Our Next Rally
NOTE: Please update your bookmarks to point to www.brmscc.org!!
Blue Ridge Mountain Sports Car Club
Presents:
Honor Students
(A leaf-peepers rally)
Date: Sunday, October 23rd, 2011.
Registration: Registration is at NOON (12:00PM). First car starts at 1PM, and the rally fee is the usual $10.
Start: The Belle Vernon Park-n-Ride lot at the intersection of Pricedale Rd, and Rt.201/Rostraver Rd, in Belle Vernon, PA. GPS: 40°8’20” N 79°50’34.1”W
NOTE: The only entrance to the Park-n-Ride lot is on Pricedale, very close to the traffic light. If you miss it approaching from Rostraver Rd (Rt. 201), turn around at the auto parts store. This imagery should help explain it: <http://tinyurl.com/3df5y99>
Description: Rallymaster Jenny Ladd tells us:
Another in the constantly evolving Leaf-Peeper Fall Foliage series. While I can pretty much call this the “we won’t be crossing that bridge, or that bridge, or that bridge...” we will be honoring the open-grate (closed...great!) bridges of recognized insufficiency along the Mon River in the area. As with any Peepers rally, there are things to see and places to go.
The rally is a bit over 80 miles, with a mid-point break in Bentleyville. Format will be tulip instructions with lots and lots of mileages. Speeds will vary in accordance to the posted limits, and road surfaces are mostly paved, including many recently “repaved.” BUT: before you bring the show-car (don’t-bring the driver) remember that PennDOT considers Tar-n-Chip to be “paved.” There are also stretches of “previously paved” that have repairs done with gravel. There are some fun roads to drive, many pleasant sweeping vistas, and Historic Old Towns (wink, wink). I believe this qualifies as a 3-County Tour, but it’ll take longer than 3 hours. I left out the Hordijk special stage, sorry. Maybe another time.
Alternative names for this one included “B’ville” as we’ll be passing thru both Bentleyville, and Brownsville. For the modern vampire enthusiasts, we will be passing thru Twilight Hollow, however briefly. Did I mention the Llamas? No? Good. What Llamas? Hey - look, the leaves are changing colors!
Dinner and score-totalling will be at Denny’s of Belle Vernon, within shouting distance of the start.
What beginners should bring with them:
For starters - there should be two of you in the car: a driver, and a navigator (who isn't inclined to get car-sick reading while moving, or has an antidote for it).
Bring a mechanically sound car* that has a tenths -reading odometer (a resettable trip odometer can be a help), a clipboard, a four function calculator, several working pens, a set of highlighters (for marking up the route instructions) and post-it notes.
If you can choose between a mechanical odometer that "rolls" and a digital display, the mechanical will enable you to interpolate to the hundredths. If you only have the digital tenths, then you'll have to do a lot more "guessing" in between the numbers clicking over. We have folks who have gotten good at this with practice!
While every team has their own procedure, it's useful to be able to highlight things like speed changes, and free zones (remember - there is a tutorial to get you started!) so that "on the road" it helps you remember them better. The post-its are to stick on your dashboard to remind the driver of the assigned speeds and what the active course following priorities are.
Also - having a good map of the area that includes secondary (and tertiary roads) can be very helpful if you get lost and can't regain the rally course.
*While a cell phone and a AAA membership can't hurt, a lot of the time, we'll be traveling on roads that are well off the beaten track, and you may not have much of a description of where you are! "Well - we got here by turning left after "Snodgrass", then right at T, and left by protection... " While a GPS unit probably won’t help you very much while running the rally, it may be very useful for telling AAA where you are if you break down.
