The 1998 Jaycee Rally Part 3

After the evening rest we were sent out into the darkness to the notorious Eppynt military ranges for a night jogularity section. We had a fraught ten minutes when we missed a turning in a village, and arrived late for our start. Even the non-competitive parts of a rally can be a challenge. We set off at a specified average 30 mph and began to traverse the switchback roads which criss-cross the Eppynt . Jogularity involves looking for landmarks at specified times or distances. I was struggling to read the tenths dial of the odometer in the dim panel lighting. Trying to maintain an average of 30 mph meant accelerating up the steeper slopes and soaring over the crests before easing back. On one such crest we took-off, and had all headlamps go out in the heavy landing. A frantic waggle with the column stalk got dipped beams back on, just as we entered the forests.

Jogularity gets tricky when things start to happen in quick succession. We were looking for a left turn and were close to where it should have been, when I spotted the lights of a control, and pulled up alongside it, only to be told to "see if reverse works". Puzzled, we set off back and retraced the last few hundred yards, to find the missing left turn was the point of a triangle, followed by a right turn at the second point, which of course led to the control on the third point, all within less than fifty yards! A little further on we soared over another crest and bumped back to earth again.  June said, "I've dropped the stopwatch". "Well, pick it up!" "I can't find it!" So, with no stopwatch to keep to time and no main beams to pick out the route, we had to settle for finding our way out as best we could, and arrived at the midnight halt late, but just able to get a quick coffee. I tried in vain to get main beams back on; but the fusebox had finally cracked at the point where it had regularly melted with the current carried by the main beam contacts.