By Tom Letourneau

The Rogue's Island Misadventure Rallye has been postponed until next May!

Knowing that JANE (Jaguar Association of New England) and AONE (Alfa Owners of New England) like to have a yearly old-fashioned sports car rallye (our last one being the “Last Green Valley Rallye" in May, 2009), plans for this year's event are complete! I have laid out a fall foliage rallye for both clubs and any guests from other clubs who would like to take part. While a good part of the route will take us through Massachusetts, the Rallye has been named so as to spoof Rhode Island and her notorious politics.

This year's route will take us though Massachusetts, starting at Dana Schwehr's shop, Upton Foreign Motors, 138 Milford Street (Route 140), Upton, MA 01568. (NOTE: Look carefully, as underbrush has somewhat covered up the sign, but if you look up the driveway it is a big blue building with the name on the side, also in big letters. Dana's shop is all the way up in the top part of the lot.)

From there, we will head through Mendon, Uxbridge, Blackstone, and Bellingham, MA. Then I will take us down into northern Rhode Island, where we will go along some beautiful back roads in Cumberland. The route will also include Cumberland's notorious "Tower Hill Road". Finally, we’ll wind our way back up into North Attleboro, Wrentham, Plainville, and Franklin, MA — horse and farm country. This year's route will be a little shorter in distance than our last three, but may take 15-30 minutes longer to complete, as I found an awful lot of great, curvy, up-and-down back roads, which will necessitate somewhat slower speeds on some sections — especially the notorious "Haunted" Tower Hill Road in Cumberland, RI.

The Rallye will be held on Saturday, September 25th, 2010, with a rain date the next day, Sunday, September 26th. The entry fee will be $25 per car for all JANE and AONE participants and also Alfa and Jag club members from the respective Connecticut chapters. The fee for all others will be $30.

Also, knowing what is involved on the morning of a rallye (i.e. driver's meeting, final organizational procedures, answering questions, getting contestants off on time,  etc.), pre-registration is requested. This is also needed in order to properly plan the required seating at the restaurant that will be used at the Rallye's end for the awards presentation.

As with all my rallyes, this one will be TSD, with a Q&A gimmick angle. That means two rallyes in one (twice the winners and awards!) or you can just come along, follow the route and enjoy the ride — especially Tower Hill Road! (Ever done Mt. Washington?) :-D

There will be one 1st place award for the gimmick portion; 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place award for both JANE and AONE participants in the TSD portion; one 1st place overall award; and (so as not to slight any "Others" that elect to participate) we will have a nice 1st place award certificate for them. (I think this qualifies us as being an almost 100% politically correct event in that everyone gets something.)

As a part of pre-registration, you must include your email address, as you will receive the rallye route and instructions three days before the event so that you can be better prepared, ready to go, and have any questions you may have answered in advance. (NOTE:  Absolutely no running the rallye route in advance!  All participants will be doing so under the honor system. Yes, I know, the rallye is going though Rogue's Island, but you still have to be honest, regardless!)

Click here to download the event registration form. You must print it out and mail it with your payment to Steve Thomas, 105 Juniper Ridge Road, Gilford, NH 03249 so that we have it by Sunday, September 19th. 

The Driver's Meeting will start promptly at 8AM with first car off at 9AM, the remainder leaving at two-minute intervals. The Rallye will end in the vicinity of the Wrentham, MA, factory outlet complex, right off of Route I-495. At 2PM, we will all meet a short distance down Route 1A at the Villa Diana, a lovely, reasonably-priced Italian Restaurant, the kind of facility often visited by those of Italian car leanings. I have made arrangement for us to have the entire lounge area, which will give us a high level of privacy. As a common courtesy, they are requesting an approximate head count, which is another reason for requiring pre-registration.

Your car number will be assigned in the order that your registration arrives. As such, the early registrants should be among the first to finish the Rallye — hence, more time to spend your hard-earned tax dollars at the Outlet! The event is limited to 20 teams (40 participants) and pre-registration is required!

We need checkpoint workers! Two teams of two people each. No checkpoint workers, no rallye! Contact me at alfaracer1@cox.net if you're interested!

Lastly: Initially, in the event of rain on Saturday, there was concern about scheduling an early Sunday AM start time. But it was pointed out to me that, if God wants Alfa Romeo and Jaguar folks in church on that Sunday, S/He will personally see to it that the sun shines on Saturday, the 25th!

Check out the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place trophies for both the Alfa and Jaguar divisions that our winners will be awarded!

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