Here is the Schedule for the 2009 ITN Road Rally Club events…

Come out and join us!  It is a lot of fun

- March 21, 2009
TRAINING DAY
a 6 - 7 hour Monte Carlo style navigational Road Rally
designed to introduce first time participants to the sport.
Entry fee is $40 for all classes. Only $10 with paid Stellar Luminescence entry.
FREE to any car with a first time participant. This will be the only ITN 2009 rally that is FREE to first time entrants,
and it will include a FREE navigators school.

- Either April 25 or 26, or May 16 or 17, 2009.
TOTAL RECALL
6 - 8 hour Monte Carlo style navigational Road Rally starting in Santa Barbara.
Entry fee is $60 for Experts, $50 for Regular, Novice and Beginners. $20 discount to any car with a first time participant.
Entry fee ONLY $10 with paid Stellar Luminescence entry.
(We hope to run this rally the same weekend as El Camino Real, the great TSD rally presented by Porsche Club of America and Rallymasters Joe Boucher and Joe Schneider.)
Final date TBA soon.

-  June 27, 2009.
THE MIDNIGHT RUN
8 - 10 hour Monte Carlo style navigational Road Rally starting in Lebec.
Starts at 9pm Saturday night. Finishes about 7am Sunday morning within 20 miles of Start.
Entry fee is $60 for Experts, $50 for Regular, Novice and Beginners.
$20 discount to any car with a first time participant.
Entry fee ONLY $10 with paid Stellar Luminescence entry.

-  September 26, 2009.
TWO LANE BLACKTOP (formerly named The Old Roads)
6 - 8 hour Monte Carlo style navigational Road Rally. Start TBA (likely SF valley).
Entry fee is $60 for Experts, $50 for Regular, Novice and Beginners.
$20 discount to any car with a first time participant.
Entry fee ONLY $10 with paid Stellar Luminescence entry.

-  November 20 - 21, 2009
INTO THE NIGHT 2009 presents STELLAR LUMINESCENCE
a 12 - 14 hour Monte Carlo style navigational Road Rally
Start Santa Barbara. Finish Las Vegas.
Entry Fee is $375 per car, includes rally, awards banquet, and T-shirts for 2.
SPECIAL DISCOUNT — enter by March 21, 2009 and get a $100 discount on SL.
You pay only $275 for Stellar Luminescence, PLUS you get to enter all 4 of the other ITN rallies in 2009
for only a $10 registration fee per rally.
If you run all 5 rallies, Experts will save a total of $280, other classes save a total of $250.
There will also be special trophies at the end of the year for the best overall driver and navigator in each class.
You can pay by check or with a major credit card.
Follow this link to the entry form http://www.rallyroutes.com/2009SLentryform.pdf. Print it and complete it.

Please mail completed forms with payment to:
PO Box 642261
Los Angeles, CA 90064.

Entries are guaranteed. If for any reason Stellar Luminescence is canceled, prepaid entries will receive a full refund.

Technorati Tags: Central Coast Road Rally, Los Angeles Road Rally, Map Based Road Rally, Road Rally, Southern California Rally

At the suggestion of another rallyist, I have built and added a forum to the family of RallyRoutes.com websites. you can find this forum at http://www.forum.rallyroutes.com

Mind you it is still under construction, but please go sign up and become part of this wonderful family.

David

Technorati Tags: Rally Routes, Road Rally, Road Rally Forum

Wow, what a great day to spend with friends. Yesterday was (I believe) the 2nd running of Santa Monica Sports Car Club’s (www.smscc.org) Citrus Blossom Special.  

This was a TSD (Time Speed Distance) rally with enough free/transit zones to make the event fun for both the driver and the Navigator. I won’t tell you how fast I had to go when we missed a landmark and had to turn around through the longest stoplight known to man.  But I did make up the 4.5 minutes!

It was a pretty straight forward rally with a long enough mileage check to make our factor almost spot on. We corrected the factor after the 3rd leg and started getting our mileages to match exactly to the rallymaster’s (Rachel Smith) mileage.  Now if we could have just foundd all the signs, we would have been in pretty good shape.

Since our mileages where spot on for most of all the legs, I am assuming Joe and I found the traps having to do with direction of travel, such as the onto’s at highway 34 and Balcolm Canyon (tricky one here). Our errors for the day, where not getting enough stop signs counted or not canceling a lettered instruction. We did not turn in a winning score, but we were proud of never going off course, which was the buzz at the pizza joint at the end.

As for the route, What great roads! After the mileage check which ended in Agoura Hills, we were sent down W. Potrero Rd. (for the driver) into Camarillo.

After checkpoint one in this area, off to checkpoint 2. On the way there a double ( I am not sure it was intentional) trap was encountered. We were turned onto 34 which if you stayed onto, turned you left and North through Camarillo and Somis. If you went straight at the intersection you found the part of the WOF instruction to turn you back on course. If you are following along with a map, the instruction was go staight at “historical” or left at Adolfo and then right at Lewis WOF. By following the onto course properly, you actually encountered a sign acceptable (speed limit 50 mph) for the next route instruction before you completed the previous on course WOF sign (historical), and being about 8 minutes later, confidence that the “historical” sign had been missed was high, therefore a coin toss to put in a cast change and continue on. A few minute later you find the hard to see “historical” sign on the right as it should be, but the 2nd part of the same trap, was the off course part of the WOF instruction ” L at Adolfo” could be carried out 50 feet further up the road, so this is what some drivers concentrated on and therefore missed the “historical” sign on the right. We did witness another rally car make the left turn to nowhere.  Sneaky stuff.  Nice job rallymaster!

So checkpoint 2 is a DIYC (Do it yourself checkpoint). As we were leaving checkpoint 2, Joe says it would be really sneaky to put a checkpoint immediately after the left turn. Low and Behold, there it was, about .2 of a mile from checkpoint 2. Thank goodness I was on the clock!

The next fun part of the rally was in the Citrus groves just outside Fillmore. We had just had a break, and all fattened up with good fast food. And my navigator was so satisfied, he decided it was time for a nap while I drove around the orchards at 20 mph. Needless to say, we missed a sign or two.  But our mileage was right on!

The rest of the rally was more of a drivers rally. A great free zone traveling from Santa Paula to Ojai. Memories brought back as I drove by the front gate of my High School (Thacher School, CdeP ‘80) familiar roads to get us through the trap in downtown Ojai.

Back on to Highway 150 to drive past Lake Casitas and over the foothills to beautiful Carpinteria and the ocean view.  Being from the area, I had pretty much predicted where the last two checkpoints would be, and we got two 1’s to finish up the rally.

Thanks and Kudos to the SMSCC team for another great day of great people, great fun, and forgetting about the rest of the world for five and half hours.

Keep up the great work!

David Budlong

Technorati Tags: Car Rally, Citrus Blossom Special, Fun with your car, Road Rally, SMSCC, TSD Rally

Hi Car Enthusiasts.

If you happen to be in Southern California this weekend and want something fun to do with your car, then I have a viable solution.

Santa Monica Sports Car Club, SMSCC, is putting on two rallies this weekend. Their usual 1st Friday Nighter rally which happens the 1st Friday of every month. This has been going on for years, and is one of the few things you can still count on in today’s world.

Here is the bonus. Your weekend membership to the SCCA for running this rally can be used Saturday too. Saturday’s rally is called the Citrus Blossom Special. I ran this rally last year and had a great time. The foothills north west of Los Angeles are the game board for this rally, and there are a lot of great roads to enjoy.

So come out this weekend and enjoy the great weather, the great roads, great friends, challenging puzzles, and the absence of the stress of the rest of the world for a few hours.

These two rallies presented by:

Zeros,

David

Technorati Tags: Car rallies, Car Rally, Fun with your car, Road Rally, TSD Rally

OK gang, after lots of hard work from the rally master and several other wonderful souls, the routes for Total Recall are posted. There are two ways to get the routes. If you like downloading individual files, go here: http://www.itnrally.org and click on the link which states:

CLICK for ROUTES and MAPS for TOTAL RECALL 2008.

Or if you prefer to download a .zip file of the routes. Click Here:

CLICK for .zip file of the ROUTES and MAPS for TOTAL RECALL 2008.

See you at start.

David

Technorati Tags: , Central Coast Road Rally, Fun with your car, Road Rally, Southern California Road Rally, Total Recall Rally Routes

Well gang, my friend Justin Murphy, has done it again. He has combined strategy and awesome roads to make another great Road Rally. I was fortunate enough to run checkout this last weekend for the rally.

The rally starts in San Luis Obispo and ends in Paso Robles. In normal times this is at most a 1 hour drive. Yet Justin found a way to take 8 hours to get there.

Being the motorcycle fan Justin is, he has found some roads that will test the spiritedness of your vehicle and the ability of your navigator to keep lunch down. (Remember Navigators, DO NOT TRY READING WHILE ON A CURVY ROAD!)

I do not want to spoil the fun, but believe me; the roads are great, the map based puzzles are mind challenging, and a whole lot of fun can be had!

Here is the greatest part, If your vehicle has at least one newbie in attendance, the rally is free to enter! Otherwise it is $25.00. Less than the price of two movie tickets and popcorn.

So, mark it on your calendar to be at the Graduate Restaurant in San Luis Obispo this coming Saturday the 12th of April 2008.

If you are new to road rallying, there will be a beginners class at 10:30, be there by 10:15 to sign up.

If you are experienced, we suggest a 11:30 arrival time for a 1:00pm start.

Come enjoy your car and great friendship.

To find a map to start, and more information on Monte Carlo Style Road Rallys, Please visit www.itnrally.org

Technorati Tags: fun with cars, Map Based Road Rally, Monte Carlo Style Road Rally, Paso Robles Events., Road Rally, San Luis Obispo events

Hey gang,

As I told you previously, I had ordered a new Alpha-elite Rally computer the other day. It came and I am impressed with the quality.

Today I am going to hook it up in my new rally car. It is a brand new car and it will feel a little weird going in to hard wire a rally computer.

I will do a clean installation so no one will know when I am not running a rally.

Pictures later.

David

Technorati Tags: rally, Rally Computer, Rally Computer Installation., Road Rally

I started to rally in 1992. It is at that time in which I bought a rally computer. I purchased an Alpa-Elite Rally computer from a company called Small System Specialists. Their website can be found at http://www.rally.cc.

This morning, I ordered the new upgraded version of my rally computer. I can not wait to get it. Mind you , my original computer still works, and works well. Many a zeros have been calculated with this computer. It is very accurate and simple to use. And after 16 years of my driving, very sturdy too.

What is great about these computers is the versatility. I compete, write, and work in two different types of rallies. TSD (Time Speed Distance) and modified version of Monte Carlo Style Rallies. The Alpha was mainly designed for TSD rally competition. It is also great for when I am writing a rally (either TSD or Monte), for I can set the calculated  time to zero and put in the speed in which I want to calculate the leg at the start, and as I drive it accurately measures the speed and distance traveled and calculates a leg time for me. And last but not least, with the countdown feature, crossing the hose with a zero on a Monte is no problem.

Now, you are going to spend a few dollars for this computer, but at $669.00 for the complete unit including a drivers display. it is priced at about half of the competitors unit with the same functions.

If you enjoy rallying, and are serious, or want to get serious about it, then in my humble opinion this is your answer.

To get more information on the Alpha series of Rally Computers, check out http://www.rally.cc

Technorati Tags: , Monte carlo style rally, rallies, rally, Rally Computer, rally timing equipment, rallye, road rallies, Road Rally, TSD Rally

Ok, Just got my early spring rally update e-mail.

Looks like on of my favorite rally masters, Justin Murphy has come up with a great spring rally. Knowing Justin the fun roads will abound.

I was lucky enough to fly above his area of the world yesterday, and while going over the mountains behind San Luis Obispo, looking from above was truly breathtaking with all of the spring colors. Our past rains really helped, everything is in bloom.

Mark your calendars for April 12th. Even with the price of gas today, you can’t get this much fun for your buck anywhere!!!

Follow this link to get a flyer for the event:

TOTAL RECALL FLYER 

And for a Map to the event start, follow this link:

TOTAL RECALL START LOCATION MAP

Last but not least, are you busy on the 12th, but still want some fun. Then come help check out the routes on April 5th.
Contact Joe carzero@aol.com for more info.

Thanks

See you out there,

David

Technorati Tags: , Central California Rally, Fun with your car, Monte carlo style rally, rally, rally with your car, Road Rally, TSD, TSD Rally

As I said in an earlier post, I got the privilege of checking out a great 6.5 hour Monte Carlo style rally coming to Southern California this February 23rd.

Please come join us, and bring your driving gloves and sticky tires. The roads are phenomenal!

Here is a link to the Flyer for this event.

Technorati Tags: automobile rally, Car Rally, car rallye, Monte Carlo Rally, rally, Rally event, rallye, Road Rally, Southern California Road Rally