I'm up for it --- see you 10:00 23Feb

GPat.

Oh all right already.  You can't blame a fellow for trying.
So make me an offer!  Wheels and tires could be sold separately.

Howzaboutit?

GPat.

I would prefer the 2Mar date ... gives me  more time to run in my ST's new motor.  But I'm in, whatever date gets picked ... I'll just have to take a couple of nice leisurely trips is all.

OH darn!  Poor ole me, I'll have to drive my new wheels.

For sale:
  ASA 17" wheels, 7" wide, 50mm offset, fits 4x110mm or 4x104mm hubs.
    (yes, that's 8 holes in the hub)

  mounted with:
    Kumho Ecsta V710 225/45 R17 tires, run only 8 events.

Original cost: $185 + $235 each, or $1680 for the set.
50% sale price: $799 for the set.

I will have them with me at the first VMSC autocross. (not yet scheduled)

Back before the saftey nazis found out we were using county property, an officer who was then an instructor at the county's pursuit driving school used to come our to watch us run at Cloverleaf Mall.  He even ran our course in his police cruiser a couple of times.  If this is the same facility on which he does his instructing, we should at least ask if it might be for rent on a weekend.  Does anyone remember his name?

No, but they sure can be prickly-assed sometimes!

Using the time-honoured tradition of "forgivness is easier to get than permission",
DO:
1) Copy a VMSC logo file from Checkpoints or the home page.
2) Paste into a Word file.
3) Surround it with whatever text sounds good to you.
4) Print the resulting file, trimming your new "card" as needed.
5) Copy the result and send it in.

How they gonna know? 

SUPER course!!
Open, flowing, and a challenge for drivers to find the good line
instead of driving between two walls of cones.

I nominate Gunny as official course layout consultant!

The State Fair of VA organization is bankrupt and
   its creditors have siezed control of Meadow Event Park.
   SFVA is disbanded, all employees are let go. 

See: http://www.vmsc.org/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=26&topic=1789.0

Yet another casualty of the State Fair of Virginia bankruptcy ...
Sigh. 

but it sure makes the course really easy to follow ...

 

may be found here: 
by time: http://shn.pca.org/archive/AX11results/AX110409time.htm
by class: http://shn.pca.org/archive/AX11results/AX110409class.htm

   As of 14:15 Wed 9 Mar, still no events for VMSC on myautoevents.com

I tried, and got:
"This video has been removed by the user. "
Bummer.

Welcome to the sunny southland!!  At least in VaBeach you will have the ocean breeze to insulate you from the 100+ temps we have had for the last week or so.  And when (not if!) you come up to Richmond for autocrossing and your stomach is feeling homesick you can try out our NY Deli at: http://www.returnofthedeli.com/.  It has been a local favorite for as long as I can remember.

TipToe Thru The Tulips #5  (aka T5.5) was run Saturday 22 May 2010

We avoided the rains, the roads were fast and fun, and had no whining at the end.  A good day!
Thanks to all the contestants, without whom all the effort would have been for naught.
Special thanks to Charlie Passut for doing the SCCA safety check and working checkpoints
during the event.  Thanks also to Lâle and Julia for helping their crazy husbands play rallymasters
and to Betsy Edwards for taking care of all the SCCA paperwork on our behalf.

Car #	Team	Class	CP 1	CP2	CP3	CP4	CP5	CP6	Total	Place	O/A
5	McCann / von Kaenel	Equipped	0	0	0	1	1	0	2	1-E	1
1	Edwards / Edwards	Equipped	0	11	4	10	17	1	43	2-E	2
3	Marx  / Chenery	Equipped	25	2	19	6	5	1	58	3-E	4
7	Warden/  Senatrik	Limited	0	0	1	3	47	0	51	1-L	3
2	Kuklinski / Siwderski	Novice	63	200	94	169	111	132	769	1-N	7
4	Ogburn / Ogburn	Stock	7	22	100	10	4	58	201	1-S	5
6	Howells / Isemann	Stock	86	7	66	35	13	11	218	2-S	6

---

Last Saturday saw the running of "T5.5":  the fifth itereation of our annual "TipToe Thru The Tulips" road rally. on which Pasha and I have been thrashing since early January.  We avoided the rains and had a successful event.  Our sincerest thanks go out to all the contestants and workers who made it so.

No one who hasn't actually done it can ever fully appreciate how much work goes into putting on a rally.  First there is all the running of roads, searching out checkpoint locations, and working out the route.  And then begins all the administrivia of formally measuring the course, publishing the general instructions, the contestant's route instructions, the checkpoint worker's instructions, checkpoint slips, and award certificates.  Then comes the actual running of the event, doing all the registration paperwork, and trying to keep everyone on course.  Then at the end comes collecting time records from the checkpoints, and working out the team's final scores.  Whew.

But then comes the really fun part:  handing out awards, schmoozing with the teams, and hearing that everyone had a good time.  That's the part that has kept us doing it for five years.  Every time we finish one, we look at each other and say "Do we really want to go thru this again?"  And then long about November we start having ideas about what we could do if ... and then in January we start it all again.

Right now we're busy enjoying the afterglow of a successful day.  Ask me about another one sometime after Labor Day!

WOWZERS !!  This is super !!

Please let's continue making the final points tally abailable each year.
(Maybe even in the Documents section of the site?)

2010 Rally Schedule -- mark your calendars!

DATE ______	RALLYMASTER _____________	NAME OF RALLY ___________	STYLE ________
Mar 27	Lonnie Hawkins	Picture Rally	GTA
May 22	Pasha and Gordon Paterson	Tip Toe Through The Tulips	TOUR
Jun 26	Greg Smith	Blackwater Fever	MONTE CARLO TOUR
Aug 14	Mark Sanetrik	Dragon's Lair	TOUR
Sep 25	Fat Dog Garage Staff	Equinox Road Rally	EASY COURSE
Oct 22-24	Wash, DC Region, USRRC	GTA, TOUR, COURSE
Oct 30	Greg Warden	Surry Segway Saver	FUN

For news and updates, see: http://www.odr-scca.org/content/view/13/40/

Put me down as voting for Panera's at Stony Point.

GPat.

.

The T-5  rally fourth edition (aka TipToe Thru The Tulips) went off without a hitch this past Saturday.  many thanks to the seven teams that showed up to run, and especially to Dave and Fran Lumpkin, who not only came up from NC to do our safety check, but also came back Saturday to work controls. 

Regardless of contrary weather predictions, our fabled luck continued to hold and we had a beautiful morning for a pleasant tour through the Goochland and Louisa countryside.  Even the three novice teams were able to follow the course and make it to the award lunch at the Hickory Notch Grill.  Thanks to the wonders of Excel spreadsheets (and weeks of preparation) Pasha had the scores tabulated and we were able to give out our awards within an hour of the last car clearing the last control. 

Thanks again to all who ran and especially those who worked and helped us put this one on.

GPat.

PS:  We were a bit puzzled by the small VMSC turnout, but completely gratified by the NC troops who came up to run.  Was there a conflicting event somewhere (again)?

Of course you must stay on course, but to win you must also maintain the correct speed at all times.  At various checkpoints along the way, your time is noted and the time you took for the leg is computed.  The rallymasters will have already calculated the "perfect" time from the measured distance and the specified speeds, and so you score one point for each 1/100 of a minute you are early or late.  (This is why it is called Time/Speed/Distance or TSD rallying.)

Lowest total score for the event wins.  A score of 25-30 on a leg is good in stock class running "seat of the pants", with calculation it can be under 15.  The serious equipped teams with their onboard computers and such expect to score zero points on about half the legs and under 5 on the rest!

Hey, everybody is  noob the first tiime they try something.  The T5 is a "tour" rally by SCCA definitions, which means it is nothing at all like the FIA Rallys you see on TV where crazies throw their cars around on a closed course.

The T5 is a very straightforward tour thru the countryside, at speeds a little below the posted limits.  Course following is deliberatly simple, the main thing is maintaining the correct speed (which is harder than you might think).  Your Civic will be fine, but please note that you will need a navigator to keep the driver advised of upcoming turns and correct speeds.  (My nagrivator has to keep my heavy foot in line all the time!)

Check this out: http://www.goss.com/rally.htm for a good intro to TSD (Time/Speed/Distance) rallying.

How about all those cars and people standing just outside a gate?
I wonder how (or if) they manage to get any kind of insurance !!