Keystone Kops Kar Kaper keeps kompetitors koming to konquer kancer

By Frank Beyer, Rallymaster

Twenty-one years is a long time by some standards.  Ask a teenager.  The 21st edition of the Relay for Life Rally had a bunch of folks traipsing around Tioga County, Penn., raising a little dough for the local American Cancer Society Friday, June 4, 2010, on a car rally in conjunction with its professional rally brethren, in town for the annual Waste Management Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally presented by Citizens and Northern Bank.

Competitors followed a pre-ordained route at a pre-ordained speed, searching for hidden checkpoints in some of the more remote areas of the county.  This year, the contestants managed to find their way south from the Tioga County Fairgrounds over towards (and through) Blossburg, Eastpoint, Roaring Branch, and (who knew there was more than one?), Ogdensburg.

Finger Lakes Region's Tioga County do-gooders, the "Keystone Kops Relay Team," have helped build this 21-year-old into a thing of beauty according to those who do this regularly.  Tioga County acquits itself well, providing a bunch of twisty and turny byways beloved by the rally people who travel all around looking for the driving challenge locals and commuters take for granted enroute to work and the grocery store.  Old timers get a kick out of returning to Wellsboro for STPR® the first weekend in June, then taking a break to go out and have a smile and raise a couple of bucks for a good cause.

Running our cars up and down the hills does not come cheaply, but we always get paid back with great hospitality.  We get lots of waves from those who live along the route, and we hope that our presence was a pleasant break in your Friday afternoon.  The Kops turn out in force to smile and sign up the teams, then go out and help the competitors check in to the checkpoints, laughing all the way.

One of your locals even surprised a checkpoint with a cool drink on a hot afternoon, saying that he thought it was long enough to be in the sun without benefit of refreshment.  Keep this stuff up and you will have a hard time getting us to go away.

Results of the contest can be found above, with the names of the worthies who went out and ran and finished and scored on this rally.  Let this serve as a notice of thanks to your neighbors who donated an afternoon to help us in the rally community have a fun afternoon.  

My thanks to The Keystone Kops Relay Team consisting of Marge Weatherbee, Shirley Spencer, Barbara Benson, Kelly Wetherbee, Lee Glass, Paul Mitchell, Steele Hawn, Brenda Coder, Kim and Darci Warriner, Sue O’Donnell, and Trudi Foster. And, thank you, folks, from the Finger Lakes Region, Sports Car Club of America including Mike Mazoway, Cory and Dana Kuhns, Tom Langdon, MaryAnne Shults, and me, Frank Beyer.