Rallies

Rallies came in many forms. I discussed the the basic idea of a TSD Rally earlier. In practice, there were several "flavors".

The "novice rally" was generally a pleasant Sunday afternoon drive through picturesque countryside at a leisurely pace. Scores tended to be very low. Low is good.

A "driver's rally" tended to up the speed a little (keyword: "brisk") and use a lot of rural roads where there were few posted speed limits. The course following instructions were straight forward and the navigator would try to read the instructions to the driver without biting his tongue off bouncing over the bumpy back roads.

Drivers' rallies were often marathon events lasting 12 or 24 hours covering 400 to 700 miles. The New England Winter 24 Hour Rally was always a severe test of endurance of man and machine with the course going into the mountains of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. The 1969 event was held during one of the worst Nor'easters of the century.

The "navigator's rally" kept the navigator busy with frequent speed changes, hard to see signs, puzzles involving "ghost cars". Rally instructions were numbered and the rules required their execution in numerical order; but occasionally a rallymaster might reorder them so that they would read: ... 34, 35, 37, 36, 38, 39... to catch the unwary. Signs could be deliberately mispelled in the instructions so as not to apply (eg, "High St" is not "High Street"). I'll always remember: "signs which share the same support are considered to be a single sign." [Maybe I don't remember the specifics so well after 30 years but the words "bra rule" will stick with me forever.]