The Wishbone Alley Gazette
April, 2002
Rally News
Downloaded from the Rally list: This article
appeared in the Sunday March 24th Chattanooga Times Free Press:
Unhappy Trails, By Ward Gossett, Assistant Sports
Editor
A squabble between the Cherokee Trails
International Rally organizers and the U.S. Forestry Service could end the
automobile race's three-year run in Chattanooga, organizers say.
“There is definitely a squabble," said Kurt
Spitzner, a national director with Sports Car Club of America, one of the
race's sanctioning bodies. "It is obvious the U.S. Forestry service does
not want us in CherokeeNational Forest."
The conflict involves the racers' use of logging
roads in CherokeeNational Forest, the environmental impact
of cars and spectators, and manpower problems in and financial reimbursement to
the Forestry Service.
The CherokeeNational Forest has one ranger and six law enforcement
officers, according to CherokeeNational Forest public relations officer Terry McDonald, who said the
service is concerned about its ability to handle the rally while maintaining
its day-to-day duties.
“The forest is 640,000 acres, and we felt we
needed eight officers for this event and had to pull in some. We have to look
at it --the impact on work force, environmental impacts," he said.
"As far as coming right out and saying we don't want (the rally), we
haven't said that."
The Cherokee Trails sports car race is a
287-mile event held in stages, mostly in the CherokeeNational Forest in PolkCounty, with the winners determined by elapsed time.
This year's race was run from dawn to dusk on March 16, and the last of eight
stages was canceled at the request of the forest service.
Spitzner cannot move the race, but he can be
instrumental in lifting the event's SCCA sanction. He said he had seen enough
races run in national forests to know whether the races are wanted.
“The forestry service, by government charge, has
to make the forest available to all," Spitzner said, "but the
(forestry) mindset is, 'If there are people we don't want in the forest, we can
make their lives pretty miserable.'
"It is in our interest to make sure we are
going places that we are wanted, and the situation is not invisible to myself,
the national office, or the (automobile) manufacturers involved."
The forest service says its primary concerns are
the strain on a small staff, and on the environment. “This is a pretty big
impact on us," said McDonald. "Our work force has been reduced by 30
percent. We're trying to evaluate and see if we can take this on again."
Rally organizers complaints range from rapidly
escalating fees to poor treatment of the race's fans.
Three years ago in its first year of existence,
the Cherokee Trails rally paid about $2,000 for post-rally road repairs in the
forest. According to rally organizer Kendall Russell, the next year's fee was
"about $2,300."
“This past year, we received a bill for $12,000,
and it was not itemized," Russell said. "And in the meantime, we had
submitted our request for 2002 permits, which was ignored.
Don Kinnerson, the CherokeeNational Forest ranger responsible for
the southern district where the race is held, transferred in late last year.
"I don't know where that $2,300 figure comes from, but prior to the event
last year they paid a base permit fee with full knowledge that there would be
additional assessments for law enforcement and road maintenance. Last year and
again this year the roads were very wet," he said. "There is an
impact. All we're trying to get is fair compensation."
Several spectators have written to complain
about spectator areas because of their lack of viewing opportunities and the
fact that they were not allowed freedom of movement from one spectator area to
another.
Spectator Scott Mathis wrote and said, "I
and many others will not be returning to this rally ... The ridiculous
restrictions of designating spectator areas was absurd."
He also pointed out that the areas were limited
in size, too far from the actual racing, and that visibility was poor.
“The ticket I purchased clearly says that I
attend this event at my own risk, as any event ticket does. But as a slap in
the face, you make us watch the race from such a distance that the only thing
dangerous is the squirrel sitting on a nearby tree ... No other rally in the
world does this," Mathis wrote.
Kinnerson said there was a potential
environmental impact. “We had a concern that a concentration of people could be
detrimental to sensitive plants that may -- or may not, for that matter -- have
been in the area," he said. "I felt the appropriate thing to do was
to restrict them to old road beds. I'm hearing that a lot of people were
disappointed with what they could view from those roadbeds.
"Without having the opportunity for a
botanist to look at those areas then and even now -- if I erred, I wanted to
err on the side of caution."
# # #
Of specific interest to the Pacific
NW is that the National Forest people communicate via e-mail, besides the usual
methods. What goes on the Tennessee could be cited when we want to use our
local lands. –MN
- More Doo Wop (March 2-3): Reports from the workers I contacted
were all happy. The weather was about perfect, with only the exposed spot on
top of the ridge getting dust on the Simon’s (Kirk’s Birthday party). Pete
Shelton says his son, Zack, is accepting the rally training “real well”.
Jarvis heard “target practice” in
the forest near him, and moved to block the road he suspected the shooters were
on. Then he wasn’t so sure. He was nervous for the whole rally, but the
shooters never moved. He graduated himself from CB to a GMS/FRS radio, but had
the same problem- out of range.
Tom Palidar was Chief for the
Brooklyn end. A county cop visited, then stayed. The signage closing the road
apparently didn’t get up. Tom explained to someone that the road was closed,
but they were having none of it, gunned the engine, and pulled forward to enter
the closed stage. The friendly officer unsnapped his gun and stood in the way.
Brakes, some urgent talk in the car; it turned around and left.
Tom left out the name, but mentioned
to me that someone who should know better insisted on entering, after Tom
closed it while Advance was on the Stage.
Tom always brings along a feast of
sandwich fixin’s. Kevin Needham showed up rather exasperated (extracting
wayward cars at Montesano took too long, and he knew he HAD to be at Brooklyn
on time). Tom offered him some food and drink, gladly accepted. We must
remember to be nice to the Sweep’s, since they have a tight schedule, and food/drink
is a low priority when packing their rigs. –MN
- Raindrop, April 28:From Rallymaster Steve Wiley: “A
relaxing Sunday TSD Touring Rally running entirely on paved roads. Perfect for
any car and any skill level.
“This year we'll be visiting the Kitsap
Peninsula. Come with us and visit exotic locales such as Purdy, Dewatto, and
Gig Harbor. Approximately 4 hours of rally fun. Exciting scenery for competitor
and worker alike. With views of a handful of Puget Sound waterways including
Tacoma Narrows, Hood Canal, and Rich Passage.
“With the start on the second Tacoma
Narrows Bridge, parts of the territory that we'll be visiting will see
increasing growth in the coming decade.
And, of course, all of the details
are out on the website:
http://www.RainierSutoSports.com/events/raindrop
Steve fails to point out that this is a very
rare opportunity to do a Sunday-afternoon rally (Daylight!), and he is making
sure that everyone finishes happy. A unique chance to see what this rally stuff
is all about. Its also simply a nice tour of an area we seldom get to.
He’s inviting the workers to “guinea pig” the
thing on Sunday, April 14. –MN
- No Alibi (June 1/2)- From Rallymaster Kirk Simons: Terry
and I have just finished mailing out about 130 postcards. The hotel rooms are
filling up quickly and I'm going to look into another hotel as a back up.
First course measurement is going to
be done on the April 13. Hopefully the snow pack in the mountains is
diminishing so we can measure those roads. All rally info can be found on the
web site.
Made reservations this morning with
the hotel in Spokane for Saturday night, June 1st. Out of a block of 30 rooms,
only 14 rooms are left! Make your reservations now (See info below) to avoid
disappointment and obtain the special Rainier Auto Sports Club rate.
The Bayou Brewery, which hosted us
the last few years, has gone out of business. We've setup this years Saturday
buffet of stories, rally lore, tall tales and food with the Ram Restaurant.
Buffet cost is $19.00 per person, tax and gratuity are included, drinks are
not. To reserve a spot at dinner please register early and indicate you'll be
dining with us.
The official overnight hotel in
Spokane for Saturday night June 1 is the Best Western Thunderbird Inn <http://www.travelweb.com/booker/AppLogic+booker.hotel.info.Start?brand=BW&pid=48018&iid=BW> , West
120 3rd Avenue, Spokane, WA. We have blocked 30 rooms (10 King, 20 Doubles) at
a rate of $55 + tax. The hotel can be reached at 509-747-2011. Indicate you
are with Rainier Auto Sports Club and the No Alibi Rally.
For those who would like to stay at
Snoqualmie Summit the night before the rally, the official hotel is the Best
Western Summit Inn, which is connected to the Family Pancake House. The Summit Inn
has offered us special rates of $55 + tax for a king room and $69 + tax for a
double room. To get these rates you must call and talk to Joanie Fischer and
indicate that you are with Rainier Auto Sports Club and the No Alibi Rally.
The hotel can be reached at 425-434-6300.
- Friday
Niter note: Tom Palidar had to chop the length of his April 14 event. More
entrants mean that the rallys last too long.
"We had 28 teams last Friday &
of those folk, 17 or 18 were Novices”. Tom is administering a “Novice
championship”, and feels that there are 4-5 teams that want the award.
- Shitepoke/Dryad Quest (June 15-16) - only rumors and hopes at
this point. Consider 4 roads for the two days, eight stages on Saturday, the
rest on Sunday.
In our “real” world, making sure the
world is safe for rallying requires that somebody either closes/secures the
roads at dawn, we get enough RM’s to cover each and every side road, or
somebody investigates each and every one of those treacherous, sometimes long,
little sideroads before running the rally cars. We go with a 4th
option, a compromise, and try to close our roads as early as someone from, say,
Lynnwood, can arrive. Hence a very, very (yeah, ridiculously) early FCO.
Nolte will be struggling to find coverage on Saturday, if you’re
reading this, you’re a candidate! Sunday might be mildly easier to cover.
- Oregon Trail SCCA National: John Nispel is leading the
Washington contingent. We will have stages 2, 4 and 6 on Saturday.
Even though the venue is now Hillsborough rather
than Tillamook, the roads will be in the same forest.
Club News
Notes
from the March Meeting: It was a slow night, and Billy McHale’s moved our show
to the main dining room. The club members were generally well behaved.
Dave Smith visited. He has worked
some of our events over the years, and takes his Ham work seriously.
Old Business: Eric still hasn't
gotten around to writing up a web hosting proposal for the Board to study.
General Instructions rewrite: Comment period ends March 11 and comments are
welcomed. Ed wondered about Vintage Equipped class. Discussion
followed with to main points: being an expert on vintage equipment is
challenging, and the Generals don't preclude a rallymaster from adding that
class if they desire.
Raindrop: Steve drove around some
more and will be approaching individuals about tasks that need doing.
Pete will do trophy work and Mike will order dash plaques.
No Alibi: Kirk reported the hosting
arrangements he’s made. Terry will do pictures and picture trophies. We might
do Tee shirts.
Alcan: (Jerry Hines) A guy called
from LA that does film and a contract was signed for an eight year film option
on Alcan. Kyle Miller films rallies and may hook up with the LA film guy.
Garry Sowerby, famous around the
world driver, is signed up to run. Jim Elder is handling press again
Got ten worker crews
John Corser has online video of 2000
Alcan at corser.com
Other: Vince mentioned that the Alfa
Club is having lapping day at Bremerton on Friday, March 15. Anybody with
a Snell 85 helmet, eye protection and leather gloves is welcome.
“What’s going on with the Web Site?”: The web site is
hanging in there. Overall hits are higher than same period last year so
somebody must be looking at it. Lots of people checking out the Raindrop and No
Alibi stuff. We have online registration again this year and Paypal to take
their money. All in all things seem to be working. - Eric Horst
TRIVIA
*
Petter
Solberg is coming to the US to run some demo stages at Rim of the World rally.
He will run in 00 car and will not be timed. This should up the buzz a bit. (-
Paul Timmerman, Spectator Chief- Rim of the World 2002)
* CATV’s “Speed” Channel
(formerly “Speedvision”) has the rally community all abuzz. The revised channel
line up hinted that it’d be mostly NASCAR, and, like most channels, there is
good reason to ignore most of the schedule. But if you don’t get it, it may be
worth $5/month extra to get “Speed”.
The
WRC (rally) coverage is restricted to the manufacturer’s teams (“What? You mean
there are 100 other cars? How come they never show even one?”), but there seem
to be at least 2 in-car cameras on each of these 12-15 cars. If you didn’t get
to watch the segment from Sainz’s bumper cam, with Moya jabbering at 100mph in
Spanish, you really did miss some exciting footage. They also managed to catch
Solberg’s crash, where he spun the car and the camera was aimed backwards for a
view of backing into the rock.
I
don’t know how the programs are constructed. I assume that Speed buys a “feed”
from the FIA, which must have the requisite “semi filled with radios and
editing gear” nearby. Then Speed does it’s own editing and voice-overs. The
Speed Channel voice-over guy has a ways to go, but gets better every show. (I’d
love to hear the Aussie version) There is a Thursday pre-event show, which for
Catalunya allowed Moya to dress up in cowboy garb and talk about himself.
Sounds silly, but it was pretty good.
Then
there are three hour-long “race reports” over the weekend. In-car footage,
cameras in helicopter(s), on the road, in the trees, at Service, in the
harbor…everywhere. Very few incidents aren’t caught and included. (Sainz caught
a badly parked spectator’s car at Catalunya, and the look on the Moya’s face
was memorable. It looked just as bad from outside the car.) They even bleeped a
Skoda co-driver’s very precise and accurate description of the condition of the
worn-out tires (one word…), but it balanced the reportage.
There
are (the apparently obligatory) interviews, where the response to questions is
sadly predictable. Maybe someone is coaching the teams. I don’t recall reading
anything about FIA putting their muscle behind the shows, but somebody has
taken a page from NASCAR and turned the WRC coverage into something great.
This may be a historic moment. Somebody is
finally covering a sport, with cameras, vastly better than “being there”. In
our case, its delicious rallying. Lucky us. –MN
*
Pacific Raceways is developing from the base that Seattle International Raceway
provided. The lower track remains the same, while the upper area may be
unrecognizable. Various descriptions have contradicted themselves, but the
location of the Start/Finish line is up in the air. The “hot pits’ along the
old straightaway are now superceded by the new straightaway…and there aren’t
any hot pits in this new setup. If, indeed, the whole straightaway is lined
with jersey barriers, the hot pits may be at the closer to Turn 1 than anyone
wants to walk to.
If the newer, “avoid the VHT on the dragstrip”
transition from Turn 8 to Turn 9 is shorter, then the straightaway may be
faster. With a decided kink at the end where it rejoins the old track (Turn 1),
everybody has to lift, not just the guys with cars more powerful than, say, an
old Cortina.
No report on the all-important restrooms, just
that (TahDah) “they’ll be better”. -MN
FOR SALE
* Mike Jones’ has the parts to make
a good stage rally car, in this case a Fire Arrow (2.6 ltr. Motor.) It’s been
in the garage, no new rust. Make an offer. (425) 823-8329
* ’84 BMW 318, orange. Includes
studded tires (unmounted) $2500
ALSO: Single axle car trailer,
electric brakes. Too small for some tasks, great for a rally car. (Looking for
a tandem axle trailer, suitable for a collector-grade BelAir). $1200 OBO
(less….Ed) Contact Pete Shelton (206) 783-5681
NW Rallyists’ Calendar
• Call the NWRC Hotline
(206) 256-9627 for latest info on Puget Sound TSD events.
*British Columbia dates updated: Heart of
Darkness moved up a week to Apr. 13-14. Coast to Coast plopped itself down
opposite Oregon Trailblazer TSD (June 29)
* Added 6 Rallycrosses in Oregon. All at County
Fairgrounds. And a stage event at Hood River on November 9.
* Still pileups on May 18 and July 20.
- Apr 12 Friday Nighter TS
- Apr 13-14 Heart of Darkness,TSD, BC
- Apr 19 Friday Nighter (Portland)
- Apr 19-21 Oregon Trail SCCA
Nat’l PRORally, Hillsboro, OR
- Apr 28 Raindrop, TSD,
RASC
- May 5 RallyCross,
Oregon
- May 10 Friday Nighter
ORCA
- May 17 Friday Nighter
(Portland)
- May 18? NWR- Mini Rally (stage) Shelton
- May 18-19 CARS Nat Big Horn (stage)
- May 18 Beaver
Cleaver (SCCA Nat'l), Oregon
- May 19 Barlow Trail
(SCCA Nat'l), Oregon
- May 25-26 Rocky Mt (stage) AB
- June 1-2 No
Alibi by RASC Snoqualmie
Pass-Spokane-Wenatchee
- June 8/9 Mt Trials, BC (stage)
- June 14 Friday Nighter ORCA
- June 15-16 Dryad/Shitepoke
(stage) Shelton
- June 21 Friday Nighter
(Portland)
- June 23 RallyCross,
Oregon
- June 29-30 Coast to Coast,
B.C.
- June 29 Oregon
Trailblazer TSD (Oregon)
- July 12 Friday Nighter
NWRC
- July 19 Friday Nighter
(Portland)
- July 20 Mountain to the
Sea,TSD, Oregon
- July 20-21 Gold Digger, TSD,
BC
- July 20 Monte Carlo
Rally,TSD, Bellingham
- July 28 Rallycross.
Oregon
- Aug 3-4 ORV Rallysprints McCleary
- Aug 9 Friday Nighter ORCA
- Aug 10 TRNT, central
Oregon
- Aug 16 Friday Nighter
(Portland)
- Aug 13-22 Alcan 5000 :
- http://www.alcan5000.com/
- Sept. 1 Rallycross, Oregon
- Sept 10 Kananaskis Rally AB, (stage)
- Sept 13 Friday
Nighter TS
- Sept 14 Fri Niter
(Portland)
- Sept 20 Friday Nighter
(Portland)
- Sept. 29 Rallycross, Oregon
- Oct 5 Night On Bald Mtn TSD, ORCA
- Oct 5-6 Reno Rally
(stage) NV
- Oct 5-6 Pacific Forest
Rally (stage) BC
- Oct 11 Friday
Nighter RASC
- Oct 18 Friday Nighter
(Portland)
- Oct 26 Ghouls
Gambol XXXVI,TSD, Oregon
- Oct 26-27 Midnight
Rally,TSD, BC
- Oct. 27 Rallycross,
Oregon
- Nov 2 Armageddon XXI,TSD, Bellingham
- Nov 9 Mt Hood Div-Pro, Hood River, OR
- Nov 16-17 Totem Rally, TSD, BC
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