New winter rally series
Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2010 1:48 pm
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