Rally
Whether you spell it rally or rallye, a rally involves a vehicle, a driver, a navigator, a set of rules or instructions, and a series of check points between the starting and ending point of the rally. Depending on your level of sophistication, it may also include some extras such as stop watches, calculators and clip boards. Whatever your level of involvement, a rally can be a fun way to spend a day.
The Mid-South Region has a dedicated group of members who enjoy participating in Rally Events. Our annual Rally is held in conjuction with Oktoberfest..
For more information, Contact our Driving Event Chair Bob Buckmaster
6th Mid-Tennessee Fun Run
Drivers enjoyed a beautiful drive in the country for the 6th Mid-Tennessee Fun Run on September 15, 2007. See more photos at /funrun6/index.htm
4th Mid-Tennessee Fun Run
Drivers from 4th Mid Tn Fun Run... See more photos at /funrun4.htm
Well, if you had to miss it, sorry… you missed one heck of a ride!
We congregated at the Arby’s/Pilot truck stop center off I-40 exit 143 (Buffalo, TN). Everyone arrived by 10am. There were a few new faces, as well as some of the plank owners of the group. If it were not for Ron Minson showing up from Nashville, we could have called today’s run the WTFR #1. Today’s run did not have the variety of the Porsche cars as the last run did. We had a couple of SC’s, a couple of Carreras, an RSR in progress, a 930 slant-nose, a 928S4, and a 944.
After getting to know the newcomers, we got on the road at 10:30 and headed south on Hwy 13. It was quite the site. We got a lot of thumbs up form people along the way, including a bunch of bikers… We continued south until we reached Waynesboro, TN. In Waynesboro, we all parked in a line in the center of town square by the courthouse, and then went into a local restaurant on the Square (Emeralds I think) and ate a wonderful lunch. If you’re in the area, it is a great place for food. Just a word of warning though, if you get one of their wonderful burgers (I recommend the Bacon/Cheddar burger), do not get the Jumbo size unless you are VERY HUNGRY!!!
After lunch, our Nashville rep had to head home. Seeing an opportunity for greatness, a local lady named Alma (speaking somewhat “jibberishly” (not kidding either – I am really not sure what she was saying)) invited herself and her Celica to tag along for the rest of our drive. So we (and Alma) gassed up and headed back north on Hwy 13 to the Highway 228 intersection. We then headed west on 228 towards Clifton and the Tennessee River. We stopped at the river for yet another group photo (must be a disease!) and then headed up Hwy 128 back towards Linden, TN and the Hwy 13 intersection. From there, we headed back north to Highway 412 and all turned westward towards home.
That Hwy 228 between Hwy 13 and Clifton, TN is the most fun on a road I have ever been on. I would even take it over the Tail of a Dragon! TOD may have more curves in a given area, but this little stretch of Hwy 228 has enough curves to keep your hands moving for most of the 15 mile journey. And, what makes it way better is, hardly any traffic! The return trip to Hwy 13 from Clifton was on Hwy 128, a nice road in and of itself. If you are ever in the area, and have a couple of hours to burn, it’s a must drive…
So, to wrap it all up:
1. We had a good showing
2. No one got hurt
3. Weather was absolutely perfect, which was amazing for July 21st!
4. All the cars ran well (with the exception of a push start (ahem, my car – thanks guys!)
5. We lost the psycho Celica-lady from Waynesboro somewhere on Hwy 128
6. And as far as I know, everyone had a great time and made it home.
Hope to see more of you out for the next one. Does anyone want to plan one for August in addition to the Ardmore Car Show in AL, or just use that show as an excuse to caravan together. It really is not an MTFR I guess. Let me know what you all think. I will be out of commission for a lot of August unfortunately, so if you do a separate run, I will have to ask one of you other guys to plan it.
Thanks to all who showed today. Really had a good time meeting the new guys and also with the “old” friends…
Now then… please enjoy the pics. Jeffrey and some others may have some more to contribute. Jeffrey also was shooting video today as well. He said he would put it out after he can edit it up.
Cheers,
Shane Van Wey
3rd Mid-Tennessee Fun Run
by Chuck Sertich
The 3rd Mid TN Fun Run was held on June 23rd. We assembled in Jackson, TN before taking off on our drive to Natchez Trace State Park.
The first thing that became obvious to me is that we had a fine representation of the Porsche marque for our drive: 911SC's, Carreras, an RS replica in the making, a 914-6, a 928, a 944, a 1980 Turbo slantnose (the owner of this car has had 17 Porsche's over the years), a 997 C4S Targa, and a couple of 993's. After visiting for awhile at our meeting place, we fired up our cars for the drive. The sound of all those Porsche's starting up was a real thrill.
We took off and headed south out of Jackson, single file. Just about the time I was getting bored with our 'city' scenery, we took a left on Highway 197 and the landscape was immediately transformed into beautiful countryside-rolling hills, nice road with long sweeping curves. We stepped up the pace a little but no one went crazy and we kept it between the lines. Our first stop was at Pinson Mounds State Park. Nice park, very quiet. We lined up our cars for some pics next to a Native Indian burial mound. We spoke to a Park Ranger who gave us a little history of the site while he admired our cars. We visited some more at the park and exchanged questions and compliments about our cars.
A great sight as we pulled out of the park was the wife of one of our drivers poked her head out of the SC's sunroof to take pictures of the cars ahead and behind her (we were going very slow at this point due to mammoth speed bumps in the park). By the way, the driver of that SC also 'drives' a Howitzer for the U.S. Army and was headed back to Iraq for his third tour of duty. We all wish him the best and a safe return.
More great driving and a stop at a country store for refreshments. This particular country store had soft drinks, food items, hardware of all kinds, plumbing supplies, a restaurant and a hair salon. We chatted for awhile in the store parking lot and headed out for the last leg of our drive.
More rolling hills and sweeping curves led us to Natchez Trace State Park. We filled up the parking lot at the Park's main office with our cars. We met the parks manager and spoke to some local folks who were hanging around. Several had questions about the cars and one gentleman remarked he'd never seen so many at one time. After more picture taking and visiting, we headed down to the lake for one last picture opportunity.
As we pulled into the parking area by the lake, we got lots of looks from the swimmers and those were picnicking at the park. We spent more time getting to know one another and then had to call it a day.
I'd like to thank Shane Van Wey for organizing our drive and scoping out the roads the week before. And it was a real pleasure to get to know the fellow drivers and their passengers. A great group of folks and a beautiful day. Doesn't get much better than that.
If you would like to join us for one of our runs, please contact Shane Van Wey at vanweys@charter.net.
One story from the drive:
As mentioned, we all met at a Sonic in Jackson. The Sonic was located on one side of a rather large parking lot with a health club and other establishments located on the other side of the lot. About the time all 11 cars arrived, a health club employee came out and asked us to move our cars because this was their parking lot. He was nice about it and was under orders from his manager. It was about 10:30 or 11am on a Saturday morning and the whole parking lot was 30-35% full at this time. We said we'd be gone soon and kept on talking about cars and each other. Well, I guess we talked too long because the same guy came out, nice again, and asked us to move. Just to show what a nice group we had, no one made a big point of the OBVIOUS-a heck of a lot more cars would have to arrive before their business began to lose profits. We all found this to be amusing and curious. Since we are all obvious car enthusiasts, our collective opinion was that if we were the health club manager, we'd have welcomed this beautiful and diverse collection of cars. I could have sworn I saw 3-4 Vettes in the same lot! Hmmm…..
We moved our cars about 50 feet away and all was well.
To the credit of the Health Club (of which Shane happens to be a member - some membership privileges! HA!), they did tell Shane later that week that the reason for their aggressive parking lot defense, was due to someone the week before, pulling in a concession trailer and getting ready to start cooking bar-b-cue… right there in the lot!