About this event
Please join us on Saturday May 9 at 10:00AM for the first session of MBCA Peachtree Section’s TSD Rally School.
At their core, rallies are really just good excuses to go out for a drive on cool roads to interesting destinations. Find a start and finish location, pick a time to start, prepare a set of route instructions, find some friends to bring their cars and pair up, and off you go! For a club full of Mercedes Benz enthusiasts like us, that in and of itself is sufficient for us to get together and have a good time. However, it can also be a lot of fun to add a dose of competition to the mix. One type of competition that provides challenges for drivers and navigators alike is the TSD (Time-Speed-Distance) rally.
In a TSD rally, the idea is to use a set of route instructions to traverse the course at specific assigned speeds, so you arrive at a series of checkpoints (usually hidden) at exactly the right time. Arriving at the perfect time awards the team a “zero”, any amount of time early or late assesses the team a certain number of points, usually around 1 point per second early or late. Like golf, lowest score wins. TSD rallies are contested by a minimum of two person teams, a driver and a navigator, who is responsible for keeping the team on the course and on time.
Would you like to learn how to efficiently run a TSD rally and are curious about the concept, or if you are experienced, but haven’t run an event in a while, our TSD Rally School will be the perfect opportunity for you to learn about these events and get comfortable with the instructions and the “lingo”.
The school will be divided into two virtual classroom sessions held on Zoom. Between the two sessions, we will present a short “practice rally” that will be available for you to run in a “socially distancing” manner, with no need to exit your vehicle from the start to the finish of the rally. It will start and finish in the parking lot of the West Cobb Regional Library in Acworth. The practice rally will only be run if such an event can be run safely in the current environment and is in compliance with any government directives in force at the time.
What you’ll learn in the one and half hour session:
- You’ll learn that in TSD rallies, the top priorities are:
- How to stay on the road
- How to stay on the assigned course
- How to stay on time to get the best (lowest) score possible.
- How to prepare the car and the rally team for the event, as well as what to do when you arrive at the event.
- How to read and interpret the route instructions,
- Learn TSD rally terminology
- What to do at checkpoints when they are encountered.
- How scoring is done and how to use the phone/tablet apps that will be needed to run MBCA rallies.
At this first session, we will also provide the schedule and instructions for running the practice rally. Our hope is that you will be able to run the practice rally at the time of your choosing between the end of this session and before the second classroom session. However, we don’t know at this time whether that will be possible. The second classroom session is tentatively scheduled for the evening of May 17th, in order to give the class opportunities over two weekends to run the practice rally.
In the session two, we will review your experience on the practice rally (including how you scored!) and cover any route following questions. We will then discuss timekeeping, including the arithmetic needed to calculate perfect times, how to work with the driver to stay on time, and some tips on running “seat of the pants” if you don’t want to calculate anything at all, but still want to be competitive.
The classroom sessions will be conducted via Zoom Video Teleconference (VTC). No NEED to leave your home. You can easily join the ZOOM meeting by computer, iPhone, iPad, Android devices, or by telephone.
TSD rallies are great fun, and with a little training, you will have a great time driving interesting roads and staying on time. We plan on organizing one and possibly two rallies this calendar year, with straightforward route following instructions on some of Georgia’s great driving roads. This course will have you ready to thoroughly enjoy the experience.
Note that IF YOU DON'T GET A CONFIRMATION EMAIL AFTER YOU REGISTER, THEN YOU AREN'T REGISTERED! If you don't get a confirmation email, we can't be sure that you will get the VTC information on the Friday before the event.
Please pay attention to the waiver in the registration form; since the practice rally will be done individually, the waiver for this registration will serve as the waiver for the practice rally (and the wording was borrowed from the standard MBCA waiver form).
We plan to record this event, so be aware that your voice and potentially image may be recorded.
The price is free for MBCA members and $55 for non MBCA members. It will be a fun morning of car talk that you won’t want to miss! Join today and the TSD training sessions and all other Peachtree VTC sessions are free, contact Diana Quinn to join MBCA.
NOTE:
On Friday afternoon you will receive an e-mail with the link to the ZOOM meeting and instructions on how to setup the ZOOM application beforehand to simplify connection. We will plan to have the ZOOM meeting up by 9:45 a.m. so we can hopefully get technical issues out of the way.
Don’t wait to register, as we are limited to only 100 attendees.
For questions on the subject and content of the session, contact Rallymaster Jim Fekete at jamesfekete@gmail.com or (734) 718-5032. For questions about event logistics or the VTC, contact Gary Edwards by e-mail at edwardsgw@nu-z.net or by phone at (757) 831-9556.
Event requirements
On the Friday before the video teleconference (VTC), you will receive an e-mail with the link to the ZOOM meeting and instructions on how to setup the ZOOM application beforehand. It is best to download the ZOOM app before you try to get into the VTC (like on Friday).