Cal Club Autocross Forums

Wife and I are going to the First Friday night road rally tonight.
http://www.smscc.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Total Novices. We read some of the beginner guides, and are a bit nervious. Any advice?

Equipment? I've got a couple little flash lights (one that 'clips'), and going to get a couple clip boards, scrap paper, an easy large calculator and a couple stop watches.

Jay W

Wow, haven't done one of those in years (maybe decades), although I do the Braille Rallye every year which is the same style but your navigator can't see, just read the instructions. For Novice (used to be SOP - Seat of the Pants), that's all you really need. Clipboard with a light and some way to measure down time like stop lights that you have to make up. I've gotten pretty good at compensating for stop lights by just going over the speed for a bit. Don't know about the First Friday, but the Braille has pauses in it that you can ignore all or part of to make up for the down time. I find I need multiple reinforcements of the next instruction from my navigator. It's all about communication, something you have to fine tune. If either of you makes a mistake, don't blame. Laugh about it, correct if you can and just do better on the next leg.

Despite the old joke that it's a good way to ruin your marriage, it can be fun if you don't take it too seriously.

Jayson Woodruff wrote:Wife and I are going to the First Friday night road rally tonight.
http://www.smscc.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Total Novices. We read some of the beginner guides, and are a bit nervious. Any advice?

Equipment? I've got a couple little flash lights (one that 'clips'), and going to get a couple clip boards, scrap paper, an easy large calculator and a couple stop watches.

Jay W

An atomic clock was absolutely essential when Shauna and I were doing them.

Driving advice: Do not second guess your navi, just say "when do I turn" and press the trip reset on time.

I've never done one of the first friday nighters, Shauna and I used to do Monte Carlo style road rallies with the ITN group. http://carzero.freeservers.com/ I think we are going to do the one next weekend since it starts in Corona.

I saw that one too. My wife's out of town next week, but if I have a blast tonight I might try to pick someone up to Nav next week.

Jay W

Sebastian Rios wrote:I've never done one of the first friday nighters, Shauna and I used to do Monte Carlo style road rallies with the ITN group. http://carzero.freeservers.com/ I think we are going to do the one next weekend since it starts in Corona.

Anyone know if any group is running gimmick rallies in LA anymore. The wife and I ran those out in the SFV back in the early 90's. I really enjoyed those, no timing involved, scored entirely based upon completion deciphering the route guidance, and the way-point traps.

Craig

We did one of the SMSCC rally's ... didn't like it much, but no doubt a lot of skill is required. The top folks were within seconds of the perfect time. There was a National Champ running with us. We were more the 15 minutes off.

Did some of these in Germany ... which were fun and crazy. In one the Tie Breaker was the 300 kilometer/hour average blast down the autobahn from the start to the first regular stage. A Porsche just ahead of us at the start blew it's engine with-in meters after starting! All nighter ... lots of cars in ditches, ie. headlights shinning up into the night sky as we fly by.

Well we survived. We spent A LOT of time before hand trying to be organized and prepared. Very nervious at the start, but shouldn't have been. It probably would have been funny to watch us freek out during the odometer check leg (which has little to no implication to your score). But we settled in.

I was very worried about getting completely lost, but was relieved to find at the end of the Rally that the instructions easily get you to the check points, it's the routes, speeds and pauses that they try to mess with you. We fell for just about everything, including the trap I spotted during the beginners meeting and was almost plainly told how to avoid it.

We scored about 450pts over all (total of 4.5min off over 4 legs), which I think was pretty good, especially considering one leg we were 2.5min late mostly due to me looping back around to check a sign. We won the beginner class, which had at least 3 other cars in it. I think the "C" class (stock, non-beginners), was won with about a 350.

Cool roads that I don't normally get to drive, but staying focused on the instructions takes a lot away from enjoying the seanery.

Not exactly our people, but I think my wife enjoyed it. It's a haul out there from Orange County on a Friday afternoon, but we'll likely try it again in the near term.

Rick Brown wrote:I find I need multiple reinforcements of the next instruction from my navigator.

I didn't understand this until I was driving and found myself doing the same thing. At certin points, there's 5 things to think about, and my short term memory only has a buffer of about 2.

Jay W

If you really enjoyed it you can hook up with the Long Beach MG club. They have been doing rally's since the MG was the Miata. http://www.lbmg.org/lbmg.org/Time_Bandits_2011.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The club used to be very vibrant until the CART / IRL split. That was because the LBMG ran the LBGP race management. But there is still a very good core. The time bandit is the same weekend were at El Toro. But they are a really good group.

The also provide timing and scoring, and corner/flag workers to VARA vintage auto racing association.