ADDRESS
PO Box 4304
Portland, OR
97208-4304
CONTACTS
rally@cascadesportscarclub.org
June 7, 2025
By Russ and Katy Kraushaar
Twelve teams entered Cascade’s third of six events in the Saturday Rally Series held on June 7. Apparently, the Portland Rose Festival kept many of our “regular” rallyists away on this busy weekend.
Russ and Katy Kraushaar titled this event Lucky #41 commemorating their forty-first rally as Rallymasters. They provided a challenging event from Milwaukie Lowe's to Ridgefield, Washington.
About the rally
This rally intentionally provided fewer official mileage (OM) references than usual (compared to recent Saturday Series events). Also the reference to some checkpoints (CP) was intentionally omitted from the route instructions, so the placement of checkpoints was harder to predict. There were fewer checkpoints than the average Saturday Series event, and leg times were on average longer.
Variety is the spice of life!
The June rally was slightly longer than the average Saturday Series Rally, with a 110-mile course that took just under three and a half hours to complete. The 35-mile one-hour odometer calibration transit went north on Interstate 205, merged onto Interstate 5, and ended at Daybreak Park (CP3 on map).
A quick transit with a short break at the Cedar Creek Grist Mill (CP8) was followed by a longer stop at a service station/convenience store on Interstate 5 east of La Center (CP13).
The break ended with a free zone to escape the traffic of the area and continue in the rural countryside west of the freeway (CP14).
Challenges
As always, it is helpful to be familiar with Cascade’s Road Rally Rules when participating in one of our events. Like most competitions, TSD road rally is a rules-based game. This rally specifically mentioned in the Rallymasters’ Notes accompanying the Rally Route Instructions, “To be most successful in this rally, it will be helpful to be familiar with Main Road Determinants (RRR 3).” That was true in spades for this event.
The June rally included four main road traps (two based on ONTO and two on Protection). Another four traps offered a deviation where there was no intersection (where one of the two route possibilities was a dead end). One trap was an OR instruction where the half of the OR to be executed was based on which half was referenced first.
All together the rally included nine instructions containing ITIS (if there is such) which means the instruction can be skipped if it cannot be executed prior to the next numbered route instruction. The Rallymaster noted that he had a friend that simply skipped all the ITIS instructions, and he said it always worked. In this rally, not all the ITIS instructions were skipped; a couple were on course and should have been executed.
In addition to the OR instruction mentioned above, there were two more OR instructions required to support the two routes that resulted from a tricky triangle protection trap. You are looking for an S first OPP and this is it! If you go straight and then just keep on going, then you have missed the back-facing stop sign on the road leaving the triangle. The back-facing stop sign is hard to see in this photo, but when you actually drive up to it, it is plain as day. Since this triangle is actually three separate intersections, after you take the straight, the on course route immediately follows the main road to the left on the far side of the triangle. Then continues straight (the same way you would have gone if you didn’t have the S first OPP). Off course teams who went straight past the back-facing stop sign took a different route, using the OR instructions, to rejoin the on course route a few instructions later.
And that’s not all! The locations at which to execute three instructions containing speed changes were determined by a stated distance API (after previous instruction). Sounds straight forward, but sometimes it wasn’t so clear. For example, when an API followed an ITIS instruction, did you execute the ITIS or skip it? Where does the API mileage start? Oh, what fun!
Although there were many challenges, none were very hurtful to your score. If executed incorrectly, most of these challenges resulted in few penalty points.
What the rallymasters said
Katy and I have been writing rallies together for about 40 years now. However, we’ve not written one since 2018 so this event is probably a little “old school” and not exactly what you’re used to of late. Personally, I prefer twisty roads, brisk speeds and confusing traps that make you think. Then you’re late and get to drive fast. Hopefully you were successful and had a fun drive.
We want to especially thank a few folks for their help. We had Torm Kelsey-Green and Kasey Klaus help with the guinea pig. They provided great input and, now that I think about it, made up quite a bit of time after an off-course excursion but still got to the finish on time. My kind of ralliers!
Jamie Anderson developed the artwork and created dash-plaques for the event. I like what she did with our old squids in the Bugeye Sprite. The Bugeye, by the way, was originally drawn by my dad, Dean Kokko probably sixty some years ago. It was his first car and became my first car. Thanks, Dad! And thanks, Jamie!
It’s fair to say that Monte and Victoria Saager are making this series happen. They measured the event and dealt with Richta for us. They guinea pigged the event and then ran it again after the resulting modifications. We can’t thank them enough!
Hope you enjoyed yourselves. It was more work than we remembered and put us behind on our Spring yard work. Such is life. If you give nothing, you get nothing. We try to be helpful now and then, and again thank all our helpers!
Congratulate the top finishers
First overall and first in the SOP Class – Alexander Castaneda and Eric Hanson
Second overall and second in the SOP Class – David and JoAnn Gattman
Third overall and third in the SOP Class – Bill Kayser and Bjorn Freeman-Benson
Other top finishers in their class:
Fourth overall and fourth in the SOP Class – Andrew Brewer and Kat Iverson
Fifth overall and first in the Equipped Category – Robert Paxman and Kathy Sacry
Click here for the complete rundown
Current Series Standings
April 4 , 2025
By Torm Kelsey-Green & Kasey Klaus
Sixteen teams entered Cascade’s second of six events in the Saturday Rally Series. Rallymasters Torm Kelsey-Green and Kasey Klaus provided a fun rally romp from Milwaukie Lowe's to Woodland, Washington.
The rally route and the weather cooperated to deliver the scenic views promised by the rally title, I Can See for Miles & Miles & Miles. Mount St. Helens was visible several times.
About the rally
The April rally was a bit longer than the average Saturday Series Rally, with a 120-mile course that took just under four hours to complete. The tour-style rally moved along at a steady pace so you always felt you were on your way to...well, somewhere. Despite the course doubling back and retracing routes used earlier in the rally and even running some of the same roads backwards. Seamless.
A break to transit through Hockinson and stop at the vintage market or the gas station convenience store was followed by the featured stop on this road rally, a visit to Lucia Falls Park. There were no navigational or time-keeping challenges, other than those created by the rallyists themselves or their equipment. Well, there was one ITIS (if there is such) route instruction that directed a 0.1-minute pause at a STOP. You came to a railroad crossing that has a stop sign. If you decided to execute that instruction at the railroad crossing, then you gave yourself a 10-point penalty.
The correct action was to skip the ITIS instruction (and its penalty pause) because the railroad crossing does not meet the definition of a STOP in the Road Rally Rules which says a STOP is an intersection of rally roads controlled by a stop sign at which you must stop. Since the railroad crossing is not an intersection, you cannot use the instruction there.
There was one team that fell behind the pack almost immediately after leaving the end of the odometer calibration section. They came back to the end of the odo and restarted twice. Turns out they were struggling with a rally equipment malfunction. They eventually caught up and joined us at the restaurant.
Congratulate the top finishers
First overall and first in the Equipped Category – Bob Morseburg and Cheri Eddy
Second overall and first in the SOP Class – Alexander Castaneda and Eric Hanson
Third overall and first in the Novice Class – Travis Cothren and Billy Cundiff
Other top finishers in their class:
Second Equipped – Robert Paxman and Kathy Sacry
Second SOP – David and JoAnn Gattman
Third SOP – Bill Kayser and Felix Kayser
Second Novice – Jason Love and Alenna Merrihew
Third Novice – William Kaplan and Judy Kraut
Click here for the complete rundown
Click here for Rally Results
Current Series Standings
Saturday, March 1, 2025
By David and JoAnn Gattman
Rallymasters David and JoAnn Gattman’s March 1 rally kicked off Cascade’s 2025 Rally Series with an event titled Celebration Day! And it was a celebration – a “leapling” birthday party for our rallymaster JoAnn. Her Feb. 29 birthday was celebrated by all present at the end of the rally. Dash plaques commemorating the event were distributed to all. Happy Leapling Birthday, JoAnn!
About the rally
Thank you to Jamie Anderson for producing rally dash plaques The 95-mile course took three hours to complete, included a break at the Historic Butteville Store, and ended in Mt. Angel. The route went south on I205 from Milwaukie Lowe’s, then south on I5 to end the odometer calibration in Wilsonville.
The rally then continued south into the Champoeg area before heading north almost to Aurora, then traveled through Hubbard and the outskirts of Woodburn, before veering even farther to the northeast, eventually arriving in Mt. Angel.
Challenges
The first challenge offered an instruction to go right at an intersection at a stop ITIS (if there is such) with a pause. You’re at a T intersection and you’ve learned that the main road usually goes left at a T. However, there is a back-facing stop sign on the left and no back-facing sign on the right, so at this T intersection the main road goes right. You cannot execute the instruction to go right – at least not at this intersection. The correct action is to follow the main road to the right and continue looking for an opportunity to execute the ITIS instruction. You don’t find it before the next NRI, so you skip the ITIS and its penalty pause.
If you decided to use the ITIS instruction, you’re okay. You went the correct way. However, it was for the wrong reason so you earned points for being late because you used the ITIS pause.
Next were two ONTO instructions. It started when an instruction directed you to go L ONTO CHAMPOEG. The next instruction was L at STOP with a pause and an ITIS. The correct action was to go left to stay onto Champoeg and hold the ITIS still looking, but you don’t find, so you skip this ITIS. That was followed by L at “CASE” with a pause and an ITIS. Getting the picture? Another left to stay onto Champoeg.
If you decided to use both ITIS instructions, you went the correct way. However, for the wrong reasons. You were onto Champoeg and both ITIS instructions followed Champoeg. So you earned penalty points for using the ITIS instructions.
The next challenge involved the definition of STOP. According to our Road Rally Rules, STOP is an intersection controlled by legal traffic stop signs at which the contestant is legally required to stop. The instruction directs you to pause at a STOP. However, the only opportunity that occurs prior to the next numbered route instruction is a stop sign at a railroad crossing. Since there is no intersection of rally roads at the railroad crossing, this stop sign does not meet the definition of and therefore cannot be a STOP. The instruction contains an ITIS, so on course teams skipped it. Off course teams added to their score by pausing at this non-STOP.
The next challenge was another ONTO, this time ONTO Boones Ferry where you are expected to stay on Boones Ferry without using the first half of an OR instruction directing L on Boones Ferry, but instead using the second half of the OR instruction to pause at a sign you see after you’ve correctly followed Boones Ferry.
Next was another ITIS pause at a STOP on the railroad tracks, Followed by the final main road trap of the rally, an L at T.
The instruction read: L at E COLLEGE. PAUSE 15 seconds. ITIS.
Since you’re at a T and the rally started with an unusual T main road, you decide to look at this one very carefully. You go through the Main Road Determinant list, top to bottom, until you find one that identifies a single road leaving the intersection. Start at the top. You are not ONTO or TOWARD. There are no back-facing stop or yield signs on the roads to the left or the right, so protection does not identify the main road. You go on.
Next is straight – nope. Last is leftmost, or more commonly known as L at T. So the main road here goes left. Since you can’t execute an instruction to go the same way as the main road, you cannot use the route instruction at this intersection. So you go to the left to stay on the main road and continue looking for an opportunity to go left on E College. You encounter the checkpoint and the next route instruction without finding an opportunity to execute this route instruction, so you skip it and consider it completed.
Congratulate the top finishers
First overall and first in the Equipped Category is the team of Bob Morseburg and Cheri Eddy in Car #20 with a total of 16 points over 15 scored legs. They zeroed six legs, got one point on each of five legs, two twos, a three and a four. We’ve come to expect no less, but still it’s amazing.
Second overall and second in the Equipped Category is the team of Paul Eklund and Yulia Smolyansky in Car #17 with a score of 55 points. They zeroed three legs, got single-digit scores on eleven legs, plus a ten. Nice to see this team rallying with Cascade again.
Third overall and first in the SOP Class is the team of Alexander Castaneda and Eric Hanson in Car #4 with a score of 60. Wow! They came close to matching second place Equipped. Nice job, guys!
Other top finishers in their class:
Third GPS --- Car #14 Robert Paxman and Kathy Sacry
Second SOP – Car #11 Bill Kayser and Felix Kayser
Third SOP – Car #16 Edmund Frank and Jo Su
First Novice – Car #15 Travis Cothren and Billy Cundiff
Second Novice – Car #5 John Livingston and Kristy Knoll
Third Novice – Car #6 Douglas Arnall and Damien Csergei
Congratulations to all!
Click here for the complete rundown
Saturday, February 22, 2025
By Monte and Victoria Saager
Thank you for running the Rally School Rally. We hope you had a good time. Twenty-five teams entered. Four teams did not start, so 21 teams ran the rally.
Thank you to our Rally School checkout team, Bill and Kelly Ferber. Please join us in thanking them for their contribution to Cascade’s rally program.
Usually it is at this juncture that we congratulate the top rally finishers. However, the Rally School Rally is a practice rally and your performance on this event does not count toward 2025 Saturday Road Rally Series competition or the CSCC Rally Championship (RRR 7.1). But, top finishers of the Rally School Rally still deserve fame and glory! And a candy bar of course. The taste of victory should always be sweet.
Due to the threat of wintery weather, contestants had two weeks in which to run the Rally School Rally. About half of the teams ran on the originally planned date, Saturday, Feb. 8. Those teams received candy bars at the end for their participation.
What Rally School participants said
“It was a very good educational experience. [My navigator] seems to have enjoyed the day and looks forward to trying again.”
“Thanks for the Rally today. It was super fun!!!”
“Appreciate all the work that must go into setting up these challenges.”
“We were really humbled by the rally exercise. We had fun and learned a bit about the process. We are considering coming back for more events in the future if our schedules allow.”
“Thank you so much for today for all the fun that you all coordinated for us. We had so much fun and we definitely plan to rally again with you all.” Now that all the teams that are going to run have run the rally, it is time to congratulate the top rally finishers!
Challenges
As a teaching event, this rally presented more challenges than usually seen in a Saturday Series Rally.
First was a number switch (route instructions presented out of order) offering a reduction in speed which resulted in a late penalty on Leg 12 if you did the instructions in the order presented on the page rather than in numerical order.
Next were two notes. The tricky part was that the second note said (in essence), “Do this note. Then cancel this note. Then cancel that first note.” Since actions in instructions are executed left to right, top to bottom, as soon as the “cancel this note” is executed, you cannot execute the rest of the note (which cancels the first note), so the first note stays in effect. And of course the first note eventually gets executed on Leg 22.
An OR instruction offered a choice between pausing at a landmark or observing a sign:
PAUSE 15 seconds at SASQUATCH OR "PERRY CR".
There is a cute cut-out that looks like a sasquatch but it doesn’t have a sign identifying it as a sasquatch, so you don’t do the first half of the OR instruction. You do see a sign reading Perry Cr. You notice it and correctly mark off NRI 45 as complete – without pausing.
The hardest challenge in this event involved these two instructions:
L at “GENSMAN”.
L on SMITH. PAUSE 15 seconds. ITIS.
At the first sign reading Gensman that you encounter, Gensman appears as a sideroad on the left. However, Smith Road straight ahead is signed no outlet. You check your newly acquired rally knowledge to figure this one out. Start with the action. L is defined as a deviation, a change in course. A deviation occurs at an intersection. An intersection is a joining of rally roads from which the contestant could legally proceed in more than one direction without U-turning.
The road straight ahead is signed no outlet, so it is not a valid rally road. Since you can proceed only in one direction (left), there is no intersection here. Therefore, you cannot execute the deviation L at this first Gensman sign.
The correct action is to continue looking for a Gensman sign at which you can go left. On course teams noticed that at the next intersection there is another Gensman sign with a sideroad on the left. That is where on course cars execute the L at “GENSMAN”.
On course cars continue to a T intersection at Smith Road where they have an opportunity to consider the next route instruction. They correctly continue to the left (L at T is the main road), refusing the ITIS instruction and its 15-point penalty.
Off course teams executed the L at the first Gensman sign, not suspecting anything was amiss until Checkpoint 20 which they maxed, and then they arrived at the break at Yankton Store over six minutes early. Really, there are worse places to spend an extra six minutes.
The next planned challenge was a completion trap (aka mileage trap), set up by these instructions:
PAUSE 30 SECONDS at “STOP”. CAST 32 for one mile.
R at STOP OR R on ROSS RD.
R on Millard Rd. ITIS.
The instruction directs a pause at a sign reading stop, then change speed for one mile. You are at a stop sign at a crossroad, so you pause and continue straight (the instruction does not include a deviation and the main road is straight here) going 32 mph for one mile.
The trick here is you must finish the one mile before you start looking for the next instruction. As it happens (of course it does) there is an intersection at which you must stop where you could go right, but it occurs before your one mile is up. So you go straight at that stop and continue to Ross Road, which is beyond the one mile.
Somewhere between that stop and Ross Road you come to the end of the one mile, so your speed
reverts to your previous speed before the “one mile” instruction. Then when you reach Ross Road, you go right and mark the OR instruction as complete. On course teams use the ITIS R on Millard.
The Rally School Rally included a trip down Rocky Point Road.
The last challenge was a simple main road follow:
CAST 36 at BENNETT RD.
You encounter Bennett Road as a T intersection. The instruction contains a speed change only; it does not include a deviation. So you need to follow the main road here. You are not ONTO or TOWARD, so those Main Road Determinants do not apply. The next MRD is Protection, which is determined by back-backing stop or yield signs. The roads on both the left and the right at this T intersection have back-facing stop signs, so protection does not determine the main road. The next MRD is Straight, and you cannot go straight at a T. So what’s left? Left is the only MRD left, so the main road goes left. L at T – remember that. If you are a T, the main road is most likely left.
Congratulate the top finishers
Although the Rally School Rally is a practice rally and does not count toward 2025 Saturday Road Rally Series competition or the CSCC Rally Championship, top finishers still deserve fame and glory!
First overall and first in the SOP class – David and JoAnn Gattman
Second SOP and tied for second overall – Lee and Marc Nielsen
First in the Novice class and tied for second overall – Travis Cothren and William Cundiff
Fourth overall and third SOP – Bill Kayser and Bjorn Freeman-Benson
Fourth SOP and tied for fifth overall – Karisa and Rhys Haydon
First in the Equipped (GPS) class and tied for fifth overall – Paul Eklund and Yulia Smolyansky
ADDRESS
PO Box 4304
Portland, OR
97208-4304
CONTACTS
rally@cascadesportscarclub.org