Ten courageous teams came out to run Cascade’s sixth TSsD (Time Speed social Distance) road rally on August 22. All ten teams successfully completed the event.

Rally route

The all-paved rally route was just under 115 miles on course and took about four hours to complete including a short break. Rally teams started from the parking lot of the Evergreen Parkway Theater in Tanasbourne on on a sunny Saturday morning. The route headed north through the new North Bethany area, traveled up to Skyline and back to West Union to complete the odometer calibration zone. Then the real fun began.

The first part of the rally was a Q&A - a part of the rally with no prescribed speeds or times, other than to complete the Q&A and start the TSD by a specified time. The Q&A route traveled some of our most loved rally roads -- Helvetia, Pumpkin Ridge, Mountaindale, Verboort, Kansas City. Rally teams were solving puzzles, answering questions, did they see this or that, which half of the OR did they execute. The Q&A finished with a drive through Forest Grove, including time for rest and refreshments.

The first TSD part started at the Lake Stop Store south of Forest Grove. On the TSD, teams were treated to views of scenic Henry Hagg Lake while they circumnavigated the lake. Five GPS passage controls timed the cars on their circuitous route.

After the Hagg Lake TSD, the second Q&A, much shorter than the first, traveled up and over Blooming Fern Hill into one of the more fertile road rally areas. Some of the trickiest challenges of the day were in this part of the rally. There were several possible routes through the area and most of them were traveled by our contestants. The answer to a Q&A question revealed whether a team emerged from the maze on the correct route. Three of the top four finishers got this one right!

The final TSD continued through the Laurel and Buckheaven areas and up and down Bald Peak, ending in Farmington at the Cruise In Country Diner.

Challenges

Everyone got some of the Q&A questions right. Some did better than others. The Gattman / Harer team got all but two questions correct. The Eklund / Smolyansky team had only three incorrect answers.

Q5 asked if you saw the “VALLEY VISTA FARM” sign. Half the teams got this one right. That means that the other half didn’t notice the number switch and want around the loop in the opposite direction. Rally cars probably saw rally cars going by the other way, wondering whether they or the other rally car were going the correct direction.

An early navigational challenge was a Special Instruction that initiated you into the Tee Party. “As a loyal member of the Tee Party you will proceed left at the first T and right at the next T, continuing to flip flop at each T encountered regardless of the actual main road.” As if this weren’t enough, there were also two notes in effect - NOTE Ghouls Gambol: TURN on PUMPKIN. NOTE Red. R on HARRINGTON. The next NRI is (A) L on ROY OR (B) Stay right on KERKMAN. Q8 asks which half of the OR instruction you executed. Teams who followed the Special Instruction correctly went left at a T three times and right twice. The NOTE Ghouls Gambol was executed three times. The last left at T was executed on Harrington, refusing the Red Herring(ton) of a NOTE, and then using the (B) half of the OR to go right on KERKMAN.  

Q13 caught all but one team. Here’s the situation. There are two notes in effect - NOTE Official Information: “HILL” does not exist. NOTE Anita Hill: L on DOBER. A supplemental rule for this event decreed that, “Multiple signs on the same support are considered the same sign.” After executing an NRI to R at T, Q13 asks: Do you see ‘ADOPT-A-ROAD” (A) Once, (B) More than once, or (C) Not at all.

So you’re looking for the next NRI which is S 1st OPP at UNGER ITIS, but you’re also watching for DOBER. And there it is, Dober Road, an L opportunity. But, wait. The Dober Road sign is on the same post as a sign identifying Iowa Hill Road. A sign with the word “HILL”. NOTE Official Information makes the “HILL” sign and all other signs on that post disappear. So no Dober Road sign, no L opportunity. You pass up Dober and keep going. Along the way you see an “ADOPT-A-ROAD” sign and count one. Then you come to an opportunity to go S on UNGER. That takes you past an incorrect “ADOPT A-ROAD” sign (missing a hyphen) and it takes you to the other end of Dober Road where Dober is an L opportunity and there’s no “HILL” on the post so you go left on Dober. You take the main road to the left at the T at the other end of Dober, you go by the “ADOPT-A-ROAD” sign again and count two.

So the answer to Q13 is (B) More than once. How hard was that.

Notable is the Morseburg / Eddy team which got every question correct up until the very last question. Bob also shared that his TSD scores on legs 3 and 9 are entirely explainable. (Both Legs 3 and 9 started at a time certain specified in the route instructions.) Bob says, “I set my clock off by a minute. Only concentrated on seconds totally ignoring minutes. Navigator heard me say the time and wondered why it was off a minute but didn’t say anything because she figured I knew what I was doing.” 

Answers to questions along the way revealed whether teams followed the on course or the off course route during the Q&A parts.  The route offered some spectacular scenery, and the clear sunny weather on rally day made it easy to see the sights.

Congratulations to the winners!

First overall and first SOP is the team of Marcus Gattman and Brandon Harer with a total score of 86. Second overall and first Unlimited is Bob Morseburg and Cheri Eddy. Third overall and second SOP is Larry Lefebvre and Simon Levear.

Click here for the complete rundown

Click here for Complete Leg Scores

Twenty-four teams registered for Cascade’s fifth TSsD (Time Speed social Distance) road rally on July 18. Then three teams canceled. But that’s okay because a Series Pass holder who missed registration asked to be allowed to run, even if not competing. No problem. A canceled car number was reassigned to the Series Pass holder.

So we had (are you keeping track? 24 - 3 + 1 = 22) twenty-two cars start the rally. One team experienced déjà vu all over again when their GPS app refused to operate. So, just like last month, they ran through the course and enjoyed a lovely drive, but since they had no scores, they are not on the scoreboard. So, technically, 21 cars finished the course.

Rally route

The all-paved rally route covered about 115 miles and took just under four hours to complete. The route offered some spectacular scenery, and the clear sunny weather on rally day made it easy to see the sights. From the end of the odo check at the End of the Oregon Trail Historic Site in Oregon City, the route headed east along the Clackamas River and then south to Glen Avon and Wilhoit, before returning north through Colton and the Highlands to Carver.

The rally’s title “What Goes Around …” describes the general circuitous and overlapping nature of the route. Road names referenced early in the instructions would reappear on a later page. The rallymasters took glee in repeating these references.

The July event was a tour-style rally, meaning it included no route following challenges. That’s not to say the rally wasn’t challenging. As a “driver’s event,” the drivers who were able to maintain specified average speeds on a variety of country roads, including some twisty bits, were the most successful.

Congratulations to the winners!

First overall and first GPS was the team of Bob Morseberg and Cheri Eddy with a total score of 69 over 22 scored legs. They had eight zeroes. Outstanding! They ran using a GPS odometer input. Seemed to work well for them.

Second overall and first SOP was the team of Marcus Gattman and Kerrie Steffenson with a total score of 123, just barely ahead of Marcus’ parents David and JoAnn Gattman who finished third overall.

Brian and Jamie Anderson finished first Novice, scoring a very significant win for the Andersons, as competition for Saturday Road Rally Series trophies was tight in the Novice class.

Cascade’s fourth TSsD (Time Speed social Distance) road rally on June 13 attracted 37 entries, breaking all recent event records. Then two teams canceled before car numbers were assigned, another two teams canceled the day before the rally, and four called in to cancel on rally morning. So 29 teams started the rally. Still a record for Cascade rallies, at least for several years. Notable is that 17 teams ran in the Novice class. And ten teams were new to the Cascade Geargrinders road rally program.

It is wonderful to see so many new-to-us ralliers!

Two teams started the rally, but their GPS app wasn’t working; they were not getting timed at the checkpoints. They had a nice drive through the rally course; however, they had no scores to display on the scoreboard. Two additional teams dropped out during the rally. Car #5 drove the wrong way over the parking lot exit spikes and popped a tire at the Lucia Falls Park break. Nasty luck. Car #30 abandoned the effort after PC 9 due to a sick navigator.

So 25 cars finished the course.

Rallymasters Marcus Gattman and Kerrie Steffenson put together a nice rally route. It was a fun drive from the end of the odo in Washougal, to the mid-rally break at the Lucia Falls Park, to the ending in Woodland.

The route included driving over the Cedar Creek Covered Bridge and by the historic Cedar Creek Grist Mill. The all-paved route was just under 100 miles and took a bit over 3 hours to complete.

First overall and first in the Unlimited class is the team of Bob Morseburg and Cheri Eddy from Seattle with a total score of 13 over seventeen scored legs. Bob and Cheri zeroed eleven legs. Very impressive!

Second overall and first SOP is the home team of Brandon Harer and Steven Smith with a very respectable score of 82, including one zero.

Third overall and first Novice is the team of Robert and Wayne Carlson with 137, including a zero.

Robert Paxman and William Pollard finished first in the GPS class.

Click here for the complete rundown

Promoted as an opportunity to get out and go for a fun drive in the country, while maintaining social distancing, the April 18 Saturday event was Cascade’s second TSsD (Time Speed social Distance) road rally. “You stay in your car; we’ll stay in ours.”

Actually we stayed home. We managed registration and check-in online. All timing and scoring was done by the Richta GPS Checkpoints app, so there were no manned checkpoints. We monitored each car’s progress using real time data from the GPS app, which adds a whole new level of rallymaster fun. First we get to drive around the countryside on roads less traveled, developing the rally course. Then we get to watch on a map as rally teams progress along those same roads in real time. Amazing.

Seventeen teams ran the rally - matching a record set in April 2019 of 17 cars at a Saturday rally. Eight of Saturday’s teams had never run a Cascade rally before. We hope this great new bunch of Cascade ralliers will enjoy the game of road rally and want to come back and do it again and again.

SCCA National Road Rally Lifetime Points Holder Bob Morseburg drove down from Seattle Saturday morning to run the rally with his navigator, Cheri Eddy. We are honored they ran the rally (even though we didn’t see them).

And there were winners.

Congratulations to first overall and first Unlimited Bob Morseburg and Cheri Eddy, running as Car #30 after driving to the start from Seattle on the morning of the rally. Nicely done!

Two veteran rally teams tied for second overall and first SOP, Bill and Kelly Ferber and Marcus Gattman and Kerrie Steffenson. Congratulations to all!

Congratulations to fourth overall and first Novice Brian and Jamie Anderson. This team is moving up fast in this their first season of road rally. They are the team to watch.

Congratulations to Andrew and Coralee Brewer for finishing first in the GPS class. The GPS class was introduced last season in the Equipped category of road rally competition classes. This class allows the use of GPS-sourced odometers. Few competitors have entered this class to date. Congratulations to the Brewers!

The March Saturday event was the first-ever TSsD (Time Speed social Distance) road rally. Recognizing that we’re in a coronavirus emergency, the entire event experience was designed to eliminate contact with other humans outside of your own car. The rally was promoted as an opportunity to get out and go for a fun drive in the country, while maintaining social distancing.

Online registration was required. Day-of-event on-site registration was not available. (We stayed home.) All check-in procedures and transmitting of route instructions occurred via email.

Teams timed themselves out from the start location and followed the instructions through the route. All timing was done using a GPS app, so there were no manned checkpoints.

The rallymasters used data from the GPS app to monitor each car’s progress through the rally and to monitor the scoreboard. (We sat at the kitchen table, following along on our laptops.)

At the mid-rally scenic break at Bald Peak State Park, total scores up to that point were emailed to the teams.  They had a chance during this break to order take-out from the Cruise In Country Diner where the rally route ended.

The rally route included some simple rally traps. A misspelled sign offered an opportunity to incorrectly pause 30 seconds (how do you spell NEUGEBAUER). An ONTO trap elicited another 30-second penalty. What do you do when told to change your speed for 0.5 mile? You go back to the previous speed after the half mile - or not for more penalty points. A note told you to pause 30 seconds at a sign reading “CEMETARY”. Who knew there was actually a sign like that on the route.

Congratulations to first Unlimited and first overall Paul Eklund and Yulia Smolyensky. First SOP and second overall was Bill Ferber and Simon Levear. Robert Paxman and Will Pollard finished first GPS and third overall. First Novice was Ben and Kyle Overton. Congratulations to all the teams! And a big thank you to Brandon Harer and Ben Bradley for checking out the rally.