Aristotle Adventures
From the Armchair Rally Archives of Gary Starr
I have always enjoyed teaching those new to our sport the Road Rally concepts for Course and Tour rallies. Perhaps you have seen my Tips for Novice TSD Rallyists in RReNews? I am hoping to do the same teaching with these Armchair Rallies in each edition of RReNews. I would love to see more people try Course rallying. But it often is too hard to understand for people who have never done it, so they get frustrated and never return. There is just no way to practice and learn rally traps before running the actual event. And Rallymasters don’t help by making the traps way too hard. These Armchair Rallies are an excellent tool to introduce the concepts and show how to navigate trap rallies without even getting in your car. And believe me, the traps in these mimic the actual traps on real events. After doing a few of these, you will be ready to take on the challenge of Course rallies!
I have already submitted all my easy rallies, so I’m offering two intermediate rallies this month. All these Armchair rallies were scanned in from my original paper Generals, so some are a little faded. I have also added handwritten notes on some, or circled meaningful Generals sentences, or put prominent arrows pointing to the areas in the Generals you’ll need to do the Armchair Rally.
The more straightforward intermediate rally (and it’s even all on 1 page) is the 1994 Greek which will introduce the famous “Aristotle” rule [ie. No two consecutive numbered (lettered) instructions can be executed at the same intersection] which all Greek rallies have been famous for. This rally has a fixed Main Road (but, as you will find out, it does not always apply at every intersection). It also has lettered route instructions (LRI) between the numbered route instructions (NRI), which you must figure out where and when to execute. The “Priority List” defines the overall route following. The route instruction parenthesis area mentions a Course Directing Action (CDA), which you will need to know to understand some traps. This is defined in the SCCA Rulebook as: “A course-directing action is that part of a route instruction whose execution results in following a course other than the Main Road.”
Click the images to open the files for viewing and printing!
The harder intermediate rally is the 1989 Greek and will more completely introduce the famous “Aristotle” rules that all Greek rallies have been famous for. This rally has a variable Main Road (but as you will find out, it does not always apply at every intersection). It also has lettered route instructions (LRI) between the numbered route instructions (NRI), which you must figure out where and when to execute. The overall route following is defined by the “Course Following Priority List” in the Generals. The Generals also mention a Course Directing Action (CDA), which you will need to know to figure out some traps. This is defined in the SCCA rule book as: “A course-directing action is that part of a route instruction whose execution results in following a course other than the Main Road.” Tip: On this rally, it will be helpful for you to know whether an instruction was a CDA or not. After executing each instruction, I suggest placing a + or – to the left of the instruction’s number (or letter) to indicate if it was a CDA or not. I’ve also included an answer map but first, see if you can run without it.
You can certainly do this from your screen by clicking on the images above, yet I encourage you to print them out and head to the “START” line with a pencil. Depart on Route Instruction #1 and enjoy the adventure!
Send me an email at maprallies@comeroadrallywith.us. I would love to get feedback from you on these rallies and this column. I have heard of various rallyists having archives of these, and I encourage you to share them with us!
