September 14th brought us thunderstorms, but otherwise a nice evening for rallying.  Oddly, we skirted most of the storms, but the roads were soaked.  The odo check ended out on Issaquah Fall City Rd.  The course meandered up to Carnation, using the lane limited Tolt River Bridge.  Checkpoint 1 was out by the old Carnation Farm.  Checkpoint 2 was on Old Woodinville Duvall Rd.  Checkpoint 3 was on Connelly, but was not reached until folks took a loop around Tualco.  Overall, the course was 2 hours long, and finished at Brava’s Pizza.  Chatter indicated that folks enjoyed the course and the workers enjoyed the good turnout.  All the cars found all the controls and finished the rally.

Thanks to the workers who made the rally happen.  Steve Roberts and Don Gibson from ORCA worked checkpoint 1 and ran the checkout. John & Derris Humphrey from the NWRC Board worked checkpoint 2 and ran the checkout.  They also double-checked the TSD calculations.  Rod Johnson and his wife and Jim Breazeale from RASC worked checkpoint 3.  Scott Margerum and Mike Workman from PSRC started the cars before  running as last car.  Dave Treen designed the dash plaques, made the trophies, helped measure the rally and ran pace with yours truly.

Next month will be the last rally of the season.  Rainier Auto Sports Club will be putting it on.  We will be awarding championship trophies, so don’t miss it.

Those of you who missed this rally missed a really fun event.  This was Don Gibson’s best version of Butt Simple and it worked well.  It actually had a few traps, which was surprising but also pretty straight-forward.  The course wound back and forth from Lake Francis to Hobart, offering plenty of turns and stops and blinkers to play with. The legs were all about the same length (or seemed like it) and the checkpoints were is nice safe locations.  Don’s instructions also included some times to instructions which may have been helpful for those who got zeros.  It certainly made the route more interesting.  Unfortunately, as you can see by the finishers (everyone who started finished), the turnout was the weakest of the season.  Those who attended had a great time.

If you like rallying, I encourage you to beg, challenge or blackmail your friends to come join us and enjoy a nice drive in the country.  If the attendance continues to drop off, it will likely affect the club’s ability and/or willingness to put on rallies.

Thanks to Don Gibson, who did a masterful job of rallymastering and to the crews who worked the rally and made this fun night possible.

Thanks to ORCA for putting on a great event.  Steve was up to his usual tricks, including a trap for “S AT STOP” without MBCU that EVERYONE fell for.  The elk were out in North Bend, including a huge bull watching his harem.  Mount Si looked spectacular.  We visited Snoqualmie, Carnation and Ames Lake, eventually winding out way to the finish in Sammamish.  I didn’t feel like the route was particularly twisty, until I realized my arm were sore after the rally from turning the wheel!  That is a good sore!  Congratulations to the winners, and especially car 7 who, in spite of several off course excursions, persevered and found all three checkpoints.

It was a good time, and we are sorry if you missed it.

Thanks to the crew from PSRC for putting on a fine fun event.