Kids Only, on North State Road. I mention check in, because we had three cars drive right by us, even though we had the checkpoint sign with two pylons out in the shoulder lane, under a street light, with Gary standing on the island with a flashlight shining the light at the cars! We got a couple of protests regarding the placement of the checkpoint, but we also had other rallyists in the parking lot who were standing there with Gary as two of those cars drove by who can testify to the fact that we were very visible. The first car that went by was car #2, and we can only guess that they were busy writing down the bunny sign they saw, and didn’t see us there. Speaking of bunnies, there were only 31 bunnies that counted. (I mis-counted when I originally said there were 33.) When we went back the next morning to pick up the signs, three were missing. We checked back on the answer sheets, and determined that they were gone all along, so we only counted the ones that were seen during the rally. Ironically, all the rally cars that missed the final checkpoint also missed the very last bunny- the “S” which was only about 100 feet from the checkpoint! But almost all the teams that came into the checkpoint found it. There was another sign (?) just before the S, and we can only guess that we fooled some of you into writing and not looking for another sneaky sign. We also hear that some people took a tour through the condos, right at the end of the rally. The first entrance was clearly marked as a condo development, but the second entrance could have been misconstrued as a road, but, if you had driven in, you would have realized within seconds, that this was not a valid road, and continued down North State Road to the checkpoint. Many thanks to Frank Cardone who cold-ran the rally and worked the first checkpoint, Fred Heine who worked the first checkpoint with Frank, to Marilyn Kadan who was at Tino’s for most of the rally, Ed McGuirk to also manned the finish at Tino’s. Thank you all for your participation. We hope you all enjoyed the rally, and look forward to seeing you at the next one. We are trying to put together a day rally, maybe in August, but, if not, then there will be another night rally sometime around October.

Debbi and Gary