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THUNDERBOLT
Millville, New Jersey April 30 – May 2, 2010 Musings from the Rally Master. The Thunderbolt Rally was a success! Here are the scores for the event. Pictures Thanks Brian Craig Here is some of the feedback from the event, in no particular order. 1. Number of rally instructions. Yes - it was too long - we will try not to work you quite so hard in the future. 2. Safety, especially looking for small signs at 45 and turning across traffic. There are several things which can be done to ensure the safety of the rally participants, and also make sure the rally is still challenging. Here are some things which have been discussed: a. Using a sign before the turn as a pick. Do not slow down at the sign, but ensure that the sign is close enough to the turn to have the instruction program automatically generate either a "Comes Quick", or a "Comes Very Quick", which would be an indicator for the driver to turn on the turn sign. "Come Quick" is 20 seconds, "Comes Very Quick" is 15 seconds. If no sign exists as a pick, put an "emergency sign" to be used as a pick. b. Put a large emergency sign on the street sign pole. c. Other comments and ideas are welcome. We certainly want everyone to be safe and have a good time. 3. Curve warnings speeds. It is not necessary to slow down to 5 MPH below the curve warning speed, and in fact it may not be safe to do so. 4. Digital Clocks. Someplace in the rules (not verified) it states that you can use an analogue clock. It has been suggested that this rule be changed as many of the stop watches in use have a digital clock built in. This will be brought up at the next board meeting. 5. Time of the circle on Columbine Dr on the Sunday run. Just to ensure that people are aware, when the rally is set up a fancy rally computer is used to measure the mileage of the course. The mileage from the stop sign on instruction # 25 - point A - to past the turn back to Columbine Dr (# 26) - point B - was measured. The instruction program can then be used to determine how long of a time period is required to get you from point A to point B at the chosen speed. The delay time for the speed change can be manipulated to obtain the desired results - in this case just past the turn. The same technique is utilized for speed changes around a curve. 6. Practice Calibration run did not return you to anyplace. Sorry - noted. I did not want to provide instructions which I had not verified. I could have said U-turn and get back on the highway, but I choose not to do this as I did not want to get sued if someone crashed in a U-turn maneuver which had not been run by the rally master and safety steward. I will pass this request on to the next rally master. 7. Time delays. Each rally has the option of choosing what type of time delays to allow - be sure to ask if you are not sure. 8. Time delays submitted which makes a person win and how to calculate time delays for stopped in traffic. Time delays are allowed - see # 7, and it was suggested that time delays be a subject for rally school so people have a better idea how to deal with the traffic which caused the cancellation of leg 6, and how to calculate time delays and use them effectively. . 9. Emergency Signage being small. The club used to have some nice signs which could be used for emergency signs. We have not seen these for several rallys, so we have to resort to something else. Options are to buy poster board in bright colors, which we did for Sunday's run, or have the club get some additional sign material. 10. New people. We just do not do well recruiting new folks to join us - KEEP TRYING. 11. Street name types, ex St, Rd, Ct, Ln, La, etc It has been suggested to just drop the type - and only include if needed. Also to use Proper Case for sign names. These items will be brought to the board. 12. Street name location. The physical location of the street sign is placed on the instruction sheet in the proper quadrant of an intersection so that you know where to look for the sign. Not all rally instructions are done in this manner. Suggestion was made to discuss this at a board meeting. Options are to continue doing this as we have - or just put the street name at the top of the cells in column B where the street diagrams are.
Thanks to all! See you in Delaware. Thunderbolt Rally is associated with VCRA.
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RALLY