The Cobra Wins Again!

[RallySnake]

At the awards banquet on Sunday, first place was a dead heat tie between the Cobra team of Paul McGaffey/Ron Dunlop and the BWM team of Dave Lewis/Don Smith. Each team had 3 penalty points after the arduous 22 leg, 16-hour Route 66 Rally to Laughlin. The tie breaker rule was unable to differentiate first and second due to the exact same penalties each team received, so both teams were awarded first place.

It was an incredible rally running over most of the remaining Route 66 in California, Arizona and Nevada. One of the highlights was driving through the old mining town of Oatman from the Arizona side. The roads are tight and twisty with huge drop-offs. Many years ago, drivers used to pay truckers to carry their cars over the pass. We were still passing Subaru's and Eclipses!

It was a BLAST!

Paul

[Byots]

nm .

[RallySnake]

It's not a race. It's a perfectly legal navigational rally on public roads. You can read all about these events here: http://carzero.freeservers.com/blank.htm

The results for Saturday's rally are not posted yet, but should be up in a day or two. The next event will be a training rally for newcomers in February 2004 somewhere in the greater Los Angeles area. Please join us.

Paul

[Snak Iyz]

This sounds like a lot of fun. I am in OC and would like to get involved. I will shoot an email via the website link, but anything else I need to do, outside of periodically checking the website, in order to stay involved.

My car should be coming in Jan '04 , so the Feb '04 timeline sounds like it might work.

Thanks for the post.

- Snak Iyz

[RallySnake]

Snake Eyes,

Joe Akerman will teach you everything you need to know to be successful in Novice class. The primary thing you need is a brave Navigator. He has to LOVE the excitement of riding in a very fast car while reading maps and instructions. A great Navigator has to be good at figuring out puzzles and doing basic math while on the move.

I have collected a lot of gadgets over the years for these events. You need a very accurate clock. Costco sells an Oregon Scientific alarm clock for $20 with a built in FM radio reciever that provides extremely accurate time. Big 5 sells a wristwatch with the same feature for $20. Either would be good, or you can just set your clock or wristwatch to WWV time using a short wave radio. We always have them at the start of a rally. If you let me know before the rally that you're coming, I'll loan you a countdown timer and teach you how to use it. It will almost guarantee a win in Novice class.

You'll need pens and highlighters of various colors to mark the maps and make notes. Your navigator will need two clipboards. One for maps and one for instructions with a couple of big rubber bands to keep them from flapping around. You'll also need some kind of light for the Navigator to see the maps in the dark. Some Navigators use a headband with a light in the front, others like lights attached to the clipboard or the car. It's really important to direct the light away from the driver.

You will also need a protractor. We like the 360 degree round ones. That's it! Everything you need to compete in your first Monte Carlo rally.

Now, when you get hooked on the sport and a little crazier, like us, you'll look at things like a reader board (you tape all the pages together and roll them on), an electronic compass, big lights on the front of your car and heavy duty long underwear (We don't need no stinkin' top)!

Paul