Courtesy of David P. Head
Hey there, SCCA competitor, is your solo season winding down, or your racing season nearing completion? Are you looking for a change of pace? Well, the SCCA Road Rally department has something a little bit different for you.Enjoy two-and-a-half days of touring the beautiful back roads around Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the SCCA United States Road Rally Challenge, run as part of the Coker Tire Challenge, Sept. 19-21. Unlike other SCCA Road Rally events, one can run this event on time using the speedometer, only if you wish to, and your odometer, if you want to. With no mileages, you only have to be sure to not miss your left on ‘Cobcorn Road’ by looking at the road signs.
This event for experienced rallyists, as well as anyone who has ever run a rally and would like to do it again, has a curve ball. In contrast to past events designed to test the mettle of people who have been running rallies since dinosaurs walked the earth, this year’s event is quite different. There will be no ‘main roads’ to confuse, no ‘traps’ to embarrass and no complicated lists of rules to follow the course.
To enter, go to this website.
Called the ‘Great Race,’ the Coker Tire Challenge is the Championship event for many rallyist around the country, many of whom bring out their classic roadsters. In addition to a relatively easy course to follow, bring your cameras because there will be old cars to photograph and otherwise enjoy seeing outside the setting of a museum.
The registration tab of the website asks you to select a class. The classes listed are E, L and S. E class is the ‘anything goes’ method of timing your car with respect to keeping your car exactly on the average speed.
Class L prohibits the mileage measurement equipment from automatically updating the timekeeping equipment, which is the essence of a road rally computer, but would include an app on a tablet that would input GPS mileages to automatically give you the time it should be for your position on the road.
Class S uses the stock odometer in the stock location, with any sort of computation equipment. That means you can create an Excel spreadsheet and run with your laptop or tablet if you want to in either S or L. The difference between the two is the use of the stock odometer, as opposed to GPS or possibly a dedicated rally odometer.
Greater detail on the classes can be seen here.
So now you have what you need to select the proper class and sign up to see the sights around Chattanoga. You couldn’t find these beautiful roads all by yourself on your vacation to Lookout Mountain if you spent two months, but Rallymaster John Classen has been all over these roads. You won’t be disappointed.
Great Race style rallying is explained in their rules.
Come join us for a different road rally experience.
USRRC Coker Tire Challenge
