Wow, Hard to believe Next week will be Next year.
With fuel prices this low, you can’t afford to not rally.
I mean where else for about $20.00 can you get the entertainment
value a Friday Nighter Rally brings you?
For more information, visit www.smscc.org
Make sure you sign up ont he mailing list to here form about local rallies.
And don’t forget to join the forum located at
http://www.forum.rallyroutes.com
Have a great 2009
David
Well once again i would like to thank the crew at Santa Monica Sports Car Club for an excellent Saturday afternoon.
This rally was a little different from the normal Tome Speed Distance (TSD) Rallies. Not My Fault was made up of legs that required the same amount of calculating, but less boring driving.
Joanna Paden the rallymaster found some of the greatest driving roads in Southern California to be on, designed a rally where we were not bound by a certain cast, and then trough in a little bit of gimmick to keep the navigator busy watching the road instead of tossing cookies. Yes, the roads were that good.
The only part of the rally that bothered me, is the generals were not specific as to where the mileage was calculated to, and she veered away from 80 years of tradition. This therefore caused us to be off on our milegae calculations. We did figure it out when we crossed the last hose conveniently located in the shade because the hose could be anywhere as long as it was in sight of the “calculated point”.
The winning car figured it out early, and I believe the 2nd place car and us did not since our scores were almost exactly the same.
I think the concept of the rally was great, It was a lot of fun and I will know better next time.
Thank you Joanna for a great rally!
Not My Fault Rally
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
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
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
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:
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