New winter rally series

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Dave_G
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New winter rally series

Post by Dave_G »

At this weekend's Covered Bridge Rally it was announced that there is a new winter TSD rally series starting up. It is made up of six existing winter rallies hosted by various clubs, including John Buffum's famous Vermont Winter Challenge Rally. This looks like a great series, and I'll certainly be attending at least a couple of these (though sadly, probably not the Vermont rally). Here's the info from http://www.specialstage.com/forums/show ... p?p=370739:
Frank Beyer of the Syracuse, NY area and I have been working together, along with a number of rallymasters and rally organizers to set up a new winter rally series and I am pleased to say that it is now in place. The new rally series will be known as the WINTR Series. WINTR Series is based on the full title of Winter INTernational Rally Series. What we have done is to combine the best existing winter rallies into one championship series that is separate and apart from any local or national series that these rallies might also be part of. The rallies that will be part of this series and the schedule are as follows:

Son of Sno*Drift (Michigan) - January 8
Long Way Home (New York) - January 15
Rallye Des Neiges (Quebec) - January 22
Ohio Winter Rally (Ohio) - February 5
Maple Leaf Winter Rally (Ontario) - February 12
Winter Challenge Rally (Vermont) - February 19

You can see from this list that we have included the best rallies in the best snow areas that also includes the best winter rally teams, on both sides of the border, in the heart of the winter. The attempt here is to attract the best teams and to recognize that if you win this series, then you have really accomplished something.

The WINTR Series itself will have very few rules. In fact, the goal is to have as few rules as possible. All of the participating rallies/rallymasters/clubs will run their rally as they do for their normal winter rallies. These are already great rally events. All of these rallies have individual styles. Some will have more navigation, some will have more speed, some will have more snow, some will have more hills, some will be run with both English and French instructions, some will be run during the day, some will run in the evening, and some will run all night long. To win this series a rally team is going to have to be multi-talented.

The scoring will be based on the best three rally results based on the Overall standings of each rally, as determined by each particular rallymaster. We (Frank Beyer and myself) will deal with the final rally results, but not how the rally will be run.

We will be creating a prize pool for the distribution cash prizes at the end of the year and now that we have a product to sell, we will be seeking sponsors. We are very excited about the series and think that this will be a great opportunity for the best winter rally folks to get together to have fun and meaningful competition this winter. The rally series will be hosted by the Central New York Region of the SCCA who will hold the cash prize pool. Frank Beyer will act as the points keeper and treasurer and I will be what Frank calls the “Chief Poobah”. More information will be available soon, but mark your calendars now!

Steve McKelvie
Franklin, MA
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skivittlerjimb
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Re: New winter rally series

Post by skivittlerjimb »

Hmm, one's in our backyard, of course, and Magog, QC isn't that far away. The next closest ones are 7+ hour drives, dang it. Which ones are you thinking of trying to make, Dave?
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Re: New winter rally series

Post by Dave_G »

skivittlerjimb wrote:Hmm, one's in our backyard, of course, and Magog, QC isn't that far away. The next closest ones are 7+ hour drives, dang it. Which ones are you thinking of trying to make, Dave?
I'm planning to do the Rallye des Neiges in Quebec (just over the border in the Eastern Townships) and the Long Way Home rally south of Rochester. That one is probably just over a 6 hour drive, depending on the weather, but it sounds like a good one. The rally itself is around 6.5 hours long. I've got a nice comfortable car for long winter drives. :)

I'm also seriously considering the Maple Leaf Winter Rally in Bancroft, Ontario, about halfway between Ottawa and Toronto. That one's about 8 hours away for me, but like the Vermont rally it's an all-night event, 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., which just adds to the atmosphere. That fact that it's in the middle of nowhere is really attractive too. 8)
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Re: New winter rally series

Post by EVT_Dan »

Hey everyone,

Can't wait for this years run ! Last year was a downer for me :( I really hope we get some snow for it this year also.
I'm wondering what a few of you have planned this year. I'm in the market for a new navi, someone who has some more experience ! Send me a pm if you'd be interested. I'll be running S class in an 04 STi. Other than a stock Odo, I'll make sure you've got everything you need.

My first year was with a rookie Navi, but he actually did very well. We placed 2nd in S class then he moved away.
Last year was with Yandell who had some experience, but he ended early after getting hopelessly lost.

I've talked to Buffum a few times this year about the event and how to make it challenging without getting too many people lost. We've also discussed a few ways to change things so that the local PD don't get involved. As was the case the last 2 years.
There may be a few rule changes this year I think.
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Re: New winter rally series

Post by Dave_G »

I just sent in registration materials for Neil and me for the Long Way Home Rally and Rallye des Neiges. This will be fun! I'm looking forward to doing some rallies outside of NER and seeing how other places do it. The Canadian scoring will be especially different. Instead of scoring 1 point per 1/100 of a minute early or late like we're used to, it's scored to the nearest minute, with one point per minute. If you're late you can arrive up to 59 seconds late without scoring a point, but if you're early by even one second, you get a point, so it's better to be a little late. Neil heard that and immediately started getting cocky since as navigator his goal is always to get us there exactly on time, and he usually can get us to the end of a leg within a few seconds. So for him, getting us there within a minute seems almost too easy. We'll see what he says once we get out in the snow in the middle of the night, with unfamiliar route instructions. :)
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Re: New winter rally series

Post by sachilles »

And dad will have to get use to Km instead of miles.
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Re: New winter rally series

Post by Dave_G »

sachilles wrote:And dad will have to get use to Km instead of miles.
Yeah, that too. But Neil's the one with the calculator. :)
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Re: New winter rally series (Long Way Home Rally report)

Post by Dave_G »

We just got back from the Long Way Home Rally in western New York, and what a great time it was. It was easily worth the 5.5 hour drive out there. I can't make the Vermont Winter Challenge Rally this year (again), but this was the next best thing. The roads were perfect, with recent heavy snow covering everything with a fresh coat of beautiful snow. Conditions varied from snowpacked to a few inches of fresh snow, and everywhere was a challenge to keep the car between the ditches while still maintaining the average speeds. In most cases it was perfect, with the twisty bits causing us to lose time, which we made up (or tried to make up) on the straight bits (maxing out at about 55 MPH before discretion made me ease up on the throttle). This rally was tons of fun for the driver, with quite a few slidy episodes. Neil said the navigating was not as challenging as others we've done, but still fun.

The route started in Piffard, about 45 minutes south of Rochester, and snaked roughly south down back roads almost all the way to Pennsylvania before turning around. The total was 180 miles, over roughly 6 hours.

Here's Part 1 of the rally: Google map
And here's Part 2: Google map

Other cool things:
- Being one third of a trio of iXes (mine is the one in the middle): Image
-Chatting with John Buffum and Paul Choiniere (who took second overall)
- Meeting a bunch of great folks from the Finger Lakes Region of the SCCA -- they put on a good rally series.
- It was fun seeing how the FLR does things a little differently than NER.

Neil and I ended up with 211 points (raw score), which was a little high for us but not bad. That put us in 4th in class (just off the podium :P ), behind three very good teams. We had three legs with a score of 1, which we were very happy about.

Next week: Rally des Neiges in Quebec. Vive la neige!
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Mike Kamm
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Re: New winter rally series

Post by Mike Kamm »

Thanks for the write up Dave. Sounds like you guys had fun.

Planning to come to the Hill and Dale tsd with MoHud next month?

Image

The only thing is the rallymaster has been injured recently and reportedly is in the hospital. I hope Jim a speedy recovery and hope the rally doesn't get cancelled.

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Re: New winter rally series

Post by Dave_G »

Mike Kamm wrote:Thanks for the write up Dave. Sounds like you guys had fun.

Planning to come to the Hill and Dale tsd with MoHud next month?
I'm not sure. I hadn't heard about that one. Thanks for the info. We might need a break after three winter rallies in five weeks, but on the other hand I'd like to support rallying in this region, and it would be fun... :)
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