Pinks FTW Autocross, Rantoul Aviation Center

Time of the Signs Rally Report

Saturday June 11, 2011

Place Driver/Navigator Leg_1 2- 3- Total
NAVIGATIONAL CLASS
1st Bob DeMeritt/Marianne DeMeritt 0 1 0 1
2nd Jon Flora/Gary Patrick 0 7 1 8
SEAT OF PANTS CLASS
1st Mike Blackwelder/Jim Hamilton 21 1 19 41
NOVICE CLASS
1st Eric Wank/Greg Austin 22 4 19 45
2nd Tom Ingles/Clarimae Ingles 83 39 81 203
3rd Bill Devlin/Pam Devlin 43 100 100 243

As one of the new-this-year series of Saturday morning rallies geared especially for folks with no or limited rally experience the Time of the Signs Road Rally was planned from day one to be very easy to run. As the name of the rally may imply I did this by quoting a sign for almost every turn or speed change. You can see from the results above that fully half of the participants fit into the limited experience category and made up the rally’s largest class. Unfortunately I may have inadvertently influenced the final results in that class by accidentally “stealing” the Devlin’s instructions at the second checkpoint.

After crossing the checkpoint 2 in line and parking Bob brought all of his instructions and checkpoint slips back to the checkpoint vehicle because he wanted some assistance in claiming a delay for the leg. Unfortunately in the process of sorting out how much of a delay he wanted to claim I ended up laying his instructions down on my lapboard. About the time he was ready to head out on the last leg of the rally he realized he was missing them. Unfortunately by then I had already packed up the checkpoint and taken off to beat the first car to the last checkpoint. That left Bob and Pam with nothing to do but head for Monical’s to meet up with everyone else for lunch.

Tom Ingles says he owes me one for that goof since he thinks it helped him get second in the SOP class. That may be true but it also may not since the Devlin’s would have had to get a 60 or less on the 28 minute long last leg in order to have beat Tom and his mom. A 60 or less would certainly have been doable by an experienced SOP rallyist but it would not have been a sure thing so who’s to say if the Devlin’s could have done it. In any case both Bob and I have learned from this that it’s best if checkpoint crews only handle the pieces of paper that are required for them to do their jobs and and nothing more.

Meanwhile note that Eric and Greg (on their second rally together) ended up with a score that would have been very competitive in the SOP class. Also note that except for Jon and Gary’s 7 on leg 2 the Navigational class would have been extremely competitive. I understand that they didn’t fully recover from Jon accidentally working toward repeating doing the first instruction out of checkpoint 1. As for the DeMeritts their only point came while they were trying to get back on time after slowing to negotiate the corner just before checkpoint 2. I’m sure glad I borrowed Mike Blackwelder’s car and thousandth’s reading rally odometer to measure the rally. Thanks Mike!

Except for dips back and forth across the valley of the Sangamon River the rally spent most of its time near the tops of Yankee Ridge and Blue Ridge in Champaign County. This afforded the participants that took the time to look great views in all directions of mile after mile of young corn and soybean fields. Unfortunately in spite of the fact that I set the average speeds about 5 miles per hour slower than I normally would have just so that folks could look at the landscape (and to be friendly toward newcomers) at least one driver said he didn’t have time to do anything but watch the road ahead for his next turn. In any case Brian Ford, my cold runner and checkpoint helper, did enjoy the views. Thanks Brian, on all counts.

Jerry White, Rallymaster

Strategic Cone Command ’11 Autocross, Coles County Airport

HOT – WET.  That would describe the difference between the two days.

FUN  –  Disappointing.  That would describe the mood difference between the two days.

Saturday started bright and early with Robert Burkholder, Dan Cummings, Greg Luckach and myself as first responders.  Robert worked on the ground level grunt setup and Dan helped me set the course.  Greg gave us the SS OK at about 7:55 and we were up and running registration at 8:00.  We had 56 drivers, you will see Richard Baker listed but I just forgot to delete him from the event as a no show.

Rolled off the first car at about 10:36 and with the length of the course we got five runs in.  Lots of first time spectators and the usual Coles County Crowd, Mr. and Mrs. Deffenbaugh were there to cheer for their little boy, Adam.   One small incident as Tony Waguespack tapped a taxi light with his Vette.  From what I heard no damage to the car, but the light popped off the base.  Sorry to hear that.

A couple from South Florida was in Charleston for a wedding and stopped by when they saw the cars.  In the conversation with them I found Mike, the husband, was a corvette lover.  I said sign the waivers and come in and we will see if you can get a ride.  He said “I want to ride in the Grand Sport.”  I said I think I can arrange that.  Intro to Greg and then the ride.  He stuck around for the second heat and rode with Kerry Riley, WOW was all he could say.   He rode with me and I cut 2 seconds off my time.  Not enough to  move up with the likes of Ricky Bobby and Todd Ballou, though.  I am not sure how many others he rode with.

After the rides he mentioned how great everyone was.  He said we had some really nice cars and even better people.  I agree, CCSCC has the best kind of people at these events.  Deb and Mike Erpelding asked to be in the same heat, but I managed to not comply.  So we just put them together and they worked the Grid in the first heat.  Deb said that was the best for them.  They got to talk with everyone and get to know them better.  I am sure it went both ways.  Another great autocross couple added to our family.

Now for the info you are looking for.  If you saw the results, you know that Kerry Riley was King for the Day.  Top in Pax and Top in Raw.  He took the FTD trophy.  Adam Deffenbaugh was number two in Pax and took home the FTDI Trophy.  FTDIS went to Jason Daily in his 350Z.  He was third in his bump class of CS, ES, FS, but came out with the street tire award.  Matt Hicks did a nice job of driving but his best time saw a cone.  He still managed one good enough to win his class.  Emanuel Martin continues to roll in his ES Miata.  He did complain that he needs to build up some muscle for those tight slaloms and R Compound tires.   Ned Neuhaus only got one run in his car before an air bubble in the clutch line ended his day in the RX7/LS7.  He did get a consolation prize of making a run in Kerry’s Porsche.  Tim Oyer was bumped from FSP to ESP and took home a hard fought win against the likes of Brian and Sandy Grable, Jim Landes and Cathy Burkholder.  When you can outpace those four you are doing something.  ESP seems to be about the most competitive class this year.  Always at least four cars and always at least four really good drivers.  Linda Hicks took the Ladies class.

I am sorry to report that we called the Sunday event due to extended rain threat.  We waited until 10:30 and it looked like the rain would stick around for a few more hours.  It was not quite that bad, but I think we did the right thing.  Dan Cummings had a really novel course set up with what amounts to seven Chicago boxes pretty much in a row and then a national style feature at the end.  Greg test ran it in his Dodge Pickup to see if it was too tight.  Well he made it fine.  Then he ran it in my Miata with street tires just before as the sprinkles came in.  He claimed FTDI, and Dan claimed FTDIS in his Honda Odessy;)  We still have the course on scale map so don’t be surprised to see it at a later event.

Thanks to everyone who was there and worked in the heat and lost out to the rain.

Tom Ingles, Event Chair

No-Name Rally Report

Place_Driver/Navigator____Leg 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total
NAVIGATIONAL CLASS
1st Jon Flora/Chuck Hanson 0 9 9 0 5 27 7 57
2nd Bob DeMeritt/
Marianne DeMeritt
2 4 6 9 177 24 49 271
SEAT OF PANTS CLASS
1st Mike Blackwelder/ Jim
Hamilton & Chelsea Ware
15 4 5 2 29 26 10 91
2nd Jerry White/C. Board 16 17 6 15 11 16 33 114
3rd Harold Davis/Karen Davis 1 39 5 84 33 11 8 181
4th Emanuel Martin/Pete Stynoski 15 63 178 13 1 0 5 275
NOVICE CLASS
1st Uguen “Nick” Choi/Alex Kim 74 49 250 136 250 207 500 1466

Russ Bedford, Rallymaster

Spring Grudge Autocross, Rantoul Aviation Center

Double Arrow 4 Rally Results

Sunday May 15, 2011

Place Driver/Navigator Leg_1 3 5 6 Total
NAVIGATIONAL CLASS
1st Bob DeMeritt/Marianne DeMeritt 1 2 1 1 5
2nd Emanuel Martin/Rob Umland 6 9 2 5 22
SEAT OF PANTS CLASS
1st Brian Grable/Sandy Grable 4 23 23 25 75
2nd Mike Blackwelder/Jim Hamilton 12 39 12 23 86
3rd Russ Bedford/Bill Wagner Jr. 74 18 12 20 124
4th Jerry White/C. Board 28 1 200 15 244

Bob Townsend, Rallymaster

Parkland Scholarship Autocross Event

Event report to be posted.

Déjà Vu Rally Results

Sunday May 1, 2011

Place Driver/Navigator Leg_1 2_ 3_ 4_ Total
NOVICE CLASS
1st Patrick Barranis/Rob Mitchell 58 3 61
2nd Ben Vollmer/Gary Smith 30 200 230
SEAT OF PANTS CLASS
1st Mike Blackwelder/Jim Hamilton 37 59 96
2nd Jonathan Flora/Jerry White 40 142 182
3rd Nathan Karplus/Pete Stynoski 1 200 201
NAVIGATIONAL CLASS
1st Bob Townsend/Karen Townsend 200 200 400

Emanuel Martin, Rallymaster

Spring Warm Up Rally Results

Driver/Navigator Leg 1 Leg 2 Leg 3 Leg 4 Total
NAVIGATIONAL
1st Bob DeMeritt
Marianne DeMeritt
1 1 0 1 3
2nd Bob Townsend
Jonathan Flora
0 2 4 27 33
SEAT OF PANTS
1st Mike Blackwelder
Jim Hamilton
3 14 0 11 28
2nd Harold Davis
Karen Davis
6 32 10 30 78
3rd Russ Bedford
Joe Siedenburg
7 33 23 58 121
4th James Rose
Kevin Miller
12 100 100 73 285
NOVICE
1st Paul Okarma
Alison Ryan
8 55 11 30 104
2nd Lew Lane
Michael Novak
4 89 100 85 278
3rd Luke Ponder
Michael Duff
7 100 100 100 307
4th Bill Crawford
Melissa Crawford
25 100 100 100 325

April Flowers III Rally Report

Place_Driver/Navigator____Leg 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 Total
NAVIGATIONAL CLASS
1st Chuck Hanson/Gary Patrick 0 0 0 0 0 4 6 10
2nd Bob DeMeritt/
Marianne DeMeritt
0 19 0 0 0 0 5 24
SEAT OF PANTS CLASS
1st Jerry White/C. Board 3 100 30 0 13 34 18 198
2nd Mike Blackwelder/
Jim Hamilton
12 20 12 100 15 20 19 198
3rd Russ Bedford/Joe Siedenburg 38 53 11 26 40 4 54 226
4th Carol Bonin/John Li 12 67 100 100 43 21 25 368
5th Brian Grable/Sandy Grable 29 38 100 100 100 100 100 567
NOVICE CLASS
1st Michael Nichols/Alex Shirazi 24 100 2 5 16 - 9 244
2nd Linda Ingles/Tom Ingles 38 100 10 100 54 - 9 311

Jonathan Flora, Rallymaster