First Florida Tri Club
Rally & Slalom

It all started in a very simple way... remember those good ole days when two guys would end up side by side at a red light... a few taps on the throttle... a well aimed glance... and the rest is how Detroit capitalized on the muscle car era of the sixties... Well, in 2001 these little challenges have turned high tech and we don't issue them side by side at a red light but across a continent on the internet !

Backtrack...  it all started on August 26th at 12:11pm according to the messgae time stamp when one of JCNA's most vocal and "troublemaking" member posted a message on the JCNA website forum challenging the Florida clubs to put away their rags for a while and drive their cars. To many members of the various Jaguar Clubs of North America, the only sanctioned competition is Concours and as such the only driving will be to get to the event. Some are so afflicted that they actually put their cars in funny looking boxes with wheels, hook that up to a big gaz guzzler ill handling truck and only drive the Jaguar a few hundred yards onto the concours field...

Yet JCNA offers two very exciting alternatives to compete with your Jaguars : Rally and Slalom and unknown to 99.9 % of the members is the Fred Horner Award presented each year to the member who's competed with the same car in Concours, Rallies and Slalom and earned the highest combined scores.

In his challenging post, Steve Averill president of the Seattle club was pointing out to the fact that members of his club had received this award for 3 or 4 years in a row and since almost no other JCNA members had qualified this year so far, odds where that it will remain in the rain soaked Northwest for at least another year. More insulting, Steve claimed that Florida Jaguar Club members had lost the spirit and were just... <can't repeat it here...> !

Of course he had a point... when is the last time a JCNA sanctioned rally was held in Florida ? if you can't come up with the year, how about the   decade ?  and a Slalom ?  Point well made and those of us who visit the JCNA forum were faced with two choices : lower our heads and gently start moving when the light turns green or rev up the engine, glare over our cool shades, and eagerly wait for the green ! Needless to say, we picked number two and decided to face the challenge : organize a JCNA sanctioned rally and slalom before the end of the year.

One thing led to another and soon those of us from challenged Florida reached the conclusion that in order to get as many entrants as possible for the three active clubs, the event would take place just south of Orlando and JCOF would be the host with their resident enthusiast and editor Ginger Corda as the chairperson.  The JCOF board endorsed the idea, a date was picked and sanction was filed with JCNA.

Even if it was clear that none of us would be able to challenge for the Fred Horner Award, the mere fact that the Jaguar Club Of Florida was able to pull this in such short time is amazing. It may sound simple, but finding a big stretch of parking lot and getting permission to run a slalom on it isn't easy... then finding a proper route for the rally in the vicinity, planning the route, getting the paperwork in order, buying the equipment ( cones, etc...) all that in 3 months isn't easy but they did it.  On Sunday, November 18th, we made the trip from South Florida to Lake Wales, a small town at the junction of route 60 and 27, between Sebring and Orlando. Lake Wales was chosen because the Eagle Ridge Mall had graciously granted us the use of a section of their parking lot for the slalom.

As a co-conspirator and instigator, I headed up early in the morning on Sunday so that I could help the JCOF crew setting up the slalom course; after all, beside Ginger who had entered the slalom at the Challenge Championship in Franklin, others like JCOF Concours chair Jim Kuhlman had not ever seen a slalom course before !  The standard JCNA course is fairly simple and it didn't take us long to set the course using cones and chalk to mark the spots. A 200 feet measuring tape came in handy, its use would turn out to be critical to ensure that the course met the JCNA standards since one big record was going to fall that day !

Once the course was set up, we headed a few miles down the road to a Perkins Restaurant for breakfast, the meeting point for the rally.

From the start, we knew that turn out was going to be critical and no effort was spared... newsletter articles, flyers, motivation speaches and even threats to adjust final concours scores before they'd be turned in to JCNA... Show up on the 18th or we'll chip a few 10th of your November 10th Concours score... How good is a well planned day if only a handful of members show up.

At least weather was on our side and to our relief, Jaguars started trickling in the restaurant parking lot eventually reaching a very respectable 14 rally entries. No less than 5 cars would make the 200 miles trip from South Florida : Russell Glace ( XK 140M FHC ), Jaap & Karla Elzas ( 1954 XK120 DHC ), Robert and Laurie Frost ( 1996 XJ12), Peter Partington (1970 XKE Roadster), and myself ( 1972 XKE 2+2). Two entries even came out of the Jaguar Association of New England including Gary and Sue Hagopian; as a rally and slalom enthusiast, Gary was undoubtedly relieved that he'd be able to burn some rubber during his winter stay in Florida while his Northeast buddies shovel snow ! True they were already in Florida anyway but their participation was great.

After a brief drivers meeting, signal was given for the first car to start on the 70 miles / two hours run.  Just like the slalom and concours, JCNA sanctioned rallies must follow a basic set of rules and Rally Master Ginger Corda did a superb job planning the route, instructions were clear and flawless. In order to make sure that everybody would have a good time and wouldn't get lost, she included the mileage for each route instruction. There was no point in making it too hard the first time and it was important not repeat the situation in Franklin where only 9 out of 20 entrants made it to the finish line.  Rallying is supposed to be fun and as such you don't want to see cars reaching the end with drivers and navigators at each others throats...   All we need now are divorce attorneys advertising in the Jaguar Journal !

The finish line was right at the mall which we drove by about ten miles from the end before going into a loop around the neighborhood, an apportunity for those not trying hard enough to complete the rally give up and stop early... including a certain white XK120M FHC....

Rallying is fun and makes  a great club event because members can either take it very seriously with plenty of calculating to be on time (this the point remember ?) or because they can just follow the directions and enjoy the drive.   Among the serious rallyists are SFJC members Robert and Laurie Frost who have a lot of experience, especially in European rallies. Unfortunately a mix up in their leg 2 time out cost them a full minute ( 60 points ) and change which dropped them to second despite having managed only 2 points on each of the first and third legs. Talking to Robert afterward, he explained that they normally are really surprised whenever they are 5 seconds off on a stage... Watch for an upcoming article by Robert on the techniques used for rallying, many of us could use this...

Holding the slalom at a mall was perfect as it meant that food, drinks and even shopping  was right there to entertain those spouses who don't appreciate what it takes to muscle a 3000 + lbs car around a few cones in the quickest time.  Remember, some JCNA members are from Mars, others are from Venus ...

After Gary Hagopian set up the timing lights he had brought with him from New Hampshire, he led the entrants for a walk around the course so that they would know where to go once turned loose with a couple of hundred ponies under their right foot. Some it got right the first time, others... well... not so right.  The JCNA slalom is a fairly easy course to follow once you understand the logic... It's basically a pair of turns, marked with cones, at each end of the course or 170 feet apart. In between sits a pair of cones on each side which are used to vary the pattern. From a dead stop, you go on a first lap by staying inside the center cones in an hourglass pattern, the second lap is done criss crossing in a figure eight and the third and final lap is an oval passing between each center gate and then ending in the finish box. Yes it is a box as once you pass the timing line, you have  just 45' to bring the car to a stop without tipping the cone set to close the far end of box. Those with pre ABS era cars usually put on an entertaining  sound and smoke show !

And entertainment is what this is all about... some drivers took it easy, others just went ( or tried to go ) flat out One memorable run was done by our own Russell Glace ( XK140M Coupe) who had asked me to come with him to show him the course...It turned into just under a minute of screaming RIGHT !  LEFT !  RIGHT ! LEFT ! and spectators reported that my voice could be heard over the high-rev'ing-near-open-exhaust XK engine and the tortured tires... He got it right until the very end when realizing he was going to get the timing lights  he swerved out of the finish box for a DNF... The crowd loved it and we had fun... that's what matters !

As usual, the most impressive car on the course was Gary's Silver Hammer, a series 1 E-type, 1962 coupe with various performance mods including 18" XJR wheels sporting P Zeros racing tires. For a while now, he had been trying to break the 40 second mark without success but coming close. To make matters worst, another E-type had managed to break thru the magic 40, John Morse of the Canadian XK Register with a just enough 39.983... It only took Gary 2 runs to pulverize this all time record with time of 39.24 and watching his car leaping thru the course, he was clearly in a league of his own... by 5 seconds over the nearest competitor, another Silver E-Type, my own slightly less modified 72.

Some of the other entrants were equally entertaining especially JCOF member Tom Curren in a red hot XK120 racer... roaring engine, smoking tires and plenty of opposite lock didn't bring him on top of the time sheet but at the top of the cheering levels !

The sight of those Jaguars racing around the course was spectacular but especially when taking into account the enthusiasm displayed by all involved regardless of what they drove.. sports car or modern elegant saloon like Robert Frost with his like new 1996 XJ 12. Long wheelbase, soft suspension, picnic tablets, extra soft leather, and inset trim in the wood didn't prevent him from turning an amazing 49.67.

A few drops of rain nearly cut short the festivities late in the day but it was time to head back south anyway and everybody had their 3 runs. After thanking our  JCOF hosts,  I followed both white XKs ( Russel Glace and Jaap Elzas) on route 60 to the turnpike. Their speed was very respectable considering their age but I will confess that when we reached the turnpike I just had to let the horses loose and went ahead... it's tough to keep a V12 E-type under 70 mph !

Two guys, a red light... I mean...  two JCNA regions, the internet, ... a challenge. Well, the challenge was certainly met on November 18th, members of the three Florida clubs did show that they had not lost the spirit, and that they knew how to drive their cars even if none of us will come close to the Fred Horner Award... in 2001 anyway. Thanks to the JCOF team who put this wonderful day together : Ginger Corda, Jim Kuhlman, Lynn and Robert Abascal.

And for a good laugh, visit the JCNA forum on www.jcna.com  Florida Vs Washington State..   Crush orange drink Vs Apples crushed under E-type tire...

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