In honor of MINI's Rallying heritage, on June 22, 2008 we will meet in Portage at the Family Express across from QuakerSteak and Lube Restaurant at 1:30 PM. The first team will depart for the course at 2:00 PM, for the first annual NWI MINIac Navigation Rally

This is a navigation rally. Each MINI has a pilot/driver and a navigator as a minimum. Bring your MINI with 3/4 to half a tank of gas, a clip board, a pen/pencil, Cell phone, and optional a calculator.

The navigator is given a set of simple instructions and a sheet with pictures that parts have been removed. The Key here is to follow the instructions, and Pay Attention! At the start you zero your odometer and follow your instructions.

Example. Turn left and drive 1.4 miles, Turn slight right and drive 2.7 miles. You drive this course at posted speeds and deal with traffic. At this point your odometer should read 4.1 miles.

Note that you aren't given names of roads or north, south, east, or west. Just, turn right or left and how far to drive.

Pilots and Navigators will have to compensate for driving errors on the fly. Lets say you miss the right turn and have gone 0.1 mile extra so your odometer should read 4.2 miles.

A good tip is that if you are within 0.1 miles of the distance in the notes and you see a turn, odds are good that you should take that turn.

Along the route you will see road signs that match the pictures. Fill in the missing words and earn time off. Time closest to the time Peggy drove is the winner. In the event of tie on time, pictures will be used to settle the tie. We have a bottle of Red Arrow Red from the 2007 NWIMINIacs Wino Run for the winner.

When Peggy drove the course for time, I asked her to vary speeds occasionally going up to 5 mph over posted limits. She also got caught by a train. We also had a pit stop. There are plenty of good turns on the course, so you can have some fun... Remember this is not a speed event. Come back with a Ticket, and you are Disqualified.

There is a single course. If you see a MINI: You are going too fast, they are lost or quite possibly they arent on the rally.

My Cell number will be on the directions so if you get lost, Call for help.

I suggest you start the rally with 3/4 to half a tank of gas. There is a pit stop where you can get fuel, go potty, grab a candy bar or drink . Time has been allotted for the pit stop. Total Driving time will be more than one hour but less than an hour and a half.

We will run the event rain or shine.

There will be a (m)Eating after the rally. The finish line is at a restaurant familiar to most NWIMINIacs.

 

Please note that the DATE has been changed to June 22, 2008 and the time to be at the starting place is 1:30 pm.

 

MINIacs,

I want to thank all of you who participated and encourage those of you who couldn't make it to give it a try next year.

Results for the First Annual NWI MINIac Navigation Rally.

In first place with 2 minutes under time was Willie Harbison and his navigator. They got 5 of 6 correct on bonuses. The prize was a custom made Classic Mini themed clock made from a old 45 of "Rocking down the Highway".

In second place with 4 minutes under time was Charles Pence and his fiance as navigator. They were the only 6 of 6 on the bonuses. Their prize was the bottle of Red Arrow Read from the 2007 MINIac Wino run.

Third place 6 minutes under time was new comer Mike Danskin and his friend Jordon as navigator. His prize was a Cooper S hat donated by Bernie Doyle. Mike and Jordan got two of the bonuses.

Sorry I did not get all of the navigator names.


Mike even got lost and had to call for instructions. He pressed hard and made up for the lost time!

Mike and Jordan ate early. While we waited for Mark and Matt to finish, they ended up in Merrillville! Everyone had a good dinner at Quaker Steak & Lube.

Scott Reiner ran solo in a pretend MINI JEEP and we gave him special drivers notes with the intersections marked so he could still participate despite his daughter sleeping her navigation duties away.

Peggy volunteered for Cliff to be his navigator and he gave her a FANTASTIC drive. From what CLiff says, Peggy looked like this alot.

New comer's Kelly Cathcart and her father-in-law had some problems, they ended up in Aberdeen and rescued a turtle. They also swapped seats at some point.

Everyone found their way back home and got some kind of prize. Peggy found compass whistle combinations, so all participants could find their way if they got lost.

EVERYONE HAD A GREAT TIME AND HAD FUN!

You have no idea how much you are missing. Next year promises to be a larger course and slightly more difficult. This year we all ran the same direction. It was suggested to take half the cars and have them run backwards so that you will see MINIs coming at you.

Dean


James Dean Cory