The Chronicles of Mustang Sally

Let’s Rally for a Cause!

In a way, CJ Pony Parts Rally Dixie 2012 started in Charleston, SC at the commencement of Rally Appalachia 2011. As yet unnamed and the route not planned and no resolutions made, many of the participants of 2011 had already made the commitment to Rally North America to be a part of something that was bigger than they are individually; the ability to come together collectively and raise money and promote a charity and have fun all at the same time.

Scott, Karen and Tony

The two mad-men geniuses’ behind Rally North America are Tony Intrieri and Scott Spielman who, along with a few, now veteran, rally teams conjured up the idea of rallying for a cause. While creating and organizing a rally is not uncommon or unusual, what is extraordinary about RNA’s mission, vision and values is that they want the everyday man; the common man to participate in a fundraising opportunity and rally. Collectively, Rally Dixie 2012 has raised in excess of $48,000 for the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis .

In order to make the rally something that is affordable and manageable for the participants, Tony and Scott pick a summer date which is always in the middle of the week for better negotiated hotel rates. There is a ‘pre-rally meeting’ held the night before day one of the rally where the outline the rules of the rally and the individuals who will be helpers during the rally. These teams are rally participants who pay the very nominal entry fee, book and pay for their own hotels and solicit donations like the rest of the teams. However these helper teams forgo any chance of winning any day of the rally to help Tony and Scott to make all three days a success. Making the pre-rally meeting even more interesting, the RNA team were able to get item donations from some of the sponsors for an auction to raise more money. There were some pretty awesome items; a Monster racing helmet, a RC Ken Block Ford Fiesta, two battery jump packs, Jungle hats, one of which was worn by Woodie Harrelson in Zombieland, and a multitude of additional stuff donated by Monster, Brannon Auto Parts, Autogeek.com and generous individuals. The auction raised an additional $1,790.00. Not bad for a bunch of motorheads!

The most important aspect of the pre-rally meeting are the rules, and they are pretty simple; no tickets from law enforcement, if you get a ticket on any day of the rally you will be automatically disqualified; obey all traffic rules and take pictures of you and the co-driver at all of the checkpoints and make sure the picture is time and date stamped. If you get to the finish line too fast and have all of the checkpoints, well, the powers that be know you were speeding. This is not, by any means, a ‘Cannonball Run’ type of car event will which do nothing but attract trouble and make locals angry.

In Rally Appalachia 2011 there were no speeding tickets. Rally Dixie 2012 there was a speeding ticket, Team Legacy. They were successful on the first day and came in second place. What was not revealed until the end of rally awards was that they were pulled over and were issued a speeding ticket on day three. This team were total sportsmen because they revealed that they had gotten a speeding ticket and chose to disqualify themselves.

What we have to keep reminding ourselves when we are, in the most literal sense of the word, representing Rally North America, the charitable cause, your state, and the car you drive. No matter where you travel in country or in the world, you are always ambassador and representing something. Being a suitable representative of Rally North America and the causes that are chosen on a yearly basis is one of the most important aspects of the rally.

As participants of the rally, we are always thrilled to know that the charity for whom you are soliciting donations and telling anyone who will listen is grateful and delighted with the monies raised. Karen Crumback is the Development Director for the Accelerated Cure Project, headquartered in Waltham, MA and joined us for the first two days of the rally. We could tell how delighted she was with the fund raising effort. She jokingly said that she went to a few stores to look for pom-poms to have at the start line the next day. She didn’t need them, she was bubbling with excitement and energy and her enthusiasm was infectious. Karen also explained how the Accelerated cure project functioned.

Nobelsvilles Finest

The Accelerated Cure Project is a repository for DNA and Blood samples donated by people who are affected by Multiple Sclerosis. The repository gets requests from scientists grouping of samples specified by parameters that they specify. The ACP will send the samples and in return, the results from the independent research are shared with the ACP to create a larger base of knowledge and information, in essence, adding pieces to the Multiple Sclerosis puzzle. Currently, there are only treatment options; however the ultimate goal is to find a cure for MS.

Strip away the periphery and the core of this rally is 80 cars; everything from a Smart Car to a Dodge Viper GTS, 160 participants, coming from 28 States and 3 providences of Canada, converging on the small town of Nobelsville, IN., all coming prepared with coolers, drinks, snacks, GPS units suctioned to the dashes, electronic tablets, maps, atlases and tour books to run an unknown route. Find the places given handed to each car at the start line every day, get there take a picture and find the next checkpoint. Inevitably, along the way, people will stop you and say “What are your guys doing?” or “I’ve seen all of these cars with stickers on them come through town, what’s this all about?” This becomes an opportunity to talk about and promote the cause and point them to the web site for a donation.

Day 1 in Nobelsville, IN

The ACP was started in 2000 by Art Mellor after he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis through a series of MRI’s and blood work. Art was not a doctor or a researcher, however he decided to leave his start-up company and, through his entrepreneurialism and a proactive approach to the disease he launched the Boston Cure Project. In 2005 the company expanded and was given a more formal name of the Accelerated Cure for Multiple Sclerosis.

Because the charity was announced by RNA almost eight months before the rally, the participant had many months to talk about and actively promote the charity and solicit donations. What is more incredible than raising $48,000, is the more you talk to people, the more you hear the stories about individuals who have been diagnosed with MS. They will say, ‘Yes, my mom was diagnosed.’, ‘My best friends dad has lived with it for years.’ or ‘I have it.’ It seems that there is someone in their lives that are affected by the disease.

This cause and charity hit especially close to home for one of the veteran rally couples; Greg & Kim Rada who own Dermal Additions. Kim’s mom was diagnosed when she was a senior in high school so when they heard about this years’ charity they decided to be a sponsor of the rally. The decals on their Charger were stunning and beautiful, but the most touching decal simply read ‘for mom’, whose life was permanently changed by the diagnosis, was placed inconspicuously in the right rear spoiler of the Charger.

Team Struck at the drag strip

Win by a nose - a wins a win

Because this rally is an incredible diverse group of people, there are essentially three different types of participants. The competitors who are in it to win it, either by garnering the most donations, or getting the best time on any of the three days. The second group are the teams that want to make all of the checkpoints, no matter how long it takes, and enjoy the scenery and history of the area along the way. And then there are the people who are there for the tracks. This year, we were so lucky to visit three very different types of tracks. Day one was a figure eight track. Not everyone participated, but those who did take a few crazy 8 laps said it was wild. The teams were not penalized for taking a few extra laps, but as soon as you took one pass you received checkpoint card , and you were on the clock. Day two was a drag strip and just about everyone wanted to play, including the Toyota Prius against the retired Crown Victoria police cruiser, complete with the push bar, lights, sirens and PA system. Amazingly, they were pretty equally matched. Of course, the Mustangs, the GTO’s and Team Struck, the Ford Lightning had to play. And play they did; some teams took 4 or more runs down the track. Throughout the rally Team Riff Raff and Team Stangy ran together, and the drag strip was no exception. As #111 and #26 Staged, with adrenaline coursing, pre-stage, stage, yellow, yellow, yellow, green – GO!

Team Limer, Stangy and Riff Raff

Accelerate through the gears, keep a straight line and be amazed at how rapidly you come up on the finish line. Then it’s over. ‘That was awesome!’ As number 26 pulled long side, he said ‘Let’s do it again!’ The last track that we had the privilege to drive our cars on was Talladega Super Speedway in Lincoln, Alabama. Yes, that “Talladega” race track. If you were able to go fast enough, you almost didn’t have to turn the steering wheel to the right to go left. There were some simple rules on the track; no hanging back, no passing and keep up with the pace vehicle. No problem and thank you for the rollercoaster ride that I could never buy.

The participants who do the rally to see the sights and tour the countryside were not disappointed this year. Covered bridges in Indiana, The National Corvette Museum and Churchill Downs in Kentucky, the Jack Daniels Distillery and the most quaint ‘old town’ of Lexington Kentucky, Little River Preserve in Fort Payne with its scenic outlooks and stunning falls in Alabama, a slice of history in old Alabama Town in Montgomery and finally the beautiful Gulf of Mexico in Fort Walton Beach.

On the last day of the rally, at the finish line the awards ceremony begins. The winners from each day, the best costume award, the hard luck award, the Long distance award, and the spirit of the rally award are named . The daily winners did an exceptional job in getting all of the check points and not getting lost or making any wrong turns.

Fort Walton Beach, FL

One of the most interesting and fun awards was the Best Costume or Themed Entry. Honorably mentioned was Team Raptor Pursuit with Jeff & Gail Rushing in their ‘10 Ford Raptor 4X4. Their costumes were complete with safari outfits, remote control raptor trucks tiny inflatable raptors in the tiny truck beds and the best was the inflatable raptor in the cage in the bed of the Raptor. The winners of the Best Costume award were Team Cream 5.0, Troy Kirchmar & Phil Marchini in a retired Ford Crown Vic Police vehicle. They walked the walk and talked the talk all three days by dressing as two Lieutenant Dangles from Reno 911, complete with police uniforms, equipment belts and fuzzy handcuffs. They did break from the Reno 911 and showed up as Hawaii 5-0 on day two. When they were not directing traffic in what can only be described as “ the most Flamboyant Hip Swinging officers ever” they were making arrests including Gumby and his horse, most of the flag girls from the rally as well as anyone else who actually believed they were officers.

The 'barn find'

HARD Luck Award is an award that no one really strives to win. By ‘winning’ this award, it means that you lived three really hard days filled with problem solving and “I hope this works…”. The winning team was Team FireChicken - Thomas Diley & Jeffery Peterson in their vintage 1979 Pontiac Firebird. The Exhaust fell off twice, carburetor float stuck, the headliner was falling down (but that’s just what happens in vintage American cars), pervasive cat pee smell (thank you T-Tops!), multiple times running out of gas, leaking everything, constant over-heating and, oh, yeah - catching fire. Thankfully, they thought a at least a little bit ahead and had Nicholas Zuber in a mid 90’s Chevy S-10 as their chase car & pit crew. Good job men, as members of the US Military you made it through Afghanistan and as drivers Through CJ Pony Parts Rally Dixie 2012 in a ‘barn find’ Firebird.

The Honorable Mention for the Hard Luck Award went to Carl Bowen and Team CCR Racing for having the resourcefulness to run a Mustang DRAG CAR from Michigan to Florida. He had a hard start all three days, ran out of gas multiple times and still made it to the rally awards. When Tony asked him what the miles per gallon he gets with it, he said, “Its miles per gas can, and I’m not sure.”

The 'honorable mention' winner of the Hard Luck Award

Long Distance Award Winner was Team G60, Jon Dow & Kyle Story in Johns 1991 VW Corrado, driving all the way from Maine for a total of 3865 Miles.

As was mentioned earlier, Brian Shannon and Team T.U.N.A were Spirit of the Rally Winners for staging all the Teams at the race track events and working on Rally Sponsors throughout the year leading up to the rally.

Capital City GTO also volunteered to do the registration and making it super simple for all of the participants, and Dale Clough kept the teams updated and handled Rally items whenever called upon. These guys really stepped up and helped out Tony and Scott but also by doing so, they ultimately helped out the entire rally.

Daily winners are as follows:

Day 1
1st Place - Team Bacon B8 - Kyle & Micheala Watson - BMW M3
2nd Place - Team Angry Goat - Terry Barnett & Rick Morrison - 06 Pontiac GTO
3rd Place - Team Stinky - Aaron & Jessica Batey - 09 VW GTI

Day 2
1st Place - Team Megaforce Rally - Ed Shulman & Jim Price - 2011 Subaru WRX STI Limited
2nd Place - Team eff Yeah - Mike Andrews & Dustin Kaufman - 05 Pontaic GTO
3rd Place - Team LS WON - Topgun Justin Robinson & David Coykendall - 99 Chevy Corvette

Day 3
1st Place - Team TDI - Tim & Chris Ealer - 2011 VW Golf TDI
2nd Place - Team Hoppes Alan Sr & Alan Hoppes Jr - 1986 Porsche 944
3rd Place - Teams Most Impressive - Jon Bowen, Aaron Jonston, Dan Carpenter, Matt Bercik - 10 Dodge Challenger & 08 BMW M6

As a second year participant, it’s easy to understand how this adventure becomes something that is full of unknowns and roads less travelled, literally and figuratively. It becomes a task that is rooted in love, the spirit of giving and fun, with some trying times and many memorable times wrapped up and stuffed in your car.