THE DIRTY RAT

In a grand finale Simon gives the rally teams all they can ask for, and perhaps a little more.

THE DIRTY RAT

Saturday, September 8, 2018
by Simon Levear

The day started like most of the Saturday events - wet.  However, by the time rally cars reached the west side, the roads were dry and the skies had parted - it turned out to be a fine day for a road rally.


The rally route followed twisty, fun-to-drive roads over Chehalem Mountain and through Laurelwood, and included a stop at Bald Peak State Park.  

Rally master Simon Levear spiced the route with plenty of tantalizingly tricky offerings.  There were ONTO traps, intricate differences between an OR and an ITIS to explore, and even a number switch. There were two route controls after the final checkpoint waiting to trap the unwary. Every team visited at least two of the four route controls, except Team Gattman who saw only one.

Congratulations to Bob and Kathy Ellis for their SOP and first place overall finish.  Paul Eklund and Yulia Smolyansky took first in MASTERS class and second overall.  Jordon Green and Mike Nagle won the NOVICE class.

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

Mix a day of sunshine with some great country roads, sprinkle in a few traps, and you have Christmas in July. We're reminded there's more to our local economy than craft beer, wineries and electric fish - we grow Christmas trees!  Oregon is the top producer of these festive holiday trees.

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

Saturday, July 7, 2018
by Brandon Harer

Saturday dawned bright and blue - a first for this rally season.  Rallymaster Brandon Harer put together a beautiful course that took advantage of the lush countryside of Clackamas County.  With a few light traps sprinkled among the Christmas trees, ralliers criss-crossed the area in an effort to avoid the traps and secure those elusive zeroes.  

Congratulations to the team of Simon Levear and Ben Bradley in car #2 for successfully zeroing two of the five legs!  Was it any coincidence that the checkpoints were now using automated checkpoint lines to trigger the rally clocks?  Only time will tell.  (Yes, that's a pun).

Near the mid-point of the rally, contestants were treated to a trip to the Eagle Creek Fish Hatchery, home of the electric fish!  After this shocking development, teams rallied forth while being confronted with a pair of ONTO traps and a spelling trap, until finally coming upon this in leg 5:


    55.  CAST 33 at "FISH HATCHERY" then TURN LEFT at JUBB.

    56.  L on STORMER ITIS.

    57.  R on MATTOON CAST 38.


A quick check of the rally rules shows us that both TURN and LEFT are deviations, so route instruction 55 has three actions: (1) change speed at a sign, (2) TURN (at first opportunity) and (3) LEFT at JUBB. Some rally teams might have been fooled and completed both deviations at the same place since the TURN happened to be a left at Jubb. Or perhaps the navigator didn't clearly communicate multiple actions.  Regardless, while on course teams were executing both parts as separate turns, off course teams used instruction 56.  Finally all teams got back together using instruction 57 - R on MATTOON - with off course being none the wiser.  Such is the crafting of a good rally trap.

After the final checkpoint, rally teams had a short transit to the finish location at the Carver Hangar in Damascus where food was great and the company even better.

At the top of the leaderboard in Unlimited class was Simon and Ben - those two zereoes made all the difference.  Taking the top spot in the SOP class was Sean and Tonia Anderson who were ticking off some good scores until they got caught by the TURN LEFT trap.  Pablo and Yulia took home the Masters class win.

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The Bus Stops Here

It's not just a rally, it's a Saager-Palooza!  Ralliers test their TSD skills on a course that travels from the Columbia River Gorge through the hills to Sandy while trying to avoid the perils and pitfalls that await.

THE BUS STOPS HERE

Saturday, June 9, 2018
By Monte and Victoria Saager

The sun shone.  It rained.  It hailed.  Then it rained and hailed harder.  And on occasion the sun shone again. We should have expected weather like this...on the day of the Rose Festival parade.  

Along with the weather, the ralliers battled the course from Troutdale to Sandy. A tour along the Historic Columbia River Highway included a break for treats and sodas at Guy W. Talbot State Park in beautiful downtown Latourel.  There were scenic views, waterfalls, twisty roads, Crown Point and lots of fun driving.

Rally traps were plentiful -- this was a SaagerPalooza after all. Here's an example of a simple but deceptive trap:

        NOTE C: CAST 30 at "SHIPLEY". Cancel NOTE C. Cancel NOTE A.

The trick is that when you execute the CAST at Shipley, NOTE A is not canceled. Why? Well, canceling NOTE C cancels all of the NOTE including the part that would have canceled NOTE A. And since there was a 15 point pause attached to NOTE A, some teams missed a pause. It's all about the time.

Taking top honors were Cascade members Kevin Poirier and Chris Hale. A special wave of the flag to car number 2, Larry Anson and Fran Hanchek, for having the best score on Leg 4 which hosted the "toughest trap" of the day. The leg involved four possible routes -- all ended in the same place, but only one was correct. Well done, gents!

Honorable mention to novice teams -- Marty Lawrence and Aspen Padilla and Cascade president Vince Vavrosky with his daughter Clarissa -- who chose the hardest rally of the season to give it a try. They did their best to follow the route and arrived at the most important location -- the restaurant at the end! Congratulations on your first rally. Keep it up; it only gets easier and more fun.

A special thanks to our workers: Larry LeFebvre, Randy and Gloria Hale, John and Robby Elkin, and Kasey and Robert Klaus.  There's no rally without you.

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Mouse Trap

Russ and Katy's May rally featured an easy to follow course ending with a trip through the rally maze

MOUSE TRAP

Saturday, May 5
By Russ and Katy Kraushaar

The second rally of the season took a trip to the green hills of Clark County, Washington, on a pleasant spring day, traveling through the hills outside Camas, to Yacolt, Lucia Falls and finally, Battleground. Russ and Katy selected a great route with wonderful roads, great fun for the driver, with sweeping curves and great vistas for the navigator.

Most of the legs contained no traps, with the accent on timekeeping and course following held to a minimum. But there were two. The first leg contained this instruction:

    20. S at T, MBCU, PAUSE 0.05 minutes, ITIS

The rules are pretty clear about not being able to go straight at a T.  But, it's not an actual T; it's a road named T.  Looks legit!  Except that glossary terms (T) can only be used as defined so T cannot be a road named T.  It was only a 5 point penalty though.

The final leg contained the namesake mouse trap.  Russ and Katy found a neighborhood so new it only has roads.  So new, that Google maps shows it as a field.  And on this small loop of roads they placed an ONTO, a route control and three checkpoints - two of which were blackjacks.  If you correctly navigated the mouse trap, you found the route control only once and the correct checkpoint after having passed it on your first trip around the loop. The maximum time penalty for the last leg was 50 points.

Candy bars were awarded to all participants to remind us that the taste of victory is always sweet.

The Phool Snoozes

Kevin and Chris get the rally season started with an easy event styled for beginners

THE PHOOL SNOOZES

The April Road Rally
Saturday, April 7, 2018
By Chris Hale and Kevin Poirier

The new Cascade Sports Car Club rally season got underway on a rainy windy, sunny, cloudy day.  Pretty much the weather gammut.  For the intrepid seven rally teams that braved the threat of high winds, the day was more pleasant than forecast.  Rallymasters Kevin Poirier and Chris Hale had planned a fun route that traveled down Highway 30 before embarking on exciting hill climbs, thrilling descents, twists, turns, pavement, gravel, and a trip around the Scappoose dikes all ending about three hours later at Fultano's Pizza in Scappoose.  Traps were light with an easy ONTO and a math problem:

    CSD 25% at "2.5 MILES" for 0.5 miles then CSU 25%.

At the conclusion prizes were awarded in the form of Easter Peeps and assorted candy items.  Once again the taste of victory was sweet!