By Rick Beattie

The 50th and final Covered Bridge Rally, put on by the New England Region, took place earlier in November at Mount Snow Resort in West Dover, Vermont, and served as the 2016 United States RoadRally Challenge.

Contestants came from 17 States — including Alaska, Arizona, California, Texas, Washington and Georgia — to take part in the straightforward, Time-Speed-Distance tour rally of approximately 140 miles that honored Theodore “Ted” Goddard, the longtime Covered Bridge Rally organizer who passed away earlier this year.

Scott Beliveau was chairman of the USRRC, with John Buffum as rallymaster for the Sunday event, A Bridge Too Far, while Fred Mapplebeck presented the Covered Bridge 50 rally.

On Saturday, the first overall and first place equipped team of Bob Morseburg and Steve Gaddy appeared to have no trouble with the Vermont Covered Bridge tour rally, and were just as impressive in their first overall and first in Class E finish on Sunday’s A Bridge Too Far course rally.  Morseburg and Gaddy with 15 points bested second place equipped class finishers Mack Johnson and Frank Beyer who finished with 24 points, just one point better than the third-place equipped team of Mike Mazoway and Steve Mckelvie.

On the Covered Bridge event, competitors Satish Golpakrishnan and Savera D’Sousa took first in Class L, Dan Pratorius and Colin Roddy took Class S honors, and Brooke Smith and Jennifer Smith received the Class N first place trophy.

In addition to Morseburg and Gaddy’s impressive showing on A Bridge Too Far, Class L was won by Pego Mack and Jeannie English, with Dave and Diane Guertin besting the other Class S teams.

Beyer said afterward that this year’s USRRC contest had some serious timekeeping requirements, but the event was a hit and another great way SCCA members have fun with cars.

“Covered Bridge was an opportunity to see if you liked the sport for rookies and a reminder of why you liked the sport for old-timers,” Beyer said.

First-timer Brooke Smith also felt the rally was both fun and challenging.

“We’ve found the RoadRally and rally cross communities to be very welcoming,” Smith said. “Everyone hopes for everyone else to do well, even if they are competitors. If you forgot something or broke down, someone will lend a hand.”

It’s one of the most exciting, tension-filled moments of a race: the rolling start.  Recently, Winding Road guest contributor, SCCA Spec Racer Ford pilot James Chartres, shared some thoughts in a piece titled Speed Secrets: Tips for Great Rolling Starts.  In the article, Chartres points out that rolling starts are a key component of most amateur and professional racing, even the Indianapolis 500.

“There is more to a start than just watching the green flag fly and stomping on the go pedal,” Chartres writes. “The race craft during and after the start are just as important.

“For race starts, you need to be a task manager, using all of your senses to your benefit,” Chartres goes on to explain.  “While the best way to get a great start can be having a buddy on the radio to let you know when the green flag flies, most amateur racers don’t have this luxury.”

Take moment and read some of the other thoughts Chartres shares on the matter of rolling starts at the Winding Road article.  Perhaps there are one or two things in the piece that you didn’t know or forgot about, and the off season is a great time to think about race craft before the competition months roll around.