On the running of the 75th Turkey Tour Rally I was a bit reflective in the preparation of the the event… this was the 27th rally that Barbara and I have produced and the 22nd Turkey Tour. We have produced almost 1/3 or the long history of Turkey Tours. We took over planning this event after 2 of our close friends decided to step away from rally planning and just participate in the events, and since then we have not missed a year.
This event, I decided to try to make the route 75 miles to celebrate… not thinking that a rally that distance is really long. The actual time of the 73.1 mile rally (I didn’t quite make it to 75), was 3 hours 1 minute and 44 seconds. And while everyone was late, the winning team did the best on time and only missed one of our posted signs. The second place team did great on signs… didn’t miss any, but didn’t do quite as well on time finishing 4 minutes off the winning time. We put up 52 signs and 1 team saw all of them, and 1 team saw them all but misidentify 1 and also wrote down the off-course sign.
Everyone seemed to have enjoyed the instruction “Left at “Right” (SOL)” with an off course Turkey on the Left, which was a right arrow. Four teams put the off-course Turkey on the answer sheet despite the fact that the Generals clearly indicates all Turkey signs will be on the right and I reiterated that in the drivers meeting. Gotta pay attention there… I do give you some subtle helpers.
Of the 12 cars that started, 9 finished at the checkpoint, 2 at the restaurant/bar meeting point, and 1 team headed home before finishing.
Thanks to all the ralliets who came out to drive on some great roads, see some incredible houses, and see the beautiful Christmas lights. As always, I recommend doing the route again, both in the day and at night, it is truly amazing. I’ve done it 6 times and I still see so much new stuff along the way. It is great practice for next year too… hopefully we can do a full schedule of at least 3 rallies next year. If anyone is interesting in writing a rally. Let me know, I can be helpful during the planning process since over the last 27 years… I’ve learned a lot about planning these efficiently.
Thank you to Diane for doing registration, Mike for the drivers meeting, G.J. for helping at the checkpoint, Ken for helping pickup the signs and Barbara for co-chairing the event with me for the last 27 years.
I look forward to next year and seeing you all again in the spring for the Bunny Run…. Hear that rallymasters. Let’s go!
Jesse and Barbara