brit butt rally 2015
Pre Rally Thoughts
The countdown has now begun…it’s less than a week to the
2015 Brit Butt Rally. Final instructions
were sent out on 6th May with some changes from previous years.
First of all, there is an earlier check in. Check in in begins at 14:00, then the bike gets a once over from the technical inspector to make sure that lights, general condition, security of all accessories, aux fuel tanks (properly plumbed, not plastic cans) and tyre tread check.
Then there is a check route to calibrate everyone’s odometer. In previous year’s this was a bit redundant as it would only come into play in the event of a tie. However, this year, entrants have the option of completing a BB1500 during the rally (1500 miles over a 36 hour period). It won’t necessarily lead to high scoring, but is always an option I suppose. We have also been sent the check route (22.7 miles according to Autotroute) as in previous years, some riders managed to get lost using the paper hand out. I’m not sure how, since it was leave the hotel, head along the motoway until junction x, and come back to the hotel. This year, with the change in hotel, it’s head out along the A45 until the A4040 turn off, and come back to the hotel.
The next change is that you get your rally book once you’ve finished the odometer run. In previous years it was handed out at the rally meeting in the evening. The rally master has said that getting the book early would not give an unfair advantage to those who can’t get there at 14:00, so we’ll just have to see how much detail is included. As usual, theories abound on the forum, but my guess is that the combo bonus values (or even the combos themselves) won’t be included. That would at least allow you to enter the locations into the route planning software, and get everything ready to start route planning. It would level the playing fields for the less IT savvy competitors in some way.
After the meal, the rally briefing is at 20:00. This is compulsory, but I do wonder what sort of person would miss it anyway…Then it’s off to your room to start planning.
Everyone should be at their bikes by 05:30 the next morning, for final checks and ready to start the rally at 06:00.
In another change, the final finishing time is 18:00. This is because, on your return you are handed an envelope into which all of your completed paperwork is placed then handed into the scorers…there’s no going back at that point.
First of all, there is an earlier check in. Check in in begins at 14:00, then the bike gets a once over from the technical inspector to make sure that lights, general condition, security of all accessories, aux fuel tanks (properly plumbed, not plastic cans) and tyre tread check.
Then there is a check route to calibrate everyone’s odometer. In previous year’s this was a bit redundant as it would only come into play in the event of a tie. However, this year, entrants have the option of completing a BB1500 during the rally (1500 miles over a 36 hour period). It won’t necessarily lead to high scoring, but is always an option I suppose. We have also been sent the check route (22.7 miles according to Autotroute) as in previous years, some riders managed to get lost using the paper hand out. I’m not sure how, since it was leave the hotel, head along the motoway until junction x, and come back to the hotel. This year, with the change in hotel, it’s head out along the A45 until the A4040 turn off, and come back to the hotel.
The next change is that you get your rally book once you’ve finished the odometer run. In previous years it was handed out at the rally meeting in the evening. The rally master has said that getting the book early would not give an unfair advantage to those who can’t get there at 14:00, so we’ll just have to see how much detail is included. As usual, theories abound on the forum, but my guess is that the combo bonus values (or even the combos themselves) won’t be included. That would at least allow you to enter the locations into the route planning software, and get everything ready to start route planning. It would level the playing fields for the less IT savvy competitors in some way.
After the meal, the rally briefing is at 20:00. This is compulsory, but I do wonder what sort of person would miss it anyway…Then it’s off to your room to start planning.
Everyone should be at their bikes by 05:30 the next morning, for final checks and ready to start the rally at 06:00.
In another change, the final finishing time is 18:00. This is because, on your return you are handed an envelope into which all of your completed paperwork is placed then handed into the scorers…there’s no going back at that point.
Well, it’s all over and done with for another year. It was a rally of mixed feelings for me, with
my highest placing so far, but having to cut my rally short at 4 a.m. on Sunday
morning thanks to a puncture. A case of
what if’s as usual then…
So what happened…
So what happened…
Planning
I set off at 7:30 on Friday morning. I usually take in quite a few other rally
checkpoints on the way down, but with the rally books being handed out on
arrival, I thought I’d get there reasonably early this year. So one stop at Devil’s Bridge for a Manc
Riders location (and a bacon roll obviously), then I was meeting Dawn at
Lancaster for lunch (she was helping out during the rally and was taking the
car down)
One more Round Britain location after lunch and I got to the
hotel at about 15:30. Odometer check
route done, bike technical check done and then into the rally room to receive
my rally book from John Young, this year’s rally master. He handed it over with the phrase “your rally
begins now”. I just took this to mean
that it was time to start getting your mind in the right gear to start
planning, but it was more literal than that…more on that later. John also reminded me to read the book
carefully. We’re told this each year, and I haven’t managed to get any of the
locations wrong so far, but again, the deviousness of John’s mind would become
apparent later on.
My plan was to get the “technical” parts of the rally planning out of the way before dinner, which meant renaming the checkpoints on the laptop, transferring them onto each sat nav, and grouping them into low, medium, high and very high scores. The various combination bonuses made this a bit awkward as, although individually low scoring, the combo was high, but I think I eventually got my head around it.
What I couldn’t figure out was, just how John was going to ensure that those arriving later weren’t at a disadvantage. All of the details seemed to be in the book to allow you to start planning a full route, along with the combos and points values, so my earlier theory was out of the window.
During dinner, each rider was handed an envelope with instructions not to open it until we were told…the plot thickens. At the rally briefing there were the usual reminders about safety, contact details and general instructions, then John reminded everyone about his comment when handing the rally books out. “Your rally starts now”. In the book it stated that “you should keep your rally book with you at all times during the rally”. It’s even in capitals and bold font. So when John asked all riders to stand up, then asked all those who didn’t have their flags with them to sit back down again, I twigged that he really did man your rally starts now. With no flag, it meant I had just lost out on 250 points! Not a huge amount but it could mean an extra place on the leader board.
Then we were told about some additional bonuses. First of all, there’s been a history of the rally master’s affectionately being renamed the rally bas**rd. This year John decide to throw that back at the riders and was offering 1000 points for each letter, plus an additional 2000 points if you got all 7. These letters had to come from the first letter of the company on an estate agents sign…but they had to be in order (which would be checked via photographs).
Then the coup de grace, John’s method of ensuring that those early arrivals who had time to plan a route, didn’t gain an unfair advantage. In a previous rally, John found himself driving past the rally hotel in the early hours of the morning, but he couldn’t stop in for a rest or sleep…a slightly depressing thought. So he thought he’d share the misery and pointed out an error in the rally book. Obviously if we had all read it carefully as instructed, we would have noticed that bonus 64 was missing. There was even a clue on the front of the rally book itself. I certainly hadn’t noticed (it also meant I’d have to renumber all of my bonuses from 65 onwards…)
So what was bonus 64. It wasn’t worth any points. But it was compulsory and failure to get this would be an instance DNF (did not finish) and your rally was over. Quite simply, you had to check in at the rally hotel between 16:00 and 19:00 on Saturday, stay for a minimum of 15 minutes, then you could be on your merry way.
I think a few of the early arrivals had just mentally scrapped their plans at that point…
So once the cursing had died down, everyone heading off to their rooms to begin planning.
A quick look at the locations and their seemed to be four broad groups of high scoring locations. One was in France and Belgium,. There were another group in Scotland, traditionally a destination for high placed finishers in the past. Another was down in the South West around Cornwall and Devon, and the last was in the South East. But then you had to take combination bonuses into account. The highest combo bonuses were for a group of 5 locations in NW Wales….plus Land’s End (9250 points). The next two combos were worth 7500 points, a group of border crossing signs (two locations on the English/Welsh border and two on the Scottish/English border), and three lighthouses in Scotland. The next was worth 4750 points for John’s cottage, just along the road, and its namesake in Aviemore. Finally, another combo using John’s collection of bikes, and the national motorcycle museum, also nearby, was worth 2750 points, butt John’s house was timed so you had to be there between 11:00 and 15:00 on Saturday.
One more combo bonus varied depending on how many of the Triumph dealer checkpoints you visited. 5 would get you and extra 250 points, 6 would mean 500, 7 equals 1000, 8 was worth 2000 points, 9 was 4000 points and 10 or more would next you a whopping 8000 additional points.
There were also the standard points for fuel log, text in bonus and the rest bonus. This year the rest bonus was slightly different. First of all it wasn’t compulsory and it also comprised 3 separate rests. With 15,000 points for a 3 hour break, it would be daft not to take it. An additional 3000 points for a 1 hour break, and a final 1000 points for ½ hour. You could combine them all and take 4 ½ hours to earn 19,000 points just for resting.
I usually try and plan two or three routes for comparison’s sake, but with all of these complications, I only managed one this year.
I looked at the high point groupings and discounted the cross channel ones because of the hassle of getting across the channel on a bank holiday. Next I discounted the Scottish ones because I thought that there would be long stretches of scoring no points getting either to or from them and in any case, they couldn’t be done on Saturday and get back to the rally hotel in time for the compulsory bonus.
Which left the SW, SE and that big combo bonuses in Wales. Previous rallies have shown that the SW during a bank holiday weekend is a non-starter, and it’s pretty much the same with Wales. However, the points values might just justify it this time, so I decided to work out a route and see how it went. A quick check saw that, even heading straight for Land’s End from the start wouldn’t get me there early enough to miss the traffic, and heading for London would be tight, and I’m not familiar with London to know whether there is any “quiet” spell for driving. So I looked at Wales first. Since we had to get back to the hotel later on, I figured that it would be best to start in the South, then head up to the combo bonuses in the NW, before looping up to the Triumph dealer in Stoke-on-Trent, before swinging back to the hotel. The dealer had an addition 1750 points for getting a photo with Jeff (whoever he was…), but only between 09:00 and 17:00 on Saturday. After plugging in a few more locations on the general route, I figured I could just get to John’s house in time to get a picture of “Son of Sam”, then onto the museum for the other half of the bonus, before the check in time.
That left the final part of the “Welsh” combo at Land’s End, and I reckoned that a run from the hotel to their would get me down by late Saturday night, so at least the holiday traffic would be clear. Then taking me rest break would see me have time to head across the south coast, across to Folkestone, before the run back up to Coventry, my major concern was the M25 and the fact that I have no idea how busy it might be on a bank holiday Sunday morning.
But time was marching on so I checked how many Triumph dealers I had so far. There were 6, so that was worth 500 points, but if I could squeeze in another couple, that would make it 2000. A slight detour to the basic route found them and I was now in a position to make sure that the various timings worked for Daytime only and restricted bonuses. I even had plenty of time to look for estate agents signs at the end!
It was at this point that I’d made a very small, but ultimately crucial error…but I’ve only noticed it once I'm back in the comfort of my own house and analysing my route…more on that at the end.
So all of the checkpoints were written down, ETA’s added and any additional information required at each stop and at 00:30, it was time to get a few hours sleep before meeting in the car park at 05:30 for a final odometer check.
My plan was to get the “technical” parts of the rally planning out of the way before dinner, which meant renaming the checkpoints on the laptop, transferring them onto each sat nav, and grouping them into low, medium, high and very high scores. The various combination bonuses made this a bit awkward as, although individually low scoring, the combo was high, but I think I eventually got my head around it.
What I couldn’t figure out was, just how John was going to ensure that those arriving later weren’t at a disadvantage. All of the details seemed to be in the book to allow you to start planning a full route, along with the combos and points values, so my earlier theory was out of the window.
During dinner, each rider was handed an envelope with instructions not to open it until we were told…the plot thickens. At the rally briefing there were the usual reminders about safety, contact details and general instructions, then John reminded everyone about his comment when handing the rally books out. “Your rally starts now”. In the book it stated that “you should keep your rally book with you at all times during the rally”. It’s even in capitals and bold font. So when John asked all riders to stand up, then asked all those who didn’t have their flags with them to sit back down again, I twigged that he really did man your rally starts now. With no flag, it meant I had just lost out on 250 points! Not a huge amount but it could mean an extra place on the leader board.
Then we were told about some additional bonuses. First of all, there’s been a history of the rally master’s affectionately being renamed the rally bas**rd. This year John decide to throw that back at the riders and was offering 1000 points for each letter, plus an additional 2000 points if you got all 7. These letters had to come from the first letter of the company on an estate agents sign…but they had to be in order (which would be checked via photographs).
Then the coup de grace, John’s method of ensuring that those early arrivals who had time to plan a route, didn’t gain an unfair advantage. In a previous rally, John found himself driving past the rally hotel in the early hours of the morning, but he couldn’t stop in for a rest or sleep…a slightly depressing thought. So he thought he’d share the misery and pointed out an error in the rally book. Obviously if we had all read it carefully as instructed, we would have noticed that bonus 64 was missing. There was even a clue on the front of the rally book itself. I certainly hadn’t noticed (it also meant I’d have to renumber all of my bonuses from 65 onwards…)
So what was bonus 64. It wasn’t worth any points. But it was compulsory and failure to get this would be an instance DNF (did not finish) and your rally was over. Quite simply, you had to check in at the rally hotel between 16:00 and 19:00 on Saturday, stay for a minimum of 15 minutes, then you could be on your merry way.
I think a few of the early arrivals had just mentally scrapped their plans at that point…
So once the cursing had died down, everyone heading off to their rooms to begin planning.
A quick look at the locations and their seemed to be four broad groups of high scoring locations. One was in France and Belgium,. There were another group in Scotland, traditionally a destination for high placed finishers in the past. Another was down in the South West around Cornwall and Devon, and the last was in the South East. But then you had to take combination bonuses into account. The highest combo bonuses were for a group of 5 locations in NW Wales….plus Land’s End (9250 points). The next two combos were worth 7500 points, a group of border crossing signs (two locations on the English/Welsh border and two on the Scottish/English border), and three lighthouses in Scotland. The next was worth 4750 points for John’s cottage, just along the road, and its namesake in Aviemore. Finally, another combo using John’s collection of bikes, and the national motorcycle museum, also nearby, was worth 2750 points, butt John’s house was timed so you had to be there between 11:00 and 15:00 on Saturday.
One more combo bonus varied depending on how many of the Triumph dealer checkpoints you visited. 5 would get you and extra 250 points, 6 would mean 500, 7 equals 1000, 8 was worth 2000 points, 9 was 4000 points and 10 or more would next you a whopping 8000 additional points.
There were also the standard points for fuel log, text in bonus and the rest bonus. This year the rest bonus was slightly different. First of all it wasn’t compulsory and it also comprised 3 separate rests. With 15,000 points for a 3 hour break, it would be daft not to take it. An additional 3000 points for a 1 hour break, and a final 1000 points for ½ hour. You could combine them all and take 4 ½ hours to earn 19,000 points just for resting.
I usually try and plan two or three routes for comparison’s sake, but with all of these complications, I only managed one this year.
I looked at the high point groupings and discounted the cross channel ones because of the hassle of getting across the channel on a bank holiday. Next I discounted the Scottish ones because I thought that there would be long stretches of scoring no points getting either to or from them and in any case, they couldn’t be done on Saturday and get back to the rally hotel in time for the compulsory bonus.
Which left the SW, SE and that big combo bonuses in Wales. Previous rallies have shown that the SW during a bank holiday weekend is a non-starter, and it’s pretty much the same with Wales. However, the points values might just justify it this time, so I decided to work out a route and see how it went. A quick check saw that, even heading straight for Land’s End from the start wouldn’t get me there early enough to miss the traffic, and heading for London would be tight, and I’m not familiar with London to know whether there is any “quiet” spell for driving. So I looked at Wales first. Since we had to get back to the hotel later on, I figured that it would be best to start in the South, then head up to the combo bonuses in the NW, before looping up to the Triumph dealer in Stoke-on-Trent, before swinging back to the hotel. The dealer had an addition 1750 points for getting a photo with Jeff (whoever he was…), but only between 09:00 and 17:00 on Saturday. After plugging in a few more locations on the general route, I figured I could just get to John’s house in time to get a picture of “Son of Sam”, then onto the museum for the other half of the bonus, before the check in time.
That left the final part of the “Welsh” combo at Land’s End, and I reckoned that a run from the hotel to their would get me down by late Saturday night, so at least the holiday traffic would be clear. Then taking me rest break would see me have time to head across the south coast, across to Folkestone, before the run back up to Coventry, my major concern was the M25 and the fact that I have no idea how busy it might be on a bank holiday Sunday morning.
But time was marching on so I checked how many Triumph dealers I had so far. There were 6, so that was worth 500 points, but if I could squeeze in another couple, that would make it 2000. A slight detour to the basic route found them and I was now in a position to make sure that the various timings worked for Daytime only and restricted bonuses. I even had plenty of time to look for estate agents signs at the end!
It was at this point that I’d made a very small, but ultimately crucial error…but I’ve only noticed it once I'm back in the comfort of my own house and analysing my route…more on that at the end.
So all of the checkpoints were written down, ETA’s added and any additional information required at each stop and at 00:30, it was time to get a few hours sleep before meeting in the car park at 05:30 for a final odometer check.
The Rally
The alarm went off all too soon, and it was out in the cold,
but dry and clear morning along with 35 other riders for the final odometer
checks. We had all lined up at the back
of the car park and Phil had already told us that he would toss a coin to see
which end would start first. It came up heads, so I was going to be second
off. The countdown began, then we were
off…or at least once I’d put my kickstand all the way up I would be. There is a video of the start and thankfully
you can’t see my little faux pas…others are not so lucky.
A straight run down a largely empty motorway went without incident, and I had my first points in the bag, onto the second and third without incident too. Three hours into the rally and I was only 5 minutes behind time.
A straight run down a largely empty motorway went without incident, and I had my first points in the bag, onto the second and third without incident too. Three hours into the rally and I was only 5 minutes behind time.
I even remembered to include me in the next photo, which is
where the gorilla tripod comes into its own, then onto a great stretch of roads
between the 5th and 6th locations. But I was now 15 minutes behind already and I
hadn’t exactly been hanging about. There
was a critical timing point in the first 12 hours of the rally, to get to
John’s house for a photo between 11:00 and 15:00. My plan had only given my 8 minutes to
spare. The next 5 locations were all
part of the combo bonus so I couldn’t miss those out, so I figured that there
was nothing I could do until after that group, so no need to stress over
anything just now. At least I managed to find the first letter on the estate
agents list after that.
Then it was on to the start of the combo. I found the castle no problem and had a quick
chat with another rider before heading for the next location, a bridge in Nant
Gwynant. This is where I managed to lose
a chunk of time, trying to find just the right angle to take a picture of the
bridge. The rally book stressed that it
must be taken from the main road, and there was only one main road, so why
couldn’t I get the angle right? I
eventually got one I was happy with, but I was now 31 minutes behind. I was also running low on fuel and had a
choice to go left at the next junction, to the next location, or right to find
fuel 5 miles away. I opted for heading
right to be safe, which quickly proved to be a mistake. First of all I passed something that looked
remarkably like a stagecoach that we were supposed to take a picture of…but it
was only a set of wheels. Maybe there
was another one further on. Then I
passed another location before finally getting to the petrol station. That meant I had to double back again, so I
decided to get the location on the way back, and sure enough it was the right
stagecoach. Then onto my original
location before retracing my steps yet again, but I had the combo done (at
least the Welsh part of it).
The only problem was that I was now running an hour behind
schedule. I resigned myself to the fact
that I wouldn’t make the window for the picture of “Son of Sam” and
concentrated on the remaining locations and getting back to the hotel in time
for the compulsory bonus.
For some reason, my sat nav decided to take me up some goat track to the Ponderosa Café, but at least I got some fun on the road back down the other side. It always feels weird going to a café like this, with loads of bikes parked up and all you do is stop, take a photo, and ride on…with not even a hint of jealously looking at the array of machines on display.
For some reason, my sat nav decided to take me up some goat track to the Ponderosa Café, but at least I got some fun on the road back down the other side. It always feels weird going to a café like this, with loads of bikes parked up and all you do is stop, take a photo, and ride on…with not even a hint of jealously looking at the array of machines on display.
The next location caused a bit of confusion. It was a border crossing between England and
Wales and the rally book showed a picture of the two signs. On getting there, I just noticed the “nd”
peeking out from behind the trees, but it wasn’t the sign in the book. It was the same case with the Welsh sign,
which was at least visible but not the one in the book. Over and above that, it wasn’t exactly a safe
place to stop, with no layby or hard shoulder to speak of. In the end, I decided, after a couple of u-
turns to see if I’d missed something, to take a photo of the Wrexham sign to at
least prove where I was, and called the rally master to let him know of a
problem. Or leave a message on his phone
anyway. I later noticed that, for some
reason the GPX file had locations 15 & 57 in the same place and the photo
for 15 showed the two signs that I was at (albeit with a lot less foliage).
The next stop was a restricted one, at yet another Triumph dealer, but as long as I was there for 17:00 I was fine. The rally book said to ask Jeff and get your picture taken with him. As I walked into the dealership, I got the hint that Jeff wasn’t one of the staff.
The next stop was a restricted one, at yet another Triumph dealer, but as long as I was there for 17:00 I was fine. The rally book said to ask Jeff and get your picture taken with him. As I walked into the dealership, I got the hint that Jeff wasn’t one of the staff.
Although I’d missed the 15:00 closing time for “Son of Sam”,
there was still another checkpoint at John’s house. Then yet another two
Triumph dealers (you can see a pattern here…guess what bike the rally master’s
got), and retail park sign as an additional 100 points and it was back to the
hotel for the compulsory bonus. I almost
made a basic error when I rode away from the first of these without getting a
photo, but I noticed within 100 yards and went back.
My original schedule said I would be here by 16:04. As it was, I didn’t get there until 18:23, well and truly behind schedule. But with no time restrictions other than daylight, for the rest of the rally, and with 3 hours “spare”, I wasn’t concerned and decided to take a longer break than the obligatory 15 minutes. I did think about getting a receipt and using it as my 30 minutes break that would earn me 1000 points, but I’d scheduled that in for later so I didn’t bother. Mind you I hadn’t planned to take a full hour either…
My original schedule said I would be here by 16:04. As it was, I didn’t get there until 18:23, well and truly behind schedule. But with no time restrictions other than daylight, for the rest of the rally, and with 3 hours “spare”, I wasn’t concerned and decided to take a longer break than the obligatory 15 minutes. I did think about getting a receipt and using it as my 30 minutes break that would earn me 1000 points, but I’d scheduled that in for later so I didn’t bother. Mind you I hadn’t planned to take a full hour either…
So now began the long run down to Lands’ End. Arriving at
the next location a full 3 hours behind schedule meant that I had used up all
of my spare time so would have to stick to the plan if I wanted to get all of
the locations in, but I’d fallen another 16 minutes behind by the time I
reached the Grove Inn. I guess I’d be
losing my 30 minute break after all.
At this point, I was getting low on fuel and thought it best
to fill the tank before heading to Land’s End.
My sat nav has a set of 24 hour fuel locations, but it was telling me
that the nearest was 43 miles back the way I’d come! So it was out with the trusty paper map and I
found a set of services at Sourton Cross.
Another rider, Chris, was fuelling up at the same time, and was heading
in the same direction. I did offer to
ride together but Chris said he didn’t want to hold me up, so off I went…little
did Chris know at the time that his Land’s End bonus wasn’t going to be quite
as high scoring as he thought…
The mist was really coming and going and at times I couldn’t see more than 30 feet ahead. By the time I’d got to Land’s End, it had cleared enough for me to get my photo then head back along the same road. I didn’t pass Chris anywhere though?
The mist was really coming and going and at times I couldn’t see more than 30 feet ahead. By the time I’d got to Land’s End, it had cleared enough for me to get my photo then head back along the same road. I didn’t pass Chris anywhere though?
The next stop in Falmouth was going to be my last one before I took a 3
hour break. In previous year’s this had
been compulsory, but now it was worth enough points to make it more than
worthwhile instead
At 03:55 is was well past my bedtime, so after snapping the
bonus, off I went….but the steering felt a little weird…I carried on thinking
that maybe it was just me, but after another few hundred yards, it started to
get was and sure enough, my rear tyre was going flat. I managed to limp to a garage which was
luckily enough open, and sure enough I found a tiny piece of glass (no doubt
picked up in Falmouth city centre). It
was going to take a while to fix this, so I got a receipt for the start of my 3
hour rest break, then waited on the recovery service. After fixing it, I was warned to keep to A
roads, just in case the plug failed, so keeping Phil’s pre-really advice about
“make sure you get back to the hotel…after all it’s only points”, I decided
that there was no sense in heading all the way across to the SE for the sake of
more points, but to make sure I got back to the hotel to at least claim what I
had so far. It was a bit of a blow,
given that I was only 2/3 of the way through the 36 hours, but sometimes you
just have to take the hit. I took an
extra hour to claim another 3000 points, then it was a slow run from Falmouth
to Coventry, sticking to A roads and, because I hadn’t actually got any sleep
during the 3 hours, occasional 15 minute power naps. I got back to the hotel at 16:30, although I
did spend 30 minutes or so in Coventry looking for more estate agents signs.
At least I had plenty of time to double check my paperwork
before going into the scoring room.
For the 4th year in a row, I was lucky enough not to lose any points, then it was back to my room for a shower and a pint! After the meal (which was a lot better than Friday’s affair), it was down to the results. I was expected to be in the bottom half, considering I’d only ran 2/3 of a rally, but as the names kept getting called out, it was looking better and better. Finally, I was called out in 11th place (61,325), which was my highest placing yet, but I couldn’t help the feeling of what if…along with probably every other rider in the room except Robert Koeber (92,250 points), the eventual winner, so well done Robert! The locations I had to miss at the end of the rally amounted to 16,965 points, so I at least had the potential to finish third, which was a little bit of comfort.
Now, remember way back at the beginning I said that I had made a small, but crucial error…
Up until this year, my planning technique had meant assigning 5 minutes to each location and 10 minbuites for each fuel stop, but that meant that, during planning, if I moved locations around or added or removed some, I had to re-enter these time. Not exactly flexible, so I adopted a more generic 7 minutes stop every hour. Autoroute has tick box and some drop down menus to set this, so I adjusted the drop downs to the right amount…but forgot to tick the box! That meant that my schedule had no time for stopping, so it was no wonder that I kept falling behind schedule. As it was, by the time I got to the last stop in Falmouth, I was 81 minutes behind schedule rather than the 4 hours I thought I was. Just one more lesson learnt for next time.
For the 4th year in a row, I was lucky enough not to lose any points, then it was back to my room for a shower and a pint! After the meal (which was a lot better than Friday’s affair), it was down to the results. I was expected to be in the bottom half, considering I’d only ran 2/3 of a rally, but as the names kept getting called out, it was looking better and better. Finally, I was called out in 11th place (61,325), which was my highest placing yet, but I couldn’t help the feeling of what if…along with probably every other rider in the room except Robert Koeber (92,250 points), the eventual winner, so well done Robert! The locations I had to miss at the end of the rally amounted to 16,965 points, so I at least had the potential to finish third, which was a little bit of comfort.
Now, remember way back at the beginning I said that I had made a small, but crucial error…
Up until this year, my planning technique had meant assigning 5 minutes to each location and 10 minbuites for each fuel stop, but that meant that, during planning, if I moved locations around or added or removed some, I had to re-enter these time. Not exactly flexible, so I adopted a more generic 7 minutes stop every hour. Autoroute has tick box and some drop down menus to set this, so I adjusted the drop downs to the right amount…but forgot to tick the box! That meant that my schedule had no time for stopping, so it was no wonder that I kept falling behind schedule. As it was, by the time I got to the last stop in Falmouth, I was 81 minutes behind schedule rather than the 4 hours I thought I was. Just one more lesson learnt for next time.