Saturday February 16, 2008 Alan Perry's Blog
Saturday February 16, 2008
Last weekend, my daughter and I ran the Thunderbird Rally. TBird is a "winter driving adventure" that this year started in Merritt, BC, had an overnight stay in Kamloops, BC and finished back in Merritt.
Despite the category of this blog entry, TBird is not a stage rally. It is a TSD or Time-Speed-Distance rally. In TSD rally, like stage rally, competitors are given a route book with timed sections and transit sections. However, unlike stage rally, instead of driving as fast as possible against the clock, competitors drive at fixed speeds. Drive 3.47km at 45 km/hr, drive 2.63km at 53 km/hr, and so on. Theoretically, the speeds are below the posted speed limits and, at least theoretically, the roads are open to non-rally traffic (more on this later).
The competitors are given the average speed and distance and have to determine the correct time to be at each location along the timed section (called a regularity). Unannounced checkpoints record the time that each car passes the checkpoint. Scoring is done by how many seconds the car is early or late passing the checkpoint and lowest score wins.
Competitors are classified by the equipment that they use to calculate when to be where during the regularity. There are rally computers that are essentially very accurate odometers that can be calibrated in to the odometer that the rally organizer used to determine the ideal times to pass the checkpoints. The average speed can be programmed into the computer and the computer can tell you whether you need to drive faster or slower. This class is called Unlimited.
My 15-year-old daughter and I ran in the class at the opposite end of the spectrum. We ran Paper class. In Paper class, you have to use the stock odometer in the car. Also, all calculations have to be on paper. No calculators or pre-calculated tables of useful values.
There are usually a lot of Unlimited class cars and not so many Paper class cars. This year was no exception. One Paper class competitor upgraded to Calculator class (Paper class with calculators and tables), so there were only two Paper class cars when the rally started.
The route of the rally is interesting. It goes between the southern BC towns and Merritt and Kamloops, a couple hours northeast from Vancouver. The route is mostly snow-covered gravel forest roads. The roads are plowed, but mostly one lane (maybe a lane-and-a-half) wide. Some spots are icy. Some spots are icy and downhill. Some spots are icy and downhill and the average speed that you need to maintain to stay on time is a little fast for the conditions. And, at least theoretically, you are sharing the road with non-rally traffic, though we didn't see much this year.
Fortunately, we were in a modern car (a VW R32) with all-wheel drive and new studless snow tires and traction control. We could concentrate on maintaining the correct speed and not worry as much about keeping the car on the road. The traction control system was a little too safe in hairpin turns, though.
A lot of the time, the average speed and the conditions meant that it was a very fun drive. I didn't have a lot of faith in studless snow tires before the rally and now I do. We kept catching the car that started one minute ahead of me (they were slow, we were on time), so, given how narrow the roads were, that kept things interesting as well.
My daughter worked out the system for staying on time and only asked me to do long division when it was needed. She did an excellent job and, as noted in the title, we finished first in class. Out of about 40 cars, we were 18th overall.
All in all, a good weekend.
( Feb 16 2008, 09:13:20 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [1]
