by Tom and Bev Gould, photos by Rich Fatuzzo

San Diego Region’s second rally school of the year exceeded expectations. The successful first rally school in May had brought out 17 cars and 40 participants, so we were expecting about that many for our July school. We were very surprised when we filled all our registration spots early, and a waiting list started to form. Not wanting to disappoint, we worked out the logistics with our sponsor, Hoehn Porsche, and we were able to provide for everyone who wanted to attend. We finally ended up with 37 cars and 80 participants. Our attendees had a wide range of experience, including members who were attending their first-ever region event, people who had never been on a rally before, all the way to 40+ year members with years of rally experience.

Hoehn Porsche generously let us take over their entire showroom to hold the school. The arriving students were provided with a light breakfast by our sponsor, who also provided lunch for everyone after they returned from the practice rally.

The school format consisted of a one hour classroom presentation on the basics of time-speed-distance (TSD) rallying, a one hour+ rally around the industrial parks of Carlsbad and Vista, and then a wrap-up session after the driving to go over what was learned.

The school covered the basics of rallying, including understanding and interpreting rally jargon, how to follow instructions and maintain an average speed. As with any sport, sitting in class only gives you a basic understanding, whereas the real learning comes from doing. Once they were out on the rally course, they could finally put together what was learned in class. Nothing beats getting out there and actually doing the task.

Some found the course to be a bit challenging, and some u-turns and backtracking took place, but all the cars made it back to Hoehn Porsche and turned in their scorecards. Scores were tallied afterwards, and there were some surprisingly excellent scores from our beginner rallyists.

Special thanks to Paul and Ruth Young, and to Z8 Rally co-chair Revere Jones, all of whom helped with registration, checkpoints, scoring and support. Nothing like having the best to help out!