Northwest Rally Council

TSD Rally Home of the Pacific Northwest

Welcome to the Northwest Rally Council

The Northwest Rally Council is an organization of Western Washington clubs dedicated to Time|Speed|Distance (TSD) rallies and similar non-performance autosports activities. NWRC events are generally held between the months of February and November for all skill levels.

May Flies. June Bugs. July Slays.

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The NWRC July 2025 Friday Nighter is almost here. Less than one week away, our next event is titled “Bug Slayer” and John, our Council president, steps up again as rallymaster.

All the usual details apply and can be found in the info section of this site.

Registration opens at 6:45pm at the Eastgate Park&Ride (14200 SE Eastgate Way in Bellevue). We meet in the NE corner of the surface lot under the SE 142nd flyover. Driver’s meeting at 7:15pm.

Please note that Eastgate way is closed W of 139th Ave, with a long-term detour in place, connecting Eastgate Way to Richards Road via 139th and Kamber.

Entry fee is $30 per car, cash only.

Please read/review the updated (2025) NWRC General Instructions. Having a printed copy with you may prove to be helpful.

All events in the 2025 Friday Nighter season use the Richta GPS Checkpoint system for scoring. If you are not already familiar with this tool, please read the quick guide. Download the Richta Competitor app (from Apple or Google Play) and install on your iOS or Android device ahead of time.

The July Friday Nighter will end in Four Corners at Farrelli’s Pizza.

And Another Thing…

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On the heels of Just Redux, assuming that duck feet have heels, we’re just over three weeks away from the July Friday Nighter.

July 11th, join us as NWRC presents Bug Slayer. Rallymaster John Humphrey steps up once again to create the next event in our 2025 Season Championship.

Details are sparse on this one at the moment, but I’ll bet it ends in Four Corners.

The route and instructions are novice friendly.

The rally will use the Richta GPS checkpoint system. Install the Richta Competitor app on your smartphone ahead of time. An introductory guide is here.

Entry fee is $30 per car, cash only. Registration will open at 6:45pm. Drivers meeting at 7:15pm.

Ducks On Fire

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Recap and results from last night’s Just Redux.

Leg one began with the same odometer check used in last year’s Just Ducky event, taking teams north out of Eastgate via 148th Ave NE to Overlake. Then a stint on SR-520 to Union Hill with the transit ending by Fire Station 13. The competitive portion of the leg zig-zagged north, ending just shy of Woodinville-Duvall Road. There was a first/second counting trap with a small penalty just before passing Fire Station 33.

Each leg had some dead mileage to travel before arriving at the Restart for the next. Restarts were used this month in response to competitor feedback about cars bunching up.

Leg two was a short one, heading east on WDR and then picking up the twisty stretch of Old W-D. All teams managed single digit scores, with 80% scoring under 5. The next Restart was 3 miles away, on the other side of the valley.

Leg three started in the outskirts of Duvall’s downtown core, where the Ziply Fiber crew placed a trailer mounted warning sign on the shoulder at the Restart point, leaving room for just one car. Fortunately, this was discovered several hours before the event started and at the drivers’ meeting teams were cautioned to keep a standoff distance until their out time. A long confidence test (more than 9 miles) with no course-following action brought teams back to SR-203. We went past Carnation Farm and ended the leg on NE 100 near River Run Ranch. Accuracy on this leg would depend largely on executing the speed change note at the correct sign, seven times – 40, 45, 50, 40, 30, 25, 40.

Leg four took us across the newly completed Ames Creek Bridge (closed in 2024 for replacement, it forced major changes to Just Ducky) then turned north to pass through Broadhurst. Teams would find an on or off course route control depending on how they chose to execute the NRIs. As it turned out, all cars visited the off-course control. The route continued past Fire Station 14, then picked up the end of the final leg from Just Ducky, taking Union Hill Rd west to a checkpoint on 236th Ave NE. A short hop east on SR-202 took teams to the final Restart on 244th Ave NE. Car 5 made a fairly catastrophic mistake, but persevered and found their way back to the route albeit very late. They took the maximum 19:30 Time Allowance, avoiding a max late penalty.

Leg five was another short one, at just four minutes. With no traps, it was just using up the viable distance to reach the finish. It had one unfortunate victim, as Car #5 did not put in a Time Allowance despite being late to the Restart. If they had put in 19:30 for leg 5, their 19:40 lateness would have been scored 0:10, though this had no effect on finish placement/standings.

There was great discussion and exchange at the finish. It’s exciting to see some new faces and both of the novice teams seemed enthusiastic to try again next month. With only five cars entering, FOOTZ didn’t recoup expenses for this one. June can be tough for attendance with it being commencement time and this year it was also Fathers’ Day weekend. Please try to spread the word and help draw more people into our sport. We’ve seen five novice teams so far this year. Two are my coworkers and three are from the rallycross community that we’ve reached through FB/IG.

The use of Restarts to maintain car spacing was well received. One thing that could be implemented in the future to help first-timers with the odometer check is adding a Restart at its end. The wait-out-your-extra-time concept is clear enough when you’ve done it a few times, but making the odometer check into a separate leg (Leg 0?) might provide a more consistent and intuitive format for newcomers. The Richta system worked very well during the event. A delay in the release of the next update to the Competitor app meant teams still heard ‘Restart’ at the Route Control. Incorrect voice announcement is a known bug in v1.28 and was explained at the drivers’ meeting.

FOOTZ thanks John and Derris Humphrey for volunteering to do a checkout of Just Redux. It takes a village.

See you next month!

Mike

Get Your Ducks In A Row

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Now only two weeks away – Just Redux.

Join the flock 6/13 as FOOTZ presents the June installment of the NWRC Friday Nighter season.

A few hints, tips, and definitions to review:

We use OR and ITIS instructions, but not together.

OR – this indicates a choice of two portions of an instruction. Execute either that portion of the route instruction preceding the word OR, or that portion following the word OR, but not both. Execute the portion whose first ACTION POINT occurs first. If both portions have the same first ACTION POINT, do neither at that point, and continue to look for the OR instruction.

ITIS – If There Is Such. When a Numbered Route Instruction includes ITIS, execute that instruction only if its first ACTION POINT occurs before the first ACTION POINT for the next NRI. If multiple consecutive (in numerical order) NRIs include ITIS, you are required to look for the first ACTION POINT of each ITIS instruction as well as the first ACTION POINT of the next non-ITIS instruction.

We use NOTES. Unlike numbered route instructions, NOTES may be executed multiple times.

NOTE – Notes are named instructions that are in effect from their introduction until canceled. Action must be taken as directed each time the appropriate ACTION POINT is encountered. Notes may overlap both NRIs and other Note instructions. However, a Note may not overlap itself. If more than one Note can be executed at the same ACTION POINT, do none of them at that point and continue looking for those Notes. Note instructions have a higher priority than NRIs, i.e. if a note and an NRI could apply at the same point, do the Note, and continue looking for the NRI.

Frankly, Notes can be a bit intimidating until you get used to them. There will be only one note used in Just Redux, that sets your assigned speed based on the posted speed limit.

Based on feedback from one SOP team, we will handle Out Times differently in June. Every leg will begin at a Restart, where the app will issue your start time just like it has been doing at the Park&Ride. The upside is that it restores one minute spacing between cars that are bunching up. The downside is that the app doesn’t automatically adjust your out time if you arrived late. If you reach a Restart point after your assigned time or need a little extra to gather your wits, enter a Time Allowance (TA+) on the app.

Let’s say you arrived at a checkpoint very late, scoring 127 Late. The checkpoint slip has instructions to reach the Restart which is only a short distance ahead but also has a long explanation of the previous leg. The organizers may have planned the next leg to begin about 3 minutes after a perfect arrival at the checkpoint. In this case, your default assigned outtime is less than a minute from your actual arrival. Go ahead and take the time to read the checkpoint slip and proceed to the Restart point. When the app delivers your assigned time and you need some additional, please enter a Time Allowance in the app with TA+. Be aware this won’t change your displayed Restart time. If you arrive at the Restart at 20:12:52 and it assigns you 20:13:00 but you need time to gear up for the next leg, there is no shame in taking a TA+ (perhaps +1:30) and starting at 20:14:30. Again, there is no penalty or prejudice against using Time Allowances.