Brad and Susan Allen were eating breakfast in downtown Lawrence when they decided on a whim to enter a road rally that would take them on a bizarre trip to Weston, Mo.

“We have no idea what we’re doing,” Brad Allen said a couple of hours later as he and his wife received written directions on how to drive to Weston.

The Allens were among 17 people in eight cars participating in Saturday’s March Madness Road Rally, sponsored by the Kansas Region of the Sports Car Club of America. They gathered at Lawrence Municipal Airport, where the rally began.

Drivers in a road rally must obey posted speed limits along the route, but also follow a set of instructions that tells them how fast to go, how many miles to drive and where to make turns to get to their final destination.

The directions, however, do not name streets or county roads. Checkpoints along the way, manned by members of the Sports Car Club, check each car’s progress.

The scoring is similar to golf, and the team with the fewest points wins. The prize was a plaque. The last place team also wins a plaque that proclaims them to be “navigationally challenged.”

Matt Rohrer and Angela Robinson, both from Topeka, also were driving in their first road rally.

“It sounded like it would be a fun way to spend a Saturday,” Rohrer said.

“He’s pretty good at directions, but I’m a little nervous,” Robinson said. “I get car sick when I read and I’m going to be reading a map.”

Brad Allen, Lawrence, prepares to set off with his wife in their 1970 Triumph GT-6 for their first road rally. The rally began at the Lawrence Municipal Airport and ended in Weston, Mo.

The course to Weston covered 115 miles, all on paved roads.

“If you find yourself on a dirt road, then you are hideously lost,” said Ed Hood, the rally master, as he went over general instructions with the teams before the rally.

Teams were given a telephone number to call if, indeed, they did get lost and needed help getting back on track.

Hood and his wife, Sara, have competed in several road rallies over the years.

“I drive and he navigates,” Sara Hood said. “We found we have less arguments that way.”

Last year Topekans Gary and Martha Piland entered a road rally for the first time and won. Saturday they manned one of the checkpoints.

“We won last year because she’s so smart and I’m so lucky,” Gary Piland said. “The car had something to do with it, too.”

The Pilands traveled in a 1967 Saab. Any type of street-worthy motor vehicle is allowed in the rally. The Sports Car Club sponsors three or four rallies throughout the spring and summer. Anyone can participate.

The winner was recognized during a lunch at O’Malley’s Pub in Weston. One car was forced out of the race when its transmission blew, Ed Hood said.