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
