Winter Challenge Rally
On February 15th, 31 rally teams converged in
Barre, VT for the tenth running of the Winter Challenge Rally. This TSD rally
is the first Winter Challenge that I have participated in. While I typically am
the driver for these events, our navigating duties were handled by my brother
Josh. We had eagerly been looking forward to this rally in the weeks ahead with
nervous anticipation. Having heard horror stories from past participants of teams
getting badly stuck in snow banks or getting hopelessly lost, we had
expectations of a difficult rally. In the week preceding the rally, I had spent
nearly all of my free time, preparing my Subaru Legacy for what I expected to
be nothing short of a gauntlet. Never before had I so carefully planned out
what tools, emergency supplies, repair parts, and food for a road rally. I
estimate that I had about an additional 100lbs of gear that I don’t usually
bring. My reasoning is that I would rather contend with the extra (and very
noticeable extra weight) than be unprepared for something that could have gone
wrong.
Ready for anything
The start of the rally in Barre,
Vermont was just over three hours away from home so we left around 9:00am on
Saturday. We arrived in Barre, topped off our fuel, and awaited registration. Teams
received their 3 part rally instructions and wasted no time marking them up,
taking notes, estimating mileages, and getting familiar with the route.
This rally is divided into 3
distinct sections. Part one has teams follow precise instruction in a verbal
written format. Being daytime still for much of this first part, gave the rally
master opportunities to provide manageable “traps” along the route. A trap is a
tricky route instruction that might mislead teams into going the wrong way
along the rally. A trap might also be something in the real world that isn’t
listed on your route instructions that might also trip you up as it can be
mistaken for something in your instruction.
Part two featured a map section
accompanied by written instruction that gave more specific instructions as to
speeds and specific information we would see along our route. This is the first
rally that I have run in which these style of instructions were used. We
expected this part of the rally to be tough.
Part three was very similar to part
one except for a few items. The number of traps was greatly reduced to almost
none. The instead of written instructions, a visual diagram called tulips, were
used. The most impactful change (at least for us) was the drastic increase in
average speeds that teams were supposed to meet. All three sections promised to
provide us with a long and difficult night.
Teams set off onto section one at 3:00pm plus car number.
Being the very last team to preregister, we were starting last behind all other
teams. We were car 32. We were not expecting miracles but little did we know
that starting as the last car number would be a recurring theme for our night.
We set off at 3:32 and had a pretty typical section 1. We got lost a number of
times but always figured out that we were off course. After turning around, we
discovered our error and carried on. Checkpoints were always a welcome sight to
reinsure that we at least had some grasp of what was supposed to happen. Section
one ended at a McDonalds where one of the rally coordinators was there to
provide us with a new scorecard and time to leave. The time to leave was
written on top of the scorecard but somehow we didn’t see it. Over ten minutes
had gone past our supposed out time before we realized that we were already
late to start.
Stopped at a late night checkpoint.
I can’t
really even begin to explain what happened to us on section 2. We spent more
time off course than we did running the correct route. Just over halfway into
the map section, we were what I would describe as hopelessly lost. Pushing
forward in a very rural farming area, side roads and other landmarks were few
and far between to compare our very limited rally map to. At this point, snow
had been falling for a few hours now and winds were blowing snow across the
road severely reducing visibility. At this point, our only chance was to return
to a point where we at least had some idea of where we were. We even found a
checkpoint, even if we found it coming the wrong way. It was the only checkpoint
we would find in section 2. If all of our navigation problems weren’t enough,
we even managed to get pulled over by a Vermont state trooper for having one of
our low beams out. The trooper was kind though. She didn’t give us a ticket,
and she even put us back on the right track and headed us in the direction of
all of the other rallyists. Eventually we reached the end and met up with all
other teams at the rest area. Once again, I topped off the Subaru with fuel,
and nervously awaited the start of section 3.
A well plastered Subaru!
Section
3 was to say the least, defeating. We reached our first checkpoint and were
pleased to find 7 or 8 other cars already arrived. This meant that we were not
too far behind and possible even keeping pace with other teams. We arrived at
the next checkpoint and now only three cars were on the scene before us. We
were falling behind. At our third checkpoint, we were now all alone and had no
sight of other teams. This would be our final checkpoint as we struggled to
keep pace so badly that any checkpoints were now closed before we had a chance
to reach them. All we had were our instructions and the knowledge that at some
point, our rally had to end. However, for us and several others, it would not
be over before we managed to get stuck in a snow bank and had to be pulled out.
For us it was a driver error. Fatigue and low
visibility made it difficult for me to identify a snow buried ditch on the
right side of the road near a farm house. Once my passenger side front wheel
went into the ditch, there was nothing I could do. We came to a very abrupt
stop just inches from a tree. While the snow makes driving complicated and
difficult, accidents can be forgiving as we had no injuries and virtually no
damage except for a lost mud flap and a slightly misaligned steering rack. A
fellow ralliest happened to come by and pulled us out with some dramatic
fishtailing maneuvers. We were shocked that we were still ahead of someone at
this point. After being pulled out, we put our tools away and soldiered on to
the finish.
The rally was supposed to finish
around 3:00am. We did not reach to hotel until about 4:30am. All other rally
teams had finished at this point and gone to bed. We went to return our
scorecard in the hopes that maybe someone would still be around to collect it
but the registration room was now empty. Purely by chance, we caught our rally
master, John Buffum, just before he was about to leave and gave him our score
card. We slept in our freezing car huddled under blankets eating leftover
snacks until daylight and then drove the 3 hours back home. It was an incredible
rally to say the least. While running the rally, I wondered why I thought that
any of this was a good idea. Looking back, I can say that I am willing to do it
again.
Greg Gibbs
