As the Summer ends and Fall rolls in, the majority of club activities have been completed. Rally is no exception. We had a spectacular Fall Rally to cap off an amazing year.
The 2019 Fall Rally took place on September 22 and began in Hampton, MA. We specifically selected this location so as to provide an additional event to our more Northern members of CVR. The event began at the Dunkin Donuts in Hampton, MA and winded its way through the surrounding towns South into Somers, CT. The ending location was the Copper House Tavern.
The Fall Rally was a Gimmick Rally with 3 sections; 2 with gimmick navigation directions and 1 with photo identification and questions about the surrounding area. The overall Fall Rally was roughly 55 miles and took just about 2.5 hours. We had some great scenic driving roads and some particularly tricky gimmicks for our seasoned Rallyists. This was on purpose as we had a tight heat for our Annual Rallyists of the Year Award.
For the Fall Rally, the winners were as follows:
- 1st Place John & Victoria Eskew
- 2nd Place Pete & Melissa Gambardella
- 3rd Place Rich & Sally Adua
As a quick reminder, the Rally team with the most combined points from both the Spring and the Fall Rally win the Annual Rallyists of the Year award. This is a plaque that has their names engraved and they retain until the next year where they can hope to win again and retain the award or pass it along to the next winners.
The winners of this year’s Annual Rallyists of the Year award are:
Pete and Melissa Gambardella
As Rally chairs we try very hard to develop challenging and creative gimmicks to keep the Rallyists guessing. Pete and Melissa are seasoned Rallyists and are one of the strongest teams. The competition was stiff and made for an interesting Fall Rally. Pete and Melissa will receive the annual award at the 60th Anniversary Celebration and Photofest on November 23.
If you haven’t already, reserve your spot at our 60th anniversary celebration and photofest. The link to purchase tickets is as follows:
Looking forward to 2020
For 2020 we will be making some changes to the order of events. Our traditional format is to have a Spring and Fall Rally. This gives us the time to plan the events and spreads them out throughout the year. Unfortunately in recent years, we have been at the mercy of poor weather in the Spring. We have decided to move to now having a Summer and Fall Rally. This will give us a better chance at prime driving weather.
I know you are all disappointed that there won’t now be a Rally event until June but fear not! We have decided to run the highly popular Rally Academy again in 2020 and will be scheduling it for the April time-frame. This event will follow the New Member Sampler so make sure to keep an eye out for registration as space is limited.
We will know more on exact dates once we have the annual planning meeting so stay tuned.
Most Importantly
We want to take this opportunity to thank all of our dedicated volunteers who have worked tirelessly to ensure that all Rally events go smoothly and are the best possible experience.
Specifically we want to give a shout out to the following people:
- Norma Jean and Joe Macauto
- Dan and Janice Cooley
- Allen Fossbender
- Chris and Cheryl Caouette
- Lance Johnson
When we decided to take on the roles of Rally chairs, we never expected to receive the level of support and assistance in pulling together the events. Volunteers such as these make all of CVR’s events the best out there.
Thank you for everyone coming out to the Rally events this year. We will see you all at the 60th Anniversary Celebration and Photofest.
