Index for the completed year 2000 events:

April 29, 2000 - Utica Driving School
May 7, 2000   - Spring Rally
May 21, 2000 - Warrenville Autocross
June 11, 2000 - Rally 2000
June 25, 2000 - Utica Autocross
July 8, 2000   - Utica Enduro Autocross
July 9, 2000   - Miata - MG Invitational Autocross
Aug 5, 2000   - Lucas Memorial Night Rally
Aug 19, 2000  - Abingdon Gymkhana
Sept 3, 2000  - Siemen's MG Autocross
Oct 29, 2000  - Halloween Rally

Sept 4, 2000  - POINTS STANDINGS TO DATE
Jan 30, 2001  - SEASON CHAMPIONS CERTIFIED

As far as the rally it went good, I think, only a few frustrated and some protests on the questions and the route directions but that was expected. They were all in good spirits at the finish.

We had 10 teams run the rally and had top down weather all afternoon. Had some teams show up that had not done any club rally's before and some that had never rallied before at all. Had a Porsche 914 and a Alfa Graduate run too. No MGA's (other than mine but it did not run the rally that day). Some of the teams did get lost but no bailout maps used and they did get back on track and finished in the allotted time.

The winners were David Lieb and Michaela Lieb in a Midget with 400 points.
Second was Kelvin Palmer and Vicki Palmer in there MGC with 370 points.
With Amy Evans and Megan Glah in a MGB taking third at 330 points out of a possible 510 points.

The Bonus scores were not needed. The route was 62.7 miles and teams averaged 78.6 miles per car. A good time for all (I HOPE) and the Gathering at Duke O' Briens was a good place to cool off for the finish.

I learned a lot from running this rally and would think about doing one next year. They are a lot of work to set up and run but I had fun doing it.

Paul Urquhart

Rally 2000 Report(s)
by the winners, David and Michaela Lieb

What a way to start! I drove in the Austin Healey Club rally last September and got horribly lost (I guess you should leave enough time to read little details like “When you come to a T that is not in the directions, turn right”, but did they have to put three of these in a row?). I had so much fun, however, that I joined the CMGC at British Car Days mainly because of the rallies. I missed the Spring Rally, but my daughter Michaela and I showed up bright and early for Rally 2000.

Our 1974 red Midget was the third car to arrive at the starting point in Crystal Lake, but more showed up soon. After the sixth car drove up, Michaela looked around and asked “What is this? Christmas? Do these cars only come in red and green?

We were the second car off, determined to do better than last time. As if there was much choice! At least the deck was stacked in my favor for a change; I have driven many miles in McHenry County and my navigator has been trained in speed sign reading by many years of trying to beat me at the alphabet game. I was amazed at the number of cars that just weren’t interested in the price of cocoa bean shells or the name of the lake off to the right. But I pulled off of the road occasionally to let them to zoom past.

Stickney House is made out of a yellow-brick road, with arched windows, a flat roof, a strange roof-line, and round corners and it now serves as the Bull Valley Police Department, so “What is unusual about this house?”!?! When the results through fifth place had been announced at Duke O’Brien’s, I leaned over to tell Michaela “We’re in the top four!” I was really shocked after second place had been awarded and we had not been mentioned. All of that fun and a plaque, too!

My thanks to all of you who didn’t show up and beat me. I am sorry that you missed the fun, but you will know better next time.

David Lieb

I had a great time doing the rally. It was my first one and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. But I can read directions and questions and can write answers so I guess I qualified as a navigator. Some of the trivia questions were rather interesting. I was familiar with some of the area so that helped a bit. And I had a good driver!

Michaela Lieb

Keep the rubber side down.
Mike Olsen

The Endrocross was awesome! We each ran ten laps for an average time of about 6 minutes. This was much different from our normal autocross of 1minute. It gave you the closest feeling of running a road race and keeping the safety factor.

Scott Anderson did a great job of running the event. Everyone helped out by Timing, Policing cones, and flagging. Paul Urquhart supplied us with flags and chipped in by flagging the first bunch of runs.

There was also a photographer from the Ottawa Daily taking pictures to run an article about the closing of the track. We will try to get a copy to print in the driveline for all to see.

The driving season is anything but over. We have the Lucas night rally, Siemens autocross, landsend rally, Halloween rally and of course Abingdon all coming up.

I'll see you at the next event.

Keep the rubber side down.
Mike Olsen

We had only short notice and lack of any print ad in Driveline, but this event was noted on the club web site. Score one for the internet, as a few folks did notice the ad and found their way to Benton High School in Zion, Illinois, to have a fun time squeeling tires with the Windy City Miata Club

Three MGs showed up with four drivers. I didn't catch all the names, but I'll work on finding out after the fact. The Miata club has some devious method of breaking all the Miatas into about six different racing classes. They also make a class called "X Class" for all cars other than Miata. Since we had enough "other" type cars and drivers they made two "X" classes for this occasion, race tire cars and street tire cars.

My MGA ran in the XR Class, having to compete head to head against a BMW M3 (mostly stock but extremely fast) and a Honda Civic in Street Prepared form. The BMW M3 beat my best effort by 1-1/4 seconds (seems like it should have been a bit larger margin). But I did give the street prepared Honda a bad time, missing second place by just 0.22 second.

The XS Class was comprised of the other two MGs and three drivers. There was an orange MG Midget with rubber bumpers and stock suspension, with the driver doing his best it put on a good show with lots of smoke and squeel (and lots of body roll). The other car was a white chrome bumper MGB with two drivers, father and son as I recall, and with the son beating his dad's time handily. That was okay though, as it was the son's car and dad was just along for a little fun. I don't recall which car won the class, but one of them took home a trophy for the effort.

The Miatas put on a rather wild show, doing something I seldom see at any autocross event. It seems the Miata club has no objection to the contestants warming up the tires just before the start line, and several of them were taking full advantage of the opportunity. Occasionally it looked more like a burnout contest than an autocross, but they did all eventually get up the the starting line, Funny thing though, as the ones doing the most "tire warming" were not necessarily turning in the best times. Some of them were pretty fast though. One particularly memorable turbocharged Miata had a license plate stating "I EAT Z3", and I was actually inclined to believe it.

Well, we all had a good time playing fun car games, picked up some additional sun tan (or maybe sun burn), and to the best of my recollection nobody broke anything. I always figure that any time the MG makes it home under its own power it was a good day. And there may be a possibility of another such invitation sometime in the future. hopefully with a little more advanced notice so we can turn out a few more MGs.

Drive 'em 'till they drop,
Barney Gaylord