GAMRR 2021 IS IN THE BOOKS!

On September 13^th, 14^th & 15^th of this month we were finally able to run the 3^rd Great American Mountain Rally Revival.

After a false start for running in 2020 due to Covid we continued our planning on and off for the past year and a half.

Covid had essentially locked me out of performing any type of recce for almost all of 2020. As I stated in an earlier blog I was fortunate enough to have the services of John Buffum, the rally driver with more victories than any other US driver and who also lives in close proximity of most our event!

As the event evolved John and I had many conversations about how it would be run and how to attempt to keep the event true to the original ones.

We did yield on the technology with regards to timing. It is just too complicated and costly to have manned controls over a large area for three days. We decided to utilize the Richta System which utilizes GPS locations and timing on the competitor’s phones. This allowed us to put in as many controls as we wanted; and to report scores within and hour of the last car in. It also allowed us to view the cars in real time along the route and to; if needed contact a car that appears to be hopelessly lost, or broken down.

John had run a number of his own events with Richta and I had competed in 2 events utilizing the system. The SCCA has also run hundreds of events with the system with good results.

Due to the Canadian border crossing issues we lost approximately six competitors from the prior year and had a few last minute cancellations. Despite the smaller field we had a great cross section of cars and a fantastic group of people.

The following was the itinerary for each day:

Day 1 – Final Registration and a Rally school was held to introduce competitors to the concept of a Regularity Rally and the operation of the Richta System. Monday’s afternoon ‘Prologue’ rally was a short run north of Stowe to get everyone familiar with the route instructions and the timing. That evening a welcome reception and cocktail party was held at the Trapp Bierhall. Scores were presented and a question and answer period followed.  (We agreed that day one would not be counted in the final overall scores).

Day 2 – Tuesday’s rally followed the 1955 route over Smuggler’s Notch to the Canadian border and then headed south through the beautiful chain of islands (Isle La Motte, North and South Hero Islands, and Grand Isle). Everyone had boxed lunches at Knight Point State Park. The route continued along the shores of Lake Champlain before their return to Stowe.

Day 3 – Wednesday’s event ran to the south – again following a route from the 50’s – this time from 1956. We encountered 4 mountain passes, including the infamous Lincoln Gap and Roxbury Gap during its clockwise loop. 

A number of entrants overcame some challenges. Tim Winker who ran in GAMRR 2019 signed on early with the hopes of running his 1960 SAAB 93F which was still in the midst of being finished for GAMRR as well as the Put In Bay races in Ohio the week after GAMRR. He was also looking for someone to run with as Clarence Westberg who ran with him in 2019 was putting on an SCCA event that same week.

Less than a month before the rally Tim realized that his SAAB would not be ready (nor have a 2^nd seat for a navi!) and he still had no one to run with!

Just weeks before the event Tim secured a car though Tim O’Neil from Team O’Neil Rally School in Dalton, NH. Tim offered Tim the use of a 1973 Mercury Capri V6. Thanks Tim.

Now for a partner.  John Buffum suggested to friend and former rally partner Ralph Beckman to run GAMRR. The team was set, Tim was to drive the Capri and Ralph was to navigate.

Some of the original cars struggled up the hills, but persevered; only to find they needed to now tackle the long steep downhill grades with 4 wheel drum brakes from 70 years ago!  Everyone made it up and over the mountain passes safely; and as a matter of fact there were no breakdowns during the entire 3 day event!

The Sunday before the start a number of teams rolled into Stowe. Monday morning the rest of the teams arrived before the Rally school; well all but David Geisinger and Aimee Cardwell. David called me just as registration was wrapping up saying that Aimee’s 944 Turbo had lost its alternator and they had limped into Waterbury Vt. 15 miles from Stowe. It wasn’t sounding good; try finding an alternator for a 1986 Porsche 944 in rural Vermont!

David was not to be denied. He got a hold of Ed Owen who was also running the rally for a life line. Ed owns European Auto Solutions in Mass.. Ed was able to get his crew to pick up David’s ’76 912 at his house and flat bed it to Stowe, where they swapped it out for the ailing 944.  David and Aimee missed the Prologue Rally of day 1 and thought they were out of the running, but we had decided to use the short day rally for practice and it didn’t count in the overall scores. David and Aimee were back in the running!

The Following three days were filled with beautiful Vermont scenery and comradeship between the entrants; both on the route during scheduled rest-food stops and back at the Trapp Inn for dinners and libations.

Wednesday afternoon we wrapped up around 4:00 and while the group cleaned up and savored a few cold ones the scores were tallied for presentation of awards at the Dinner gala.

Earlier in the year I had read the book about the Press On Regardless Rally by Andrew Layton.  Also know as the POR the event the was first run in 1949 as a Time-Speed-Distance rally. In 1969, the POR became a stage rally. In 1972, the event was part of the International Championship for Manufacturers and then in 1973 and 1974 part of the World Rally Championship.  The event got its name Press On Regardless, which was an unofficial motto of the pilots of the Royal Air Force in WWII. Through the 1980s and 1990s, the rally continued as an SCCA Pro Rally event. These were the years when legendary rallyists such as John Buffum and Rod Millen raced in POR and engaged in epic battles on the backroads and logging trails of Michigan. “Many of those roads were designed for speed limits of 25 mph,” points out Layton. “And were now seeing speeds well above 100 mph.

I decided that I would award two POR books to the team that overcame the most adversary. John Buffum and I thought the efforts of the two original class cars; the 1951 Hudson Driven by Greg Davis and his wife Lynn as navigator as well as the 1954 Chrysler piloted by Wayne Dix and navigator, his 17 year old daughter Bronwyn deserved the award.  I had asked John to sign both books for the recipients since he wrote the foreword.  A short time thereafter Ralph Beckman who navigated for Tim Winker spotted the book and told me about his experience in POR, winning the event in 1969, 1970 and again in 1994. I hadn’t made the connection from the book that I read a number of months earlier to Ralph. At dinner one night Ralph told me about his participation with John in a number of Monte Carlo Rallys, but the POR hadn’t come up. How fortunate to have two of the prominent rallyists of POR at the event. So; I ended up have John and Ralph sign the books.

Continuing on the topic of challenges; turns out Tim’s last minute team did quite well; winning their class and the overall event with a stellar score of 18 points!

Oh, and David and Aimee took home a trophy for 3^rd place in the Classic class!

Following are the final scores for the event; (note that 10,000 was added to all the touring class as we decided that they would not be eligible for an overall award).

At the end of the awards ceremony I was pleasantly surprised when Ed Owen presented me with a rally plate that was on Stirling Moss’s Sunbeam Alpine in the 1954 Great American Mountain Rally; and it was signed by Sir Stirling Moss! It turns out that Ed Owen and David Geisinger had high bid at a Silverstone Auction. I was following the auction and had placed a bid, but was disappointed when I did not have high bid.  I had heard the plate had been sold to an American, but was unable to find out who, even when I posted about the auction and asked the winner to contact me about their new purchase!  The plate is on the wall in my office where I do so much of the planning for the events; it truly was an exceptional gesture. Thanks Ed and David!

So, the 3^rd Great American Mountain Rally Revival is in the books, and a number of entrants have said it has continued to improve every year. The technical advice and local knowledge that John Buffum possesses had a lot to do with the success. John helped create an event that was challenging enough to keep everyone on their toes.

The implementation of the Richta timing system also proved vital in allowing us to score a significant number of controls accurately and in an efficient manner.

Many thanks go out to John Buffum who shared his 50+ years of rally experience with me and all those who attended. I have been told that Ralph also provided advice to others running the event.

Thanks also go out to my cousin/friend Joe Salvatto who had never attended a rally and handled all of the onsite registration and acted as a navigator as we got out in front of the teams to get some photos of them in action. He was a great wingman!

I also want to thank my friend Scott Sislane from Calico Graphics who has been providing the Rally Swag and fantastic graphics for past three years. Thanks too to Scott’s wife Meg for helping with getting my PowerPoint presentation together.

Lastly I’d like to thank all of those who competed and hope to see you again at our next event!

A few photos following;

See photo section for more event photos.

• 

July 25, 2021

The weekend of July 17th I was invited to give a talk at the SAAB Owner’s Convention in Albany New York.

Tim Winker, a participant in GAMRR 2019 and long time SAAB owner mentioned to the club secretary that I might be able to put something together highlighting SAAB’s dominance of the 1956 Great American Mountain Rallye.

I looked at this is a great opportunity to see some great vintage SAABs (I owned a ’71 99 & ’88 900S in the past).

I also thought this would be a good way to get some exposure for my event this coming September. After all how cool would it be to have a group of vintage SAABs running around Vermont!

Over the past few years I have collected various articles and stories about SAAB’s participation in the 1956 GAMR.

With info from my archives and additional information from Tim I put together a Power Point and presented it to about 35 people.

There was much interest from the group, but surprisingly enough there was not much additional info that the group could provide.

Seems as though the background history of this event; apparently including the trophies they won were disposed of quite a few years ago when they were cleaning house. The story goes that some one from Chrysler was hired to oversee SAAB and to him past history was not worth keeping. (What a shame!). It also so happens that this hire did not last long at SAAB; but the damage was done!

Following are some excerpts from my Power Point as well as from Tim Winker’s recent story in The Nines publication which is the SAAB Owner’s Club of North America publication. (Thanks Tim).

SAAB enters the US with a bang at the 1956 Great American Mountain Rallye.

As a small manufacturer, SAAB did not have funds for a big advertising budget to introduce their cars to the U. S. market. Instead, SAAB chose to bring attention to their product via motor sports. An initial plan to enter two cars in the 12-Hours of Sebring was deemed too expensive. SAAB’s motor sports background was primarily in rallies, so they decided to enter a three car team in the Great American Mountain Rallye, to be held over three days around Thanksgiving.

The three SAABs were to be driven by Rolf Mellde, chief test driver for SAAB with American Morrow Mishkin as navigator in car #50. Bob Wehman and Louis Braun were teamed up in #51, and husband and wife Gerald and Doris Jankowitz were in #52.

Mellde arrived only a few weeks before the start of the rally, bringing with him a large stock of tyres and parts.

The work was carried out on the second floor of a warehouse just off New York’s Broadway under anything but ideal conditions.

Originally demonstration models, the three completely standard cars (one white, one grey and one light green) were now equipped with Halda Speed Pilots.

Preparations were completed on Monday, November 19^th, with a little over 24 hours before the three SAAB teams were to start the rallye.

The first day’s route into Vermont included such well known passes as Smugglers Notch and Lincoln Gap. But at the Lincoln Gap there was trouble. Cars were in the ditches and others choked the way.  Number 50 was forced to stop; when the way was clear again the ascent was so steep that it was impossible, without full chains, to gain sufficient traction to get underway. But rather than take time to fit chains, Mellde elected to turn the car around and then proceeded to charge towards the summit, this time running the car back­ wards! The strategy was successful and the car was soon speeding on its way.

Snow and ice covered most of the roads, and temperatures dropped to 10 degrees below zero, but the SAAB teams motored on in the comfort of cars built to tackle such conditions.

At the end of day 1 Wehman and Braun in SAAB #51 checked in to St. Johnsbury as the overall leaders, and were first off the line the following morning.

The second day of the rally which ran to Lake Placid NY; (home to the 1932 & 1980 Winter Olympics, as well as GAMRR 2019) included bad weather and a severe snowstorm. In Lake Placid, the cars were parked outdoors overnight. The temperature dropped to minus 22 ° C, and the start of the third day morning made numerous difficulties for everyone except for the Saab cars. They immediately started all three, while some 20 of the other cars had to be towed.

In 30 centimeters (6 inches) of snow and ice, the contestants had to, among other things, cross two more mountain passes; one with such a steep climb, that Mellde said he had not previously run anything like this in his Saab; for this pass they actually did need the chains. He estimated the upward slope at 15-20 percent.

The day’s stage offered high speeds after descending the mountains; for four hours, the drivers had to average over 95 km/h. (58 mph)

The final test was just that, a short test of driving skills including driving backwards in a circle and parking in a “garage” without knocking over a bar at the rear. Only the Top Ten cars participated, but Wehman pulled it off with minimal error and the #51 team were declared the winners. Sixth place went to Mellde and Mishkin, while the Jankowitz’s managed 17^th due to a broken odometer early on in the rally. SAAB was also awarded the Factory Team prize, 1^st in Touring Class under 1500cc, and 1^st, 3^rd and 4^th in the under 750cc category.

Bob Wehman and  Louis  Braun won  the  top  award overall  in their  SAAB and  as a team  the  three SAAB entries won  the touring and  factory team prizes  regardless of engine size.  In addition, SAAB’s were first in the touring class under 1500 cc’s, first, third and fourth in the 750 cc class, and also took sixth position overall.

The first major shipment of SAAB 93s arrived in the U. S. just weeks later for distribution to the new SAAB dealer network.

If you own a vintage SAAB we would love you to attend so that we could re-live some of this fantastic rally history.

Link to the Barron’s Story:https://www.barrons.com/articles/saab-stories-at-the-2021-owners-convention-01627062675

6-24-21

As everyone knows Covid had basically shut down Vermont for almost a year. In the interim John Buffum has been running routes based upon his long term local knowledge and roads I wanted to use from the original ’55-’56 events.

John gave me a copy of his near final version for DAY 2 when I went to his Summer Challenge Rally last Saturday.

After the event I drove to Stowe and stayed over so I could get an early start as it was near 6 hours of driving and then about 4 hours home.

I left the Trapp Inn at 7:15 with the RIs on my rally roller board, a couple of highlighters and my Terratrip.

I was looking to see that the RIs were clear and not confusing. I ran 90% of the route before I had to head home. I only had a few minor suggestions.

Fantastic roads starting in the mountains of Stowe, including Smugglers Notch; running down into the farms of the Champlain Valley to Lake Champlain at the Canadian border and through the chain of islands that separate Vermont from NY. There were a couple of hard pack gravel roads that were incredibly smooth as they had been recently graded. One of the island shore roads had just been paved and was like silk.

The scenery is fantastic and the route is very interesting.  I am sure everyone will enjoy it.

Some pics attached.

Test your brakes

My Vintage Terratrip

Running up the Notch

A beautiful gravel road

Twisties!

Crossing Lake Champlain, US to the left,

Canada to the right, just 2 miles North

Cottages on Lake Champlain

A barn on one of the Champlain Islands

One of the Island Roads

Looking from South Hero Island towards the Vermont main land

A milk break with some fresh local milk

6-24-21

This past weekend I spent Saturday running in John Buffum’s Summer Challenge Rally. Originally John had asked me to work a control; but then he told me he had someone looking to run the event with someone. I agreed and so I meet Alex Hanson at the start.  Alex has run a few of John’s rallys, but always as a driver; he wanted to get his first exposure as a navigator.

He offered to let me drive is 86 SAAB 900, but I opted for my 4 Runner as it has AC and it was pretty warm. It took us a few hours to get our communication down so that we both understood what to do. John was running the Richta scoring system; which we will be using in GAMRR; so I wanted a bit more exposure to it. The morning scores came in and; well they were pretty dismal. Not to worry we set out to have a good time, get some more exposure to the Richta Rally app; and not get lost!

As the afternoon section got going we got off to a good start, a few single digit scores and a few under 30; awesome that was as good as we could expect; but then “ringy ding” from our rally app. “OFF COURSE” It was a trap that John had set up which if you did not follow his directions explicitly you would make an incorrect turn and he had an Off Course Control! The nice thing is you get a message from the app as to how to get back on course with some simple instructions; pretty cool.

I got a text from John early afternoon asking if we were alright. Apparently our car dropped off the map that he was using to track the competitors. We were fine, jut that Alex’s phone had lost reception. It never lost any data as it does not require a phone connection to record your scores.  The next time service is available it downloads the cache to the Rally Master.

At the end of the day, a number of max scores (2 minutes late) and a few missed turns put us near the bottom of the pack.

All in all would we have like to been up in the competition, yes; but regardless we had a great time!

Alex thanks for running as Co Driver (Navigator).  Remember practice makes perfect!

See you on the route somewhere down the rally road.

This has been my second rally running with the Richta App; which we will be running for GAMRR 2021, and I have to say it is going to be a game changer; allowing us to have as many controls as we want, monitoring competitor’s location during the event; helping them remotely if they appear lost, and providing scoring in a timely manner.

I was just notified by Hagerty insurance that they will provide coverage during our 3 day event to anyone who is registered; regardless of whether they have Hagerty Insurance.

Thanks for your support!

https://www.facebook.com/Hagerty/

5-11-21

Over the last 3-4 weeks John Buffum (Clerk of the Course) has been running over portions of the event to do some minor revisions on routes and establishing timing control locations. I hope to have Route Books from John in the next month or so and plan on running part of the event in mid June when I go to Vermont to work a control on John’s Summer Challenge Rally. https://www.motorsportreg.com/events/scca-new-england-roadrally-randolph-vt-mcdonalds-road-rally-924554 . Since I will be there all day Saturday I am thinking of staying over Saturday night and running some of the route on Sunday.

Following are a few pics John Took for portions of days 1 & 2 last week.

5-10-21

SO; WHO IS BEHIND CHOOSING MANY OF THE GREAT ROADS WE WILL BE RUNNING THIS YEAR?

Many of you know COVID shut my access to Vermont for the last year. Luckily John Buffum lives not an hour from the Trapp Inn; the host hotel for our event. John volunteered to start laying out the routes in late January ’20; and to date has actually with some input from me as to tracing parts of the original ’55-’56 routes laid out about 400 miles! He is just now doing a re-run of the event checking the route instructions and mileages. I plan on going up to pre-run the event with John in the upcoming months. I will be co-driver (navigator) for an 11 time SCCA National Champion and Driver for the Audi and British Leyland factory Rally Teams in the late 70-80’s. What an opportunity!

Here’s a link to a 2012 Road & Track story about John :

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.roadandtrack.com%2Fcar-culture%2Fa3692%2Fjohn-buffum-world-rally-championship-driver-the-stuff-of-legend%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0UzL47_aIO9Mwnwq9mXAkUJbFfOppoC7Ir7laXkb8G1UZ99qD8N6dH06w&h=AT3M7QGGRee_cbZwAa9mTJ_LHq4e7ufEmJryawpTL6fNhcfwLyzJJQHpc3M_84bww9JtTiT3LM5B1dY_C1t3x5RwLMtldL0NfjqolAlTRwtcEDMcPw3Q1pIXQxrkARQP6xw&__tn__=R]-R&c[0]=AT00Re8DPFNNnChvYsx7Ck-05T9fOInB_62si4FSCvpSrvJlr35VAu8QmncKnI4qCKYzhqJKHtqZLzE1aclNX7maeBQ_an7W6tKc0_TjWS35d2CZIqLxeweC5fTLq5YRaUOu1CDKj5H5PrMe_ckttmxrjK06uGlnNIo-H4t9

And a short clip of John in his TR7/8 on a Vermont gravel road.

https://youtu.be/EeW7cVmD7Og

Oh, and John is well aware that none of us of are Pro Rally drivers, so have no fear!

Dr Gregory Davis and his wife Lynn have entered GAMRR in 2018 & 2019, both times in different Hudsons.

Following is a link to his blog which covers all three days of the 2019 event.

Please check it out; some great reading and will give you a real feel for what this event is about.

https://www.gregorydavisdds.com/blog/2019/11/02/2019-great-american-mountain-rally-202395

March 21, 2020

I started watching a new documentary on Manuel Fangio last night on Netflix.Fangio has long been though of as the greatest Formula 1 driver in the history of the sport. I had remembered reading that Fangio was actually the Starter for the 1956 event! I decided to google Fangio and GAMR. What I came across was a portion via Google Books of the Mercedes-Benz Club of America Fifty Years of History: 50th Anniversary, 1956 by Bruce A. Adams. It spoke about Fango starting the rally, and a story of two competitors running the 56 event in a MB 300SL Gull wing. Following is a scan of the two pages. I am hoping one of my Mercedes collector contacts has a clean copy I can substitute; but for now this is what I have. What is also interesting is I have a number of photos of a 300SL running during what I was told was the ’55 rally. Maybe it is the car in the story and I was mislead on the date of the photo. How cool is this find, because I was watching documentary!

An excerpt form the MB book about running GAMR in a 300SL