July 11th 2026 (By Barry Sharp)

Eleven (11) cars registered for this first NWRC’s 2026 Saturday rally that covered some 140 miles and some 5 hrs in duration.

The odometer check leg was a simple 20+ mile run north on the I-405 with the last mile or two on East WA-522 to its first SIGNAL where cars turned right to end the odometer check leg at “SPEED LIMIT 35”, and plenty of room in a CHEVRON parking area to wait out their time.

Given the I-405 and WA 522 could have traffic and construction delays a suitable 40 minutes was given for the odometer leg. It was unfortunate that one car missed the EXIT 23 onto WA-522 EAST and went off course. We noticed this on the Richta Masters App and contacted this car to get them back on course.

From the end of the odometer leg the rally route ran south east along gorgeous Paradise Lk Rd to the Woodinville Duvall road where cars then turned easterly to run at a decent speed and encountered their first CP #2 before reaching the NRI taking them due north into Snohomish County along with a NOTE Tractor: PAUSE 25 instruction to keep them ‘alert’. The first occurrence for the NOTE Tractor came up shortly with two more tractor-like signs being seen but had to be ignored as they had wording on them. The Tractor sign shown in the  NOTE: Tractor instruction was void of wording and was within double quotes, so it was incorrect to take 25 seconds pause at them. Average speed before crossing into Snohomish county here was a comfortable 39 mph, but upon entering Snohomish County’s farming area a CAST 34 was imposed, even though the road remained to be good for 40 mph.

The cars now made a right turn to cross the Snoqualmie River to the real farming areas where speeds had to be kept low and safe. Much to our surprise several cars missed this right turn and we had to contact them to get them back on course. Much swollen river water was in this area early in 2026 and thankfully had dried up in time for the rally. After a bit of slow driving and finally heading easterly toward WA 203 the next CP #3 was encountered before turning right onto WA 203 for a quick sprint of 48 mph to the round-about NRI R AT “YIELD” CAST 22 followed by soon to be seen Tractor sign with wording on it, and that may have been mistaken for the NOTE Tractor: PAUSE 25, but would have been a mistake as this Tractor sign and its accompanied wording did not match the route instruction NOTE Tractor: sign that was explicitly enclosed within double quotes and had no wording on the given tractor sign! For cars taking the PAUSE 25 they would incur a timing error. Of course soon after this another checkpoint CP #4 was encountered to capture any car taking the timing 25 second PAUSE. The Richta Competitor App’s checkpoint critique spelled out the timing issue.

Now the rally course took on an interesting twist in that the course now folded back on itself meaning that rally cars would possibly be on the same road but going in opposite directions- an always disturbing thing for rally cars seeing this, right? No matter, the cars were now directed onto the same road that they encountered CP #4 on but going in the opposite direction- the Richta Rallymaster App takes care of this nicely by allowing a compass bearing to be associated with a CP, and thus CP #4 and CP #5 were close to being coincident, and likely cars thinking there could not be another CP on the same road! During the rally course folding back on itself one car accidentally went off course and triggered the checkpoint #21 for itself which was not intended to be triggered until much later in the rally. This caused us to figure out how to score this car when they eventually passed this checkpoint on their finishing rally stage in late afternoon.

After CP #5 it was a quick sprint north on the WA 203 to making a R onto Ben Howard RD that was soon after a “SPEED LIMIT 35” course marker, and CANCELing the NOTE Tractor just before another ‘wordy’ tractor sign appeared. The long stretch of some 6 to 7 miles along Ben Howard Rd running alongside the winding Skykomish River was just too tempting not to place several CPs along the road before getting to the TRANSIT ZONE on WA 2. So with CPs 6, 7, and 8 done (Leg 8 had to be thrown out later due to an invalid instruction using STOP), the rally course now headed northerly on Old Owen Rd, then Reiner Rd with its CP #9 located, then turning on Old Pipeline Rd where CP #10 was located. The course now wound its way around the countryside over to Woods Creek Rd before encountering yet another CP #11 and then CP #12 on Woods Creek Rd, followed by CP #13 after passing “CAMP PIGOTT”. From here the rally route turned more northerly up to Granite Falls but only after crossing CPs #14, #15. A 20 minute TRANSIT ZONE was provided in Granite Falls for car fuel and rest stop.

After the Granite Falls TRANSIT ZONE the rally route made its way south along the west side of Lake Roesigner with yet another timing trap if “BR 209” was used in an OR instruction to avoid making an incorrect CAST before encountering CP #16. The route now encountered a forced left turn due to cars being confronted with a “NO OUTLET” followed by a long run to CP #17. At least one car drove onto the “NO OUTLET” road and had to be contacted to get them back on course.

From here the route started to wind its way back south toward Woodinville but not before making the course interesting for maintaining average speeds with CPs #18, #19, #20 being encountered. All cars were MAXing CP #19 and at the finish in Woodinville your rallymaster discovered an error in the leg timing spreadsheet for leg 19. This was corrected and the leg 19 was rescored much to the delight of all the cars who now obtained good scores for this leg.

A 15 minute TRANSIT ZONE was provided to get the cars through busy traffic in Monroe and onto WA 203 South into the same area they were for CPs #3, #4 and #5. CP #21 came up just before crossing the Snohomish River once again, and then back onto the Woodinville-Duvall Rd heading back to Paradise Lk Rd where they encountered two more CPs #22 and #23. 

Before reaching the end of Paradise Lk Rd the cars were directed onto 99 Ave with a CAST 20 to be greeted with CP #24. From here it was a short few miles to reach the end of the rally in Woodinville, but not before reaching the final CP #25.

We designed this rally to be a fun, easy-to-follow drive for newcomers, while still offering a great, engaging challenge for our more experienced rallyists to maintain accurate average speeds. It was so wonderful to see all 11 rally cars make it safely to the finish line in Woodinville!

I want to send a huge thank you to Greg Hightower for his fantastic advice and expertise for helping check the course instructions! I also couldn’t have done this without my grandson, Dominic, who ran the route with me multiple times to keep an eye on the ever-changing conditions and road signs. A big shoutout as well to John and Derris Humphrey, along with Greg, for helping out with registration, route instructions, scoring, and sweep car activity. Finally, a special thanks to the team at Red Robin in Woodinville for taking such great care of us at the end of the rally!

Finally, you might be wondering about our fun skeleton logo! When we first started laying out the rally route, we kept spotting these great replica skeletons all over the place—in front yards, by the side of the road, and even perched on top of barns! We originally hoped to use them as course markers, but as the months rolled by, the grass grew tall enough to hide an elephant, and the moss started creeping in. Sadly, we had to abandon that plan, but the skeleton stuck around as our mascot!

The majority of participants responded positively to the Evansville scoring format, though some expressed a preference for RESTART points where the odometer is zeroed. Additionally, participants appreciated the frequent checkpoints, which featured leg times ranging from a few minutes up to 20 minutes. However, this scoring method occasionally required vehicles to utilize multiple time allowances. This extended the overall duration of the rally for those competitors and resulted in significant spacing between vehicles as they approached the finish, presenting a challenge for the sweep car.

While serving as the pace car, we observed that the Richta Rallymaster application is highly effective for monitoring the progress of rally cars along the course. To utilize this function, the mobile device running the Rallymaster app must be connected to the internet. This connection is required to download vehicle locations from the Richta cloud database, which receives real-time data from the competitors’ devices running the Richta Competitor application with Location Services enabled. Vehicle locations updated at approximately 15-second intervals, providing near real-time tracking.

On behalf of the NWRC it’s hoped you enjoyed this first 2026 Saturday rally. Maybe Quo Vadis III can be placed on your 2027 Calendar, and you will plan to run the two remaining Saturday rallies in September and October.

editor’s note: These are the results as given to me, plus some minor formatting changes for consistency. I deleted the column of zeros for checkpoint 8 which was thrown out. Previous X values were missed checkpoints and have been scored as maxes. This changed the finish order in the SOP class, with cars 3 and 7 swapping positions.