ROAD RALLY RESULTS: Cape Cod Courageous

Rally Round Up

By Jon D Lamkins

Event: Cape Cod Courageous Old Timers Rally #49

Rally Masters: Bill Jecusco and Mark Williams

Cape Cod Courageous Winners

Cindy and Derek Rummel

Excluding 2021, the Cape Cod Courageous Old Timer Road Rally traditionally is held at the start of April. Adding to the challenge of locating the answers to 17 questions, the weather on Cape Cod at this time of the year often adds an additional factor of difficulty. In 2023, it rained all day. For 2024, it was overcast, with seasonable temperatures making things just a bit easier.

Cape Cod Courageous Old Timers rally is GTA (game-tour-adventure) aka Gimmick rally. Similar to a scavenger hunt, rally teams must answer a list of questions in the shortest mileage possible. Teams may use any printed map (including the detailed map of Cape Cod that comes with the questions) but may not use electronic maps, navigation software/apps, or the internet to find the answers, locations, and shortest route. Teams use the map to locate where the question answers are and then plot a route to visit as many as possible to find the answers.

2024 was the 49th running of the Cape Rally in this shortest distance format. Before that it ran as a Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) event, going back to the early years of the SCCA. 2024 started and finished in Hyannis, Massachusetts and featured 16 questions: 5 West of Hyannis, 9 East of Hyannis, 1 in Hyannis itself, and 1 that was answered by searching Martha’s Vineyard on the map.

After locating the location and feeling that most teams would do the Hyannis question first, Kelli and I decided to do that last and tackle the questions to the East. Our first stop was in Dennis for Question 10 at a cemetery near a fire station south of Nobscusett Harbor (this ended up being the easiest question of the day). Then we traveled east to Rock Harbor in Orleans for question 4 to learn about CS36500 rescuing 32 sailors from the Tanker Pendleton in 1952. From there we continued North into Eastham and Wells Park for question 12 (visit the Park nearest Kingsbury Beach).

Things got tricky for Question 8: Along the Highway that takes you by Pleasant Bay ______ At The Place. The highway in question is Route 28 and that runs South from Orleans to Chatham, then East along the southern coast of Cape Cod to Falmouth before heading North to Bourne. That’s’ a very large potential search area. We headed down 28 from Orleans to Chatham without finding it. We continued to search for it for the remainder of the day as Route 29 was the road to be for our remaining questions. (Apparently the sign was along 28 in Harwich where Pleasant Bay is closest to Route 28. We missed it).

Question 6 in Chatham was our next target (near the Point of Interest on BRIDGE ST). The answer was on another marker for CS36500 rescuing 32 sailors from the Tanker Pendleton in 1952 (the rescues occurred off this point in Chatham. The historic boat was stored in Rock Harbor after it was retired). Question 14 kept us in Chatham at the Cemetery located closest to Chatham Municipal Airport. After completing a quote at the cemetery, headed to Route 28 going West to find Question 16 (Along the Highway near HARWICH-Port NANTUCKET FERRY). The answer was in a small roadside park in Harwich. Part 1 was on a bench (Home is the Sailor, Home from the Sea) and the second part was a memorial to Thomas P “Tip” O’Neill.

Question 2 was also located along Route 28, this time in Yarmouth (Along the Highway between W YARMOUTH RD and Sears Plgd). It was on a bench at a pirate themed miniature golf course. We did not find it, but we did find a number of similar benches a quarter mile away at the Whydah Pirate Museum (we had the right idea). Question 9 was also in Yarmouth: Visit the beach closest to the southern most Lewis Pond in YARMOUTH. That was Seagull Beach and once again we were unsuccessful in finding the answer. It was located on the back of a sign near the beaches entrance,

It was getting late in the afternoon by this time. We knew we would never get to any of the West questions, so we headed to Main St in Hyannis for Question 11: Along MAIN ST at a library near a point of interest between CENTER and WINTER ST. The Point of Interest was the JFK museum. And we needed to search the inscriptions on about 100 bricks to find the answer. Then we headed to the finish to hand in our Q&A sheet.

In the end, the mother/son team of Cindy and Derek Rummel won the event with mileage/final score or 116.025 over the mother daughter team of Carolyn and Dawn Peterson (final score: 136.0678)

Many thanks to Bill Jecusco, Mark Williams, and their families for putting on an excellent event.

If you’d like to try this style of Road Rally, NER has two more events of this kind in 2024: Rally Against Leukemia on September 14th (starting and ending at Palmer Motorsports Park) and Hurdle 2024 on October 19th (starting at the Southington Drive In in Southington, CT)