The Map Rally, finally!

The Map Rally is back, on a new date!

The DFW Map Rally will finally be held on July 11. It will start near LBJ and US75, and end in Rockett, Texas. We will ask you to locate a dozen or so points on a map, and drive to them all and to the finish, in the shortest distance.

Leaving Al Lamb's Dallas Honda (9250 LBJ Freeway. Dallas, TX 75243), you will drive a 35-mile odometer check, which ends near the Commemorative Air Force facility in Lancaster, Texas. You will have a few minutes to examine the WWII-era aircraft that are based there, all of them still operational. Then we will use their classroom as a work area for you to examine your map(s) and determine your route. When you are ready, you will start your drive, ending at the Rockett Cafe & Club for lunch and awards. Rockett is about 8 miles from the CAF hangar as the crow flies, or 13 miles by surface roads. You will probably drive over 70 miles in finding all the assigned points, then driving to Rockett.

As usual, any street-legal car with two or more people old enough to read can enter. No special car prep is necessary. Just bring a clip board and a pencil, and you are ready to go. A magnifyer for map reading might be a good idea. There is a First Timer's class, in case you have never done any road rallying before. Low total miles travelled wins.

You can register at msreg.com/DMR15msr. If you registered before the date change, you ought to check your registration data on motorsportReg.com to make sure it is there and is correct. All those registered at MSR will be sent the "General Instructions" for the event by email, 5 or 6 days prior to the event, to study.

Any three+ cars can form a team, and the winning team will be announced at the awards ceremony. The BMW team had the best scores at our last event.

There are some rough-paved (and unpaved) roads in Ellis County, which we cannot tell you to avoid, because you make up your own route! You should have time enough to slow down on such roads, so that's not likely to be a problem. There are also some pretty roads there, and we are sure you will find some of these.

Join us!

The DFW Map Rally is almost upon us. We have 15 cars signed up as of this moment, so I expect 25 cars, and hope for 30. The weather is supposed to be partly cloudy and hot, with no rain!

The rallymaster and I drove what he thinks is the shortest route, and found no lingering problems with the roads. Then I talked to a car enthusiast who lives right in the middle of the area that you will be driving in, and he said there are no problems with any of the roads in Ellis County that he knows of.

All signs and landmarks that you are supposed to find are still there; I think you will have fun with them.

Because of the date change, we had to move the start location from the Buick dealer in Garland to the Honda Motorcycle dealer at LBJ and Greenville in Dallas.

If you have not entered yet, go to http://www.msreg.com/DMR15 and preregister.

Join us!

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