RALLYING IN 1967
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Terry
Rockhold and I began competing in rallies in 1967, starting with the
"Festina Lente" event near Cleveland. He was the
driver; I was the navigator.
A few months later, we were still beginners when we entered a relatively simple "Project VI" rally that was put on by the Scioto Sports Car Club near Columbus. I brought along my recorder to tape our conversation and later typed up the following transcript.
Rallying requires following printed instructions. Some of the instructions tell you where to turn; others tell you what speed to maintain. As navigator, I read the instructions to the driver, but a large part of my job was using a set of tables to keep us on schedule.
The system that we developed: I would calculate and write on a pad what the second hand on our clock should be reading the next time that our odometer reached an even mile or half-mile. Terry would wait for the odo to turn over to .0 or .5, then read the clock and compare it to the pad. If we were ahead, he'd drive a little slower; if we were behind, he'd pick up the pace.
As
we join the transcript, we're working on instruction 12, "Left
after ROAD END." In other words, we need to first find a
ROAD END sign, then turn left at the next road. But because of
traffic, we haven't been able to maintain the 29.2 mph average speed
specified in the instructions.
Driver: At 59.09 it's what, now?
Navigator: 13:38. And your current reading . . . .
Driver: Yeah, well, it's, it's about now.
Navigator: Okay, you're about half a minute behind. Maybe a little more.
Driver: (passes a car) Half a minute?
Navigator: Yeah. So I'll check you at the next full mile.
I'm not allowing for that clock because I don't have time to. We're moving too fast. Where'd my rally book go? It's going to be 15:45.
Oh, brother. (Horn honks.) Don't go around him too fast, now.
Driver: Come on, baby, come on!
Navigator: Now this might be it. (Four-second pause until ROAD END sign can be read.) Hooray!
Driver: Now what do I do?
Navigator: Left, left, left, left. But stop first, boy. (car slides to stop, then starts up again) Okay, the next [instruction] is "Right after ROAD END." I think we're about back on [schedule] now. When you get up to this mileage, check it out.
Driver: Five; oh-nine?
Navigator: Oh-nine.
Driver: (snaps fingers) Yeah. I'm . . . four ahead.
Navigator: Four ahead?
Driver: Behind, behind, behind.
Navigator: Behind; okay. I'll give you a half-mile check there.
Driver: Good, give me a half.
Navigator: It'll be simply 33. Now, I have not allowed for tire expansion or clock error.
Driver: Yeah.
Navigator: I should start allowing for that now, though; we're back — right after ROAD END, you know that.
Driver: All right.
Navigator: Okay. Since the start . . . .
Driver: Is it 33 for the half?
Navigator: 33 for the half. 33 seconds.
Driver: I'm late.
Navigator: Let's see; we've come 17 minutes; that's three seconds I should have added to my clock, so let's make that thirty-six. (Horn honks.) That's 36 for the half.
Driver: I missed my check.
Navigator: It's supposed to be 36 at the half.
Driver: Huh?
Navigator: Supposed to be 36 at the half.
Driver: I missed it anyhow. Give me a full.
Navigator: Full mile.
Driver: I'm going to drop back to 30 [miles per hour]. I think I'm about on.
Navigator: This'll be, taking two seconds off that, full at 34; and I'd better write all this down now. That's . . . .
Driver: Full at 34?
Navigator: Um-hm.
Driver: Geez!
Navigator: Now you're watching for a ROAD END, and I hope I haven't lost anything here.
Driver: Oh, kraut, I made up too much time.
Navigator: There's the ROAD END ahead. Uh, I'm allowing . . . three sec—
Driver: Right.
Navigator: Right, right. Right after ROAD END.
Driver: That'll give me a 20 — oh, geez, I'm early.
Navigator: Well, stop here for 12 seconds.
Driver: Not that much. (Makes the right turn.) All right, next?
Navigator: Next, "First right in Licking County." I'm trying madly to calculate here.
Driver: Whoop, Franklin County sits right there.
Navigator: Licking County. Licking.
Driver: Yeah. Well, Franklin County's that side, so we could be in Licking County.
Navigator: (pointing out Entering Licking County sign) Right here. Notice? Okay, take the first right.
Now maybe I can get a chance to calculate. Seventeen; 9 and 25 are 34. Okay, the half mile will come at 32.
Now, what should I throw in for tire expansion? 30/60; I should take about a tenth off my correction for ten miles; couldn't be much. That wouldn't be anything.
Driver: (completing the half mile) Uh, one ahead.
Navigator: First right, remember?
Driver: Yeah.
Navigator: As far as I —
Driver: Hairy! That was hairy.
Navigator: As far as I know, we're back on schedule. I may have made an error someplace along the way, but I don't know of it.
Now, the full; what's your odo?
Driver: 61.80.
Navigator: Okay, we're coming up on 62, which will be from this point . . . uh . . . .
Driver: This would appear to be my right here. (Turn signal clicks.)
Navigator: Yeah, okay, the next instruction is "Left on 156."
We don't know it, but we've just made a costly error.
Driver: (avoiding another car) Geez, I crowded him out. Just a minute, just a minute, just a minute, just a minute. (to navigator) What?
Navigator: "Left on 156."
I should have started all over again there from that point, since I made a correction, so, uh, 31 is your next check. That's a full.
Driver: I've already missed it.
Navigator: Already missed it?
Driver: I'm a little behind, apparently.
Navigator: Okay, 29 will be the half.
Oh, wait a minute. Your odo is now past 62?
Driver: That's right.
Navigator: Uh, I was in error. I think. No, I wasn't. I was correct.
(Sees a road to the right.) Now, is this 156? Stop and we'll check it out. No, it's 26. Besides, we're going left on it.
Driver: That's right. I knew that.
Navigator: Yeah.
Driver: A half at 29?
Navigator: Yeah.
Driver: (completing the half mile) Right on.
Navigator: Okay, the full . . . you're coming up now on 63 miles?
Driver: That's right.
Navigator: That's going to be two, three, should be 21 minutes and 31 seconds.
Driver: (seeing a bright green paper plate tacked to a utility pole) Off-course marker!
Navigator: Turn around and go back.
Driver: How'd we miss that?
Navigator: I don't know. Glad you saw that. (The U-turn is completed.) Odo me.
Driver: 62.88. Oh, what do you think we should do?
Navigator: Go back there and we'll probably find 156.
Driver: Now it's going to be on our right.
Navigator: Yeah. "Left" . . . it says "on 156."
Driver: I thought you said turn right, uh, left onto it.
Navigator: Yeah. Well, it'll be "turn right on" now.
Driver: That's what I meant.
This sure the devil is hard to follow! Or else we loused up that other one.
Well, I can see why they had trouble! This thing's sure —
Navigator: This is 26, right?
Driver: Yes. This thing sure is not easy to follow!
There's nothing there.
We could possibly have missed that other one.
(Fast driving in silence for 14 seconds.)
I didn't see an off-course mark—
Navigator: Hang on there; what have we got here?
Driver: Oh, drat!
Navigator: There —
Driver: This is where we made our turn.
Navigator: This is 111, not —
Driver: Apparently we missed the road back here. We must not have taken the first right.
Navigator: There's some people going that way too. That was 111.
Driver: Well, then therefore . . . we know that, we didn't see a 156, so we've got to go back and find the first right in Licking County. Right?
Navigator: Is that previous? Yes.
Now, were we down this road before, I hope?
Driver: Kraut, there goes another car. Well, that had a blasted green sign.
Navigator: Yeah. We can protest this one if —
Driver: Yes, there was a sign up. It was just like his; it had to be an off-course marker.
Now, there's a road here.
Navigator: (as it turns out to be a driveway) No, no, no.
Driver: Well, this thing's right up here [at the county line], so it's got to be close, if it's there.
Navigator: Wait a minute! We haven't taken the first — this is where we came in.
Driver: I know.
Navigator: Here's Licking County. We — somehow, we got an instruction ahead.
Driver: Why?
Navigator: We didn't take the first right, ever.
Driver: Yes, we did, up there.
Navigator: Oh, you . . . mm. Wait a minute; we came down this road.
Driver: Maybe they called that a bear, go straight ahead. [I.e., perhaps when we thought we were executing a right turn, with our turn signal and everything, we were actually continuing down that road to the right because it was the most nearly straight ahead. In that case, we should still have been looking for our "First right in Licking County" and should have turned right on Route 26 instead of passing it up.]
Navigator: Yeah, that was a straight.
Driver: (making another U-turn) Oh, kraut, that was a redundant instruction!
Navigator: Read, read, read your, read your odometer, please.
Driver: 64.52. [We've backtracked 1.64 miles since the last U-turn.]
That would've been redundant.
Navigator: Yeah.
Driver: Oh, kraut, we should've gotten that one. Aah, that was dumb! It was a redundant one; we should have realized it. Well, I was going to ask you! I started . . . .
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I think this was the key corner, and it probably looked like this in 1967. We were on Clark and should have continued east on Morse without using an instruction to "turn right." Nowadays the roads have been realigned for safety, as shown in the second image, and a rallyist would need an instruction to turn east on Morse. With more experience, we eventually did get better at this game. |
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