The Washington, DC Region of the Sports Car Club of America wishes to welcome you to the 2013 SCCA United States Road Rally Challenge (USRRC). Veteran rallymasters Steve Gaddy (Chair), Dave Head (Rallymaster of both the course and the tour rallies) and Chris Bean (Rallymaster of the GTA rally) will do their best to give you an extended weekend of enjoyable and competitive rallying and socialization.
These events will embrace the concept that the USRRC is for everyone, whether currently running or having run your last rally 30 years ago. What this means is that the rallies, and especially the course rally, will be so designed that no matter your skill level, you will find all the controls and understand how the traps work. The committee believes that you will have a good time in each of the three rallies, again regardless of your skill level. All three rallies will be headquartered in Fredericksburg, Virginia at a motel to be determined. Friday will feature a map-based GTA rally exploring the back roads west of Fredericksburg. The start-time of 10am to noon (TBD) will allow some local and regional teams to arrive the morning of, if desired, and the run time of just 6 hours will keep the day short and allow for plenty of relaxation in the evening to unwind and prepare for the following day’s events. GTA scoring will be based upon map concepts requiring competitors to plot and execute a course from county maps. For those that ran the previous Washington DC USRRC, this event will borrow some aspects, but be shorter, easier, and we think a better fit for the overall three-day weekend.
The Virginia Reel course rally will be run on Saturday, October 19, 2013. Expect it to be challenging but not enigmatic. The rally will be run on perfect time, meaning that the starting time of each leg will be given as a time of day restart, to which you add your car number in minutes. It will be arranged to have many of these restarts with extra time and occur near gas stations with convenience stores for contestant comfort. It will use a mechanism not often seen in rallies--compass headings (North, East, South, and West). Although this requires contestants to have a GPS or compass, this allows for more elegant and less complicated instructions, and a better overall contestant experience. When used, direction will be easy to determine (no "close calls"). The rally is expected to be somewhat less than 200 miles to avoid fatigue as a performance factor as some longer rallies do. The current planned end of the rally is The Riverboat on the Potomac in Colonial Beach, Virginia, which is built over the Potomac River on a pier, because anything on the Potomac is Maryland (check your map!) and thus allows some gaming. We anticipate being done in time for contestants to enjoy the free poker tournament at 6:30 if they wish, or just chill and wait for the free comedy program at 9:00 PM. If you aren’t into comedy, there’s another poker tournament at 9.
The start and end of the Magical History Tour will occur in Fredericksburg on Sunday October 20, 2013. The event will contain no additional challenges beyond simply computing the leg time and coming into the checkpoint exactly on time. Such rallies are known as “zero hero” rallies, and are enjoyed by many as fairly low pressure events suitable for sightseeing while also competing. The committee plans to include sufficient time to see the 200 year old house, or the place where Stonewall Jackson was transported after being shot by his own men, or even seeing the place where he was shot. The event will be entertaining and educational for all. The weekend concludes with the awards banquet at a yet to be determined location in Fredericksburg.
Please plan to join us for this memorable weekend. For more information, contact Steve Gaddy at nittany1995@gmail.com.
