Well, the Infinite Monkeys Rally has concluded for another year, and we couldn't
be more impressed with the competition this year. There were some
incredibly low scores, especially among some of the teams who had never rallied
before. Even some of the cars which finished with higher scores really
did quite well until some small mistake sent them off course.
Unfortunately that does happen, and although it may not seem that way
at the time, it's really true that when you look back on it, that's part
of the fun! (Paul's first rally earned him a score of about 350 or
so, but look where he is now--writing evil rallies like this one for you
guys!)
Anyway, first things first, we can't express how much we appreciate the workers
who took time out of their weekend to wait for the competitors on a back
road somewhere, just to give you a sticker! We are sorry that some
of their locations were awfully hot and sunny today; but in our defence,
this year hasn't really given us much expectation for 'hot and sunny' up
till now! But HUGE thank yous to Alan G and Mike M, Nick, Ingrid, Heidi,
and Tim B, Melody G, Mike F, Tim L, Doug H, Ross and Janet W, and Paul H.
Heidi and Tim B also helped a lot back at the finish, by sorting out
and setting up the trophies and awards. It seems that Heidi is an
experienced monkey wrangler, having about 9 of her own! A couple of
those came along to help at the checkpoint, too, so I'm sure that their
checkpoints were the smoothest of all! Thanks also are due to the Green
Crew, Alan and Carolyn R, who checked the instruction packages and the route
a few weeks ago, and gave me corrections before any errors made it to you;
and to Robert R, who gave advice about the difficulty levels of the routebooks.
I hope you liked the instructions; it seems that the horses gave people the
most trouble. All I can say is that it's sort of realistic, because
real horses give people a lot of trouble too (at least mine certainly enjoys
doing so!). Several people brought up the fact that they saw one or
more stuffed monkeys hanging from trees along the route. Honestly,
those monkeys had nothing at all to do with us, and we were surprised to
hear about them. We're sure they were not there when we laid out the
route! Just goes to show you, they really ARE infinite! And,
they CAN find the route!! But anyway, in regards to the instructions,
please contact me any time if there is anything you still didn't understand,
or would like to figure out or just talk about; or heck, any question at
all about rallying! (vpnavigational@rallysport.on.ca)
So after an adventurous drive around the wilds of York and Durham Regions,
all teams made it back to the finish at The Big Catch Restaurant, where we
enjoyed great fish & chips, or burgers, or ice cream as the case may
be, while the scores were tabulated. This did not go as smoothly as
planned, since the keyboard on my laptop chose this very moment to freak
out, and so I could not enter the times in the program. No big deal,
we had enough volunteers around and were able to switch to the "old school"
method of scoring. Perhaps the worst part of that was the freehand-drawn
lined paper upon which the results were written (sorry, I'm nothing without
my Vernier Caliper!); but posted they were, and after the usual few corrections,
they were finalized.
In first place in the Touring Class was our "home team" (from the presenting
club, TAC), Ron and Jeff Billings, with a great score of only 10.1 minutes
in error over the entire 4.5 hour course. Second place was Evan and
Martin Simons, earning only 27.9 penalties for their first rally. This
score would have been even better except for a calculation error on the elapsed
time at the start, causing them to arrive so early at checkpoint 1.
In the Novice Class, Trevor Hancher and Ted Doig used the experience they've
aquired from entering the whole series this year, achieving the amazing score
of 1.8, including
5 zeroed checkpoints, and using no Time Allowances. This was more than
enough to earn them First Place Novice, especially as the 2nd place team
of Stephen Deneka and Opal Gamble missed a checkpoint in the top map section.
Still, if you look at the rest of their scores, there were a lot of
zeroes there too! In third place, the Kitchener-Waterloo team of Andrew
Kulikowski and Gary Sutherland were close behind them, and in fourth place,
Benjamin and Cameron Watts-- in their first rally-- were only 0.1 minutes
from the 3rd place score!! That is 6 seconds between these teams over
the whole rally!!
Unfortunately
we had just one car entered in the Intermediate Class, but that takes nothing
away from the fact that their score was a mere 11.6. Chances are that
even with competition in the class, this would have been the winning score,
especially if they could take away that big early at the first checkpoint,
the same trouble that Car 2 had in Touring class. I guess teams were
lured into relaxing their guard when I gave out the instructions at 5 minutes
before the start, rather than the usual 2 minutes. Just when you think
I'm a niceguy, you fall into a trap. No, I didn't mean that to happen,
but I can totally understand how it did.
In the Expert class, the team of Jane and Bruce Leonard came in with an Expert
score of just 2.1, proving that they will be tough to beat in the Targa
Newfoundland, which they are heading off to in less than a month! Second
place Expert was another "home team", Andrew Kinal and Dietmar Seelenmayer.
Although it was Andrew's first ever rally, he had to run in the Expert
class on account of his Expert navigator. In navigational rallies,
the Navigator determines the team's class. Quite the steep learning
curve for Andrew, but he was certainly up to the challenge! Their only
big penalty was the 10.4 early at checkpoint 3, and this was definitely a
Navigator error from the Expert side of the car: it seems Dietmar misused
a Time Allowance there. It has often been said that TA's are easier
to get wrong than right, and there is living proof. This class would
have been really close without that one mistake, so Andrew is clearly quality
rally material.
As is traditional in the Infinite Monkeys Rally, we have some other prizes
besides just class placings. One of them is the Unstoppable award,
given to the team who demonstrates perseverance and determination no matter
what. This year the Unstoppable Team was Car 10, who were also out
for their first rally. Showing their spirit of fun and adventure, they
opted for the Novice instructions rather than the basic Touring, and they
were doing excellently until Section 5, when they took a wrong turn and went
off course. You will see from the scores, however, that they had even
zeroed a checkpoint, and gotten within 2 minutes of perfect time on most
of the other checkpoints until then. Although they did not find the
remaining checkpoints in this rally, they did not let that discourage them
and they returned to the finish, where they received their trophy; and won
a door prize, too. They showed just the attitude we love in rallyists,
and we sure hope to see them at some more events!
The last award at the IMR is the Top Banana Award, given to any team that
I feel has done something outstanding, interesting, or otherwise noteworthy.
This year I could not help but award it to Car 7, who impressed me
by missing checkpoint 7 and yet still coming in to checkpoint 8 on perfect
time with a zero score. Getting the time right to a checkpoint after
going off course is always nearly impossible, but somehow they managed to
recalculate their distances from their mistake, re-find the correct course,
and get back on time before cp8. (Or maybe it was pure luck that they
found the checkpoint at the right time? Even that would be wildly
improbable! ) Skill or luck it was quite the thing, and so Stephen and
Opal became the 2009 Top Banana Team. Congratulations!
And now without further ado, here are the detailed results, in order of placings
by class (N=Novice, T=Touring, I=Intermediate, E=Expert):
('TA pen' means penalty added for the use of Time Allowances over the first
TA; 'e' means early; 'M' means a missed checkpoint. Pink numbers are
where a TA was used)
Car #. Driver/Navigator
Club
CP1
CP2
CP3
CP4
CP5
CP6
CP7
CP8
CP9
CP10
CP11
CP12
CP13
CP14
Finish
TA pen
Total
Place
1 T Hancher/T Doig
SPDA/SPDA
0
0.4
0.2e
0.2e
0
0.1e
0
0.1e
0
0.1e
0.1
0.1e
0.4e
0.1e
0
0
1.8
1st N
7. S Deneka/O Gamble
SPDA/SPDA
0
0.2
0.1e
0
0
0.1e
20M
0
0
0
0.1e
0
0.1e
0.1e
0
0
20.7
2nd N
5. A Kulikowski/ GSutherland
KWRC/KWRC
0
0.1e
0.2e
0.1
0.5
0.2
14.1
1.1e
1
0.5
0.7
1.9
0.7
0
0
1.0
22.1
3rd N
6. B Watts/C Watts
n/a
0.7
2.2
0.1
0.3e
1.0e
0.2
0.1
6.1
0
0.5
0.5
1.2e
0.3e
0
9.0e
0
22.2
4th N
9. T Burgess/ P Ford
n/a
0
0.1e
0
0.3e
0.7
0.1e
20M
7.5
0
2.2e
6.5
0.2e
1.6
0
3.0e
1
43.2
5th N
4. M Gagnon/ M Geng
n/a
3.5e
0.1
0
0.4
1.2
0.8
1.7
0.4
0
2.2
20M
20M
6.3
0.5
0
0.5
57.6
6th N
8. C Allum/ G Allan
n/a
1.5e
1.5
0.1e
0.1
0.3
0.1
4.9
1.4
0
2.4
3.8
20M
20M
20M
8.6e
0
84.7
7th N
10. S Reid/ E Pond
n/a
2.2e
1.4
0.8e
0.5
1.0e
0
5.9
20M
20M
20M
20M
20M
20M
20M
16.4
0
168.2
8th N
3. R Billings/J Billings
TAC/--
0.1e
0.7
0.8e
0.8e
0.8e
0
0.7e
0.3e
1.0e
0.6e
1.0e
1.5e
0.5e
0.4e
1.0e
0
10.1
1st T
2.E Simons/M Simons
n/a
7.7e
0.4
1.1
0.4
0.1e
0.2
1.1
2.0
2.0
1.7
2.1e
2.4e
0.9
0.8e
5.0e
0
27.9
2nd T
11.R Sanderson /C Chinn
KWRC/KWRC
0.9e
1.5
0.1
0.1e
0
0.2
1.8
1.9
1.0
1.6
0.2e
0.9
0.8e
0.1e
0
0.5
11.6
1st I
13. J Leonard/B Leonard
MLRC/MLRC
0.1
0
0
0
0
0
0.1e
0
0
0.1
0.2
0.1e
0.2e
0.3
0
1.0
2.1
1st E
12A Kinal/D Seelenmayer
TAC/TAC
0.1
0.9
10.4e
1.4e
0.2
0.2e
3.0e
0.1e
2.0
3.2
0.3e
1.4e
0.6e
0.6
0
0
24.4
2nd E
These results are now reflected in the
standings
for the Ontario Road Rally Cup series. You new Novices are "on the
board" already: there are still three more events in this year's series.
Win a couple of points in each one and you could be near the top by
year-end!
We hope you enjoyed the Monkeys this year, and look forward to seeing you
again next year! But don't wait a whole year, there are more navigational
car rallies in 2009! The next one in the series is the President's
Prize Rally, coming Oct 24 in the Peterborough area. Watch the "upcoming
events" calendar on the RallySport
Ontario web page for details soon!
Thanks to Tim Laye for the photographs. If you care to see the results
for previous Infinite Monkeys events: click for
2008 IMR;
2007 IMR.
By about April 2010, there will be a site for the
2010 IMR.
1.8, including
5 zeroed checkpoints, and using no Time Allowances. This was more than
enough to earn them First Place Novice, especially as the 2nd place team
of Stephen Deneka and Opal Gamble missed a checkpoint in the top map section.
Still, if you look at the rest of their scores, there were a lot of
zeroes there too! In third place, the Kitchener-Waterloo team of Andrew
Kulikowski and Gary Sutherland were close behind them, and in fourth place,
Benjamin and Cameron Watts-- in their first rally-- were only 0.1 minutes
from the 3rd place score!! That is 6 seconds between these teams over
the whole rally!!
Unfortunately
we had just one car entered in the Intermediate Class, but that takes nothing
away from the fact that their score was a mere 11.6. Chances are that
even with competition in the class, this would have been the winning score,
especially if they could take away that big early at the first checkpoint,
the same trouble that Car 2 had in Touring class. I guess teams were
lured into relaxing their guard when I gave out the instructions at 5 minutes
before the start, rather than the usual 2 minutes. Just when you think
I'm a niceguy, you fall into a trap. No, I didn't mean that to happen,
but I can totally understand how it did.
