Mr. D Loves Company

Rallymaster Simon Levear delivered a great season opener with the April 13 Saturday Road Rally.

The course offered beautiful scenery and fun-to-drive roads, including a lap around Hagg Lake, ending in Cornelius. Although the route was easy to follow, the TRAP TRANSIT section was tricky. Six route instructions offered two optional actions: A or B. One was correct (zero points) and one wasn’t (50 points).

First overall was the Unlimited team of Rebecca Ruston and Russ Kraushaar. Second in Unlimited and second overall was the team of Paul Eklund and Brandon Harer. Larry Anson and Fran Hanchek finished third overall and first place in the SOP class. Eric Olbricht and Alexander Olbricht took first place Novice.

Did I mention the TRAP TRANSIT was tricky? NRI 50 made the difference between the top two teams. At a four-way intersection, the road straight ahead had a back-facing stop sign, the road to the right had a back-facing stop sign, and the road to the left did not have a back-facing stop sign. MRD 3.3 PROTECTION directs you to take the “single road which leaves the intersection without a back-facing stop or yield sign on it”. If you went left you correctly executed part B of the instruction for zero penalty points.

Most teams tripped on NRI 53, also a main road trap. You are on an unpaved road, when you encounter an intersection with three apparent choices: straight ahead is paved, the road on the right is marked “dead end” (not a rally road), and the road on the left is unpaved. MRD 3.4 SURFACE says, “The main road is the obvious continuation beyond an intersection of the road with the same type of surface as that which you approached the intersection on." If you went left to stay on the unpaved surface you correctly executed part B of the instruction for zero penalty points.