As is tradition, Sunday morning brings the Awards Brunch, where we find out how we placed, both overall and in class.
Unlike yesterday’s buffet, this one is a sit-down thing where food is brought out, much to Dad’s dismay. (Nothing pleases Dad more than a breakfast buffet!) We did get some good news however: Next year’s NW Classic Rally will take place in my new/adopted hometown of Bend, Oregon. That makes travel and accommodations easy!
We eat our scrambled eggs and chat with our table-mates about last night guest presentations concerning other forms of rallying. I forgot to mention but we hear from other rally participants about their adventures doing all-out stage rallying, insane frozen Alaskan long-distance endurance rallying, and a particularly humorous telling of running the La Carrera Panamerica. Eventually the moment(s) we’ve all been waiting for arrives and rally chairman Reid Trummel takes to the lectern. After thanking the volunteers and sponsors, without which the event would not exist, he turns to the results…
They read the results in reverse order. We know we did pretty good, so we wait patiently. We did not however expect to do as well as we apparently did…
We hear the bronze (finishing between 21st & 50th), silver (finishing between 11th & 20th) and on into the top ten finishers. When #8 is announced to be the Second Place Finisher in the Vintage Class, we’re astounded to know that we’ve won the class, as we are the last remaining un-annouced Vintage Class participant.
Reid calls off the seventh, sixth, fifth, and fourth place finishers, all in Standard Class.
I know there is no possible way that we could finish this well, running Vintage Class and basically winging it without a calculator or speed tables. Sure enough Third Overall is announced and a photo of our car is up on the screen…
Reid praises our accomplishment, finishing this high in the overall standings in Vintage class, as Dad & I stand to accept our trophies. As we’re having our pictures taken I turn around and snap off the shot above, showing how we fared.
I’m beaming because I’m so proud of my Dad, who is really the whole reason we’re here. He’s the car guy who raised me around sports cars and rallying. The guy who stirred my passion for this stuff again 30-some years after we had stopped doing car stuff. My father, who in his first serious TSD event (This rally back in 1998, which he did with my little sister) finished dead last. He kept at it, and now at 76 years old, is finally getting it right. 😉
I just drove where and how fast he told me.
It feels great to arrive home. We bask in the glow of victory, sunset, and a nice round of drinks on the deck.
Nice job. Congratualtions to you both.
Would love to do this rally some year.
Come on out Mark! (just bring your own Navigator… I’m keeping mine!) 😉
congratulations (not for good placement) …….. but affection for his father
TSD Navigators are hard to find. At least in my family. They can handle the math but the stress gets ’em 🙂