Intro – One of the great things we all have in common is driving our British cars. We look for any excuse to drive. We all wait in anticipation for our day-off – sunshine and clear roads. When the day arrives – then all most in unison – the convertible tops drop magically out of sight – the engines come to life with a majestic lion’s (in Don and my case a Jaguar’s) roar – then out of the garage and off we go – becoming king of the road! But where are we going? That’s always the question. To the store? Usually not quite long enough and you can’t carry sheets of plywood in a small elegant British sports car. To the beach? Well, those days are not quite here yet – sand… no. Birmingham or Atlanta shopping? Nope, need the other car to haul the goods home. The question persists. Where to go???
Fortunately, in past months the BMCM members have sponsored some terrific trips. Barber Sports, Eufaula, Fairhope and a few in between. Usually, BMCM does one trip a month (with more to come). Where can we go and never leave town? Then the thought occurred – we could do a car rally! What a better way to drive a couple of hours on roads suitable for our sporty British cars driving a waypoint-to-waypoint course as a team – driver and navigator – around Montgomery County.
It was found that road rallies are not new to many car clubs and they operate on a variety of venues from racetracks and highways to off-road. Most organized rallies are timed and loaded with rules. Since there is no local track or off-road course available, what would probably work for the BMCM is a rally using local roads with a social twist – a scavenger hunt. It was time to make a proposal to the BMCM membership – and the BMCM membership foolishly agreed to schedule it for April’s drive outing.
The date was set April 19, 2014 to start and end at the Young Barn Oyster Bar and Pub with six teams signed up. Dave Price and Brandon Brazil – “Plugger One”; Angela and John, Foshee – “Team Krispy Kreme”; Dave Bundy and his daughters Nastia and Karina – “Team Tucker”; Don Green and his nephew Nathan – “Strato Blue”; Amanda & Blitz, and Andy and Kim Martin – “The Death-Birds”. As the teams arrived they were eager to get going. The route maps were handed out with the list of scavenger items to record. This would be the first time the teams were introduced to the entire route package. Right on schedule (sort of) and with great confidence “Plugger One” headed out with helmets donned, followed by the remaining five teams each a few minutes apart -all headed for Checkpoint One where Russell Whigham anticipated their arrival stamp in hand ready to check ‘em in and out.
Once the last car turned down Central Ave., Pam Bransford and I headed to Check Point one meeting up with Russell happily greeting any teams who hadn’t check in yet. Once we got Don and Nathan back on course we headed to Checkpoint Two. There we met the teams who hadn’t passed through the Creek Casio. Once there we found out the teams were having a great time figuring out the waypoints and actually staying on course. As the teams arrived at CP2 all were laughing and couldn’t wait to keep going.
Georgia Young volunteered to work CP3 at the Wood C M Pecan Company and cheerfully checked-in the BMCM teams sending them on the way on the last part of the rally. The folks at the Pecan Company were grateful they were a Checkpoint bringing them additional business on the Easter holiday weekend.
As the cars returned to the Young Barn Oyster Bar and Pub the conservations were about what scavenger items were found, what wrong turns were corrected and the roads not traveled before today. During lunch we talked about and the fun everyone had and doing another Car Rally in the near future. We did have a point scoring system to determine a winner. Points for scavenger items found and points for time closest to the average times along the way. We’ll announce the standings at the next meeting but we can say that “Plugger One” had the best times – but hold your bets…
Until next time…
Terry
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