From Douglas.Hagerman@compaq.com Thu May 2 10:53:58 2002 Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 08:39:20 -0400 From: "Hagerman, Douglas" <Douglas.Hagerman@compaq.com> Subject: First Day Out 2002 Rally Report First Day Out 2002 Rally Report 20020501 Hero Workers! The First Day Out road rally, sponsored by the Touring Club of New England and Mass Miata, was held this past Saturday. The weather was perfect, with bright blue skies and warm temperatures--perfect for top-down motoring. We had 11 entries, with some great classic sports cars including an Acura NSX, a Datsun 240Z, an MGB, a BMW Z3, and a bright red restored 1971 Lotus Elan. The "cool car of the day" award goes to Bruce Jardarian and Frank Mantell in the beautiful Lotus. Congratulations to overall winners Carl Baker and John Howard, who obviously knew what they were doing because their total score was 40 points over 10 legs. This event would never have happened if it had not been for the heroic efforts of the workers, particularly Val Stegemoen and Nick Shectman. Laurel Unger, James Hagerman, and Traciy Fogarty worked checkpoints, and Nick and Laurel also checked the event. All competitors reported that they had a good time on this club-level event. We had one DNF. The number 9 240Z of Mahendra Vichare and Brandon Glasier missed a turn in leg 9 and went "about 15 miles" before giving up. Note: There is a maximum of 3 miles between route instructions! They ran short on gas and called another team to confirm their situation. I hope they try again at the Essex Ramble rally on June 8th. Although this was a straightforward event (i.e. "no traps"), at least two teams managed to invent traps of their own. Rick Varchol and Bob Sauer in Z3 number 7 missed the "THICKLY SETTLED" sign at DIY control 6, but then looked backwards and saw another sign and calculated from that one. Note: You're not required to look backwards for landmarks! The signs were close enough together that it didn't make a big difference to their score, and they finished first in novice class (D). Not so lucky were Michele Liguori and Matt Healey in Honda Del Sol, car 6. They missed a left at "DOUGLAS" in Sutton, but then found the other end of Douglas Road a mile or so further on. This took them back onto the proper course (purely by accident--this wasn't designed into the routes), but by taking this alternate route they bypassed checkpoint 7. This was extremely damaging to their score, because with leg 6 a DIY, by missing checkpoint 7 they had no recorded time for legs 6 or 7, and no out time for leg 8. This 900 point penalty completely overwhelmed their otherwise excellent 1-14-120-18-2-34-153 legs. Val ran a truly herioc event. Paired with new partner James they started as run-work car number -5. This put them a few minutes ahead of the other teams so that I could set up the first checkpoint and hand it over to them to finish. After the last car was through they follwed on as regular competitors. At the 30 minute mid-rally break and restart, they caught up and managed to get out as car -2 and worked checkpoint 7. Due to my clever planning (NOT!) this was a particularly tough job because there was a DIY at the end of the first section and another at the start of the second section, leaving Val and James to record times for three legs. Despite all this they managed a very respectable 128 points, barely edged out in class C (taped odometer) by Matt Demicco and Steve McKelvie at 119 points in a Mitsubishi Galant VR-4. Special thanks also to Nick for working control 9, which was at a beautiful location: Pleasant farmland with a nice lonely rural road. Unfortunately, the farmer had decided earlier in the week to spread cow manure on his fields and it was powerful stuff. Overall we had fun and I hope everyone else did too. We hope to see you at the Essex Ramble in June. See www.tcne.net for information and for the overall results summary for First Day Out. All entrants should receive a paper copy of the results in a few weeks; if you don't, please let me know.