7th Annual Dow Rally Invades NCR

Well the weather wasn’t perfect but everything else pretty much was.  The course, which took us into Southern New Hampshire (take that NCR!), explored some interesting towns, found nice windy roads and offered lots of spectacular views (great job Anker!). We had a good turnout – 34 signups but a few last minute dropouts – and the Dow family was nicely represented. Lunch at the Billiards Café (the Autocross watering hole) was excellent and a few folks even picked up a cue stick.

This is a “gimmick” rally and there were, indeed, a few gimmick questions. Let the record show that there were NO questions that were missed by everyone – so we’ll call it fair. The winners got 23 of 25 right and second place was very close with 22 correct answers. It is true that the two top finishers had 8 eyeballs in the car so extra passengers do help. The winning team “Familia Lopez” (Roger, Lisa, Natalia and Gabriela) all fit into a 911 which was quite impressive.

 

 

Second place went to “Team Websters” (the Beaver family) who were more comfortably seated in a Macan.

The other “gimmick” was that a prize was rewarded for “your most embarrassing car story.”  While there were some pretty embarrassing stories (at the next Autocross ask Chris Ryan how a 911 wound up in a pond) and even an embarrassing moment (one of the rallyers stalled his car at the start) there was a clear winning story. It belonged to Wayne and Teresa Mattson who reported that many years ago when Teresa was 7th months pregnant, Wayne drove them to the local gas station for a fillup in their manual transmission Hyundai. He went into the store to pay but came out to see the car slowly circling around the parking lot, barely missing the other cars. Teresa, as she waited, decided to turn on the radio and needed to turn on ignition. Since this was before the era when you needed to depress the clutch as a safety measure, the car started and took off. She was frantically reaching across and steering but unable to stop the car. Our hero (goat? – he left the car in gear) was able to open the door and yank on the ebrake to bring the situation to a safe conclusion (and win our trophy).

Once again the Dow Rally proved to be a great event for newer members and/or those who want to use their Porsche SUV for something other than getting groceries. Hope to see you all at the Annual Gala.

Note, if you wish to drive the very scenic route here are instructions…

The course is available on Ride with GPS. You need to have the application installed on your
phone in advance (there is a 7-day free trial). To load the route, click on or type the following
into your phone browser: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/48643420.