[SPECTORracing]

I am looking into holding an ICE Rally on a lake with a combine total of 70 to 80 miles of Stages. This would be a 2-day event.
The lake will offer a new style of terrain. The ICE Rally I'm thinking will be run at MUCH higher speeds than a Woods Rally would be. The rally will allow DOT legal Studded tires.
The longest stage will be the perimeter of the lake being aprox 24 miles! Each stage will wrap around islands through out the lake.
China Lake Maine is the location I am looking at.
If the enough teams show interest I will be trying to get this rally on the NASA East Coast Rally championship.

The projected cost will be $600.00 per team for early registration. The high cost is due to my having to purchase allot of new equipment to facilitate the rally. (Radios etc.)

I may also be able to get a section of the stages to travel up threw woods on the land as well as the ice.

Any input on this event would be helpful.
Volunteers MORE than WELCOME!

 

[randyzimmer]

RE: location?

Near N or S China?
Sounds pretty easy to get to off 95.
As a suggestion...
4wd rubber-to-ice is close to 2wd w/street studs.
---
edit: But if it were a NASA points event, the classing would have to be consistant with the rest of the year so forget I said that.
rz

 

[FMF]

RE: location?

For sure! Maybe even do more than one. But I do worry about the cost $600 is a little steep. I can also help with people and logistics you shouldn't have to buy that much equipment. Send me an e-mail.

LDR boys come on right in our back yard!

 

[EricW]

Ralph,

Reduce your costs by working with the local HAM groups to do radio controls. WAY better quality of information passing, longer range, etc. Plus, that's one less thing that you have to worry about. It's in THEIR charter to do this sort of work for FREE. (You can't even legally pay them even if you wanted to!)

As far as LDR participation (I'm not the one with the checkbook, mind you) it all comes down to our participation in the CARS 2005 championship. Rumors have RIQ happening sometime in Feb so that could easily conflict with a potential ice race in Maine.

Races that we participate in generally need to be sanctioned such that they count for NARC points.

I'm sure that John or Dave will chime in at some point.

 

[rightseat]

Hi Ralph--

Yes, of course we'd be interested in an ice rally in Maine!

I
d suggest you team up with the NASA guys to get feedback on setting up the event, finding workers, arranging safety teams, etc.

From our standpoint, the only way we'd enter an event like this is if we had good confidence in the ability of organizers to ensure adequate stage controls...keep spectators, ATVs, snow sleds, etc OFF the course. I can't emphasize this enough...sure, the competitor safety level of an all-ice event should be good (snowbanks are WAY softer than trees or ditches) but spectator control will be your biggest bugaboo. We can't race for real if we can't be sure there won't be spectators in the way!

You mentioned sharply higher speeds than typical forest rallies...this is not necessarily "better" from a competitor's standpoint, or for an organizer for that matter. In fact, CARS and SCCA rules (don't know about NASA, but they should be similar) state that stages with average expected speeds of over 80 mph aren't allowed. The cars are built for agility and low- to mid-range acceleration, not outright speed. I'd rather see a tight twisty course with nice smooth sweepers and the occasional half-mile straight instead of a big wide-open course that just shows who is the craziest and keeps his foot down the longest.

Cheers,

Dave G
LDR

"...Embrace loose gravel, beware big trees..."

 

[FMF]

I second the comment about speed more isn't necessarily better. With not many bumps hills ext. twisty, tricky corners are going to be the name of the game. Also I am guessing there are no transits or very minimal so, why couldn?t it be run over 1 day? Great North Woods was a Forest Rally of 70+ miles and was complete between the hours of 10-5. Have tech run late Friday night and then open again early the next morning that way people don?t have to take Friday off if they are reasonably close.

 

[Charlie KA8OQF]

>Ralph,
>
>Reduce your costs by working with the local HAM groups to do
>radio controls. WAY better quality of information passing,
>longer range, etc. Plus, that's one less thing that you have
>to worry about. It's in THEIR charter to do this sort of
>work for FREE. (You can't even legally pay them even if you
>wanted to!)
>

Well, sortakindamaybe...

They can't get anything specifically for being ham radio operators, but they can get the same sort of goodies that any other worker of the event gets. This does not rule out their shirts/hats being a specific color for ease of identification. It doesn't rule out handing them the price of a tank of gas, as long as that perk is being extended to other workers (although it probably would attract slightly less attention if it was a gift cert to the local gas-a-torium).

Not that I expect to be paid for my efforts -- after all, I knew what the deal was going in. On the other hand, I'm not averse to receiving the occasional special little whatnot for my services...I have a very nice collection of worker goodies from over the years, and it's been literally DECADES since I had to buy a T-shirt or a hat...

 

[EricW]

Charlie,

Absolutely - but my point about purchasing radio rigs at 400-500 a pop is still valid. Why invest huge money in gear that will be used infrequently when you have a lively bunch of guys with equipment more expensive than the stuff that put man on the moon?

- K1WRX

 

[craig]

Does your insurance cover a breakthrough? Our club, here in Canada, long before I was a member or involved in mororsports, had a double fatality breakthrough on ice over water. The club got sued big time, it was a multiyear niughtmare for the executive etc., the policy didn't cover ice over water. It was a mess. Be careful!

Our ice events are on a ice over ground track, now.

Craig

http://www3.sympatico.ca/kchamm/rally1.html