2004 Bunny Run Rally - Rallymasters Letter

Great roads, not too tricky, confident til the end, and so they say if you don't "cross your "t's" and dot your "eyes"... or is it "i's"????, you could really mess up.

Draft after draft, cold runs and redrafts, our final instruction sheet passed out at the start of the 2004 Bunny Run was in tip-top shape, or so we thought. It was not until the 3rd car that eventually finished when we became suspicious. We uncovered a serious error in instruction # 58 that made it nearly impossible for our surviving contenders to successfully complete the course. Direction # 58 read "right" when it should have read right at STOP. By not executing the right at the stop sign in the windmill section of Armonk, NY, you were compelled to make the previous right and that's when everything stopped making sense. Our experienced rallyists were able to get themselves out of this snafu and finish the rally, but unfortunately our first car was in over one hour late. But for fun, some of you did still answer the bonus question, "how many windmills did you pass", and the correct answer was three, not one hundred and four.

Some other folks got confused just past the 10M marker on Seven Bridges Rd., where a very small blue bus stop sign caused contradiction and difficulty interpreting the direction vs. the generals. You should have continued thru the light at Route 134 as opposed to making a right turn at the light. Even though we may have lost half the field here, one team executed the incorrect turn, and found themselves back on course - how that happened I have no idea!

PS - If you never found the 10M marker, there's no room to complain, but we do feel bad and hope to see all of you at the Halloween Rally with registration fees waived for people that competed in the 2004 Bunny Run.

In the end, we did find a means to score the results - All answer sheets handed in regardless of whether or not you reached the final check point were scored based on the number of correctly recorded bunnies. Signs that were correctly recorded up to the 10M marker were scored at a whopping 150 points. BUT, with one strategically placed off-course sign located on the left side of Hog Hill Rd., we saw some surprising final results. As you traveled up Hog Hill Rd., the "J" was off course on your left and for fun we wrapped you back around to Seven Bridges Rd., and this time it was on you right and on course. Congrats to Stacey and Rene - our 1st place Ladies team that didn't fall for this trick. There were 46 bunnies in total and only one missing when we took them down on Sunday. This sign (even though some recorded it, did not count in the final scoring). Another area that tripped some of you up, especially with another off course bunny was Moseman Avenue. Don't forget to un-record off course bunnies after you correct yourselves.

We look forward to the next run and thank everyone who supported us on our first rally.

Your rally masters,

Don and Diane Mays