How about some fun on rural Florida roads ? That's what a group of us experienced on august 20th during the SFJC first Time Distance Rally organized between West Palm Beach and Clewiston on the southern shore of Lake Okeechobee.

Time / Distance rally are one of the oldest form of "get together and drive" club event as they provide some competition and mostly allow member to use their cars the way they were meant to be used... driven on the road. Some members had tried this before with other clubs or on vintage rallies but this was the first of its kind held be the club, in recent years at least. Our previous rallies were of the Tresure hunt format where drivers and navigators had to find clues, a very succesful and fun format.

The weather cooperated with clear weather, bright sunshine on that sunday morning and participants met along Southern Boulevard in the Palms West chamber of commerce parking lot. Despite a light turn out with just under 10 cars, as usual a wide selection was represented from a  classic XK120 to a monder XKR, a few E-types and salons as well, including a majestic Mark IX

While checkpoint workers Susanne and Bob Veder and George Harrisson were briefed by Pascal Gademer who had put the route together, participants gathered and, as usual, looked at their cars... what's new ! As the volunteers went on their way to their respective two checkpoints, participants then received the last minutes instructions including on how to go thru the check point.

Because this was the first time / distance Rally organized by the club, it was decided that it would be relatively easy with no tricky instructions, just some basic driving on empty roads. The choice of the rural roads was a success with the drivers because too often they drive their cars on congested roads, with an eye on the water temperature gauge and the other on the monster SUV coming the other way...

Leaving the Palms West area, teams were to go west towards Belle-Glade and then head up towards Pahokee where the first check point was set up by Bob and Susan Veder on the shore of the lake in the Pahokee State Park where you can enjoy the scenery, the bugs, and how big the lake is...

All the cars came in, no breakdowns and nobody got lost on that first stage despite a few tricky turns in and around Belle Glade. Instead of leaving on to the next stage right away, everybody parked and took a few minutes off.

Above, left, Russel Glace and Oscar ( his XK120) approaching the first Check point -  Right, John and Patricia Sasson crossing the in their XJ6
Below, left, Rick Hill in his 69 E-type next to Rick and Dianne Hartwell's Mark IX

After that break, it was on to the next stage taking participants back towards Belle Glade and around the southern shore of the lake to another park, in South Bay this time where George Harrisson had set up check point nr 2. Again, everybody made it, more or less on time, with no breakdowns despite the heat.

Above, John and Patricia Sasson XJ6, Cincy and John Gommel in their Series 3E-type,
Marcia and Steven Jaffe in their E-type

Then stage 3 took the competitors on what seemed to be an easy stage to Clewiston where we would have lunch at historical Clewiston Inn.

If the first 3/4 of the stage where easy, the number of route instructions in the last five miles should have alerted everyone that they shouldn't relax just yet...  and indeed, once reaching Clewiston ( the sugar capital of world ) things got complicated thanks to the way the town is layed out with many curving roads. To make things worst, the Inn was clearly visible from a  few instructions from the end and it was very tempting to head straight for the Jaguar Flag, bypassing the last mile or so.

That would have been fine except that competitors where supposed to approach the final check point from the right direction or receive a 250 points penalty which is exactly what happened to Russel Glace and Rick Hill.

But as this was a fun event, with no prizes, everybody kept their good mood and enjoyed a nice lunch inside the Inn. Afterward, with so many good looking cars on hand, all of them where gathered for a few pictures before heading back home.

All participants have expressed interest for another one, so stay tuned !

South Florida Jaguar Club
c/o 1581 Brickell av, apt 1102
Miami, FL 33129
questions or comments regarding this site :
Copyright © 2000  South Florida Jaguar Club, last revision 8/20/2000