Northwest Rally Council

TSD Rally Home of the Pacific Northwest

Raindrop Wrap Up

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Although postponed from its initial May date, RASC conducted the 2023 Raindrop “Trees to Seas” Rally this past Sunday. RASC had only a skeleton crew at the event, as many members were volunteering at the Tour de Forest stage rally. First time rallymaster Bill Walsh deserves credit for an ambitious undertaking. The route was a great collection of roads, and the weather held little indication of it being October. Some last-minute changes to the route book created some hiccups in the scores seen on competitors’ phones while running the legs. Marvin Crippen wrangled the spreadsheet and Richta database to have things fixed by the time all cars arrived at the finish. Thank You to Bill, Marvin, and the others who contributed to putting on this fun event.

If you find yourself in Oak Harbor, check out Orlando’s Bar and Southern BBQ!

Results:

What’s new?

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Our Quick Guide for the Richta GPS Checkpoints Competitor app has been updated! As has the link in the Documents folder.

As a follow-up to last Friday’s rally, Signs Of Rallies Past, we’ve been talking to the Richta apps development team. Thank you to the 40% of competitors who responded to our poll or direct email inquiry. Our initial assessment was that the Broadcast Messages were only received by teams using Android devices. They have done some additional testing and confirmed our findings. The cause appears to be external – a change in the cloud service used by the Richta apps, or a change in iOS. An update to the iOS version of Competitor to regain functionality of Broadcast Messages is now in the works.

We alerted RASC to our experience with non-receipt of Broadcast Messages, so that they would not rely on them for the upcoming Norwester (underway now).

A Poll About Signs Of Rallies Past

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If you were among the teams that entered the September NWRC Friday Nighter (9/8/23), I’d like to collect some information from you. If you are viewing the desktop version of this site, there is a LEAVE A COMMENT button at top right. If you are viewing on a mobile device, you may need to click on the title (A Poll About…) and then scroll to the down to find LEAVE A REPLY.

Your feedback is critical. We began using the Richta GPS Checkpoints system this season and everyone is still learning.

1. Do you know what a Broadcast Message is, in the context of a rally using Richta apps?

2. How was your device (phone/tablet running the Competitor app) mounted: Windshield mount? Sitting on dash pad? Hand held? On clipboard? Something else?

3. Android or iOS device?

4. Did you receive any Broadcast Message(s) during or after the rally?

If you did get one or more messages:

5. When did you receive message that adjusted NRIs to get around road closure?

6. When did you receive message amended to warn about elk?

7. When did you receive message to fix NRI 77 (adding MBCU)?

Signs Of Rallies Past – Results and Recap

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Scores for 9/8/23 Signs Of Rallies Past NWRC Friday Nighter

(pictures courtesy of N. Hightower)

Rallymaster (and NWRC President) John Humphrey writes:

First, I would like to thank Mike Daily, our NWRC Vice President for all his help in measuring, pace assistance, scoring, and trophy making.  Secondly, the world is an imperfect place, which brings us to rally night.  I had a premonition the night before that there would be a ‘road closed’ on the rally.  I attribute this to my Native American ancestry.  I was so taken by this thought that I wanted to drive the course on Friday before the event but didn’t have the time due to other priorities.  And, finding an impaled dead bat (most likely collected during our rally checkout) in the grille of my X3 at rally registration was confirmation of an imperfect night ahead.

My premonition was right as there was an emergency road closure for a bridge repair on SE 156th ST which was announced late Thursday 9/7 and effective Friday 8AM 9/8!!  The Leg 1 Checkpoint was on that road.  This forced us to throw Leg 1.  Mike, on the fly, figured out how we could potentially save Leg 2, but several cars were already beyond the selected restart point.  Hence, Leg 2 was thrown also!!

We did send out Broadcast Messages however at the end found out, that due to the differences in Android/iPhone functionality/behavior and the issue of gaps in cellular coverage for the variety of open vs. wooded vs. commercial areas we drove through, not everyone received the messages in a timely manner or at all.

I hope you were able to view all the wildlife that SE King County has to offer – a small posse of Elk (12?) between NRI 35 and 36 (258 AVE SE); a jogging coyote after NRI 56; and ‘observing raccoons’ watching us near NRI 69 and NRI 72!!  Fortunately, the suicidal deer encountered on checkout just after NRI 56 were no shows!!

Anyway, despite the turn of bad luck for Legs 1 and 2, I hope you enjoyed the balance of the rally.

Greg Hightower is the Rally Master for October and I know he will have an entertaining rally for all of us!!

Again, thank you all for attending and understanding that life happens.


JRH III