JAMESON AND SEARS WIN AGAIN AT FIVE TRIBES The team of Dave Jameson and John Sears led wire to wire to take Class E and first overall at the Five Tribes Touring Road Rally held on April 29th. The road rally was headquartered out of Locust Grove, Oklahoma. The road rally covered the rolling hills between Locust Grove and Fort Gibson, Oklahoma. It featured some very curvy roads with a generous amount of low water bridges. Jameson and Sears started off the day in a good way by collecting a zero on the first leg. The Class L team of Albert Weaver and Rich Bireta were close behind with a six. Wichita Region's Bruce Bettinger and Lonnie Heston were next with an eleven. Right on their heels was the brother team of Pat and Tim Hampel with a fourteen. Rounding out the field with a max of sixty was the team of Cynthia Loveall and Dave Belanger. Leg two had a Do-It-Yourself control that featured several low water bridges and a few CASTs that were to be ran over very specific distances. This new wrinkle for the locals was nothing new for the nationally experienced Jameson and Sears. They received one point for the leg. The team of Weaver and Bireta were the only other team to avoid a max. They roped in a fine score of ten. Leg three was split between highway driving a very good county roads. The control was located on the north side of Hulbert, Oklahoma. Jameson/Sears just edged out Weaver/Bireta, five to seven, to win the leg. Loveall and Belanger broke the string of maxes with a score of nineteen. No other team was able to avoid the dreaded max. Leg four was the "feature" leg of the road rally. This leg was basically a loop that ran south of Hulbert via county road and then tied in with highway 80 to go back to Hulbert for a rest break. The highway 80 portion of this leg is considered by most as the most challenging state highway to drive in the northeastern part of the state. Weaver and Bireta bested the field with the only other zero of the road rally. Jameson and Sears claimed a two while Bettinger and Heston recorded a six. Hampel and Hampel edged Loveall and Belanger, eighteen to nineteen. At the break Jameson and Sears led Weaver and Bireta by a mere fifteen seconds. The rest of the rallyists had over two minutes in penalties. Bettinger/Heston held sway over Hampel/Hampel and Loveall/Belanger by fifteen and twenty-one seconds respectively. Leg five took the teams out of Hulbert to near Chucolate Hill. Lost City was the next hamlet visited before retracing the low water bridge route from leg two. The only Note Instruction of the road rally was instituted just a few miles from the control. This Note instructed the teams to pause at each low water bridge. The short down hill run of about two miles contained nine of them. Weaver/Bireta shared leg honors with Jameson/Sears by scoring a two. A re-calculation by rally officials determined that Hampel and Hampel were next with a forty-two and not the max that they were originally scored with. Bettinger and Heston came in with a forty-seven. Loveall and Belanger received a max. The final leg was a short run of about six minutes back to the Holiday Inn Express for a Do-It-Yourself control. The final leg caused a dramatic shuffling in finishing positions. Jameson and Sears continued their leg winning ways with a score of one. Weaver and Bireta continued to be best of the rest with a score of two. Loveall and Belanger received a ten after official re-calculation. Hampel and Hampel received a nineteen. Bettinger and Heston were the losers in the "calculation-off" by receiving a max. The result was a drop to fifth place from third. In the end, Jameson and Sears edged Weaver and Bireta by only sixteen seconds. All the other teams had over three minutes in penalty points. Hampel/Hampel nipped Loveall/Belanger and Bettinger/Heston by fifteen and thirty-one seconds, respectively.
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