Rallying on the back roads

THE ROADS LESS TRAVELED

Wine Country Road Rally takes drivers deep into the heart of Northern California

JESS LANDER

When I arrived at the 8:15 AM driver’s meeting for Day 2 of the second-annual Napa Valley 750, the first Wine Country Road Rally hosted by St. Helena’s Harvest Inn, hotel principal owner and rally founder Rick Kaufman was already smoking his first cigar of the day.

I bee-lined for the coffee station, dressed in multiple layers in anticipation of an April day where temperatures were set to rise into the mid-70s and was relieved to see a group of women taking Dramamine ahead of the day’s drive. We were set to cover roughly 180 miles through Napa, Yolo, and Lake counties. Knowing that there were some particularly windy roads on this route, I had made a point to pick up the anti-nausea meds the day before. I was glad to know that even those who do these types of events every year still needed a little help.

While directional and safety guidance was given at the driver’s meeting, it was mostly lighthearted and full of wisecracks. For example, Kaufman reiterated that the drivers should

Author Jess Lander on the road.

Jess Lander

make sure they have gas, as filling stations would be few and far between.

“I had a burrito last night. We’re good!” one driver quipped, rewarded with laughter from the group.

Then to conclude the meeting, safety chief Fred Vietch reminded the drivers to “be nice to your nag-igator,” referring to the wives riding in the passenger seat. I was pleased to see that at least a few of them took their turn at the wheel for part of the day.

Kaufman had offered me a ridealong and gave me a choice between his yellow 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 or a 2016 Morgan 3-Wheeler. I chose the Morgan and while this might not have been the most popular choice, I’m a sucker for an open-top having grown up riding in, and eventually driving, my mother’s Mustang convertible. I’d also never ridden in a three-wheeled car before and wasn’t sure when

Alan Rosenberg

else I’d get the chance.

So the Morgan it was.

BEAUTY AND PAIN

We took off south down Highway 29 headed toward Atlas Peak, our line of roughly 20 classic and new cars (all perfectly buffed), creating quite the cacophony of roaring engines in St. Helena. After taking a right on the Silverado Trail from Skellenger — Kaufman’s favorite piece of road in all of Napa Valley — my hat suddenly flew right off. Slightly embarrassed that I didn’t secure it better, I was ready to leave it, but Kaufman pulled over, spun the car around, and rescued my cap without even getting out of the car. That’s how low to the

cabinets

ground a Morgan is; you can literally touch the pavement from where you’re sitting.

Once on CA-128, I began to brace myself for the oncoming fire devastation that I knew lay ahead on the drive out to Winters. Having just lost my house in October to the Glass Fire, I found it oddly comforting to be with Kaufman, who, unfortunately, joined the same club in 2017. We bonded over our sad, shared experience and the sickly smell that hangs around a burn zone for months, a smell that’s now permanently imprinted to our olfactory memories and now acts as a trigger to our past trauma.

As expected, the still-blackened hills from last fall’s LNU Complex Fire were both shocking and painful to pass through, but several drivers told me later that it was “impactful” and that they were grateful to have seen it, the beauty and the pain sidling up next to each other.

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I couldn’t help but agree. Too many tourists come to Napa Valley and beyond the “Thank you first responder” signs, never see with their eyes what this special place has managed to survive over the last several years.

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED

It wasn’t long before we crossed into Yolo County, the landscape changing from vineyards and rolling hills to rural farmland dotted by cows, sheep, and American flags; the stench of manure traceable on occasion, but never overpowering. It’s an utterly bucolic part of Northern California, untouched by strip malls and big wineries, that few visitors venture to. I can tell that Kaufman loves getting to expose his fellow rallyers to these parts, like a tour guide that knows the best off-the-beaten-path haunts or hidden gems.

Well out of cell service range, the drivers pulled off CA-16 into the Cowboy Camp parking lot for a rest stop and pastries. Among the group of ralliers was David Donner and his wife Meredith Donner. A race car driver (his father raced at Daytona), Donner is also a seven-time winner of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado, a race that climbs 4,720 feet over 12 miles.

Donner said he’s been doing road rallies since 1989, a hobby he started with his dad. At last year’s Napa Valley 750, he was plagued with quite a few mechanical problems, but the memory is still a fond one because several other drivers stayed up to help him, working through the night. “Ninety percent of why we do this is for the camaraderie,” he said.

Driving another Morgan was Aaron Hagar — yes, the son of Sammy Hagar — and a longtime friend of Kaufman’s,

Alan Rosenberg

who had his 19-year-old son in the passenger seat. Solo driver Steve Rogers had the fastest car of the group, a 2018 Ferrari 488. “A Ferrari is like being chained to the back of the ‘Game of Thrones’ dragon,” he told me.

Rogers doesn’t consider himself as “serious of a car guy” as many of the other participants, labeling his fascination a midlife crisis. He’s also a third-generation San Franciscan who’s been to Napa over a hundred times, but he likes that the road rally offers a new perspective. “The roads we’re driving, I’m seeing sides of the valley that I’ve never seen,” he said.

Listening to each driver’s story of how they got into collecting cars and driving in rallies across the country — Kaufman’s father was a race track doctor — reminded me a lot of the stories I often come across writing about the wine industry. They’re all vastly different and often unexpected, just like how I arrived in Napa on a whim from Boston a decade ago to cover high school sports for the local paper.

The Finish Line

After a half-hour or so — and now several layers of jackets removed — the cars piled back out on the road to make their way towards Lake County. It was on this final stretch that our speed and my adrenaline peaked as we hovered around 95 mph. Kaufman puffed on cigars our whole ride, but the smell is actually a nostalgic one for me, taking me back to beach walks with my dad growing up, wind in my hair, just like when riding in the Morgan. I finally decided I’d join in as we re-entered Napa County in Pope Valley. It seemed like the missing piece to experiencing the rally in earnest.

Of course lighting a cigar while driving top-down at high speeds is a challenge, but Kaufman had a trick, taking it from me and simply dragging it along the pavement to get it smoking.

I like Kaufman’s candidness and honesty and as the miles left on my ridealong were winding down, I asked him why he started the road rally in the first place. He admitted that the rally seemed like a great way to book some rooms at the hotel during an off-peak month and that it’s a great excuse to drive cars with some of friends, but his biggest motivator is that it’s a fun way to raise some serious funds for a good cause. The event benefits the St. Helena Hospital Foundation; last year, they raised over $10,000, but this year, that number jumped to $90,000 as they added in nightly auctions at dinner.

Back on the Silverado Trail, we pulled into Tench Vineyards in Oakville for lunch (elevated barbecue and cabernet), which would conclude my ridealong. I wasn’t even the one driving, and yet I returned home positively exhausted, unable to imagine how these drivers could manage this for four straight days, covering 750 miles of Northern California terrain and communing at gourmet lunches and dinners alongside primo wines each day in between.

They say road rallying isn’t a sport, but I think it deserves consideration for its emphasis on endurance.