<VV> Econo and TSD

[Bruce Schug]

On Aug 13, 2007, at 10:23 AM, Brian wrote:

> I was at Ashville but only particpated in the rally in a BMW so now 
> Econo Run.  What exactly happened that causes us to forever refuse to 
> re-look the rules?
>

As I recall, the Rally had three legs. We started out and ran a couple 
of legs ending up at a gas station. Here, we filled our tanks and 
finished the Rally and at the same time, ran the Economy Run. I suppose 
those who were not running the Economy Run simply didn't fill up or at 
least weren't checked in when they arrived at the finish of both 
events, which of course was at a gas station.

The problem was, we were of course still using rally instructions. 
Shortly after beginning the last leg of the Rally (which was the 
Economy Run) there was, what my navigator, myself, and several others 
felt was a bad instruction. It involved the SAP rule. The road curved 
to the left and also went straight ahead. Following the SAP rule, we 
went straight ahead. Shortly thereafter, we realized we were lost; 
nothing was making any sense. This was the first problem we had 
encountered on the route.

We found our way back to the gas station, where vehicles were still 
leaving from and asked if we could re-start the Economy Run, thinking 
we had already ruined our chances at the Rally.  Let me add that my 
navigator was a Chemical Engineer and was quite good with math. We made 
a very good rally team. We would go down the road and continually 
update ourselves as to where we should be when. We were experienced and 
thought we had a good chance to do well on the Rally. At the same time, 
I was fully prepared for the Economy Run and always did quite well at 
that event. I was competing for the Cole Award.

The officials would not allow us to re-start the Economy Run. So, we 
took off, along the same route again. We carefully watched each 
instruction and, again, found ourselves lost. At the time, I don't 
think we knew where we had gotten lost. Not knowing what else to do, we 
looked ahead on the instructions and figured out where the event(s) 
ended. We went to the gas station where we were checked in for the 
Rally and gassed up to finish the Economy Run.

At the awards banquet I found I had scored 92.xx points in the Concours 
and won my class (the old IS-3) at the Autocross. But the surprise came 
when we found we had won the Rally! Of course, we weren't mentioned in 
the Economy Run results. Later, I found out we had gotten about 12 mpg. 
I thought I might still finish well for the Cole, but as the names were 
read mine wasn't mentioned until next-to-the last; I had finished 
second by a very small margin.

We talked to several other competitors who also got lost on that last 
leg; it wasn't just us. There were several of us pretty unhappy that 
the events had been done this way. What we felt was a bad rally 
instruction ruined the Economy Run for several of us.

Now, you could say that all this was due to an error in the 
Rally/Economy Run instructions - it was a design error, not a rules 
error. But the fact is rallies need to be run by rally instructions. 
Economy runs need to be run by economy run instructions, which may even 
include a map or other aides.

Of course, these events could be run simultaneously, but why? The 
Economy Run is not a subset or a part of a rally. A rally is not an 
extension of an Economy Run. They are two distinct events deserving 
their own rules, instructions and time periods. Besides, there are so 
many things going on at a convention, having the four major events on 
four separate days spreads things out better and allows more time to 
participate in other activities.

Next year's convention sounds like it is being scheduled well. Two days 
for travel before and after the convention and five full days for the 
convention itself.

Bruce





Bruce W. Schug
President, CORSA South Carolina
Greenville, SC
bwschug at charter.net

CORSA member since 1980

'67 Monza. "67AC140"