New Jersey Mini-Monte Event Report
August 29, 2004
(By Peter Schneider)

click below pictures to enlarge

On a beautiful sunny day fifteen cars ventured out from Saturn of Morristown on the 2004 NJ Mini-Monte.  And believe it or not all 15 cars completed the event in the allocated time and not one individual wanted to hang the rallymaster.  As I reported in the prior newsletters article “Something Wicked This Way Comes” the New Jersey Monte and its little twin sister the NJ Mini-Monte has been know to be a very hard and difficult event to master.  And with a winning score in excess of 800 points (100 points per minute early or late and 200 points for each missed passage control) this year’s event was no exception. But to make this year’s event “Novice” friendly, the rallymaster, not only supplied the standard Exxon Map (Scale 5.2 miles to the inch), but also a county map of the 1st third of the route and a detailed NJ Road Atlas showing all the roads on the route.  After all how lost can you get we even gave you THREE maps.

The official master map not only showed the official route, it also listed the approx. location of all 12 timing checkpoints and 6 restarts. With 12 checkpoints listed and only 4 volunteer worker teams, some checkpoints were to be “manned” and others were to be DIY (Do-It-Yourself).  But since you did not know which controls were to be manned each team had to stay on-time all the time.

Looking around the start of the event I noticed that two of North Jersey’s best MAP RALLIEST were running the event and it appeared that it was going to be a close between these two Expert teams who have been running the NJ Monte for over 30 years.  (But that would not be the case, but more to that later).

The 1st task that each team had to perform, was to take the route listed on the official Exxon Map and copy it onto the county and NJ Road Atlas maps, once completed they were off to the start.  The Odometer leg went from Morristown to River Rd in Oldwick and into Mountainville, NJ.  Mountainville which was only 4 miles into the start of the rally had a one-two punch waiting for the un-expecting teams.

Located just prior to entering the center of Mountainville was the 1st checkpoint of the event (manned by Joe Russell),  and just after the center of town was a nasty little “MAP TRAP” and a 2nd checkpoint (manned by Steve Novate).  There are two road out of town, one shown on the map the second one was not.  But which is the right one.  The Exxon Map (if you look closely shows that correct one), since the rallymaster had thoughtfully provided everyone with a detailed county map, with a little study, it was easy for even the novice teams to find the correct road out of town.   But this is where being an Expert can hurt.  One of the two Expert teams, “knowing the trap from the old days” failed to compare the Exxon Map to the county map and was the only team to take the wrong way out of town.  Not only that, but they were so sure of themselves that they lost track of the time and entered the 1st checkpoint of the event more then 5 minutes early.   These two mistakes in the 1st 5 miles of the event provided them with 80% of their total event error, and they knocked themselves out of 1st place.

The route then went into Califon (with a little Map Trap that only the Novice Team of Pat & Natalie Voskinarian did correctly with an on-course passage control manned by Mike Szorentini) and Little Brook, to the 1st restart in Woodglen, NJ.

Shortly after leaving Woodglen, the master map showed two “funny” little wiggles.  These are two side roads, which the Road Department bypassed years ago, by putting in a new road.  And yes that is where we hide an on-course checkpoint (manned by Fred & Arna Cochran) to see who could really read a map.  While the NJ Atlas clearly showed both the old roads and the new road, only our two Experts found the hidden on-course passage-control and avoided the 200 points penalties.

Halfway through the rally there was a short gas break in Washington Township at the intersection of Route 57 and Route 31, the event then did a quick loop around Montana Mountain, and started to head to the finish.  Since my wife (Joanne) and I had to work the start of the event and make sure that all the novices got on the road on-time, we where unable to work an early checkpoint, but we did have time to get to Checkpoint #5 just east of the gas break to see how all the teams were doing.  We parked ourselves just down the road after DIY Checkpoint #5 (each team using their own watches, recorded their “arrival time” at a DIY – the honor system), we spoke to each car to see how they were doing.  I was happy to see that all the team we encountered were enjoying the event, and while several had gone “off-course”, they did not hold it against us.  That when I noticed a “little problem” that the second Expert team was having, they were either miss reading their watch or had set it one minute off from the “MASTER CLOCK” at the start.  They were running the whole event one minute early, while this did not affect their DIY scores or any on-course passage controls, it would make then one minute early at each “manned checkpoint”.  They had gained 100 points each time an event official timed them at a checkpoint, this was simple little avoidable error (as noted in a prior newsletter story) but it cost them dearly in the end.  So with both of the “known” Expert adding over 700 points onto their scores without any “outside help” it was now any ones game and the converted 1st Place Trophy was up for grabs.

The next MAP TRAP in the event was between Penwell, NJ and Pleasant Grove, NJ.  In the old days the only road between these two towns went up Turkey Top Mt Road, a very narrow twisty one lane road, which did not permit large trucks or even safe driving in winter, so the Road Department built a short cut, which is not shown on the EXXON Map but is the obvious way to go.  But by taking the short cut you cut the route by about 2 miles and arrived at a “manned checkpoint” about 5 minutes early.  The route then headed down the backside Schooley’s Mountain into Middle Valley, NJ (on the only dirt road of the event) and past the last two Manned Checkpoints to end at the Long Valley Pub & Brewery.

I would like to thank, the following workers who made the event possible (Fred & Arna Cochran, Steve Novatne, Joe Russell {yes that Joe Russell}, Joanne Schneider, Mike Szorentini) and Stu Lasser of Saturn of Morristown who opened up his dealership for the start of the event on a Sunday.