
VTR Rallyes – General Guidelines
Last revised July, 1997
I. Type of events
There shall be two types of rallyes offered at the VTR convention: a gimmick or fun rallye and a Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) event. The gimmick rallye may take on many forms; the TSD event should be a non-trapped timed rallye. It is possible for someone without significant rallye experience to put together an acceptable gimmick rallye using these guidelines and the official VTR general instructions. It is required by VTR that only experienced personnel write and work the TSD rallye. If the host club has no such people, it should look to other local clubs with such experience to put on the event. An experienced club should be able to use these guidelines and official VTR general instructions to put on a TSD event.
II. General Instructions and Supplemental Instructions
The official VTR general instructions (GIs) for gimmick rallyes and TSD rallyes shall apply to each event. In addition, there shall be supplemental instructions (SIs) for each event which may supersede the GIs. Supplementals should be kept brief and not rewrite the GIs. At a minimum, SIs should contain the following information:
For Gimmick Rallyes:
- start location and time,
- scoring information,
- mileage measurement (including conditions and type of vehicle) if applicable,
- time limit,
- any changes to the GIs,
- other pertinent information,
- Official Rallye Glossary.
For TSD rallyes:
- start location and time,
- scoring information,
- timing information (minutes and hundredths or minutes and seconds),
- official mileage measurement information (type of vehicle, odometer, tire size and pressure, conditions, driven or undriven wheel, calibration standard),
- rallye format,
- other pertinent information,
- Official Rallye Glossary.
The official VTR Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations lists the acceptable terms and abbreviations to be used on either type of event. The rallyemaster should edit the list to include only those terms actually used in the route instructions and provide that edited list as part of the SIs, to avoid any possible confusion on the part of the contestants.
III. Gimmick Rallyes
A. General. The gimmick rallye should be a fun, low pressure event of about 50 miles including the odometer correction leg if needed. In no case should the event exceed 60 miles or 2.5 hours.
B. Pre-check. Have two people run the rallye route, with the rallyemaster in the back seat. The rallyemaster should let the test crew run the event and not interfere unless something goes drastically awry. At least one pre-check is necessary; additional pre-checks are desirable. Do a check after each major rewrite.
C. Types of gimmick rallyes
1. Question and Answer. This is one of the simplest events to put on. Worded instructions (using the glossary and the GIs) are used to indicate the course and questions are asked about things on (or off) the route. In this event the route should be easy and the questions can be tricky. It is common to use riddles or word puzzles. A good guide is to have at least half as many questions as miles; for example a 50 mile Q&A rallye should have at least 25 questions. Mileage or time may be used as a tie-breaker. A part of the rallye may look like this: 15. Turn left at the Golden Arches. 16. Right. Q 8. How may cardinals are there? 17. Left after the red barn. 18. Bear right at Y. Q 9. How much is soda today? Get the idea? Your imagination is the limit on the questions, but avoid anything that may not be common knowledge. Don’t ask for the gas price that approaches the natural log of the half life of U235 for example. A scavenger hunt is fun for this type of event as well.
2. Poker Rallye. A variation on the Q&A rallye is the poker rallye. This rallye requires checkpoint workers along the route. It is possible to get local merchants to cooperate with this scheme as well. The route instructions take contestants along the route where they pick up playing cards at checkpoints or at local businesses (sponsors of the convention?). There should be 5 cards total. They can get one at the start, one at the finish and 3 along the way, or any way as long as they have a hand of 5 cards at the end. The winning poker hand wins the event.
3. The Hare and Hound. Another worded instruction format that incorporates “decision points” or in rallye lingo ODOTS (optional direction of travel). Worded instructions are used and at an intersection where more than one direction of travel on legal rallye roads is possible, ODOT is used. The contestants have to guess which way to go. The right course is confirmed by a marker within 1/2 mile of the intersection. The marker could be a sign indicated in the routes, or a special sign put up by the rallyemaster (in many cases little hares). In its purest form a lead car runs about 30 minutes ahead of the rallye and throws down lime bags to mark its path. Scoring is on questions and mileage.
4. Map Rallye. This can also