The Winter Challenge will be an all night winter rally run regardless of weather. Although no car-breaking roads will be used, the majority of the roads chosen are rural, unpaved roads which will be undoubtedly be snow and ice covered. The sections of the Winter Challenge will be grouped to create three rallys.

Winter Challenge National: A course rally entailing the complete 8 hour / 200 mile event with a variety of route formats containing both open & closed controls. NER Classes A (computers; National E & L) and S (stock odometers). No Rookie Class. No limit on entries.

New England Winter: A TSD rally, lightly-trapped; some TSD experience necessary; a good introduction to a challenging rally and winter driving. NER Classes A & S. No limit on entries.

Vermont Winter: A more challenging TSD winter rally, with a map section, and brisk winter driving in the tradition of past Buffum rallys. Not recommended to drivers inexperienced in serious winter driving. NER Classes A & S. {Entry limited to 30 cars; organizers decision on eligibility from those pre-registered.}

General:

The Rally will headquarter at the Day’s Inn, 173 Main St, Barre, VT 05641 [802-476-6678] (Note this date is President’s Weekend and rooms go fast. Reserve Early!

NOTE: The SCCA now requires all competitors to be members of SCCA. The weekend membership fee is included in the surcharge for non-members. Only the form must be completed.

The rally committee reserves the right to restrict entries based on experience.

In an attempt to even the competition, the Vt. Winter Rally will have an adjustment factor to account for 2-wd vs. 4-wheel drive entrants.
There will also be an award for the best overall placing in the combined two rallies (The Winter Challenge).

Each rally will be approximately 4 hours long – there may be no mid-break in each rally. There will be approximately a one hour break between rallys.

A team may enter either/or both rallies.

The rallies will be by pre-registration only. There will be no walk-ins accepted. Deadline for entries (in hand) will be [with correct fees] Monday, 8 February 2010.

Wanted: Checkpoint workers. If you can make a commitment, please let Ted know.

To reserve a space & receive an Official Entry package contact: Ted Goddard, Registrar, P.O.Box 267, Perkinsville, VT 05151. [tel: 802-263-5678; fax: 802-263-9540; email: tedgcb@tds.net]

Thoughts from Rallymaster:

Last year, due to my commitment to building a new rally car, I did not focus enough energy on the Winter Challenge; I apologize for that. We have made this year’s first rally a bit easier, with the use of more “NO” signs. In the second rally, in an attempt at further clarity, we will make the PERFECT TIME points into RESTART POINTS – thus the second rally will be essentially divided into 10 ‘mini-rallies’, each with its own restart time. We are also working hard on the scoring program to make it more user-friendly. And we have limited the number of entries for the second rally – to make it more exclusive.

Contact: John Buffum [librarally@aol.com].