Results

Results are here

Results?

I would like to see them as well, I will see if we can do something about that today!

It's Time

It's rally time, see you at Dunn Brothers in Hudson

What is a rally?

A rally is a motor sport event in which a driver/navigator team attempt to drive a specified route, while also attempting to maintain various average speeds given them by the rally organizers. Rallys are run over public roads. This rally will use only paved roads. They are generally weather independent being held as scheduled regardless of wind, rain or snow conditions. Only the severest of conditions which would close roads would postpone a rally. The cars leave a starting point individually at a precise time, and are directed to follow a route to the finish.

Any type of motor vehicle may be used. Rallying can be fun in anything from a sports car to a four wheel drive pickup truck.

Cooperation between the driver and navigator is key to a successful rally. The driver must maintain the average speeds specified, while the navigator reads and interprets the route instructions and gives directions to the driver. Both must be alert to find the proper route. 

“Checkpoints” are set up along the route, manned by one or more of the rally organizers. They note and mark down the exact time when each car passes a checkpoint. In most cases checkpoint locations are not known in advance by the participants and may be just over a hill or around a curve, so that time cannot be made up or lost after the checkpoint is sighted by the crew.

The score each car receives at each checkpoint is based upon how close it comes to the perfect arrival time which will be given. The winner of the rally is the car with the least penalty points.

There are frequent breaks so you can get out and stretch every hour or so.

Dashboard Apps

Yesterday was the final check of my upcoming rally. As I neared the start point I released we had forgot to bring equipment. No problem, I had my iPhone so I used the Car Dashboard app (free). GPS mileage was right on all day. Also provided a clock and speedometer as well as compass and elevation. My GPS does most of this but having this app allows me to use my GPS in "where am I " mode so it's easier to record lat/long. I use lat/long to give people pickup points and to give to workers to make it easy to locate their next control.

Final Check

Heading out to do the final check this morning. Mostly recording lat/long of controls and painting in lines. Looks like a nice day.

Dashboard

Another nice iPhone app for road rally, Dashboard has a tenths reading GPS odometer as well as a clock that starts when you restart. Also has a speedometer although it lags when you slow down.
On the Chip we rounded the calcs to the nearest .10 minute (6 seconds) so it's easy for people who have seconds reading clocks to convert tenth of a minute from decimal to seconds. The Dashboard app (free) is all one would need to run the event provided you have a time of day clock.

CentWatch

For those of you that don't have a special rally equipment but do have an iPad/iPod/iTouch I suggest downloading the CentWatch app and Emerald Time app. Use Emerald Time to determine how far of your iOS device is then adjust CentWatch accordingly. CentWatch provides a hundreth reading clock and stopwatch with split. If you start your stopwatch at the CZT then you can easily compare you time to the jogularity time to determine how far off you are or to enter the control on time.

If you don't have an auxiliary odo but have a Garmin, you can use that for mileage. Using a similar system on a recent rally we were able to get only 4 points in 11 controls.