NorCal Subaru Only TSD Rallye???

[eastbaysubaru]

Hello fellow NorCal Suby owners! Our WRX drivin', rally organizin' and general badass Pete (psoper on i-club.com) is wondering if we could gather enough Subaru fools together to organize a Subaru-only TSD rally series. This series would include TSD rally's consisting of 4 rally's in different formats and would be in all parts of the greater Bay Area. Please let Pete know by posting over there if you have an account and would be interested. If you don't have an i-club account, just post here and I'll send the link to Pete.

 

http://www.i-club.com/forums/showthr...48#post1767348

 

If you've never done any TSD rallying, then this is a great way to get your feet wet. You'll get to experience many different rally formats and have a great time exploring and driving some of the best roads in the Bay. We did this 4 or 5 years ago and it was super fun. Hopefully we'll get some interest over here and get enough people together to make this happen.

 

Rally ON!!

 

-Brian

[JuxtaGT]

Are these dirt rallies? Or tarmac?

[RippinRoo]

I would guess these are all tarmac, and all instructions will keep you within the speed limit ... unless you happen to get lost

[pleiad7]

^^ yes... here's what Pete has in mind (quoted from the original thread on i-club):

 

Rally means a lot of things to a lot of different people. Rally America and NASA Rallysport put on closed course stage rallies like the WRC, I don't expect that many i-clubbers have the skills or equipment to indulge in flat out racing on forest roads, but there are several other types of rally that are much more accesible for us mortals.

 

In this case I am referring to what is also called a "road rally" - basically it is a legal competition involving teams consisting of a driver and navigator (or "co-driver").

 

The rules of the competition can change depending on the format of the event, for example;

 

One type is called an A/B rally, where you attempt to follow instructions that have 2 parts, one of which can be done first or is more valid, you mark which choice A or B you do for every instruction, and your final score is based on how many you got right. While there will be an overall time allowed, this format does not require calculations or watching clocks for staying on time

 

A format that does involve timing but still not much in the way of calculations is often called Pan-Am or "map based monte carlo", where you are given maps showing standoff locations, and instructions that tell you what time you need to get to each checkpoint.

You then chose your own route to each standoff where you get more information about exactly where each checkpoint actually is, then you get timed at the checkpoints, each second early or late costs you a point and the team that finishes with the fewest points wins.

 

A standard Time-Speed-Distance format gives you very explicit instructions on where to go, where to turn what time to start from various points along the route and how fast you need to try to average. Then you get timed going past checkpoints, but you have no idea where they are or when you are supposed to get there, other than following the instructions and holding the assigned speeds.

Here math skills can come in handy for determining when you should be exactly where, but you can also do this and have fun just running "seat of the pants"- Again the team with the fewest points wins.

 

Last time I threw one event that was sort of a combination of the PanAM and TSD format, where you had explicit routes to follow with many "possible checkpoints" listed with key times, but only some of them are actually manned with timing crews, so in this case its up to you to stay on course and on time, but unless you calculate everything out (and you probably won't have time) you need to estimate the speeds required.

 

For this series we would run them on weekends, probably during the day, start locations would be in Livermore, Santa Cruz, Crissy Field, and Berkeley, and route mileage will typically be between 50 and 100 miles, probably taking 3-4 hours with breaks and finishing some place where we can get pizza or something

 

I would like to have these insured so if somebody does make a mistake I won't get my house sued out from under me, that will cost about $120 per event, so if I can get 10 cars to pay say $15-20 entry fees on each event, we can have a little "prize fund" as well as covering most of the actual event costs.

 

On the other hand, if we get only 4 or 5 cars, I'd need to charge $20-30 just to cover the insurance, so unless I know we have enough interested people, I really can't justify the effort.

 

I know Pete is getting a little frustrated with the lack of interest for rallying here in Northern California, so we're trying to reach out to the Legacy and Forester communities as well in hopes of making this rally series possible. It really is a lot of fun!

[RippinRoo]

Absolutely a lot of fun! I used to do this frequently, in the Sac area, with SRI... very challenging, lots of great back roads that I never would have found otherwise, and as I mentioned, getting back on track after getting lost can be a kick too!!

 

Unfortunately, bay area is bit of a trek for me to do TSD...

[eastbaysubaru]

That's understandable. We're just trying to get as many Subaru folks as we can together to have a little TSD fun. Anyone else?

 

-Brian

[ForesterXT]

Well worth the time/effort to come on out.