Create A Rally
Navigators who have a couple of years of experience often ask what it takes to create a rally. Here is a step by step guide.
- Select the start/ finish location. This should be as close to the rally roads as possible, and should provide both affordable food and clean washroom facilities. Ideally, a gas station will be close by. You would also like a place to do the scoring that is somewhat removed from where the competitors are gathered at the finish ( a quiet nook within the restaurant will do just fine). If the rally is over 250 Km., you will also need a gas / rest stop location mid-rally.
- Study the map and select roads with bends, roads that go over hilly terrain and roads which you know from experience are interesting. Plot a proposed route which uses as many of these roads as possible. Try to avoid built up areas and traffic signals. You may want to include loops to maximize the use of checkpoint crews. Ideally, loops should be 30 Km. or more in length so that cars are not entering a double checkpoint (with different C.P. numbers) at the same time as this is difficult for the checkpoint crew.
- Drive the map-selected route, making tulip notes for every intersection, including dead ends and trails. You must also note posted speeds, pause opportunities at intersections with busy roads, possible checkpoint locations and an odo check about 10 to 15 Km. from the start. No table top plan is ever perfect, so expect to do some backtracking and road hunting. You will find that many maps are out of date and new roads have been made or old ones closed.
- Write the instructions. For a drivex, these are straightforward distance to turn and tulips with the same instruction for all classes. For a navex you need instructions at 3 levels of complexity with a good variety of instruction types. On your first rally do not try to include every trick that ever fooled you in past rallies. One or two will do! Sections should be 25 to 35 Km. in length to minimize odo variances for non-equipped cars. Select easy to identify locations for the End of Sections so that navigators who get lost can easily pick up the route and continue in the rally.
- Find people to man all of your checkpoints. This could mean a lot of phone calls!
- Arrange to have a Green Crew run the route about one week before the event to make sure that the instructions are perfect. For sure, somewhere in your instruction a left will be noted as a right or a speed change will be missed! Or new construction may create a need for a route detour.
- Make corrections to the instructions based upon the Green Crew notes. No other changes can be made after the Green Crew has run the route. Print copies for the expected number of competitors, and by using different coloured cover pages you'll reduce the chances of a team leaving with the route book for the wrong class!
- On the day of the event, you will need to register the competitors, hold a competitors meeting, man a checkpoint, score the event and deal with any inquiries about possible instruction or checkpoint errors.
- Immediately following the event, send the results to the series scorer plus a copy to all of the participants.
Last Updated: 2001-04-05
Copyright © 2001 Gail L. Walker, reproduction forbidden without written authorization.