Season 46, Episode 11 – All in Good Time – Saturday, October 30th
The Dr. Devio saga continued with a field of 10 hopefuls vying for the champagne from Chateau Shittae. My job on this trip was to test the Navigators: I didn’t want to get anyone off-course, just off-time. I guess I’m losing my mojo as I hardly got their needles off zero.
Being a Rallymaster is like being the “father of the bride.” You take one of the most prized, personal parts of your life that you’ve spent countless hours with, waste months planning how you’re going to give her away then invite some of your dearest friends to witness it all. Every guest has a common interest and wants to relish the ceremony, reunite, have a bunch of laughs, and party.
All in Good Time was going to be my first experience using the Richta GPS Checkpoints control system for timing. I don’t have many folks available for traditional checkpoint duty; I want ’em all out competing, so using Richta was critical for my rally, and it passed with flying colors. Richta allowed me to set controls where I wanted them, not just where it would be safe to have cars parked on the side of the road. I was able to watch competitors’ progress on a map (How come Jones & Haka are stopped?), contact them (our battery died, and we borrowed a local’s), and be sure everyone was okay.
The best part is watching everyone’s scores in real-time. We had a battle going on with Mark Stone/Marc Goldfarb running tail-to-nose with Satish Gopalkrishnan/Savera D’Souza, racking up the zeros until Satish made an uncharacteristic timing error and drew the leg max of 20. Could Alan Smith/Eric Hobron sneak ahead for second? Not quite, taking third, one point behind. I got to watch it unfold on my phone and then tote up the results.
Bill Connors and Lloyd Murray were our only Class L team, running a Dr. Devio rally for the first time. They managed to wade through the “deviousness” that, on this episode, mainly consisted of forcing the action with backed-up stop signs even though I provided mileages at every instruction.
Stock Class would prove interesting, as our group was all returnees to the Route of All Evil. Bruce & James Coulombe kept getting better and better scores as the rally wore on and took the (massively-inexpensive bubbly) back home to Watkins Glen. Griff Jones & Christine Haka proved the value of Time Allowances, borrowing a battery to soldier on and sneak into second place in Class S by two points over Chris Wright and Paul Longtine.
Lots of smiles and laughing at our Buffalo Wild Wings ending location. All had managed to negotiate the maze of 190 miles that never strayed farther than 18 miles from the starting point.
Season 46, Episode 12 – Deceptive Bends – Sunday, October 31st
I had a couple of years to try to scramble these eggs. My recreation during the pandemic seemed to involve “going out for a ride and never coming back.” If you’re there anyway, why not try to find roads where you can always count on some fun moments behind the wheel? Then I started to see signs here and there that just tweaked my sense of humor (“DEAD END” at the entrance to a cemetery and “SLOW DOWN DOG RUNS IN FRONT OF CARS”) that could be used as checkpoint markers.
Another couple of hundred miles of “good stuff” on my hands, I figured, like Ernie Banks, “let’s play two.” We rousted everyone early to sneak in a quick rally, then shipped ‘em all home.
This event was going to be extra-straightforward with a minimum of Dr. Devio influence. That’s exactly how it played out, with me getting to watch the progress with my Richta Scoreboard. Side note: those of you who can’t make it to a rally can monitor an event on your phone with Scoreboard and see how your friends are fairing, the same way that Marc Goldfarb does in his car, during the rally, so he can see how close the other competitors are to his score.
Marc was worried: after 11 controls, Mark Everett/John Buffum had 2 points, Tony Zanni/Jamie Hayslip were tied with Mark Stone/Marc Goldfarb at 3 pts; Satish Gopalkrishnan/Savera D’Souza had 5, and Alan Smith/Eric Hobron, 9. Wait, there’s more: Bill Connors/Lloyd Murray, in Class L had only 21, while in Class S, Griff Jones/Christine Haka had 19.
Rallymaster Time Out: Ted Goddard ran the Covered Bridge Rally in New England for 50 years around the beginning of November. A hallmark of Ted’s events were average speeds to the thousandth (e.g. 35.294), which worked out to 1.7000 minutes per mile. This is far easier for Stock Class Navigators to compute, driving the computer-equipped folks crazy (since they can only enter a speed to one decimal and deal with rounding errors).
Ted also included a General Instruction that, if you traveled through a Covered Bridge, you had to take a Pause based on the “tradition” – a suitor stealing a kiss from a sweetheart.
My “homage” to Ted Goddard on this event was to include a leg that a) crossed a Covered Bridge, requiring a pause, and b) called for four speed changes, to the thousandth, in a half-mile.
Time In: almost all of the Class E crews managed the Covered Bridge with zeros! Fasten your seat belt, Gary, it’s gonna come down to the last control. And, it did. Mark and John never wobbled and took first place in E with a total of 5 for 21 scored controls, to Mark and Marc’s 8. Satish and Savera totaled 12, Alan and Eric, 19, Tony and Jamie, 42.
All Done? Nope. The “rookie” still exists in Dr. Devio: Equipped Class was not eligible for the Overall awards. Spotlights, please, on Bill Conners/Lloyd Murray first in Class L, first Overall, with a 45. First in Class S, second Overall, to Griff Jones/Christine Haka (and their new battery), with 70, Second S and third Overall to Laura (always smiling) Piscitello and son, Nick, 140.
Special mention to the other S Classers: Chris Wright/Paul Longtine, and the band of brothers: Adam Bullis/Brady Colburn + John Bullis/Gene Bullis who see Dr. Devio and say, “Hey, this could be fun.”
Applause for stalwart Safety Stewards, Mike Mazoway and Gary Thomas, and to all who participated. I couldn’t imagine a group more enjoyable to work with; thanks for your patience, perseverance, and good cheer.
ROUTE OF ALL EVIL, (ALL IN GOOD TIME), 20 controls, 10/30/21
1) 1 E Mark Stone/Marc Goldfarb 8
2) 2 E Satish Gopalkrishnan/Savera D’Souza 24
3) 3 E Alan Smith/Eric Hobron 25
4) 4 E Mark Everett/John Buffum 49
5) 5 E Tony Zanni/Jamie Hayslip 77
6) 1 L Bill Connors/Lloyd Murray 118
7) 1 S Bruce Coulombe/James Coulombe 127
8) 2 S Griff Jones/Christine Haka 250
9) 3 S Chris Wright/Paul Longtine 252
10) 4 S Laura Piscitello/Nick Piscitello 285
ROUTE OF ALL EVIL, (DECEPTIVE BENDS), 21 controls, 10/31/21
1E Mark Everett/John Buffum 5
2 E Mark Stone/Mark Goldfarb 8
3 E Satish/Gopalkrishnan/Savera D’Souza 12
4 E Alan Smith/Eric Hobron 19
5 E Tony Zanni/Jamie Hayslip 42
** E Class not included in Overall Award; let’s hear it for L and S:
1) 1 L Bill Connors/Lloyd Murray 45
2) 1 S Griff Jones/Christine Haka 70
3) 2 S Laura Piscitello/Nick Piscitello 140
4) 3 S Chris Wright/Paul Longtine 253
5) 4 S Adam Bullis/Brady Colburn 274
6) 5 S John Bullis/Gene Bullis 306
