Ferrari Challenge Rally

I think when the first few of us pulled into black butte for lunch the cops wre on their way over and set up a ton of traps for the trek back. Sometimes it was funny how incredibly obvious they were.

I didnt hear of anyone having problems today though. there was some crap on the news supposedly this morning according to the shell attendant we spoke with :|

One more day, but i have to bail omg how sucky.

Beautiful roads though.

 

I do believe there were a few more awards handed out by the Oregon State Patrol today. I'll let the proud recipients speak for themselves. Wasn't me.

But best story of the day was the guy who got pulled over arriving in Cannon Beach, had a nice conversation with the local constable, but no ticket. Then after lunch, he decided to cool it through town, but goosed it on the onramp to 101S, just as you guessed it, his good buddy was coming the other way, with revenue detector on. 71 in a 50 is what I heard.

So they got to have a nice reunion, spoke about maybe not doing it again, and once again parted ways with no awards granted. Sounds like a very cool cop.

 

Not all the cops were cool.

They busted the press riding in the 612 .. twice within an hour (I was following him on both occasions). "Best" ticket was 125 in a 55.

I think in total, about 20 tickets were issued over the 3 days...
A lot of people were pulled over to have "the talk" and no ticket.

One county sheriff who did not issue a ticket told one participant that he had received 26 complaints about "dangerous passing" because of ignoring the double yellow lines ... laughed about it and let him go...

 

well, looking back now, it was pretty damn awesome. FNA did a great job organizing everything, great roads, mostly great weather, and great people to hang with. What more could you possibly want?

My favorite was on day two the instructions were a bit vague and the road paving was nice on the 'wrong turn' so like half the rally ended up going the wrong way for ... or maybe 10 miles or so. Some people didnt even get back to the time checkpoint in time and got some major 10 minute penalties.

 

Woohoo! Three days of driving great roads, in awesome cars with awesome folks. And we got no tickets! And not because we were driving slowly.

Thank you Mr. Valentine!!!

So many great moments, I can't even begin to choose a best.

Well, OK, maybe best part of the event was putting down some truly awesome times in the closed circuit speed sections each day in the 612. Top five Monday, second fastest on Tuesday, and fourth today! Yeah baby!!!!

Man, that beast really handles like, well, a Ferrari! Its not so much the size, as how you use it.

 

So tell us about the route, not just the results!

Where did you go and what did you see? Was it a true time/distance rally; were there checkpoints, and (most embarassingly) did anyone get lost?

Eric has got to have some photos...

 

Sorry, folks.
imho
This is not good PR...
"numerous complaints" and citations, do not, for Ferrari or anyone else, create a favorable image. We do good, charitable things in places like Cannon Beach and many others, but they are overshadowed by this in the public eye. Unfortunately for those who participated and kept their cool and even for those of us who didn't, we will now be looked at by some as those Ferrari types who are above it all.


in the Oregonian Tuesday: one article; KXL radio this morning another story based on:


Oregon State Police troopers cited at least six other participants in the "Ferrari Challenge Rally" Wednesday in the Mt. Hood area. One of the drivers was cited at 123 MPH on Highway 97 north of Maupin.

Between August 7 - 9, the "Ferrari Challenge Rally: The Rally of Northern Oregon" is being held in the area. On August 7th, OSP troopers responded to numerous driving complaints on Highway 20 and subsequently stopped and cited six Ferrari operators for speed violations west of Sisters ranging between 83 and 98 mph.

On August 9th, OSP Trooper Thad Routson was working south of The Dalles on Highway 197 and stopped four Ferrari Club Rally drivers north of Maupin during a 20 minute period between 12:37 p.m. and 12:55 p.m. One of the drivers, BRUCE L. JAMISON, age 55, from Houston, Texas, operating a 2006 Ferrari was cited for Violation of the Basic Rule in Excess of 100 mph after he was detected going 123 mph in a 55 mph near milepost 40. The other drivers cited were for speeds of 80, 81, and 85 mph.

OSP troopers working on Highway 26 west of Government Camp encountered other rally participants as they returned westbound towards Portland. Troopers noted that most of the rally participants were complying with traffic laws, but three other drivers were cited Wednesday afternoon by an OSP trooper in an unmarked (ADEP) Aggressive Driving Enforcement Plan) patrol vehicle. Two were cited for 75 mph in a 45 mph zone, and one was cited for Passing in a No Passing Zone.

(from Oregon State Police)

 

Eric-

This is Mark in the 430 spider (3rd place) drove ahead of you in the Autocross.
That 612 was flying !!! I loved on our third day flying finish , the 612 looked great hard on the brakes!! Great to meet you !!

-Mark

 

Mark, it was great to meet you, too! Great times in your car in the special stages. Made it even harder for me to catch up to the leaders in points. But we gave it our all, and did have a great time. We’re already talking about how to keep ourselves alert for those pesky code boards and not get penalties next time.

It wasn't so much a time/distance rally. FNA really tried hard to make it difficult for those who wanted to speed recklessly to do well in the rally. Severe points penalties for arriving at randomly placed time check points too soon, with only a 9 minute early arrival resulting in a participant being booted from the event.

There were secret boards along the route you had to spot in order to keep from scoring penalty points, a route book handed out at the start of each day with the typical cryptic diagrams and mileage numbers to follow. Each day took us to a different part of Oregon, with the third day having to be radically changed at the last minute because of forest fires started by the lightning storm the night before.

Sure there were some who chose to drive way too fast. That's true of any group of more than five guys in any car. Doesn't make it right, but it's a fact I've noticed in participating in many different types of driving events with many different types of car clubs. There were far more of us who chose to drive safely, have a good time, and stayed out of trouble.

I tend to agree that these type of sensational headlines in the papers don't do the marque a whole lot of good. But I also recognize that the headlines wouldn't be as interesting if they read "group of car owners have fun driving the scenic roads of Oregon". Which is what most of us did. But doesn't sell papers, now does it?

So, we continue to do our goodwill projects, working with local charities, and law enforcement agencies. Maybe we can work with folks directly to help to counter the sensational headlines. Maybe, but somehow, "Car club gives veterans rides" still doesn't make for nearly as good a headline, and the Gumball, Players, and other rallies out there will be what people read about. Guess this is just marketing 101. Can't say I like it, but I recognize it for what it is, and won't get real excited about it. Life’s too short, and my blood pressure is already too high.

 

Hey Scott

Here's my personal results.

SS1 (Special Stage 1): After driving 140 miles or so to the Hoodoo ski area the Stradale was plenty hot, so I switched off the engine instead of letting it idle whilst waiting for my turn. Big mistake. Didn't notice that the flashing engine light came on after re-starting the car -- because the ECU thought something was wrong (hot oil temp?) and started the car in 4-cyl limp-home mode. At the start, floored the gas and enjoyed the acceleration of an asthmatic groundhog attempting to push-start the car. Messed around for a few seconds until I realized what was wrong; thought about driving the few feet back to the start and pleading for a do-over, but throught that just might even waste more time. So, took off on the course at a good clip, avoiding a ton of knocked-over cones, and then around the final chicane - and then went the wrong direction. Turned around and went through the finish line in a well-earned last place for the day, 1:55 .. a minute or so longer than the best result of the day. We look on the bright side -- we get to leave last the next day which means more sleep and breakfast time, and also the stress is off for doing well in the rest of the rally; we can relax and just enjoy the drives.

SS2: This is set up in a back part of PIR, and is approx 0.8m. It has a long sweeper, and a couple of tight chicanes. My main priority is to record a "real" time. I'm pretty nervous at the start, and do a short-shift at 5000rpm or so which costs me a few tenths. But I give it some good right foot application, and I'm happy to cross the finish line with a time of 52 or something -- in any event it was the 8th fastest of the day. I wish I could've run it again, once I knew how it was set up...

SS3: Well, as luck would have it, I would get that chance... this was the same course but in reverse. This time I was really intending to get on it good and hard. A nice launch, nicely timed upshifts and we were off to a great start. The car handled incredibly well .. every time I drive the Stradale hard I'm really impressed with it's capabilities. I'm early on the gas for the long curve, and don't let up on it ... and when the final chicane approaches I determine that I can probably squeeze by with just a wee flick on the wheel ... so I keep the right foot planted and go through the chicane full-on, just kissing the right-side cone. I felt like I really nailed that pass and was really happy with the result even before I saw the time, which was 48.8. In the end, this time was good enough for the 2nd fastest of the day, behind Bill Cotter (who drives an F430 Challenge for FoS and has an enormous amount of racing experience). I know that if Bill were in the Stradale instead of his F430 he'd be even faster, but that's besides the point.

The rest of the rally was enormous fun -- the Hotel was great, and the people -- both the participants and the organizers were awesome. I made many new friends and had a blast driving some of the incredible roads that the organizers found for us. One highlight was to be following an Enzo listening to that engine for 30 minutes or so before tiring of the rather pedestrian pace before passing him. The drive home was a blast too -- following Steve's F40 and 348 spider. I'm sad to say that Steve was nailed in the F40 for an alleged 81mph in Olympia on I-5. Those guys in Olympia are notoriously ruthless... Sorry Steve.

 

I love rallyes, my favorite event.

Did they have special markings and signs along the way that you were supposed to record for the rallye, did you miss any or were they really tricky to find?
Regards,
S

 

Scott, thanks for the comment.
Thought the profile was done.
Now it is.
Thanks for the heads-up.

 

Yep -- they had "codeboards" which had a 2 second penalty for each one missed. We missed probably 3 or maybe 4 -- the bastages even put one on one of the special-stages. Needless to say my attention was very much "elsewhere" to be able to notice "ENZO" written on the side of the track.

Roberto took an, ahem, unscheduled tour "off-piste" to discover some of Oregon's fine roads unaided, and was penalized a full 10 minutes. They also forgot all about the codeboards on the first day. However, their special-stage times were very good indeed. In any event, on Wednesday night we partied as if we had all won first place ;-)

 

assuming you are talking about day 2, that was more like half the rally! I think we were in the 'front ten or so' cars after everyone got hurt by the error leaving PIR. We made that same mistake and must have blown t least 20-30 minutes, and we only hit the time check with like 2 minutes before closing!

 

It was a little confusing because one stop sign was omitted from the directions. We figured it out quickly enough; then got held up by the world's slowest train for about 15 minutes or so.

Roberto's excursion took place that afternoon. A lot of people, including us missed the left turn that was very poorly marked "Ribbon Ridge Rd" I think it was called. We realized our mistake within a mile, turned around and caught it. Others sailed on obliviously to Lostville.

 

Yeah we missed that one also. The difference there was that we knew we missed that one but had a hell of a time tryign to turn around while on the road to lostville. The one I am talking about was actually at the end of the ribbon ridge rd, where the niec pavement veered but you were supposed to continue along straight... that one myself -- and a crapload of other cars went on for a long, long time...

 

My navigator did an absolutely bang-up job and made very few mistakes, and that was one of the ones he nailed first time (and we were leading a pack of a nice collection - another Stradale, 360 spider, F430 coupe and an Enzo) so they all got to benefit from his map reading skills

 

Absolutely essential to have a good Navigator.
At the 2004 FCA National meet Rallye in Monterey my navigator, Julie, is a pilot and was spot on at every distance point. She converted my dodgy speedometer reading on the fly (lower profile tires skew the actual distance), and told me "on the mark" where the next pick point was. We never got lost, saw every sign, but we were horrible at the quiz along the way (e.g. who won the TF in 1952? Sorry we couldn't tell you...).

Scott

 

Everything about the Rally was great, except I wish they had set up some portable toilets at certain spots along the way for those of us who needed a "health break" after an hour or two of driving. Some of us, both guys and gals, had to go into the bushes for relief.

 

Hi Jackson-

It's Mark Wilson, great to meet you and hope to see you soon !
I ended up 2nd in class, 3rd overall , what a good time !!

-Mark

 

What gifts did you get in the Goody bags?

 

2 shirts, 2 jackets, 2 Bose triport headphones, 1 leather bound Schedoni notebook

 

Where can I find the results of the rally? I see several acquaintances were there--how'd y'all do? Fess up! I want standings, winnings, and tickets!