Moonlight Monte

Rally Review posted to Rally-L

Date: 02-23-98 02:41:18 PM

Moonlight Monte CenDiv Tour Rally, Saturday, Feb. 21, 1998

On Saturday, Feb. 21, the Detroit Region presented the Moonlight Monte in unseasonably warm weather. Intended as a snow event, for the last two years the Monte has had to contend with roads that were missing the usual covering of snow. For most of the event, the roads were relatively smooth and free from standing water. The road graders had been out doing their job. Not so for the last third. The roads were rough and in places muddy and rutted. However, this did not deter the 17 teams that were entered from four states.

The event started, as usual, at the Burger King in Imlay City, some 60 miles north of Detroit. From there it went south and east before turning north to the break in the small town of Yale. At that point the teams had already encountered 13 open controls, including 3 in the space of only about 1/2 mile. After a chance to refuel and clean some of the mud off the lights, the event resumed at 6:00 PM.

The first incident of the event occurred just after the odo leg when the Marek and Paul Pilch got off the road and stuck their Honda Accord up to the sills in mud. Fortunately, sweep was right behind and, because of ham radio, was able to summon help from Jim Mazola, one of the control workers. With the help of Jim?s 4 wheel drive, they were able to get them out and on their way before the controls closed. As a result, they were able to go home to Des Plains, Illinois with a finish and a new experience.

Fortunately, there were no further incidents requiring the help of sweep. There was, however, a small incident with an upset local who accused the cars of doing 65 mph down the road in front of his house. The CAST was 41 at that point, and all the cars were running CAST. Some people don?t seem to understand that the speed limit is 55! He blocked the road for a short time, affecting the last several cars. Eventually, everyone got thru and free time allowances made everything right.

The run for the overall and equipped class lead was tight all the way with four cars in contention well past the mid-point. With only one control to go, the teams of Scott Harvey Jr./Bryan Murphy and Dave Parps/Les Talcott were tied with 20 points. At the last control, Harvey/Murphy got a 0 while Parps/Talcott took a 4 on a leg that was only 0.20 minutes long. Third, with 28 were Mark Henderson and Rob Moran. The husband & wife team of Jeff and Deb Secor were fourth with 35 (less than one second/control), a score that will win many events.

In the limited class, Art Welch and Terry Palmer were in double digits with a 98 to take the class win. With the rough roads, cranking a Curta must have been tough, tho their scores were mostly single digit. Ron Johnsonbaugh and Ken Swarm were second with 470.

The stock class was won Mark Kleckner and Brian Scott with only 204 points. Second in Stock was another husband and wife team, Bert and Jerry Pat Miller with 432.

Derek Roberts and Arpad Miklos were the novice winners with 693 points. This was Derek?s first rally, while Arpad was on his fourth event. The father and son team of Tom and Ted Wreesman were second with 910. This was their first event. Hopefully, they will be out for some more events in the near future.

Of the 24 open controls planned, 22 were scored. One was lost when flooding in a low area of the course required a re-route that bypassed control 16. One other control was discarded when too many cars arrived in the same minute and caused some of the times to be confused.

A great thanks goes to all who participated, especially the nine teams of control workers who ran the 23 open controls.

Jim Mickle

CAR TEAM                    CLS LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG LEG TOTAL  CAR CLS
 #  DRIVER/NAVIGATOR              1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24 SCORE   #
--- ----------------------- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- -----  --- ---
  1 Roberts/Miklos           N   42 129   4   3   0  95  59  22   4  15   8  31  86   8   0   0  19  28  85  20   2  29   1   3   693    1  N
  2 Wreesman/Wreesman        N  132  56  37  10   0  61  54   0  34  48  26  10  20  36  73   0  11  40  49  40  46  77  12  38   910    2  N
  3 Kociolek/Kociolek        E   36   1  50  36   0  14  14  82  15  25   8 106  22   0  49   0   1   6  90  25  34  74  70  31   789    3  E
  4 Andrezey/Marek           S   66 107  84  48   0 107 142  52 200  36 127  35  77  14  41   0  26   1   6   6   6 172  14  16  1383    4  S
  5 Miller/Miller            S   23  27   8   1   0  40  24  23   6   3  20  32  13  14  17   0  20  16  66   4   1  40  31   3   432    5  S
  6 Parps/Talcott            E    0   1   1   0   0   1   1   5   1   0   0   1   0   1   2   0   2   1   1   0   0   1   1   4    24    6  E
  7 Biegalski/Zaremba        N  200 200  23  16   0   0  74  28 113   5 200 127  65 200  22   0 125 157  46  59  11  40  15  34  1760    7  N
  8 Harvey/Murphy            E    0   0   0   2   0   0   0   1   0   0   0   2   3   2   1   0   1   3   2   1   0   1   1   0    20    8  E
  9 Henderson/Moran          E    1   1   2   1   0   1   1   0   0   1   1   1   0   0   7   0   0   3   3   0   0   0   1   4    28    9  E
 10 Welch/Palmer             L    3   0   7   2   0   2   0   7  11  10   7   4   6   4   4   0   3   1   3   0   0  15   1   8    98   10  L
 11 Secor/Secor              E    1   3   0   1   0   1   1   3   0   1   1   1   2   2   2   0   3   2   5   1   1   2   1   1    35   11  E
 12 Dillon/D Rinkel          E   83  31   7   1   0   0   0   1  28   1   1   3  24 200   3   0   8   2   0   2   0   3   1   5   404   12  E
 13 Pilch/Pilch              N  200 200 182 158   0 200 200 189 174 100 200 127  48  91   1   0 200 177 200  79   0  55  20  89  2880   13  N
 14 Johnstonbaugh/Swarm      L    2  35   9  10   0   2   3   7   0   2 151   0   8   7   2   0   8   2   9   0   9   3   1 200   470   14  L
 15 Kleckner/Scott           S    5  22   5   3   0   5   6  10  11   7  16  14  17   3   4   0   3   3  23   5   3   7   3  29   204   15  S
 16 Reigel/Annis             S   29 200  23  16   0  32 140  38  23   3   1  24  42  14  10   0 200   2 115   1   4  10   1 144  1072   16  S
 17 Padden/M Rinkel          E   17   0   6   1   0   0   0   0   1   0   0   0   1   1   4   0   1   2  11   8   1   0   1  12    67   17  E