Sandblast Rally 2011. Cheraw, SC

What: Sandblast Rally 2011
Where: Cheraw, SC
When: Feb 5th 2011

SandBlast Rally - Cheraw, South Carolina

This will be my first time at this rally, but I've always heard it's a blast, possibly in sand (you see what I did there?).

Anyone in the vicinity should come out and see what's it's all about. Rally cars, rally trucks, and rally moto.

Looks like it has great spectator spots, but to get the best view: VOLUNTEER. As a stage marshal you get to be out on stage, right next to the action. Working at a time control gets you close to the cars and the drivers. Also as a volunteer you're eligible for lodging and gas reimbursements. There is no guarantee on this, it comes from what's "left over" after the regular rally costs, but it sure beats nothing!

I'm going down Thurs evening, registration/tech on friday, rally sat, drink saturday night, leave late sunday morning.

exodus where do you live? I live in upstate SC in Seneca SC. I need to check my schedule and make sure I don't have any conflicts and that will be will worth traveling too.

I live in Staunton, Va. Let me know and we can try to meet up there.

Exodus I have volunteered for the event. I am up in the air regarding getting a hotel or not. I can split a hotel Friday night if you are interested. Are you volunteering as well?

Awesome! Glad you decided to come out.

I'm coming down with Marcel Ciascai (He's codriving for car #17), who found me a place to crash, so I'm good in that aspect.

Yeah, I'm in stage team A, course marshall.

I'll PM you my contact info.

We're still only at HALF the amount of volunteers needed. If you're in the area, please volunteer at http://sandblastrally.com !!!

HEY PEEPs don't forget about the Rally this weekend. If you are in NC, SC or GA pop on over for a full day of racing!

After race report.

I was a race marshal on stage 2 and 5 for the sandblast rally. Basically that means, I keep racers on course and spectators off course. The racers I did not have to worry about. They usually saw the tape and knew which way to turn. The race consisted of motorcycles and cars.

The weather had not been very encouraging. I should have been able to make the drive in three hours to Cheraw SC; it took four and a half. Friday night with heavy rains and a major metropolitan city resulted in 85, 485 and 77 being turned into massive parking lots. The drive there was a real bitch. Saturday morning the rain continued and would alternate from pissy rain to torrents.

Saturday morning I woke up and drove to the volunteers meeting at 6:30 AM. The teams gathered together and formed a convoy to the race track. I was on Team A handling Stage 2 and 5. Getting on the track was not bad until the car containing the people for the spectator area got stuck. Yech! We left them and continued onward. After dropping several people off, I was pulled off and followed the team leader to my station. I got a really sweet spot for spectating and action. In rally terms I was a R1 or a L1. That means right or left turn in first gear (maybe second).

Here is a picture of car on station.
Attachment 3840
The racers would pass the beyond the tape right to left (stage 2) and left to right (stage 5).

The rally is very sequenced and organized for safety. There are several cars that pass the course before the racers to check safety and move signs. Here is the sequence:
000 Car
00 Car
0 Car (the course is now hot)
Motorcycles
Combo Car
Rally Cars
Sweep 1
Sweep 2

The sweep would help pull some of the racers off course if they are damaged.

Stage 2
After the 0 car went through, I was pumped for the action. The motorcycles would crest the hill going flat out, most of them slowed way down for this turn. On the inside of the turn there was a 2 foot drop that formed a hazard. The motorcycles had it tough as they were navigating and driving by themselves. Later one the drivers crashed from exhaustion ridding a 1100 bike.

Once the combo car cleared the motorcycles and then the real action started with the rally cars (my opinion). The cars scream from the hill on down to the corner and hit the brakes and slide around (as best they could). Then car 12 came through, a front wheel drive Subaru. They hit the drop and then you could hear the pitched whine as their transmission and axle came appart. The drove about 10 feet past the drop. The drivers got out and set up their hazard triangles. A couple of cars came through and made it safely around. Once there was a pause in the action, I help the drivers push the car more out of the way to make it safer for the rest of the drivers.

Attachment 3841

I got to know Kevin and Rob from DoublePlus Racing. DoublePlus Racing | Facebook while we waited out the race at my station. Eventually the sweep car came through and declined them a tow out. The other sweep car was dragging an other team out. We thought there would be a way for the crew to pick up the car from behind. Turns out the road to my station was blocked by gated community.

So Kevin and Rob stayed until the end of stage 5 when they were pulled out by the second sweep car. Overall I had a great time. The weather did improve later in the day (marginally the rain gave to a wicked cold wind).

Hopefully I will have movies and pictures up soon.

Glad you were able to make it and I hope you had a good time. Sorry I wasn't able to make it down, life just got in the way at the last minute :(

Looks like you guys had it rough with the weather. I saw pictures of the Focus' big off, that looked nasty. Do you know what happened to Jason and Jared (Car #1)? I saw that they DNFed but haven't had a chance to talk to Jared yet. Looks like Eric and Marcel managed 3rd, awesome job in what looked to have been a really rough rally.

So what are your thoughts, working your first rally? Would do another?

Car no 1 had a bunch of problems. Look through the updates on the facebook page to get a feel of what's happen: NASA Rally Sport | Facebook . I would work an other rally again. It's fun in own way. I personally would rather to participate instead of spectate. I would agree, anybody who finishes this race should just get a medal. It's rough and hard and they had a lot of things going against them. BTW, the race ran two hours over. So now I am going to be looking into Sport Rally.

Here's some upcoming Rallies near you, I doubt I'll be making it to any of these though :(

100 Acre Wood: End of Feb: Salem, Mo... this looks like a long drive, but I've always wanted to see this rally, looks awesome.
Rally Tennesee: April Linden, Tn... doesn't look that far from you.
Florida Stages: May Starke, Fl... Not sure how far this would be for you.

I'm HOPING to work Rally WV, assuming they run it this year. We have a baby due in June, and it's really dependent on how all that goes. This would be a big drive for you, but I definitely recommend this rally. It's a great time. I've spectated twice and the roads are just amazing. This is generally in Early August in Elkins, WV.


Unfortunately there's just a lot going on this year for me, and I don't know that Stage Rally will fit in too well. I'm trying to concentrate on getting seat time in RallyX. I've been talking with Mark Bowers and we might be trying to get his Starion back up and running again, we'll see what happens there.