THE PHANTOM BANTAM
MAY 2011 FRIDAY NIGHTER
PRESENTED BY FOOTZ
Car Driver Navigator Club Class Leg 1 Leg 2 Leg 3 Leg 4 R/C 1 Total  
4 Gibson Workman ORCA/PSRC UNL 10 L 1 L 23 L 19 E 30 83  
3 Biggar Remington ORCA UNL 1 E 4 E 23 L 38 E 30 96  
6 Sjodin Sjodin ORCA UNL 1 E 41 E 19 L 17  E 30 108  
5 Roberts Heppes ORCA UNL 0 1 E 300 L 300L 30 631  
2 Sacry Sacry ORCA EQP 66 L 42 E 15 L 22 E 30 175  
8 Watt Woods ORCA MAS 5 L 68 L 65 L 3 E 30 171  
10 Kuhnhenn Kuhnhenn PSRC SOP 4 E 16 E 0 22 E 30 72  
11 Samuelson Johnson PSRC SOP 5 L 9 L 80 L 2 E 30 126  
16 Clark Rule ORCA SOP 13 L 10 E 62 L 17 E 30 132  
12 Jackson Phee PSRC SOP 6 L 13 L 66 L 18 E 30 133  
13 Grant Matthews PSRC SOP 25 L 20 L 147 L 25 L 30 247  
1 Thompson Hobbs ORCA SOP 16 E 188 E 23 L 25 E 30 282  
7 Bolin Neumann   SOP 34 L 156 L 29 E 105 E 30 354  
9 Nickels Nickels   SOP 24 L 300 L 300 L 300 L 30 954  
17 Shannon Furney Stangnation NOV 8 E 8 E 298 L 35 L 30 379  
14 Emmel Nuccitelli   NOV 26 L 300 L 128 L 26 L 30 510  
15 DeLancey DeLancey   NOV 1 L 300 L 158 L 64 L 30 553  
18 Cook Peterson   NOV 17 E 300 L 300 L 28 E 30 675  
19 Mets Mailloux ORCA NOV 300 L 300 L 300 L 300 L 30 1230  
          Grey background indicates time allowance applied    
Post event thoughts from FOOTZ
Thank you all for running this event.  This event was harder than most Friday Nighters.  Novices, I made you use NOTES.  I tried to make it easy to learn
how to use them by restricting your notes to T intersections and making sure the NRIs were not redundant or conflicting.  Some missed checkpoints, but
many of the max scores on leg two were the result of getting lost for other reasons.  For the other classes, the navigators had a lot of reading to do, so
you may appreciated more dead time at checkpoints.  Doing separate instructions and handouts for Novices makes for a challenging checkout and editing
process.  The leg times were meant to be the same for both sets.  I discovered an error in the Novice instructions that causes their official leg time to be
2 seconds longer.  This change has no effect on finish order and changes the score of only one NOV car.  I can barely explain how the zombie chicken
concept developed, but once it was there I had to use it.  Again, I want to give a big thank you to all of the people who helped to put on this event,
especially the one dozen good eggs who aren't actually FOOTZ club members.
Full explanation of traps
Leg 1 - odometer check, then <5 live miles in <9 minutes
There were no intended traps in leg 1.  You wouldn't know it from the scores and 4 time allowances.  All cars had identical instructions for leg 1.
One or more cars missed NRI 19 immediately after the odometer check.  One or more cars did not notice the MBCU in NRI 21.
Leg 2 - 7+ miles, 14+ minutes
Novice teams were using a simpler set of instructions.  They only saw two notes ( L AT T and R AT T) and had deliberate instructions to get on and off of
highway 18 ( R AT "FREEWAY ENTRANCE", CAST 59 AT "18", R AT FIRST EXIT ).
The other classes ran a more difficult set.  They got to ignore/consider/accept a freeway on-ramp as an OPP.  On course cars took the ramp and used
CSU 25 as they merged onto the highway, and introduced note FUNKY CHICKEN which had them exit the highway and reduced their speed.  Off couse
cars missed/refused the ramp as an OPP and traveled farther north to SE 200 ST while also canceling the R AT T note.  On course cars continued to use
R AT T, while off course cars saw L AT STOP ITIS.  This placed all cars on 276 AVE coming to NRI 37 from different directions, to reach checkpoint 2.
All classes had two other potential traps.  NRI 31 CAST 34 AT "SPEED LIMIT 35" ITIS was an ITIS because the sign is just after the first time you used
the R AT T note.  The sign is new and has a red flag on it to make it more noticeable.  It is the only sign on that 1 mile stretch of road, so the penalty
was a steeper-than-I-would-have-liked 37 seconds late.    The other psuedo trap mentioned on the handout was the result of balancing the times for the
on course (freeway) and off course (no freeway) routes.  On course cars took a PAUSE 100 so that the off course penalty would be 39 seconds late.
At least two cars appear to have taken the on course route, but read PAUSE 100 as PAUSE ONE MINUTE, earning penalties of 40 seconds early.
Leg 3 - <20 miles, <29 minutes
Checkpoint 2 gave SOP/MAS/EQP/UNL teams a handout with an additional NOTE.  HAUNTED HENHOUSE appeared to be a timing task.  It was a story
problem about a poultrygeist that caused hens to lay eggs every two minutes.  The note instructed a PAUSE 5 for every egg Tatty (the invisible chicken
you received at the start) produced in the time that you needed to travel between two NRIs.  It was active for just over 8 minutes, so anyone who forgot
that Tatty was a rooster took a pause of 20 making themselves late.  I see 5 experienced teams with scores near 20L...
Everyone had note L AT T but at least one car failed to see the rest USE ONCE, THEN CANCEL.  Using it a 2nd time, they fell off the earth.
If you executed NRI 46 R ON 244 PAUSE 9 CAST 33 ITIS where protection forced you right, you picked up 17 seconds late.  The length of this leg makes
scores high to begin with, so trap penalties are hard to distinguish for most of the cars.
Leg 4 - 4+ miles, 8+ minutes
This leg was a blatant copy of leg 4 from the March event.  Novices just had to drive to the next checkpoint, but the other classes got NOTE FOWL PLAY
The note required them to measure a distance and PAUSE 20 if it was less than 1.2 miles.  Those who measured the distance between NRI 59 and
NRI 61 on page 3 as instructed estimated it to about 1 inch, and took the PAUSE immediately.  Others mistakenly measured the travel distance between
executing NRI 59 and NRI 61 and found it to be about 1.6 miles, so they declined to pause and earned 20 seconds early.
Missing Route Control 1 for 30 points
The copycat route and checkpoint of leg 4 was part of a setup.  March's event had you look for "ORANGE ROAD CONE" to make a U-turn, and on course
cars continued down the road to an on-course route control.  For May, I offered you the same opportunity but added a distraction.  The checkpoint 4
handout slip said INTRODUCE ALL NOTES.  That's only a pair for the novices, but it's five for the rest.  This was only done for its shock value.  Since
there were no more checkpoints (stated on the handout) you could safely ignore HENHOUSE and FOWL PLAY, which were time traps.  L AT T and
R AT T would never be usable due to their mutual conflict while both were active.  You really only needed to worry about FUNKY CHICKEN, and novices
didn't have that one at all.  My intent was that you either be so focused on the notes that you simply made a U-turn and followed the NRIs to the finish,
or that you concluded it was just a diversion for the "CONE" trap.  Ultimately, the real trap was farther down the road.  If you continued ahead in search of
the anticipated route control, you found the same crew, same car, same location as was used in March.  Twelve cars found this crew.  Alas, none of them
noticed that the control was displaying a Chuckanut Sport Car Club Route Control sign.  Eleven cars stopped and got a slip that told them they were
plucky and instructed them to make a U-turn.  The twelfth car stopped, did not give the control their scorecard and did not receive a handout.  Clearly,
this car sensed the game was afoot.  Perhaps they decided it was trap and were about to get slapped down by an off course penalty.
They simply made a U-turn and went back the way they came.  If you had kept on going you would come to official Route Control 1, displaying the proper
sign.  Along the way, those still thinking about FUNKY CHICKEN would be delighted to see "1/2 MILE" although there was no further trap.
As the scores show, RC 1 was pretty lonely, as no cars reached the on course control.