Slipstream - September 2007

Photos from he Parade Website
My First Parade Rally
by Wendy Shoffit
Thinking about our upcoming trip to Parade in San Diego,
James and I decided several months ago that we would take
our (new to us) 1983 911 SC to Parade rather than bring the
race prepared 1978 911 SC. While we knew we were giving up the
extra oomph we have become accustomed to for the autocross, we
wanted to try something different and knew we wouldn’t last 4
hours in race seats with no a/c. We had never participated in the
TSD rally in any of the six Parades we’d attended. Maybe we were
too intimidated by everyone’s opinions of it, maybe we were afraid
of getting too hot, or maybe we just couldn’t fit Jasmine in the back
of the race car with the full roll cage. Whatever the reasoning, we
didn’t do it until this year.
In preparation for our new adventure, we decided to take
Teri Davis’ TSD rally school in June. She’d said that the focus
would be on the Parade rally and she wouldn’t go easy on us,
wanting us to be really prepared. Despite maxing out two of the
three legs, we actually FOUND the one that most people didn’t
and ended up taking first place. Amazing! It was not without a
price, though, as I spent much of it thoroughly peeved after we
maxed the first leg, when we fell for a trap and I thought we could
have done better.
Many of you know that I’m a tad bit on the competitive side.
Okay okay…a LOT on the competitive side… so far gone that I
can’t even see the line! I get irritated with myself when I perform
poorly at autocrosses and am not much fun to be around then.
Few people in this world have seen me at my worst, “casually tossing”
a pool cue when I miss a critical shot or nearly beating my
doubles tennis partner to death for hitting me in the back during
his serve… TWICE! So, when I have heard countless stories of
couples wanting to kill each other after a TSD rally, I had pretty
much figured I had set myself up for failure. I decided at that
point to change my definition of success. If I made it through
without getting upset and tried to enjoy myself, I would count
that as winning. If we happen to do well in the standings… so be
it. My mantra became, “The fate of the world won’t be decided if
we win a trophy.” I scribbled it down on every paper in the rally
packet to remind me, along with smiley faces. Yeah, I know it was
cheesy, but it worked. Only
one time did I get frustrated,
but we worked through it.
Myra & Jerry Sutton going for their
Rally trophy
Teri accurately predicted
two traps the rallymaster
used and we didn’t fall for
either of them! I also decided
that I’d let James be the
only driver and worry about
the speed changes and I
would be the navigator,
reading ahead and looking for the clues. James and I worked very
well as a team and never felt completely lost. We did, however,
lose track of what time of day it was in the middle during a break.
You end up getting so wrapped up in minutes, half minutes,
100ths of a minute that the hour simply falls away. This prompted
one of the more memorable exclamations of, “What the hell
time is it?” Okay, so maybe there was a *little* more frustration at
times. Sometimes it was more at the cars ahead, clearly going way
under the designated speed (“MY sheet shows a CAST of 34…
why are you going 27???) or at a stop light that went over the time
Photos from the Parade Websie
allowance (how RUDE). But, believe it or not, we actually SAW
the scenery along the way! Southern California is spectacular. I
highly recommend it.
At the end of the rally, we had met our goal. Have fun, not get
too mad, and avoid a divorce attorney at all costs. We tallied up
our results and were happy with our calculated score… three hundred
something. The lower the score the better. At every checkpoint
you’re given your elapsed time. Your score is calculated in
the hundredths of a minute that your time is off of the perfect
time for that leg. One point is given per hundredth of a minute
you’re either fast or slow. Zero is the perfect score. (We didn’t have
any zeroes.) We turned in our scorecards, enjoyed the ice cream
social, and hung out that afternoon by the pool with the Spreens
while Jasmine and Geneva happily swam. It was a good day.
That evening was the beach party. We watched everyone
make sand castles, nearly killed ourselves in the tug of war contest
(for the Zone Challenge), and watched in amusement while some
people participated in the Frisbee challenge. After the Mexican
buffet dinner, everyone gathered around the clubhouse building
to watch the rally awards. We stood around Myra and Jerry Sutton
who asked if we’d seen the results. We hadn’t thought much about
it, but decided we
wanted it to be a
surprise if we were
in trophy range.
We’d heard a few
mentions of some
high scores and
realized our score
wasn’t the worst!
When they got to
the unequipped
class, they started
James & Wendy blown away at their
first 1st place Rally Award
counting down
around 12th place
with the Suttons
winning that trophy with a score of 902. Oh cool! Since I thought
our score was in the 300s, we realized we’d won a trophy, but how
good? The scores were dropping, the place was getting better and
better. They finally called our names with a score of 261 and
FIRST place (out of 72 cars)! I may be bad at math, but it turns
out that I do okay at rallying. Excitement and elation followed as
we went to the front to collect our trophies AND special
Yokohama jackets. It was awesome! People try for years to get this
coveted place and here we were able to achieve it our first time
out.
I think maybe we ought to quit while we’re ahead, as perhaps
the only way to go from here is down. Nah… it was too much fun.
Next time, we’ll even bring a digital watch so we don’t leave a
minute late from a checkpoint because James can’t read which
minute his analog watch is on! I wonder how low our score could
have been if we’d had an accurate time piece? Hmmmmm… I
guess we’ll have to find out next year in Charlotte. Is the scenery
pretty there? I wonder. Why don’t you come with us next year and
see for yourselves?! Remember to have fun and for SURE take
Teri’s rally school! Thanks, Teri!
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