MG Car Club

6/11/24 From Keith Kerr, Chairman, RGS Committee:

We had a lot of fun last weekend at the 72^nd annual Rallye Glenwood Springs. As has always been the case, there were some last-minute issues that came up that we handled with style and grace, and then went for cocktails. Early Friday morning there was an accident on I70 westbound after the Eisenhower tunnel that closed the highway for several hours, impacting our tour route. Many thanks to Jeanne Kerr, Oriana Meldrum, and Laura Magnuson who briefed the potential alternate route around the accident while handing out tour packages and getting people on their way. Aside from the waving bear in Avon taking a short break in the woods with his roll of Charmin, the tour went well, and everyone arrived pretty much in time for the new Richta Competitor app training and walking tour.

The” Walking Rallye” in the parking lot of the Courtyard Marriott Glenwood Springs was more entertaining than it should have been. Participants were able to try out the new rallye app while strolling through the parking lot with an adult beverage. There were nine checkpoints in all. A few people had issues with the app at first but after getting a second beverage, all went well. In the future, the Walking Rallye will involve a drinking game. Many thanks to Kemal Ouwerkerk for creating the course and to Oriana and Kemal for getting the participants on the route and safely back home again.

Saturday was the big day as we kicked off the inaugural running of the Rallye Glenwood Springs using the GPS-based Richta app. Rallye master Wayne Covington designed a beautiful course of about 250 miles with 30 checkpoints, two of which were staffed. The first staffed checkpoint featured a game of corn hole and was staffed by Alan and Laura Magnuson, Joe and Cathy Gunderson, and Eric and Melanie Bergstrom. The second staffed checkpoint was a DUI check point staffed by members of the BMCNC and led by Kingsley and Jean Meldrum. Given that the MG Car Club has often been described as a drinking club with a car problem, the DUI checkpoint seemed appropriate. There were no arrests.

Along the way, we were able to exploit a few features of the rallye app. Oriana Meldrum was in the role of “Big Sister” back at the hotel and was able to track all the participants using the Scoreboard app to make sure they stayed moving. As the sweep car, we checked in with her several times to make sure we were at the end of the herd. Oriana let the workers at the staffed checkpoint know when the last car cleared their control so they could head back to the hotel for a cocktail.

Another cool feature of the app is the ability to request time allowances in case you need to make a stop or get behind slow traffic. In our case, we decided to stop at the Black Bridge Winery in Paonia to pick up a few bottles of Pinot Noir. We pulled into the driveway to the winery, started a timer, picked up our wine, and returned to the course. We submitted a time allowance for eight minutes and thirty seconds, and at the end of the leg only had 12 penalty points.

Our faith in humanity was restored when we came upon Scott Shuler and Harriet Fox in their ’66 MGB beside the road just outside of Paonia. Greg Peek and Dick Fritz had already stopped to check on them and were well into troubleshooting. We stopped as well, which provided an opportunity for the obligatory butt shot of the boys with their heads under the bonnet. The feel-good moment came when one of the local chaps offered to pull the car off the road and into a secure location behind a locked gate if the car couldn’t be fixed and needed to be left behind. Cheers to the kindness of strangers!

We got the car started but it failed again in Redstone and ultimately needed to be towed back to the hotel. Over cocktails back at the hotel, Jim Goodwin offered that we were troubleshooting in the right place but were focused on the wrong part. His experience indicated a bad ignition condenser, which ended up being the root cause of the problem. Scott swapped it out with a spare Sunday morning and made it home without incident.

Sunday’s events went off quite well. The Glenwood Springs Parks and Recs people arrived early and blocked off a portion of the parking lot for us, turned off the irrigation system, and made sure there was power on the stage. We used a new process this year for collecting car show ballots that sped up the scoring. Thanks to John Fraioli and Greg Peek for setting up and managing the car show, and to the many volunteers who helped place the cars and count ballots. Neil White’s Funkhana was a blast and may best be described as a cross between irresponsible driving and youth soccer.

A special thanks to the Roaring Fork High School French Club for providing crepes throughout the morning. The MG Car Club continues to partner with local youth organizations like the French Club and Girl Scouts to help them in their fund-raising activities, and we are very appreciative of their support.

And to the rest of the RGS Committee members and volunteers, thank you so much. Special recognition goes to:

Jeanne Kerr, our tour master, who wrote an academically challenging route to Glenwood Springs, and Oriana Meldrum and Alan Magnuson who check-ran the tour.
Kathie & Brian Dillon, our Regalia chairs who brought some new and interesting designs for shirts, hats, and other cool stuff.
Cathy & Joe Gunderson who, year after year, provide logistical support to transport all the materials needed for the 3-day event.
Bob Gloyd, our DJ and ad-hoc master of ceremonies for the awards program.
Alan Magnuson, the guy who just gets all the other stuff done that I forget to do including Youth Judging, tabulations of results for the Bill Barker Award, coordination of Kumpf Award, and a bunch of other things.
Jack Kahler, who designed and procured our awards this year.
Judy Fritz, who was at the first staffed checkpoint, as well as the Gundersons, Magnusons, and Bergstroms.
The hardworking members of the BMCNC, who staffed our “Sobriety Test” checkpoint. What a hoot that was. Thanks for helping us make the Checkpoint Challenge a reality.
To the many volunteers who helped along the way. We could not have pulled this off without you. The RGS Committee is always looking for help, especially during the event. If you would like to volunteer next year, even for a twenty-minute job, please let me know.

And finally, a heartfelt thanks to our rallyemaster, Wayne Covington, who put in countless hours designing and testing the rallye this year. Just a few days before the event, Wayne and Kemal were involved in a serious road incident while doing the last check run. They’re both okay but Wayne was banged up enough that the doc grounded him and wouldn’t let him attend the RGS. But the rallye was so well planned that Oriana and Kemal were able to execute the event flawlessly.

Cheers to all the participants this year, and thanks again for making the 2024 Rallye Glenwood Springs so successful! I’m looking forward to seeing you again in 2025.

Best Regards,

Keith Kerr
2024 RGS Chairman