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| RULES / DIRECTIONS / UNDERSTANDING THE ROAD BOOK | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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WHAT TYPE OF RALLY: This will be a European style Rally, such as the Italian Mille Miglia (1,000 Miles) rally. This will be a rally for fun with the purpose to teach you how to run a European style rally and prepare you to participate in other types of rallies. Any person that can continuously keep the same speed for 2 or 3 miles can make this rally. Once you've done one of these rallies, you can easily adapt to and follow any other type of rally. WHAT DO YOU NEED: A navigator (passenger), a GPS, a stop watch, and of course, a car. There will be two classes for the competition, cars up to 1989 and from 1990 to current. WHY THE NAVIGATOR?: On the morning of the Rally, you will be issued the Rally Road Book. The book will contain turn by turn instructions which will guide you to each destination and it will also tell you what speed you must maintain between certain road markers, and you must record the time that it took you from one marker to the other. Obviously, you cannot read the book, interpret the instructions, work the stop watch, and record the times, while at the same time, driving the automobile, that's where the Navigator comes in. The navigator will be in charge of telling you where to turn and at what speed you must be going, he/she will also be working the stop watch and recording the times where indicated by the Rally Book. HOW DOES IT WORK? This is is a PRECISION RALLY, NOT A SPEED RALLY. It is how EXACT you get there, NOT HOW FAST! You will record your times as you drive a specified course at a specified speed, winners will be determined by how close their time is to the official time. All of the instructions will be relayed to you by the Navigator as he/she follows the Rally Road Book. You will be leaving from the starting point and will follow the instructions at any speed you desire until you reach the beginning of an AUTO CONTROL, indicated by an odd number, where you will START YOUR STOP WATCH and drive at the designated speed until you pass the end of the AUTO CONTROL, indicated by an even number, where you will STOP THE STOPWATCH and write your time control in the book. You may continue at any desired speed until the next AUTO CONTROL. Example: Numbers 1, 3, 5, etc are all beginnings for each AUTO CONTROL, while numbers 2, 4, 6, etc, are the ending for each one. IE: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 will be the first three AUTO CONTROLS and you will record the ending times at 2, 4, and 6. Once you have completed all of the segments (AUTO CONTROLS) you will copy the time for each one to the appropriate space on the last page of the book. That last page will be turned in at the end of the day where we will validate your times. Only the organizers know the the exact time that it will take for you to complete each AUTO CONTROL. Provided that you maintained the constant speed as indicated, your times for each segment should match your recorded time. Any seconds over or under will be your penalty points. We will only add a maximum penalty of 60 seconds for each leg. The winner will be the one with the least amount of points at the end. PRACTICE: There will be two AUTO CONTROLS at the beginning, labeled 1,2,3, and 4, 1 will be the start and 2 will be the end of the first one, 3 will be the start and 4 will be the end of the second one. You will time these controls as instructed, ONLY, for these controls, we will give you the correct answers. You should check these times against your actual time and determine if you may have done anything wrong, you should do it again to feel more at ease, or if you are right on the mark! If you do the same leg multiple times, you will most likely get as many different times, just remember, within 60 seconds either way, you are in the game. The differences may be caused because you clicked on the stop watch a little too early or a little too late, or you relaxed your foot off the accelerator, or someone got in the way and you had to compensate to the time deviance, any number of reasons! DETERMINING IF YOUR CAR IS GOING AT THE ACTUAL REQUESTED SPEED: The GPS, although NOT allowed in most rallies, will be OK for this rally. Since you will not know the actual destination point of each leg, the GPS as a navigator, will not be practical, it only use will be to act as a speedometer OR an ODOMETER for your vehicle. Older, and even some newer cars, are not 100% correct when indicating the speed. Following the GPS speed you will give you a better chance of getting it right. CAUTION the GPS has a slight delay when changing speeds, so it may prove a bit inaccurate. The best use for the GPS is as an ODOMETER to determine your position and help you find the land marks. Your car's speedometer is the best way to keep an accurate speed. HOWEVER, you will need to calibrate your car's speedometer. One of the ways to do it is on an open, no traffic road, pick one of the different speeds such as 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, and 60, which are all the different speeds used on the rally. (Not all of them may be used at once). For this example, we will use 35. Don't look are your car's speedometer, using only the GPS speed, go until you reach a steady 35 MPH for about 30 seconds, without the speed changing on the GPS, NOW, look at your car's speedometer. If is says 35, it is super accurate, if it says 34 or 33 or 36, or 37 etc., that is the car's actual 35 mph speed. For example, if it says 37, then whenever the instructions say to go 35, you go 37 and you will be going 35! Do this for the other speeds and make a conversion table (sample shown below) to use on the Rally so that for example, when the Navigator says to go 60, you look at the conversion table and you know what Speedometer speed you have to go at to really be going at 60!
USE OF PROFESSIONAL OR OTHER TYPES OF RALLY MEASURING INSTRUMENTS: The Florida 300 Mile Rally is a competition where Sportsmanship prevails; it is a simple competition system so that all participants have the same chances of winning therefore, a distance meter should not be used. In the event that a car has installed measuring equipment enabled for another type of competition, it will not be necessary to remove them but if it does not correspond to the spirit of Rally, therefore, they will be sealed by the Technical Director. In the event that you are discovered using this type of equipment during the rally, you will be disqualified from the scoring. There will not be any refunds issued, but you are welcome to complete the marathon as a tourist, not a competing participant and you will not be allowed to register for any subsequent Rallys. INSTRUCTION (Rally Road) BOOK: Use the Following Graphics as you follow the location/item coded instructions below: |
| GUIDE TO THE COLUMNS IN THE ROAD BOOK |
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A - ## The instruction number, used for reference, not related to any mile marker (MM). Used for reference in an emergency, for example: Help! I can't find instruction 27's marker and I am already at Instruction 29! B - Total Distance The approximate distance from the starting point (START) of the Rally to that current instruction in the leg (ODOMETER MILE MARKER -MM)If you have traveled this distance or more, and you have not seen the next road marker as indicated in the book, then you took a wrong turn or passed the next instruction. If this happens GO BACK to the completion of the last instructions and try again. AUTO CONTROL lines, will not show the MM. Look at the MM before and after and more or less you know where to start looking for the instruction location. If you reach a certain mile marker and have not seen the way point you were looking for, then you passed it, go back to the last good instruction or marker, and start again. REMEMBER to set your ODOMETER so that you can still conform to the following instructions. Z - Partial Distance Not used any longer, just the MM is easier to use C - Directions The actions you have to make [turn left, turn right, go straight, etc. etc.] IMPORTANT: If this column is blank, then CONTINUE STRAIGHT (J)If this column contains the symbol  ,
then is is a Scenic Marker (Kodak Moment)
location. A small number just to the left,
is the locations sequential
number. This
number will be used to report your answers or
indicate that you have documented that location
and thus determine your Kodak Moment score.
Not used in all the Rallys, but if present,
it indicates a point that you have to document
by taking a Photo of item
(K). It will have
the exact mile marker (MM)
indication (that is why it's important to keep the MM accurate).
You must take a photo to document or it will not
be counted. You must also write any
required
answer, next to the
item (K)
in the book. Most will just
require a photo, but some will require a photo
AND an answer. Winner will be the one
with the MOST
(documented) finds.(K) Scenic Marker or Item you must document. Most will be in between the Auto Controls, but SOME will be within, Please be mindful that you will be multi-tasking on those that are within. Keep your drivers posted of the auto control start or end, don't miss an Auto Control because you are busy taking a photo. You will be multi-tasking - be vigilant. * - Signage/Comments/Markers The reference point at which you initiate the previous column's (C) instruction. It could be a Street Name, a Sign, a Signal Light, a Mile Marker, a Speed Signal, etc. etc. (D) STREET NAMES are done normal type: STREET NAME AVENUE (E) SIGNS are anything with the brackets: [WHATEVER GOES HERE AND IN BOLD, IS WHAT IT SAYS ON THE SIGN] (I) SPECIAL DIRECTIONS are anything within the //: //THIS IS A DIRECTION LIKE STAY TO THE LEFT OR ANYTHING ELSE TO HELP NAVIGATE - IT WILL BE ITALIC AND BOLD// (F)All signs, street names, reference points, landmarks, etc., will always be to your RIGHT, however, sometimes some of them will be to the left as you travel. In this case, the instructions will show a graphic indicating that it is to the Left of the line of Travel.  * - Auto Control / Special Instructions Here you will see a: Blinking Light, Stop Light, Stop Sign, et. This will help you when navigating, knowing that a STOP sign or light is coming (I)SPECIAL DIRECTIONS, anything within the //:, will also appear here. //THIS IS A DIRECTION LIKE STAY TO THE LEFT OR ANYTHING ELSE TO HELP NAVIGATE - IT WILL BE ITALIC AND BOLD// (G)Sometimes, the NEXT instruction will come faster than normal, so that you don't miss it, the Running Man will give you an indication of just how fast it is coming: The More Running Men, the CLOSER the NEXT instruction will be.  NEXT
Instruction is within 1/10 of a Mile - FAST!!
NEXT Instruction is within 2/10 of a Mile
NEXT Instruction is within 3/10 of a Mile
NEXT Instruction is within 4/10 of a Mile NO RUNNING MAN NEXT Instruction is 5/10 of a Mile or more away. This column will also contain the physical address of the START and END of each LEG. IF AT ANY TIME, YOU FEEL LOST, use the start / ending address to GPS your way there. NOTE: Most Rallies do not give you these addresses, one miss and you are out for the rest of the Rally, however, we want you to have fun, so we provide the ending address, and the most you'll miss is part of one leg. (H) This column also advises the beginning and the end of the auto control. These are the precision measurements you will be scored on. Odd numbers are the beginning of an AUTO CONTROL. The speed at which you have to drive each AUTO CONTROL will be shown. Even numbers are the end of an AUTO CONTROL. In this column, write the time it took you to complete each auto control, remember, EVEN numbers are the end of each auto control. L - Time This column shows you the number of the auto control. The TIME is not recorded here, this was the case in earlier Rallys, but we left the column unchanged for historical purposes and continuity. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES: ALWAYS follow the speed limits AND obey all traffic laws. SAFETY First and Foremost Stay within the posted speed limit You have to follow the designated speed only within each AUTO CONTROL. Other than when within an AUTO CONTROL, you may go at any speed you desire. Drivers, don't get distracted by the book while driving, pull over if you need to read it. All Auto Controls will be at or slightly less than the posted limit Do-Over are allowed: Go back to the last Mile Marker before the Auto Control and start from there BUT if you do-over, be sure to adjust for the Mile Marker re-set VERY IMPORTANT Be courteous of Faster Traffic, especially TRUCKS Edge over to the right to indicate for them to pass you FAMILY CHARITY: This "for fun" Rally is a non-profit event; the money charged is only to cover the expenses of the rally like course preparation, books, trophies, etc. Net proceeds will be donated to the scholarship fund the we support at McPherson College (see ABOUT_US). This is a FAMILY event, you may bring your children, other family members, or friends in the car with you. |
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