Idaho Racing News

Idaho Rally 2007

June 16, 2007

Cooperation from residents and officials helps motorsporting event come together.

By Brian Calkins
For The Owyhee Avalanche

Grandview, Idaho – For the first time ever a road rally was organized in the State of Idaho and it is fitting that it should be in Idaho’s largest county. Grandview resident and native of Germany, Jens Schkade, has been a spectator at several rallies in his native country. When he married his wife, Rae Lynn, and moved to Grandview a few years ago he wanted to get a rally organized that would be “small, national event”. With the help of his wife and family and the assistance of rally organizers from such national organizations as Rim of the World Rally and National Auto Sport Association’s rally division (NASA Rally Sport) Jens has been able to bring his dream to reality.

In addition to NASA Rally Sport and Rim of the World Rally Jens Schkade had help from several volunteers from some local car clubs, friends and others who just heard about it and signed up to be course workers. Billy Brede and Justin Brown, who are members of the Boise chapter of the Freaks of Nature car club, were two of the volunteers. “We’re willing to go to any event and help out”, Brown said referring to the members of the club.
In addition to course workers, whose main job was to help close down the side roads for safety purposes during the active part of each stage, other help came from the county itself.

Two ambulances were available at different times during the event. The cities of Grandview and Bruneau each provided an ambulance and several EMT’s; up to 20 at one point. One of the fire trucks from Grandview was available during refueling at the Rimrock High School’s parking lot. The Owyhee County Sheriff’s department provided a couple vehicles and three or four deputies. According to Owyhee County Marine Deputy, Rick Wiley, Schedules were shifted so assistance could be given to the event without any overtime needed. In addition Wiley said that “so far we’ve had good cooperation from the residents.”

The most time consuming part of organizing a rally of this type is getting the permits for use of the roads. Schkade said that he started to organize this event about a year ago. First he had to pick the roads and layout a course and then talk to the residents and make sure they were okay with the event. He also had to choose a time during the year when a temporary road closure would impact the fewest people. He had to consider factors such as heat and cold, hunters, farming and other things. Only then could he write a proposal and put in a petition to the county commissioners. The petition went to the commissioners last November and the resolution was not drawn up until May. Schkade said that getting the permits was the part that took the longest.

Overall, Schkade said that he was pleased and that it was a “really good event”. He was determined to make this event a good one and said that above all he “did not want to lack on performance”. That’s why he had a really experienced scoring team at the rally such as Rae and Donna Hocker and Mike and Paula Gibeault of Rim of the World Rally. Paula Gibeault said she has “never seen a first time organizer do so much”. Donna Hocker agreed with her saying he did a “great job as a first time organizer.”

When asked what he would like to change for next year’s rally Schkade said that he would “probably improve the quality of the roads and make them more challenging.” In addition Schkade said “I don’t think a lot of people realize that this is a tremendous breakthrough for Idaho” in motorsports.