New opportunity for the Mazda rally team

THE MAP RALLY IS BACK, ON A NEW DATE: 24-AUG-13

DFW MAP RALLY….a "shortest-distance" roadrally

Connecting the dots...

The Texas Region of the Sports Car Club of America invites you to a fun drive in the country in Denton and surrounding counties, Texas. The team who visits all the required landmarks in the shortest distance will win, and the winners will receive awards. Speed is not a factor.
• Date: Saturday, August 24, 2013. Start HQ: Eagles Canyon Raceway on FM 51 near Decatur.
• Starting Place: US380 at I-35 in Denton, westbound. Pass the Shell station on the corner, and turn into the next service station just to the west, which seems to have no name. This is the official start of the rally. An official will be there to give you the waiver to sign, and to give you instructions to run the odo check. Another official will record your odometer readings, and send you on your way. You must complete this to compete.
• Eagles Canyon Raceway (ECR) on FM 51 northeast of Decatur is where you will complete registration, receive your maps and rally instructions, and use table space to work on your route.
• The odo check start opens at 9:00am on Rally Day (time may be adjusted). Odo check start will close 10 minutes after the last preregistered car has been sent out on the odo check.
• After registration, you will receive your maps and your instructions for finding the twelve locations in Wise and Denton Counties that you have to locate, and then visit.
• Take one hour to determine your route from maps provided. No electronic aids or extra maps permitted here.
• Cars leave the official start whenever you are ready, in any order (but at 1 minute intervals). First car out could be as early as 10:30.
• Length: as short as you can make it in miles, probably about 3 hours in time.
• Finish: Clark's Outpost Barbeque, that famous old spot in Tioga, Texas.
• Route: You choose your route from maps provided. You may use any public road you wish in your attempt to log the shortest distance on your odometer. Depending on your chosen route, you may encounter stretches of unpaved road, though we think that the shortest-distance route will be all paved.
• Classes: First-timer, Novice (3 rally trophies or less), General, and Master (this is an optional class: no trophies). GPS and other electronic aids welcome in any class.
• Vehicles: Sports Cars, Family Cars, Classic Cars, Antiques, Hot Rods, Cruisers, Convertibles, anything with 4 wheels that’s street legal is OK in this Rally.
• Rally Fee: $25.00 SCCA Members: $5.00 discount. You must pay with preregistration at MotorsportReg.com (go to msreg.us/DMR13msr ). A $5.00 late fee will be assessed to anyone not preregistered on MotorsportReg.com.
• Team competition: as usual.
• Rally Master: John Poulos.

Registrants will be emailed the rally rules a few days before the event. The Rally Committee reserves the right to limit entries.

For more information see http://texasscca.org/rallytime/rally-events--results.

Three Mazdas entered the Clear Blue Sky Rally earlier this month, with their Team winning the Team competition, and one of them coming in first overall! See the full results at http://www.texasscca.org/rallytime/r...vents--results .

One Mazda has already preregistered for the Map Rally, along with 14 other cars. Just two more and you can form a team! We had seven teams last month, including Mazda. Other cars so far include Honda, Lexus, Mercedes, MG, Mini, Mustang, Subaru, and VW.

We usually double the entry in the last week, so look for 30 cars on Saturday!

Want to join us? Go to msreg.us/DMR13msr .

Quote:

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• Take one hour to determine your route from maps provided. No electronic aids or extra maps permitted here.
• Classes: First-timer, Novice (3 rally trophies or less), General, and Master (this is an optional class: no trophies). GPS and other electronic aids welcome in any class.

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Can you clarify this?

Yeah, clarification would be good. It sounds like you could just screw around in route planning time, then fire up google maps and have them do the routing...

Hopefully getting a friend to co-drive for me on this one. If he ever responds, I'll probably sign up tomorrow after work. This seems fun :)

Sure, glad to help. You have 12 points to visit, plus the start and finish. No program known to man will give you the optimum route for 14 points in a reasonable time. By the time you find all the points, record their geographic positions, enter those into the program, wait for the computer to digest this huge task, then check all the results for bogus routes, and replace the ones that aren't really the shortest, you will be an hour beyond your allotted time. The people who used electronics last year did not do well. So find the 14 points on our paper maps, study the roads between them, pick the order you will visit them to get the fewest miles, then find the shortest route between each pair. Google Maps or GPS might help you here. As I said, those in the "Electronics" class last year did not score well overall.

Yeah when I wrote that, I hadn't noticed the "14 points" part, I thought it was just A to B. That does seem like much more of a challenge :D

PS: One of our regular drivers needs a navigator. He usually runs in Master Class, so he's pretty good. Drives a Lexus. Anyone game? [email protected]

Breaking news: The final version of the General Instructions says that you may not use any electronic devices during the hour you have to plan your route inside the ECR meeting room. Just the maps we provide. After you start driving to your first point, you can use your GPS as much as you want.

Signed up, woot! My navigator was a cavalry scout in Afghanistan, so y'all best brush up on your map skills :P

Another 11 Delta here, hooah.

Just signed up for this. Going to give it a try. Got my wife as the navigator. This should be fun. Going in the Miata.

Two Miatas have entered the Map Rally. We are up to 24 entries now. Who will make it 25?

Go to msreg.us/DMR13msr for more info or to register.

FAQ

Is the $25 fee per car or per person? Per car.

msreg.us/DMR13msr just takes me to an information page. How do I register? Scroll all the way to the bottom, click "Continue".

Do I need to bring any special equipment? Just a clipboard, pencil, and a magnifier for the maps.

Do I need a certain kind of car to compete? And what prep do I need to do on my car? Just your daily driver will be fine. Check the pressure in your tires and really clean your windshield. That's about it!

How long will the event take? The last of 30 cars should get to Tioga about 3pm. Scoring is simple on a shortest-distance rally, so you could get out of there about 3:30.

What do you give as awards? Trophies, to second or third place depending on the number of entries in the class. First-timers note: we give trophies in your class, too.

Can we bring a minor child? Sure. Just let us know, so that we can get you a copy of the special form that has to be signed on their behalf.

How can I join SCCA? Go to scca.com, and click on "Join Now!"

Finished my first rally today. SCCA map rally around Denton county. My wife was my navigator. We finished 4th in class ( 1st timer), 11th overall and team Mazda had 1st place best average score. All in all a real fun time and nice drive through the Texas countryside.

18th overall, 9th in class, woot! Team Mazda represent!