1996 Branded Rally Series
The Catoctin Monte VI
October 20, 1996
CAR # _______
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
INTRODUCTION: Welcome to the Catoctin Monte VI, sponsored by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Sports Car Clubs (MWCSCC), and the BRANDED Rally Club of Maryland. This rally is conducted in accordance with the MWCSCC 1996 Rally Championship Rules, copies of which will be on sale at registration. The rally is approximately 145 miles long, will take about 6 hours to complete, and includes a lunch break and two shorter breaks. The rally runs in Montgomery, Frederick, and Washington counties in Maryland, and Franklin and Adams counties in Pennsylvania.
This rally is in "Monte Carlo" format, a different approach from the more-common Time-Speed-Distance format. There are no assigned speeds, and you do not stop at controls. The route instructions include the location and the correct arrival time for each control. If you have questions, you may contact the rallymaster (see Information section below), or BRANDED club members will be available to answer questions at Registration.
The rally begins and ends at Milano's (formerly Zim's), located in the Fox Chapel Center in Germantown, Md. To reach the start from the Washington area, take Interstate 270 North. Exit at Middlebrook Rd East (Exit 13A). Then right at the 2nd traffic light onto Frederick Rd, then immediate Left toward "NO OUTLET" (Blunt Rd). Milano's is in the shopping center on your right. Food and fuel, are available nearby (McDonalds, 7-11, Exxon and Amoco). All breaks have rest rooms. Fuel is available at the lunch and afternoon breaks.
REGISTRATION PROCEDURES: Registration opens at 8:30 AM. The official time-of-day will be available by radio near registration. You must register no later than 20 minutes before your official start time, which is 9:30 AM plus your car number in minutes. Unclaimed car numbers may be assigned to walk-up registrants. You will not receive any score cards at registration, but will be given a tech inspection form and two car-number decals. One of the number decals is to be mounted on the right (passenger) side of the front bumper, facing the front of the car. The other decal goes on the right side rear bumper, facing rear. The rear number must be visible from the left and right rear sides of the vehicle. Do not place car numbers over any lights or glass, this is a safety violation. The car-number decals must be mounted properly to allow the control workers to identify you, allowing you to be scored correctly.
A safety inspection will be required. To obtain your Route Instructions, you must inspect your car at registration. The inspection will include basic safety items such as lights, horn, wipers, tires, and seat belts.
Route instructions will be available 20 minutes before your start time. Make sure that all the pages are included and that they are legible. The rally is "self start", but please do not leave early.
SAFETY: The most important aspect of this, or any other, rally is safety. You must wear seat belts (MWCSCC Rule I:1.1.4, page 2). Your car can be refused entry if it is in an unsafe condition. Any car that is observed by a rally official to be endangering life or property will be disqualified immediately. Consumption, or being under the influence of, alchoholic beverages and/or controlled substances is prohibited.
BOUGHT TIME: Bought Time plays a very important role in this rally. You are encouraged to buy time if you fall behind, rather than drive beyond the speed limit and risk an accident or citation. Due to the Monte Carlo format and the nature of the roads used, it will be difficult or impossible to make up time if you are delayed by local traffic or an off-course excursion. The penalty for buying time is equal to your adjusted score at the next manned control (possibly 0) up to a maximum of 20 points. This is also known as "Disappearing Bought Time." The minimum and maximum amounts of time that can be bought in the morning or afternoon sections are 0.50 and 29.50 minutes respectively. If you are 30 minutes or more late, you cannot buy time. A Bought Time Request form will be included with your route instructions. The form must be filled out and turned in immediately upon your arrival at the lunch break and the finish in order for your request(s) to be approved.
Any time bought in the morning is canceled at the lunch break. Turn in your Bought Time request at the lunch break. You will receive another blank Bought Time Request form. Your correct arrival time at the first Control following the lunch break will again be the Key Time plus your car number. You may buy time again in the afternoon, using another Bought Time Request form, as though you had never bought time before.
After buying time, it is possible for two cars to have the same adjusted arrival time. This means that two cars will be on each others' bumper. If when you buy time, you find yourself on another car's bumper (front or rear), you must buy another minute (no additional penalty). Control workers will disqualify cars driving in an unsafe manner, such as "tailgating".
EMERGENCY SIGNS: If necessary, the lead car will erect emergency signs to guide rally traffic. An example will be on display in the registration area. Instructions on emergency signs override all other instructions.
COURSE MEASUREMENT: The course was measured to 1/1000's of a mile in a light pewter 1985 Nissan 200SX shod with steel-belted radial tires using a Zeron 660 rally computer run by a sensor on the left-front (undriven) wheel. The roads were dry and the temperatures were moderate with partly cloudy skies. The official mileages shown in the route instructions have been truncated to 1/100's. Each measurement was made to one of the following reference points:
Signs: Even with the sign
Objects: The beginning of the object
Intersections with a STOP: The STOP sign
Other intersections: The apex of the turn or the center of the intersection
ROUTE INSTRUCTIONS: The route instructions for this rally are written to help you stay on course. Unofficial information which is intended to be helpful is provided in parentheses. Road names are frequently provided as unofficial information, but remember that an instruction can be executed even if a sign that is referenced by unofficial information is missing (you may find some of these). Official mileages are provided for each instruction in the Mile column in the routes. This is the mileage since the odometer was last zeroed. Unofficial Delta (Interval) mileage since the beginning of the previous instruction is also provided for each instruction.
To follow the rally course, perform each action of each route instruction in sequence as soon as the conditions necessary for its execution are met. Each instruction will be performed only once, and there can be no overlap between instructions. If you come to an intersection and cannot perform the current instruction, proceed in the straightest direction possible and continue looking for an opportunity to execute that instruction.
Only public roads exist. Roads marked "Dead End", "No Outlet", "Private Drive", "Road Ends", etc., do not exist. Any road that is clearly private, a driveway, plant entrance, parking lot, etc., does not exist. Exceptions are the parking lots and roads used for the start, finish, and breaks of this rally. Divided highways are treated as single roads.
Both paved and unpaved roads are used. Key times have been adjusted considering the condition of the roads.
Cautions are provided to alert you to situations requiring reduced speed and extra attention. See the Glossary for definitions. Please take the cautions seriously, they are there for your safety. Cautions are not course following instructions.
CONTROL (CHECKPOINT) PROCEDURES: This rally uses closed (also called "passage") controls. No scorecards are used, you do not stop, and the timing is continuous. Time lost on a leg must be made up on the next leg (see Bought Time above). The timing line for a Control is identified by a checkpoint sign () on the right side of the road as you approach the Control. Some checkpoint signs may be on mirror boxes. Many will be smaller signs, a sample of which will be on display at registration. These signs will be attached to any available support: trees, utility poles, road signs, stakes, etc. Controls may be located on a variety of roads, some unpaved, some with double yellow lines.
The control locations are identified by numbered route instructions that contain the word "Control" followed by its name and "Key Time" followed by a Time-of-Day. The times are shown to minutes and 1/100's. Approximately equal, but unofficial, times to minutes and seconds are shown in parentheses. An official Overall Mileage is always given, and the Key Time is the correct arrival time for Car 0. Add your car number to the Key Time to get your correct arrival time.
Controls may be either manned or unmanned, and it may not be obvious which are which. All unmanned controls will have checkpoint signs at the start of the rally, however their remaining in place throughout the rally cannot be guaranteed. The mileages given are correct. At manned controls, the Control Workers note in their log the exact arrival time (minutes and 1/100's) for each car as its front bumper passes the checkpoint sign.
Within 1/4 mile of a Control you are not permitted to stop or creep (less than 15 MPH on pavement, less than 10 MPH on unpaved), unless within an intersection, or take evasive action (e.g., U-turn) in order to delay or avoid crossing the timing line. Violation of this regulation will result in a 100 point penalty if observed.
RESULTS and TROPHIES: The scores for each team will be calculated from the timing logs kept at each manned control. Partial results will be posted as soon as each control's timing log is scored. There will be a protest procedure as per the MWCSCC rules. Trophies will be awarded immediately after the scores are final. First place in each class will receive a trophy, and additional trophies will be awarded in each class that has more than seven entries.
SCORING: The following penalties will be assessed:
1 point each 0.01 minute early or late at a control, up to 300.
300 points three to thirty minutes early or late at a control.
600 points more than thirty minutes early or late at a control, or for missing a control completely.
100 points creeping, or delaying crossing the timing line as described above.
100 points for the first failure to wear seat belts.
0 to 20 points Bought Time as described previously.
Disqualification Any of the following:
GLOSSARY: See the MWCSCC Rules, Article I, Section 4.0 (pages 14-17), plus:
BTZ Begin Transit Zone.
ETZ End Transit Zone.
Key Time The Official Arrival Time for Car #0 at a Control. Or the Departure Time for Car #0 at an instruction other than a Control (such as a break). (The correct arrival time for each car that has not bought time is equal to the Key Time plus its car number in minutes.)
Traffic Light An intersection controlled by one or more traffic regulating lights, which need not be operating.
(This is an exception to the MWCSCC Rally Championship Rules.)
Water Break A place on a road where water run-off has eroded the road. Slow down
for all Water Breaks.
INFORMATION:
Eric Bloom (703) 313-8245
MONTE CARLO RALLY TECHNIQUES: In a Monte Carlo rally your object is to get to each control at the correct arrival time for your car. The remainder of this document is unofficial and is provided to assist you in doing well in this event.
It may help to set your clock to Car 0 time (Time-of-day minus your Car #). You now have less arithmetic to do - your clock will match the key times.
There are no assigned speeds. You know where the controls are. Some experienced competitors proceed to a point short of the next control. If there is time to stop, they wait there until the appropriate moment to drive into the control at a moderate speed. 0.5 miles short and an entry speed of 30 MPH (2.00 minutes per mile) means leaving the stop point one minute before your due time. Some controls are on very narrow roads and 30 MPH may not always be safe. 0.4 miles at 24 MPH (2.50 minutes per mile) also equals one minute. Remember that you may not stop within 1/4 mile of a control. Use caution when stopping - you must find a safe place to stop. Many roads will have non-rally traffic that will need to get by you. Other rally cars may want to pass, and then you may pass them again before entering the control. (They picked a different location to stop.)
You will need to read ahead in the route instructions in order to get good scores. Some control locations may be located close to intersections, or in areas of varying road conditions, and it may not always be possible to drive into the control at a constant speed.
In general, if you are passing other rally cars, you are probably driving too fast. If other rally cars are passing you, you may be driving too slow (but don't feel obligated to go faster than you are comfortable with).
Bought Time Request -- Instructions
Basics: In the usual Time-Speed-Distance format, you have a time-of-day restart after each control (the "out time"), so time lost on a leg does not have to be made up on the next leg. In the Monte-Carlo format of this rally you do not stop at controls, any time lost must be made up. Many of the roads used are narrow, and safe passing will often not be possible. If you are delayed by an off-course excursion or local traffic, it will usually not be possible to make up the time except by dangerous or illegal driving.
Bought time is the solution to this problem. It is easy to "buy" time: carefully fill out the Bought Time Request form, sign it, and hand it to the Scorer at the end of the rally. The "cost" (scoring penalty) of buying time is very low: equal to your adjusted timing error (possibly 0) up to a maximum of 20 points. You are urged to use Bought Time rather than drive illegally or recklessly.
For example: You miss a turn on the course. When you realize this, the time is 10:14.70 (10:14 and 70 1/100's). Turn around (cautiously) and return, driving at the same speed, to the location where you should have turned. When you reach the correct place, the time is 10:16.90. It took 0:02.20 to return, for a total off course time of 0:04.40 (because you returned at the same speed). You need to buy 4.50 minutes. Wait 0.10 minutes, then proceed on course. On the Bought Time Request form, enter the name of the next control, and 4.50 as the amount of this buy. Don't rush, you can buy an additional minute if you need it. Instead of waiting 0.10 minutes, wait 1.10 minutes, and buy 5.50.
The minimum and maximum amounts of time that can be bought are 0.50 and 29.50 minutes respectively. If you are 30 minutes or more late, you cannot buy time.
How Bought Time Works: For each control add your car number to the Key Time to get your correct arrival time. This number plus your bought time equals your adjusted correct arrival time. This adjustment, once made, applies to all subsequent controls until the lunch break or the end of the rally. The penalty (if any) is applied only once per buy at the next manned control. Multiple buys before a single manned control will be consolidated into a single buy. In summary, to determine your correct arrival time, add the bought time, and your car number, to the Key Time.
A Potential Problem: After buying time, it is possible for two cars to have the same adjusted arrival time. If Car 2 buys 4.50 minutes, and Car 4 buys 2.50 minutes, both cars will be adding 6.50 to the Key Time. The result is that both cars will be trying to be in the same place at the same time. The solution is for one of the cars to buy an extra minute. Usually the second car in line will be the first to realize that it needs to drop back a minute. Do not tailgate! There is no added penalty for buying an additional minute. Remember that you may not stop within 1/4 mile of a control.