First, I would like to thank Mike Daily, Charles Aggenbach and Derris Humphrey for all their help with writing, measuring, calculating, and checking out the rally.  Second, I want to thank all the contestants who came out to rally on a rainy-drippy night.

The route explored a couple of old rally roads that haven’t been used in a while as the course meandered around the Maple Valley area.  To keep the navigators engaged, we had three notes in effect looking for double-headed arrows, horse & rider signs and small children pedestrian signs.  Now, the “little walkers” were found at school crossing signs, but were also found on the graphic signs of school bus stop ahead.  To help cut down on any uncertainty with the “sign accounting” at the checkpoints, I provided an “official count” of the active notes sign counts.

When I was planning the rally, I did not realize how quickly darkness would arrive on rally night.  Hence, the hunting for signs was much more challenging than what I had planned.

I hope everyone who participated had fun and hope to see all of you back for the last rally of the year, in October.

John Humphrey – Rallymaster

Great weather and open roads made for a nice evening drive. Nine teams turned out, the most yet this season.

For a change of pace and avoidance of potential delays through the I-90/I-405 interchange, the odometer check took teams up 148th Avenue past Lake Hills to Overlake where they hopped on SR-520 and ran out to Union Hill. Leg 1 then used Novelty Hill, Trilogy, Bear Creek and ended on Mink. There was a mild 2nd sign trap along the way. Scores on this leg are higher than expected, yet almost evenly split early and late.

Leg 2 headed east on Woodinville-Duvall (new and Old) then north up the west side of rally valley. This is where Note Concord was introduced, setting CAST to the SPEED LIMIT for the remainder of the leg. An NRI used ONTO to distract teams from the actual PROTECTION trap. The original version of this leg had teams using Tualco Loop, but to reduce the overall rally duration it was moved to Tualco Rd. Scores suggest that a few teams may have gone off-course by misuse of ONTO immediately after it was made active. At that intersection, all choices meet the ONTO TUALCO criteria, so it wouldn’t be used. PROTECTION keeps you on Tualco Rd. The intended trap (good for about 11L) was at the north end of this road group, where Tualco Loop returns to Tualco Rd. Teams were looking for R AT T CAST 31. The NRI should not be used there as you are forced right by PROTECTION. Cars that wandered down Tualco Loop rejoined the route max late. The leg ended as you reached Duvall. Note Concord changed the speed of on-course cars three times. Scores definitely trended to late on this long leg.

A short dash across the valley from east to west and Leg 3 went south along the valley’s edge. We couldn’t take Ames Lake Rd to SR-202 because the bridge over Ames Creek is being replaced. Instead, the route wound past Carnation Farm, eventually ending just north of Carnation. There were no traps; Concord changed your speed four times in this leg. On the heels of trending late on the previous leg, nearly everyone ran early on this leg.

The final leg was revamped ten days before rally night due to a change in road construction schedule. Tolt Hill Rd was always in the mix, but the rest of the leg had to be changed. We originally arrived at the finish from the east, with the final checkpoint less than a minute’s travel from MOD Pizza. Having lost the NE access to the plateau, Sahalee was the only remaining option. Fortunately, the stretches of Ames Lake Rd and Union Hill Rd that became the new part of leg 4 are really nice roads. Scores on this leg are split evenly early and late again, with a couple of excellent single digits.

The lone Novice entry was a team visiting from Tennessee. They held the 1st overall score until the final leg. You’re always welcome to come back and rally with us again. Meanwhile, you might find events closer to you searching on https://www.motorsportreg.com/.

It was also great to see the Huffingtons again. I don’t know long it has been since they’ve run a Friday Nighter as this site’s records only go back to 2015. Clearly they remember how to do this TSD thing.

These events don’t grow on trees. FOOTZ thanks Charles and Bill Aggenbach for event checkout, Charles again for driving pace, plus John and Derris Humphrey for assistance at the start and running sweep.

The Richta GPS Checkpoints system worked flawlessly, with all cars detecting all checkpoints.

At registration each team was given an information sheet. The first line on the sheet instructed teams to read the sheet in its entirety before asking questions. The true event login password was at the end of the page, but two decoy passwords appeared mid page. If you sought assistance because ‘quack’ wasn’t working I knew you weren’t reading the whole page. The information page is for your benefit, so that all teams get the same notes and are able to refer back to them if/when needed. Read it. All the words.

Items on the information sheet included the requirement to stop after each checkpoint and reading the checkpoint slip to see how to begin the next leg. This checkpoint procedure has been standard practice on our Friday Nighters since June 2023. It was included on the sheet for first-timers since the Generals describe and support a variety of possible checkpoint procedures.