Rausch Creek RallyX August 2002

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Rausch Creek RallyX August 2002 - Page #1

Here's my report as posted to the WDC region rally board:
(first the rant, then the pictures)

First off, I want to thank the volunteers. It was hot! And dry and dusty. And they had a thankless job.

However, on the whole, I have to give the RallyX a grade of D. The only thing that topped the level of disorganization at this event was the last presidential election. The only reason I don't give an "F", was this was the NYR's first event at this location. So there was bound to be some teething pains. But even counting for that it was a pretty painful experience. And talking to other participants found similar opinions. I'm a board member on a local car club, so I know the pain of putting on track events, the lack of volunteers, etc. I understand the work involved and the lack of appreciation to the workers who make the event happen. That said, as a participant, I would have been better off staying home, emptying my wallet in the backyard bar-b-que and throwing a bucket of dirt on my car. At least I could've have a beer while watching my money burn.

I don't want to bore everybody with a rant, but here's some highlights: Registration's open at 8 with 1st cars off at 10am. That's the plan. We got there, driving 2 hours, at 9am. Paid $5 to get in the park. Just told to go left and park where you see the cars. No signs, whatever, Find the paddock, dump the gear and hang out. Wander around, where's registration? No one knows, finally find someone who does know. Go up the hill to the hidden tent. Pay the nice lady $65 (pretty steep for autocross), get slip, back down hill to the truck, get teched, back up hill to tent to get scorecard. My buddy volunteers to help. Cars off at 10 right? 10 comes and goes, nothing happens. Rumors of folks lost, will start now at 11am. 11 comes and goes, nothing happens, no communications from anybody, nobody knows anything. 11:30 same thing, finally around noon, everybody kinda by osmosis gathers at the head of the paddock, maybe it's a drivers' meeting? Who knows, no announcement. Finally the drivers meeting starts. Sounds good. 6 runs, multiple courses, looks fast. Time to line up, uh-oh, they're printing a starting grid, be ready real soon! First the drive thru. Back to paddock and wait. Next a demonstration on how not to grid cars ensued. Finally I get my spot, near the rear. Move up 200 yards into line. And stop. For the next hour I didn't move. Lets recap. Got here at 9am, and 4 1/2 hours later I still haven't got a single run yet! Finally get my first run after 3 aborted starts, because they let spectators drive their cars using the course to viewing areas, and they'd get bored in the middle of the runs and just start driving back on course; or the timing was all screwed up and out of sync, or other things. By 3pm I finally got my 2nd run and they break for lunch. By now I was out of time and patience. So were plenty of others, as a lot of people drove a lot further than we did and a steady stream of people had already left. Yada Yada Yada. You get the picture.

Now I don't know what all the problems stemmed from, but $70 and a day of my time for 2 minute and half runs isn't my idea of a good time. The RallyPark Northeast looks like a potentially great place for rallists. They have a huge amount of land and a supportive landowner. But they're far from realizing that potential. I'm not planning to go back until I hear reports from others at other events that they know what they're doing. I'd much rather do the 7 hour round trip to Oakland Acres and have fun than go back.

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