By Rick Barnes, Rallymaster

Rally competitors enjoyed a casual 60-mile road rally transversing the countryside in the area around Letchworth State Park, taking advantage of the scenic and vibrant foliage in its dynamic seasonal change of colors.

On October 11, 2009, the Genesee & Wyoming RallyRoad departed the Yard of Ale in Piffard at 1:30 p.m., returning two hours later. The second event in the NY short line railroad series, it was formatted as a social photo rally; the total competitive distance was just 60 miles. Originally, the route was planned to actually pass through Letchworth State Park from north to south. However, due to a large craft fair that weekend, the route was changed to run from Mt. Morris to Portageville on the east side of the gorge. From there, it went through Castile, Silver Springs, Warsaw and Wyoming before heading back to Piffard.

The event was a great success, as the combination of crisp, clear fall weather, bright leaves, and entertaining back roads drew the 20 cars entr. That may be the most we’ve seen in a social rally locally in some time. A large number of the entrants drove in from Buffalo, and an equally large number of people drove Minis, thanks to Tom Langdon’s promotion of the event. As such, there were as many new faces among the competitors. Teams were provided route instructions in tulip format.

As an added fun assignment, teams were given 24 photographs, and had to locate and identify their contents as they drove the route. Scoring was based on how many competitors correctly figured out the mileage to where each photo was taken to within a 1/10th of a mile. Some of the photos were obvious, while others more challenging. My favorite, of course, was the picture of a railroad crossing in my rearview mirror. It must not have been as tough to find as I would’ve thought, though, because most teams got it right.

With 20 cars, there was a range of scores at the end, including several positional ties and one team with a perfect score. The Smith family, in car #1, also finished first by getting every picture mileage correct. There was some discussion whether or not their dual co-driver strategy is what clinched the win for them, but it could be that they’re just good at this stuff. Either way, everybody had fun, enjoyed the roads, the leaves, the weather, and also enjoyed the challenge of finding the photo locations. A number of people even expressed interest in coming back for subsequent rallies. So, on that note, look for Short Line Series #3, possibly in the spring of 2010.

Anyway, no rally organizer can do it all alone, so special thanks to Tom & Deb Langdon for prechecking the route and helping at registration, to Alan Smith for coaching the novices, and of course to the Yard of Ale for once again putting up with our lot.