October/November 2011 - New England Region

RallyRound Upby Steve Gaddy, Car 1 with JulieGaddy and R. Bruce GezonEvent:Hurdle 2011 NGTA RoadRallyDate:August 13, 2011Rallymasters:The Lamkins FamilyEveryone knows there’s almost always morethan one way to get from point A to pointB (especially in Connecticut). One of theseways must be the shortest, though often not thequickest nor most often taken. What about theshortest way to get from point A to 15 historic,scenic, or just everyday points, and then backto point A? If you can figure this out, andexecute the plan in 8 hours or so, you canwin Hurdle. Usually though, it’s not quite thateasy (hence the competition). Keep in mindthat no internet, GPS, or other like devicesare permitted (only paper maps), so somedetective skills are required.This was our third consecutive year running theHurdle National GTA (Game-Tour-Adventure)rally. GTA rallies take on any form where theprimary goal isn’t to reach checkpoints exactlyon time. On National GTAs, there is usuallya significant challenge to determine the route,often like a trap rally, but without the addedelement of timing and calculation. This rallyis unique in that there is no defined course,but instead the goal is to visit landmarks andanswer questions (to prove you went to thelandmark), with the winner accumulating theleast mileage (after correcting for individualodometer variation).Julie and I had run the last two years withlimited success. This year, we teamed upwith one of our primary competitors who wasElizabeth Regan, Chris Regan, Steve Gaddy, Stephanie Gosselin, and Fred Mapplebeckdiscuss their adventures at the finish. Photo by Julie Gaddyshort a navigator, Bruce Gezon, since Hurdlerules allow for an extra competitor in the car.We focused more on shortening the routethis year, though the wild cards are alwaysthe vague locations (see above). We usuallycount on a few of these to help separate thecars who choose the same basic route, andwere hopeful experience would guide us tothe more likely locations. This year though thatwas less of an issue.After starting in Southington, this year’slandmarks were all located in the southeasternpart of the state generally between theConnecticut and Thames Rivers. While ascenic part of the state, this was the thirdyear heading generally south and east fromSouthington. One year, we hope to go northand west. The questions range from as simpleas “When is BINGO at the Chesterfield FireDepartment” to as complicated as ‚“In thevicinity of the Bear Hill Wildlife Area, youwill find the Charles L Long Sports Complex.When was the Playscape dedicated?”Two general routes seemed the most likely tobe shortest (four, if you count the option to runthem generally clockwise or counterclockwise).One route started from the furthest northwestpoint, while the second recognized that akey bridge split the four points west of theConnecticut River, and it might be shorter tostart with the third point down, and returnvia that bridge to catch the last two northwesternmost points before continuing toSouthington. There was also a minimum ofvagary in the questions. Only one referencedroutes like ‚“an odd numbered state route in Xtownship‚“ and we were able to remove thewild good chase aspect of that by choosingthe counterclockwise direction, which put mostof the possible route on our already selectedshortest distance to the remaining points. Wewere fortunate that the Waterford Speedbowlturned up where it did, adding nothing extrato our mileage.The biggest challenge of the day was the BearHill question. This Wildlife area is surroundedby two roads, and another road leads intothe middle of the area. We chose to followthe western road, then drive into the park.Unfortunately, the landmark wasn’t to be seen.We were very concerned that we would needto backtrack 5 or more miles down the eastside of the area, when we fortunately foundthe playground just to the east. Unfortunatelyfor us, the extra 2 miles driving into the parkand back was enough to push us from 1stto 2nd on the day. Usually there is a goodspread in mileages near the top, but with thefairly direct options this year, and a shorterroute than usual (top teams arrived at thefinish before 4pm, whereas in the past we’vebarely made it by the 530 deadline), the topthree teams were separated by under 5 milesI believe. We ended up with 153.14 miles,while the winners, Elizabeth & Chris Regan,finished with about 150.51. The impressivepart about this is that the rallymaster (whoknows exactly where everything is, andusually beats the winner by 10 miles or moreif I recall) had 152.10 miles! Definitely theeasiest rally of the three years by far.While writing a shortest distance rally is a littleless painful than writing a timed defined-courseevent, all Road Rallies take a tremendousamount of work to coordinate, pre-check,and execute. The Lamkins Family have donea great job with this each year, and wethank them again for their work. One of thechallenges is timing. This year, the rallymastershad some more clues (not used) further east,which would have lengthened the event alittle, but its always a challenge to balancethe length and difficulty of questions withthe ability to arrive by 5:30 pm. I suspectnext year we’ll see a bit more locationallychallengedquestions, which is my preferenceanyway. In any case, I’ll never pass up agood excuse to tour around the scenic andhistoric areas of Connecticut each year.Final ResultsOA Team Total Point1 Elizabeth Regan/Chris Regan 150.512 R. Bruce Gezon/ Steve Gaddy/Julie Gaddy 153.143 Joseph Cloutre/Andew Terry 155.304 Stephanie Gosselin/Fred Mapplebeck 158.585 Eli Soloman/Teri Soloman 165.086 Karen Bronson/Mike Bronson 167.587 David Mulligan/Karen Mulligan 181.208 Steven Dides/Jason Dides 192.649 Scott Beliveau/Kathy Beliveau 193.2310 Jeff Rummo/Tony Rummo 225.6611 Arlene Reis/John Reis 272.9912 Erin Korzec/Gregory Gibbs 288.6613 Christine Mariasi/Eric Reis 296.15Event winners, Chris and Elizabeth Regan accept award from Samantha, Jon, andJordan Lamkins Photo by Kelli LamkinsRally X Against Leukemia—continued from page 26three seconds for the day. The all-wheel driveprepared class had the fierce but friendlycompetition between Alexander Merkuryevand Nikolay Nemchuk in their shared duty2002 Subaru WRX wagon, with Nemchuksliding and scrambling into first overMerkuryev. Chris Regan brought in third placewith Chris Hagget following behind him.2WD Modified was an eclectic mix of fastgasoline and diesel-powered vehicles, with theGermany vs. Japan showdown in full effect.Hal Denham started roping in the win with hisbright yellow VW GTI over Chang Ho Kim inhis Fun Hondas extremely aerodynamic Civichatchback. Kim slipped past Lodwyk Williamtaking second place over Lodwyk’s Civic byjust over two and a half seconds. David Bakerand Anja Lewis shared a creative, butterflyadorneddiesel-powered VW Rabbit with fullsafari racks and ground clearance abounding,entertaining onlookers and taking fourth andfifth places respectively.Once again, Warren Elliot showed themhow it’s done in his Rally-prepped Audi A4,blowing past the Subaru’s to take first placefor the day, and impressing everyone by notbreaking anything. Josh Muise took secondplace with his Subaru Impreza by less than1 second total time over Tyler Semple’s JeepCherokee. Jamie and Scott of Beliveau BoysRacing experienced some technical difficultieswith their shared Subaru Impreza due torock impacts, but turned some fast timesnonetheless. Jamie Beliveau still clings to firstplace in points for the season at the close ofthis event, with Warren Elliot hot on his heels,so stay tuned!Near-perfect weather and conditions gaveall competitors a nice gift for showing theirsupport for Leukemia research, and a massive“thank you!” goes out to all those whocontributed and donated their time and/ormoney for this worthy cause. Another safe andsmoothly run NER event down, and only onemore scheduled RallyX event to go before thisseason’s regional championship. And, witha few more months left in the season, thereis plenty of time to squeeze in another event.Know of a great space (5-10 or more openacres, dirt, gravel or grass, and little or notrees) to have a rally cross event? Dying to tryit out? Get involved! Visit www.NER.org formore information.28 PIT TALKPIT TALK October/November 2011 29