Cars start at one minute intervals. The first section of the rally allows you to compare your mileage to the rallymasters'. If you have a trip odometer in your car you can zero it at the start. You will have a specified amount of time to reach the Official Mileage Point. Wait there until the given time has elapsed, then leave, following the directions given and travel at the specified speed. Timing controls will be found at various locations along the route.
Since the Rallymaster knows how fast you were supposed to travel, and how far you went, we calculate an exact time when you should arrive at the control. The control crew times you with a very accurate clock when you arrive. Your score is the difference between when you should have arrived and when you did arrive. Points are given for being early or late. This is a contest of precision, not a race. If you are late at one control, you can not make up for it by being early at the next. The score for each leg is separate. All legs are totaled and the lowest score wins.
As with any sport, it takes practice to get very good scores. Regardless of whether you get very good scores, or just scores, rallying is a lot of fun if you like to spend time in your car, see some scenery and spend time with congenial people.
Events usually end at a spot where munchies & beverages are available. You can join the rest of us in discussing how the event went and how you did, while we wait for scores to be calculated and trophies to be awarded.
A car rally is contested by a two person team within the legal speed limit, in ordinary cars, on regular roads. The challenge is to drive on time, not early or late (it's not a race).
Closed course rally is designed to create an attractive alternative to stage
rally, with long term
viability and growth potential. The program expands on the current success of
the RallyCross
program, which has seen an unbelievable level of growth over the last six years,
and will focus
on competition for participants and a controlled environment for viewers and spectators.
Please see the SCCA's website at www.scca.com
for further details.
RallyCross has been a part of SCCA
since 1999 and combines the competition of SCCA Solo with the thrill and skill
of competing off road. RallyCross courses often include dirt, gravel and pavement
and are prescribed by cones, like autocross. One car navigates the course at a
time, with the lowest elapsed time from the start of the course to the finish
winning.
Like SCCA Solo, since speeds are limited by the course, safety requirements are
minimal outside of a driver’s personal gear (helmet, seat belts). RallyCross
events are the perfect entry level competition, where participants can drive their
personal street cars against others in a format that rewards car control and precision.
RallySprint is a familiar name to rallyists, but a new
format of event for SCCA, combining elements of performance rally with the Performance
Driving Clinic program and Club Racing. Events are held on circuits in a primarily
off-road setting. Events can either be of the lapping format, where participants
navigate their cars on the course with others, or single-car events similar to
hill climbs depending on the venue. Speeds will be limited in these events, as
will the passing areas for a multi-car format to limit the risk of car-to-car
incidents. Competition is based on fastest times turned by drivers around the
course.
For information about the Finger Lakes Region's RallyCross series, visit that
section of this website (click
here).
