(looking back on Quo Vadis II)

This post is from one competitor’s perspective.
It is not an opinion or position of NWRC.

[editor’s note – if you’d like to post your own opinion/content to this website, please send it.]

I really appreciate the Herculean effort by Barry to put QV2 together.

Every rallymaster has some freedom to do things their own way. There are some requirements, some ‘traditions’, and some expectations. The NWRC annual series embraces variety in instruction style. Tulips, stick maps, mileages, CZTs, phantom car problems; bring it on.

I’m a little rusty using some aspects of the Tabacus (rally computer) and that bit us (Car 5) a few times. Events like QV2 where checkpoints are unmarked, have no dead time at the checkpoint (pause), and use Evansville scoring present a special challenge to rally computer users. There are several things (odo, ctc, rtc) to capture at a checkpoint, and a ctc adjustment likely needs to be made. Sounds easy enough until you consider that by the time you know you’ve reached a checkpoint, you’re already past it and all of the numbers you’d like to capture have changed since then. The Tabacus has a feature to maximize the accuracy of that post-checkpoint adjustment. I added it for a specific event in 2018 and it was the only time I’ve ever used it. Eight days after QV2 I realized the tool I needed was already there, just forgotten.

Odometer Check:
The format of the opening instruction was a little different, in that the very first NRI was not at the outcone where we received the printed route instructions. NRI 1 was at the exit of the parking lot. This was discussed at the drivers’ meeting and was visible across the parking lot. This was atypical, but acceptable. My immediate concern was that the time allowed for the 20-mile, 99% freeway transit was suspiciously long. Turns out that 40 minutes was just about ideal, given the heavy weekend traffic.

Leg 2:
It began with a cruise down Paradise Lake Road at 34mph – and some of that weekend traffic; we took our first Time Allowance less than a quarter mile into the leg. The leg then headed east on even-busier Woodinville-Duvall Road with a single Pause to cover three Signals. This so desperately needed to be a Free Zone. Traffic was below Cast (39) and we were just about to add another 0:10 Time Allowance when CP2 triggered and we ate the 10L.

Leg 3:
We diverged from the traffic at NRI 14, now headed north with a Note in effect looking for signs of a tractor graphic. I remembered I needed to make that computer adjustment so our out time from CP2 would be correct. We found the one legitimate tractor sign (without text) and executed the Note. Tractor signs with text were ignored (correctly so) for the entire duration of the Note. I would realize later that I made that out time adjustment in the wrong direction, explaining the 18E at CP3.

Legs 4/5/6:
We made a couple of loops through Tualco. Luck beat skill to give us 1E at CP4, despite making no out time adjustment after CP3. Luck ran out by CP5 (9E). I made a ctc adjustment after CP5, based on that score. Here’s a hint – that’s the wrong way to base adjustments; with Evansville, ctc should be adjusted based on null, not score. Approaching NRI 25 [“SPEED LIMIT 35” CAST 34] we wondered if Barry realized the Harbinger qualified as the correct Reference or if he measured to the Speed Limit sign itself. Postgame review determined that the official leg time was based on the SL35. My table below uses a leg time based on the mileage of the Harbinger, consistent with the NWRC Generals. That table has all cars scored to the revised leg time, which increased by approximately 8 seconds.

Leg 7:
Who doesn’t like a jaunt down Ben Howard Road? I heard complaints that Cast (48) on SR203, before turning onto BHR was too high for the amount of traffic, but it must have worked out. Only one car was using a Time Allowance at CP7 and everyone was early aside from Car 11 (3L).

Leg 8:
This leg was the east portion of BHR and Mann Road into Sultan. NRI 28 was not executable (no Intersection) but this was not an intended trap. CP8 was discarded.

Leg 9:
There was a bit of live mileage on Mann Road before NRI 30 started a Transit west on US2. The leg then used Old Owen and Reiner Roads. Scores looked skewed and later analysis revealed the leg time was likely wrong from a typo in the mileage for NRI 30 (calcs based on 53.1, but correct value should be 53.01). My table below reflects the corrected leg time.

Legs 10/11/12:
So many great roads in the Woods Creek area. I briefly stopped making grievous ctc adjustment errors and we started running smoothly. We were rewarded with a 4L, 2E, 0E. CP12 in particular was a gift. I borked the computer’s calc time with an unintentional operation. We stopped and took a Time Allowance while I figured out what had happened. The action was irreversible at that point, so I had to fix it a different way. The fix turned out to be off by a couple of seconds, but so was the null at CP12, by enough to grab a zero.

Leg 13:
NRI 44 paraphrased is change speed at “Camp Pigott” which might be easily misread. There was an acceptable match about 0.35 miles prior to the intended sign. Since it was only a 1 MPH change, the change to CP 13 scores shown below is small. It’s possible our post-CP12 adjustment was backwards, earning a 7L. Then again, 8 of 11 cars scored 6L or 7L. That kind of pattern suggests either a leg time error or a checkpoint in a questionable location. Leg time is under two minutes.

Legs 14/15:
We turned north again, running up past Lake Roesigner to a 20 minute Transit with a break in Granite Falls, the northernmost point of the rally. Things were actually running smoothly in Car 5 for more than a minute at a time and we pulled down two more low single digit scores.

Legs 16/17/18/19/20:
The return south used more great roads, running through Forest Glade, along Dubuque and Storm Lake Roads, then winding into the outskirts of Monroe. There was an Intersection (at Trombley and Chain Lake roads) which really needed an S AT STOP between NRIs 70 and 71 for the instructions to work, since the Through Route there goes acute left by Protection. There had been no intentional course-following traps on the rally up to that point so competitors either didn’t see the Protection or just let it slide.

Leg 21:
Now the route left Monroe, heading back through Tualco. We had used up all of our mistakes by then and were rewarded with a zero.

Leg 22:
Continuing south, the route ran over legs 3 and 4 in the opposite direction. We spotted a hard to see Speed Limit 35 to end a Transit at NRI 82. Our initial score at CP22 was bad. Post-event review of signage locations and leg time calculations showed that the leg time was based on NRI 82 occurring at a SL35 a quarter mile beyond the one we spotted. The table below is based on the first sign.

Legs 23/24/25:
The route finale wound out of the Maltby area via Bostian Road and numbered streets. The Free Zone at the end should have been instructed as a Transit Zone as there were no more checkpoints and it took teams through a very congested area.

Final thoughts:
The finish location offered rude staff and marginal service.
I really wish I had remembered that Tabacus has a tool for Evansville passage controls. It would have saved us a bunch of points.
Check out the total score for Car #6 in SOP. That’s some good work.

Just to share info about how we (Car #5) ran this event: 

We ran in the UNL class with a 2017 Focus ST. We used a Tabacus A-box computer and GPS-Pulser for input. At the finish, our odometer reading was 0.02 miles less than the official measurement after 115 miles. We took Time Allowances on 9 of the 23 scored legs. All but one were 0:10 or 0:20. I needed 1:30 to unscramble things during leg 12.