The MG Car Club - Long Island Centre originated their concept of an International 5 day TSD road rally. I (Bill Laitenberger) ran my first 1000 with John McArthur in 1982, which should have been the 30th event. That event began somewhere on Long Island and was sponsored by Ford. The event went from Long Island to Binghamton NY to Niagara Falls to Toronto to Elmira NY and then back to Long Island for the finish. In those days the event was significantly more than 1000 miles. Ray and Wendy McCann were the organizers of many of the events in the early 80’s. Ray was a school teacher and he used his summer vacation (from school) to dedicate himself to developing a route for the 1000 that year. The club brought members along (much arm twisting I am sure) to staff controls. This approach was expensive and generally had a limited number of controls. What do I remember about that first event? First timers don’t win – turned out to be true after we overshot Angel Rd and started out 75 late at the bottom. Ford sponsored lunch in Canada but the route instructions took us to the wrong assembly plant (who ate all our food?) You can always tell the newbies because they don’t have any “duds” for the awards banquet. Ford had an open bar at the banquet and it was held in a banquet room with wall length mirrors an all 4 walls – after several drinks it was difficult to find the mirror door to get you out to the restroom. The event was great and that fact brings us together today for this years 1000. Along the way I could retell stories of flat tires, “WHAT do you mean you turned off the computer”, Didn’t we bring a spare computer – change the computer. The engine will not accelerate – add another can of octane booster (by then the catalytic converter was clogged solid).
 

In 1989 Gary Webb and Rich Mooers brought some change to the event. Instead of traveling in the southwestern portion of New York to Niagara Falls and Toronto the event began in eastern Pennsylvania and headed north to Ottawa. The Canadian portion was going to be brisk at 50 kilometers per hour – what a surprise to find out the speed was actually 50 mph. Gary adopted the event for several more years. He brought staff from his Atlantic Driving School as checkpoint workers for the event. Gary’s wife Glenda brought the evening hospitality concept to the 1000. I can not recall the year or the city (Debbi says it was Elmira) but as we pulled into the hotel parking lot, Glenda met the competitors with a glass of bubbly, our room keys and instructions on when and were to meet for dinner. The room keys may have fallen by the wayside but the dinner and hospitality remain a 1000 tradition. Gary had a significant challenge with the event as he lived in Maine and was laying out a long event with significant portions of the route in southern and western New York State. In 1994 Gary cried uncle and needed to pass the torch on. (As most of you know, Gary & Glenda moved to AZ several years ago and started The Grand Canyon Tour which ran in 2003 or 2004 and 2006).
 

The Rochester NY group seemed like a strong potential candidate to continue this event. In the early and mid 60’s the Rochester area had a cross section of brisk events The MONY series involved Michigan, Ohio and New York. Speeds in the high 40’s, all controls timed at xx.75 minutes and out times at the top of the very next minute. The 1000 showed us the potential for the closed control concept. Bob Kraus took us to Virginia for the BRM and the concept of “hidden” passage controls came home with us to Rochester. The combination of brisk speeds, fantastic roads and “hidden” controls became the standard for our version of the 1000. The International aspect of traveling to Canada was scrapped in favor of more dirt roads and an increase in the number of controls. The problem of having enough controls on this kind of event was solved with the Finger Lakes run-work concept for control workers. Each competitor competes and also staffs controls during each day. While this may sound strange it is a concept that had been in use for about 10 years before being used on The Finger Lakes 1000. It does work and many say it provides a spot of relief in a competitive day. Scoring (Debbi) tries to influence us into limiting the number of controls to 30 or 40 a day. We generally have had between 125 and 160 controls for the week. The event has not yet had a close call for first overall.
The evening social hour provides the opportunity to our story-tellers - a group of masters (I think we have a challenging group for this – I think Satch should be able to fill John McArthur's shoes for a great story). Okay who has the best Angel story? If you don’t have an Angel story, that means you have not run on the roads in the New York Southern Tier. Angel Road is an unassuming unpaved road that begins with a 90° left and uphill that is so steep that your left front bumper almost hits the road surface during that 90° left. The road then turns almost 180° to the right while still in a steep up hill climb; a curve left and then a steep uphill to the control. To keep things fair a control in the bushes just before the first curve was in order. Time me early at the bottom or time me late at the top. The road continues for almost a mile but a local living on the road, shortens our effective use of the road.
 

We spent 2004 having a house built clear across the country, and then fixing up and selling our house in Rochester took up 2005. Our physical move was in September 05, but we didn't really settle in until December. It didn't take long for Bill (and John and R. Dale) to grow impatient with no rally to organize.

In 2007 the Rochester crew is now in Arizona and we have recruited R. Dale Kraushaar and his wife Francesca to round out our team. The roads are different than New York but we believe the event will be as enjoyable as our former efforts. If you have not run a “1000”, we hope you’ll to put it on your list of things to do.