September.  You can feel it In the air.  The chill, the shorter days, the rain starts to arrive.  Yet, for one more day the weather was near-perfect for a drive in the country.  And what a drive it was!

Ten teams began navigating rallymaster Brandon Harer's offering by traveling to the Redland area, eventually ending the first leg at the Walter Horning Seed Orchard - a place where they "grow the best trees in the world".  On the way, they calculated how much faster they needed to drive to GAIN a minute over two miles, while also looking for an ITIS instruction which challenged their rules knowledge. Meanwhile they were also keeping a lookout for two NOTE instructions.

NOTE instructions can show up at most any time and, after a trapless scenic drive through leg two, they both came into play during a tour-de-force that had teams going every which way. They finally wound their way to checkpoint three at the Scotts Mills Area Historical Society, followed by a well deserved break at the Scotts Mills Park.

Shortly after leaving the park to start leg four, one of those pesky NOTEs came into play again to bedevil the unwary and send them on the off course route. The last leg directed the contestants into a neighborhood still under construction. Those with keen eyesight noticed the difference between 11TH PL and 11TH AVE, allowing them to follow the on course route through the maze of new streets.

Congratulations to the first overall team of Paul Eklund and Yulia Smolyansky.  Marcus Gattman and Steven Smith took home first in the SOP class, while Dave and Sherry Wilson dominated the Novice class.

Rallymaster Marcus Gattman delivered a tricky-trappy fun-to-drive romp through the Bull Run, Larch Mountain, and Corbett area, including a stop at Crown Point. The route offered spectacular scenery and great road rally roads!

The trickiness started on the first checkpoint slip which introduced a NOTE: R on MERSHON. Remember that. You’ll need to know it later. The first actual route following trap was set up by a route instruction that placed you ONTO LUSTED. If you failed to stay on Lusted Road, you continued on the off course route which short-cutted the on course route, giving you penalty points for being early.

The real fun happened after the transit to Crown Point, on the fifth leg, with a series of OR instructions. The first one – R at STOP OR OBSERVE second “MILE 1” – looked easy enough. Which ever side comes first, the intersection with a stop sign or the second mile 1 sign, is the side you execute.

You see a mile 1 sign. Then you see a stop sign coming up at a T intersection. You’re ready to execute the R at STOP when you notice the road name; it’s Mershon Road. You remember to execute the NOTE: R on MERSHON and soon after you see a second mile 1 sign. You correctly check off the second half of the OR instruction as complete.

A couple more OR instructions along with reappearance of the NOTE created several routes through this loopy part of the rally. Even if you got the traps wrong, the route resolved for both on and off course contestants and everyone made it to the next checkpoint.

We heard stories of some off course excursions, but as best we could tell they were self-inflicted. Arriving at a four-way intersection with the instruction to pause, why would you go right? Or left? For some, the instruction TURN was apparently elusive – it was at the first opportunity but it was a bit hard to see. Time allowances were generously used.

Congratulations to the winners! First overall and first Unlimited was the team of Paul Eklund and Yulia Smolyansky. Larry Anson and Fran Hanchek took first SOP honors. Dave and Sherry Wilson finished first Novice. A big thank you to rallymaster Marcus Gattman and all the checkout and checkpoint workers.

It was the third event, mid-point of the Saturday Rally Series, and the sun broke out of its doldrums to present a pleasant day for rally. Twelve teams of the future lost departed Lowe's parking lot headed for Clark County unaware of what fate had in store.

The first half-dozen teams arrived at the first checkpoint, in order, at about one-minute intervals. Seemed all the rallymasters’ preplanning was paying off. Then chaos! Some cars missed the checkpoint entrance, entered at the exit, and got in line – out of order – with teams who’d entered on course. Out of sight of the checkpoint crew (large hedge) local police activity had blocked the checkpoint sign from view on approach, causing all sorts of disruption to arriving teams. Leg one was prudently discarded from scoring.

The next three legs were do-it-yourself checkpoints and went on without any unplanned incidents. Teams drove through the Washington hills and valleys enjoying scenic views and fun-to-drive roads. A pause at the Hantwick Road Trailhead provided a brief visit with nature. It was in the last leg that the fates decided to once again intervene. Between the time the rallymasters drove the route, but prior to the arrival of the first car, a wayward local crashed into and knocked down a power pole.  

Oh no! It's a road closure!  

Teams scrambled. Some bailed for the finish while a few struggled on, rejoined the route and found the final checkpoint. And thus ended any chance for scoring leg five. With the first and last legs sufficiently waylaid by the whims of fate and local authorities, the rally was scored on the three DIYC legs.

Congratulations to the first overall and first Unlimited team of Simon Levear and Ben Bradley. First SOP went to John and Robby Elkin. First Novice was Derek Johnson Love and Kate Love Johnson, an excellent finish for their first CSCC rally. We hope we see them at future events.

And a big thank you to rallymasters Kasey Klaus and Torm Kelsey Green for their first CSCC rally!