About
Quick Stats:
The High Desert Trails Rally
Ridgecrest, California (map)
Saturday, April 9th, 2011
California Rally Series Championship Event
NASA RallySport sanctioned event!
RallyMoto™ event!
Organized by competitors Kristopher Marciniak & Christine Marciniak
Contact the organizers – rally (at) highdeserttrails.com
* One day – compact rally – Co(2) event
* Great starter event
* RallyMoto (NASA event) – 2 Co(1) events
* Organizer supplied stage notes
We want the High Desert Trails to be a great beginner rally that helps driver/co-driver team building. We want it to be a fun challenge for the experienced teams.
The goal right now is to run a one day two coefficient event. Our budget will be tight – but I think if we forgo some of the glamorous national rally flair we can offer an inexpensive rally that everyone will have a blast at!
History:
The rally was originally run in 1973 by Mike Gibeault & Gary Potts. It used roads South East and West of Ridgecrest that are now mostly part of an OHV trail system or paved. In the seventies, performance rallies were setup much like brisk TSD’s (a time speed distance rally with a high or unobtainable average speed on twisty dirt roads) and the rally was scored by checkpoints along the route. These rallies would run for hundreds of miles and usually all night. Sometimes workers didn’t make it to the control and there have been many stories of getting to the finish and not having anyone there to check you in, workers asleep, etc. Roads were not closed and on-coming traffic was a general problem. It is unknown to us at this time the complete number of times and years High Desert Trails has run.
In 2008 the High Desert Trails rally was resurrected by Ray Hocker (who competed in the 1974 event). A small motorsport facility outside of Ridgecrest had raised the funds to cut over six miles of stages into their property. Ray & Donna Hocker organized the 2008 event as a ‘shakedown’ for not only the cars, but the new roads.
In 2009 seeing an opportunity to keep the rally alive, Kristopher & Christine Marciniak organized their first event. The rally continues to run today!
