Eric Jones Memorial Rally - Shawnee Forest Tour

[williaty]

On Saturday, November 15, 2008, there will be a memorial rally for one of the founders of performance rallying in the US, Eric Jones. This event will be part of a memorial to Eric Jones, hosted by his widow, Susan Logan. Headquarters will be the Shawnee State Lodge on SR 125, just north of the Ohio River, west of Portsmouth, Ohio.

Dick Paddock of CORC has laid out a two-leg rally through the Shawnee State Forest which will give all those who wish to see the fantastic roads that Eric loved so much. The rally will be composed of two loops, both of which start and finish at the Lodge. Participants may run either loop or both, depending upon their personal interests.


The Transit Loop is an all-paved 55 mile route that runs around the forest on old special stage transits from the Sunriser 400 Forest Rallys of the 1970's and 1980's. It also uses a few of the old special stage roads that have been paved since last used on the Sunriser. Although sometimes very tight and twisty, this loop is intended for those with classic cars who would like to avoid rock chips and dust. The Transit Loop will take about 2 - 1/2 hours to run if you take your time and stop at a view of the more scenic spots to take in the view.


The Stage Loop utilized as many of the old special stage roads as possible and is about 75% smooth gravel. Although most of the gravel roads are very smooth, and relatively free of loose stone, there tends to be loose gravel on the berms and in the center of the road, with a bare earth set of wheel tracks. Narrow or particularly low cars may find it difficult to stay out of the loose material. On the other hand, if you are a fan of great stage road touring, this will be your favorite part of the day. The Stage Loop will take about 3 hours to run if you drive carefully and responsibly.
If you are interested in attending the memorial, or running the road rally part of the day, please contact Susan Logan at slogan.osu@gmail.com in advance so that we will have adequate copies of the route instructions and so that she can plan for refreshments at the Lodge.


Back to the Eric Jones Memorial Rally -


Beginning in the late 1960's, Eric was the organizer of what started out as a fast average speed rally, part of the MONY (Michigan-Ohio-New York) Championship. The challenge in those days was to compete in a 'brisk' time-speed-distance rally that ran from early in the evening until sunrise the next day - thus the Sunriser name, and since the total route was about 400 miles through various state forests of southern Ohio - the full name became the Sunriser 400 Forest Rally. Eric worked with Stan Richards, Head Ranger at the time to open up the Shawnee State Forest roads (and one year even some bridal trails) for the Sunriser. Run in the early fall of each year, starting in 1967, by the mid-1970's the Shawnee Forest sections of the course became famous for their twisty roads, often with the added challenge of pea soup fog.


By the 1970's a new format called Special Stage rallying became the norm. With this format change, instead of trying to maintain a ridiculous average speed all night, the 'competitive' part of the event became closed sections of road where, from a Start Control to a Finish Control the goal was to go as fast as you could. Those who run a section of the route that covers an old special stage will see annotations in the route book where the Start and Finish were for the traditional stages.


Those who remember the Sunriser's of the 1980's will remember such great stage roads as Bridge Timber, McBride Lake (some times called 9-8-2-13), Copperhead Tower, Bear Camp, Forest Road 5, etc. Although a couple of the old roads are now closed to traffic (FR 5, FR7), the Stage Loop will cover all that remain openm top traffic in the forest. The event will share with you some of the roads, and some of the scenery that Eric enjoyed so much
For specifics of the event, please download the GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS.

On Saturday, November 15 we will have three 'start times' for rally participants, depending upon what they plan to run. You will be free, once you have signed the waiver and picked up your route, to run either or both routes at any time, The schedule below is intended to help organize the traffic flow a bit and assure that you have time to complete the route by 5PM when the refreshments start.

NOTE: Those that pre-enter will be sent an email the Monday before the event to confirm the schedule below. Times may be adjusted based upon the number of pre-entries.

10:30AM – 3:00PM:Registration / Check-in in the lobby of the Shawnee Lodge. Look for someone sitting next to a checkpoint sign. We will ask you to sign a waiver and will then give you your route instructions.
Prior to each suggested ‘start time’ we will provide a short 15-20 minute orientation to the route book and some suggestions for enjoying the day.
11:00 AM Driver Meeting # 1 – Those planning to run both loops.
11:30 AM Suggested Start Both Loops – Those planning to run both loops begin their drive
1:00 PM Driver Meeting # 2 – Those planning to run only the Stage Loop
1:30 PM Suggested Start Stage Loop – Those planning to run only the Stage Loop begin their drive
2:00 PM Driver Meeting # 3 – Those planning to run only the Transit Loop
2:30 PM Suggested Start Transit Loop – Those planning to run only the Transit Loop begin their drive
5:00 PM All rally route participants should be back to the Lodge for refreshments.

This is not a competitive event, so if we wanted to run together as a Subaru parade to honor Eric (who owned a STi), I think that would be a great idea.

EDIT: Due to the way this event is being organized, if you want to run but didn't know Eric, just let me know and we'll all go as a group with Michelle navigating for me with you all following. I don't want to make Susan go to the expense of making route books and nametags, etc for everyone.