Road Rally in Licking
Photo submitted
Submitted
LICKING, Mo. – This coming Saturday, August 5th, the 100AW Performance Rally Group will conduct the second annual Missouri Ozark Rally (MOR) in Texas County based entirely out of the beautiful community of Licking.
Rally has been in the area for most of the past 45 years, anchored by the iconic Rally in the 100 Acre Wood. That event was first conducted in Dent County in 1977. Ensuing years saw expansion to the counties of Washington, Iron, Reynolds, Shannon and Crawford. Most recently it has been a welcome staple of spring fun in Dent and Washington Counties. For a while the organization conducted a fall rally in Perry County, but eventually relocated that to Potosi in Washington County and named it “Show-Me Rally.”
In the past 4-5 years, the organization has been looking for a venue for a small event that would serve as training for its larger rally’s officials and provide some good competitive practice for our more local teams.
Rally racing is one car at a time, started at least one minute apart, down a gravel secondary road that has been identified by the county and the townships as a road where non-rally traffic can be restricted for safety reasons. Each competing car is legally licensed to drive on any public road in the country: all lights, wipers, horns, etc. are intact and operating. They also pass a rigid safety inspection to see that all the safety equipment (roll cages, safety harnesses, helmets, etc.) is up-to-date.
The cars are not flat out all the time. Between the sections where they are timed (called “special stages”), they transit at road legal speeds. On Saturday’s event there are two such special stages, both west of Licking, in Upton, Roubidoux, Boone and Lynch townships. Cars will compete on these roads four times Saturday.
Spectating information and schedule information can be found at https://missouriozarkrally.100aw.org/spectators.
Saturday’s rally will be headquartered at the Town & Country Supermarket in Licking. The cars will service (think pit area) starting at 10:30 Saturday morning and will be available for fans to ask questions, get pictures and meet the teams.
The Rally will start with the cars leaving Town & Country supermarket at one-minute intervals starting at 11:30 a.m.
The 100AW Performance Rally Group conducts three events each year under the sanctioning of the American Rally Association (ARA). MOR is a one-day ARA Regional event in early August; Show-Me Rally is a two-day ARA Super-Regional event the first weekend of November; and the ARA National, 2-day Rally in the 100 Acre Wood in mid-March, which draws competitors not only from around the country, but from overseas as well.
Chuck Renner, MOR’s chairman, urges everybody to get involved: just spectate, sign up to volunteer, or contact the 100AW Performance Rally Group to see how to go rallying (www.100AW.org)!
Yesterday 8-5-2023 was the first time seeing this kind of race, A few family members and friends set up on a piece of property that my son owns, we set up canopies and brought plenty of food and drinks what a way to spend a Saturday picnic and entertainment watching the cars go by, I think the drivers also liked seeing people out watching them, some would would blow their horn on the way by, I was impressed how ( I will call them the Safety team) would come by to make sure the road was clear and stop to give us updates on what was happening, Growing up living on Paddy Creek Road i would never dreamed I would be setting on that peace of land watching a race, Wondering what my parents would think if they was still living seeing the cars going by at a high rate of speed, I under stand there is suppose to be a bigger race in March of 2024 running the same route, you can bet if the lord is willing and the creek down rise, we will be having another Picnic watching the entertainment. Thank you