That's right! It's crept up fast on us. The first MN rally of the season. Come out and join us for some fun in the woods. Come see cars flying by you at close 100mph on closed forest roads.
If you are thinking about coming up to watch, think about volunteering to help. It's free and no experience is necessary. There are plenty of positions open. We need all the workers we can find right now. You can sign up by going to this
site and register to work. Some of the positions include:
Bannering (course setup) - This takes place in the morning before the event. You are given a route book and a stage to go setup. Basically you drive down the stage and string banner tape across the side roads so public traffic does not enter the stage while it is being run. This takes anywhere from an hour to 2 hours to complete and you get to see the roads the competitors will be driving. Most of the banner people end up as road marshals during the event (will be explained next). Plus they get first pick of the best spots to watch since they are the first ones out in the woods.
Road Marshals - This job is very easy. All you do is sit at an intersection in a safe area and watch the cars go flying by you. Your main job is to make sure that no one enters the stage while it is being run. You kindly ask them to go to the designated spectator spots to view the race. Which leads us to the next position:
Spectator marshals - These are the people that help keep order at the spectator points. These points are usually some of the faster or more technical parts of the stage. They are a good spot to watch the cars in action with alot of other people around.
Start/Finish control - This is where I got my start. There are various jobs here. You can check in the drivers for the stage, or be the one to give them their out time, or count them down to the start. This is a good place to meet the drivers briefly before they tear off into the woods. It's also very exciting to watch them dig down and take off. At the finish you can be the guy calling out when the car crosses the line, the person that writes down the time, the person that takes the scorecards and gives them back to the competitors along with various other tasks. Don't worry, you won't be placed into a control without experienced control captains.
Radio Operators - We use Ham Radios for controlling the rally. Thus we need workers with amateur radio licenses to man certain spots along the route. You basically relay if there are problems or you relay which cars have past by a certain location along with other various things. This is one of the more vesitile positions because you can be place in many different spots. And your only function is to man the radio. So if we need a radio operator at a marshal point, you can go sit there and watch the cars while listening in on the radio.
De-bannering (course teardown) - This takes place the day after the event. It is exactly opposite of bannering. We go out in the woods and take down every shred of evidence that is out in the woods that says that we were there. It's fun because you get to see what happens to the road after 20-some rally cars rip it up.
There are other things to do up there as well. I just don't remember them right off hand. If you need more info goto the
Official Headwaters website and you can find out all you need to know. I realize this is kinda late getting out and I think most of the hotel rooms are booked. But there are alot of them that come open the day of the event. I have space in my room if anyone wants to share a room. It's at the headquarters (The C'Mon Inn). I am going up the friday before the event if anyone wants to caravan up there.
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