by Reinout Vogt
The Lucas Memorial Night Rally was a great event.
The holiday weekend may have caused a little bit lower MG attendance as
usual but the great showing of Miata's made for a full field and a competitive
event. And as promised rally master Dave Tucker had his `scoring ducks in
a row', and basically presented the results immediately following the finish
of the last car. The effect on the Championship are discussed below. Next
year, better (date) planning, some word of mouth of the extremely fast scoring,
the move to the excellent new restaurant, and hopefully even more Miata's may force
Dave to also find us a larger starting place because we'll be back up to
25-30 MG's.
This will be my last Rally Corner before the end of the driving season and
the Championship is in it's final sprint. When you read this, there is only
one more event to go, the Halloween Rally. Based on the standings prior
to the Siemens Autocross on October 11th, In the drivers category, Mike
(33 pts.) has the best hand but is (very) closely followed by Kelvin Palmer
(28 pts.) and Joanne Trowbridge (21.5 pts.) Navigators are also fighting
a tight race, with Richard Klein leading (31 pts.), Barb McCutcheon (22
pts.) and Vicki Palmer (19 pts.) chasing. In both categories many contenders
still have good chances for Top 10 spots. Therefore I expect a large turnout
at the Halloween Rally with strong competition for the top positions in
the Championship. But I expect not only these participants. Everybody who
did only a few events this year, or every team that wasn't so lucky to score
high, should be out there just to enjoy the last rally of the season without
the pressure to perform well for overall standings. Then everybody else,
I think all of you should plan on attending as well. It could be the last
ride of the season, hopefully we'll have some pretty fall colors, and many
MG's to enjoy. And lastly, to all members not feeling addressed by any of
the above descriptions yet; If all the other MG's will show up, as I expect,
than you better come out also, unless you don't mind missing what promises
to become a Grand Finale of the rally season !
As always; looking at the car in the garage over the winter is OK, working
and cleaning the car in the spring is fine too, running errands or commuting
to work in the summer is great, but nothing beats driving your MG together
with so many other MG's in your CMGC driving events.
Take Advantage of the Last Opportunity of this Season
The Halloween Rally
PS
The Porsche Club of America, has invited us to a TSD Rally to New Glares,
WI on October 24th & 25th (1 day participation also welcome). The date
conflicts with our engine party (see elsewhere in this issue) but if you
wish, please contact Jack Stephensen for more details at (847) 541-6100
Day, or (708) 865-2216 Evenings.
