April Rally Report

We finally ran the postponed Two Lake Rally in late March. With the drought, I was getting concerned we would have to change the name to the Dry Lake Rally.

Fifteen cars entered, one cancelled, and one did not find the start location. The all-paved, 100-mile route went east from Napa to Mankas Corner, a worthy destination itself, then north past Lake Berryessa and west past Lake Hennessey. That’s two lakes, right? The finish was at Mountain Mike’s Pizza in Napa.

Of the fifteen entries, seven were PCA members and eight were non-members. Five were Redwood Region members and ten were from other regions or distant locations, including one gentleman from Brooklyn New York. I guess the moral of the story is that not everyone is into rallies, but those who are, are willing to travel a great distance to participate in one.

Brad Call (driver) and Tom Morstein-Marx (navigator) came in first in a 2016 Mazda Miata. Judy Stocker and Andy Stocker took second in a 2022 Subaru Forrester. Jekaterina Vilutiene and Zilvinas Vilutis finished third in their 2013 Porsche Boxster. See photo below.

The statistician in me is pleased to note that one third of the entries were Porsches and one third of the podium cars were Porsches. Also note that two-thirds of the podium cars were driven by women, only fitting in that March was Woman’s History Month.

We have a few interesting rallies in the near future.

On Saturday April 23rd Past President Craig Steele will rallymaster the Wine Pairing Rally. This gimmick rally is ideal for beginners, having a clearly defined route. Drivers will be given an alphabetical list of wineries in Sonoma County and the task will be to list them on the scorecard in the order they appear along the route. What could be easier? The route is about 66 miles long with a start in Graton and a finish in Windsor.

On Saturday May 21st Jerry Wachtel will rallymaster the second annual running of Devil’s Gulch, a time-speed-distance (TSD) rally using GPS checkpoints, the same format we used on the Two Lake Rally. Devil’s Gulch 2022 is a little over 100 miles (all paved) with a start in San Rafael (the same location used for Devil’s Gulch last year) and finish in Windsor (but not the same location as the Wine Pairing Rally).

Have you considered driving on gravel as an alternative to driving on pavement?

If so, keep June 18th open for the Alternate Route Rally.

How about a pair of rallies with an overnight stay at the Twin Pines Resort and Casino? 

Choose the There and Back Again on July 16th and 17th.

Lastly, I contacted the other nine PCA regions in Zone 7. None are currently offering rallies, either TSD or gimmick.

As I have said before, we are truly “the Region that Rallies.”