The Bonding Is Quite Easy to See : Rally: Blind navigators team with drivers who can’t read Braille on 100-mile jaunt from Los Angeles to Anaheim.

Emotions ran the gamut of modesty to exultation as winning drivers led their blind navigators to the microphone for awards. Blind navigators?

Competition unique to Southern California challenges the blind to lead the blind. Drivers in the Braille Rallye can see the road, but they see nothing in the raised dot patterns that tell them where to go. Their young navigators cannot see the road, but they alone know the way.

It’s a conundrum calculated to get boys and girls to read--whether in Braille for those completely blind or large print for the partially sighted.

It’s also a challenge to adult drivers, many at the wheel of cherished, specialized sports cars, to learn a little about patience, a lot about perception.

Most teams are paired the morning of the race, strangers who will spend a day together in a hectic test of their ability to interpret, communicate and execute instructions for a course through unfamiliar territory to an unknown destination.

In the heat of the rally, making wrong turns and getting back on course, neither member of the team is aware of the bond building between them as they learn to trust each other.

But poker-faced Veronica Hernandez provided a clue as her driver pulled into the Anaheim Plaza hotel Saturday a week ago after their car had traveled a winding 100 miles from Los Angeles. All 53 cars were halted at the main entrance for navigators to disembark before the cars were parked. “She wants to stay with me,” driver Elisabeth Swayne said. The accountant and her new friend were waved on together.

The awards banquet brought that bond home. Grizzled movie heavy Michael Champion, in jeans and unshaven, expressed it best when he and his cheerful navigator, Eric Calhoun, were called to the podium for recognition of the celebrity teams.

Although they were out of the running for a competition award, Calhoun said, “My driver is first place in my book, even though he made a few mistakes!”

“Only when he fell asleep,” Champion retorted, squeezing his navigator.

Then the actor unexpectedly got to the point for everyone, judging by the applause and chorus of “right on!”

He said simply, “What this is really about is love. I think we all learned a lot; mostly that . . . we need each other.”

Another serious note was sounded by driver Steve Brown, a customer-service representative and veteran of six rallies who won in the Braille-navigator division. Separate prizes were given to teams with large print navigators.

“Just participating this year means more to me than winning,” he said. “I was losing my own vision, and I was really scared. When I learned I had diabetes and got on insulin, it cleared up.”

Getting to know navigator Nathan Case was a revelation to him, he said later. “I was told before the rally that he was insecure and prone to violent outbursts. I tried to reassure him and explain some things because it was his first rally, and we got along fine.

“In the past I came pretty much for the excitement and socializing with other drivers. But I did everything I could to help Nathan enjoy it, and I really enjoyed this one myself. It seemed easier; maybe that’s because of Nathan’s intelligence.

“Before I had younger navigators, and it took me a while to realize they didn’t understand the instructions because they’re unfamiliar with some of the words--the concepts. They don’t really know what traffic signals are, for example. I used to participate in various car events, but now this is the only one. It’s one day of the year I can do something for someone else.”

Perception took on new dimensions for many new drivers as the day wore on. Relaxing at a Chevrolet rest stop seemed a puzzler when navigators asked about the sporty models on display. But it soon became clear that fingers tracing the cars’ lines were another way of appreciating their flowing styles.

And exotic exteriors didn’t seem as important as interior comforts because temperatures neared 100 degrees en route, and some of the sports cars had no air conditioning. Weather and sleepless nights anticipating rally day brought on bouts of drowsiness among several navigators.

Doug Hooper, an officer with the San Fernando Police Dept. who was competing for the second year, said he had a Braille navigator last time and a large print one this year.

“Any difference?” he was asked at the last rest stop.

“Helps me when she falls asleep!” he said. “At least I can look over her shoulder.”

He didn’t do too badly with Eldamira Flores. They were first in the Black and White category, reserved for drivers from law-enforcement agencies. Flores got to ride in a patrol car, as did youngsters with mentors from the California Highway Patrol and Los Angeles Sheriff’s Dept.

Lest it be said that drivers such as Hooper generally have an advantage over those with Braille navigators, veteran participants observe that the Braille teams often do better--when the navigator is good at reading Braille and the driver is experienced or intuitive at interpreting the instructions: that is, relating them to road situations.

The Braille Institute considers the primary benefit of the rally to be a stronger motivation to learn to read.

Dave Bracken, a sports-car enthusiast who founded the rally 25 years ago, said he started it after Institute people came to a car meeting and asked if they could bring blind youngsters to a race. “I only have one eye myself,” he said, “so I was sympathetic.”

The event was dropped during the gas crunch of the 1970s, and revived eight years ago by Don Hume, a veteran of the rally and car events in general.

“I didn’t even know it had been discontinued,” he said, “but I started talking to people and got a big response from Dick Holloway and his wife Terri. We’ve been working on it ever since.”

Evidence of the enthusiasm generated by the rally at the Braille Institute’s Youth Center is offered by Bob Amaral, a professional photographer and lab technician who drove this year for the first time: “My navigator, Salina Boone, was totally exhausted at the end. She got up at the crack of dawn the day of the rally, but she skipped breakfast to get to the center early. We got lost once, but it was my fault. She did everything perfect.”

Amaral said they drew double takes along the way because he was driving an English Mini Cooper with the steering wheel on the right side, and Boone, who onlookers assumed was driving, was holding the large print course instructions so close to her face she couldn’t possibly see the road.

In addition to an eclectic array of cars, the rally roster boasted an international look with drivers from England, Holland and the Soviet Union.

Briton Graham Wilkie, a ski racer who once held the downhill record of 132 m.p.h., ran the rally with Darren Gresham, a large print navigator. “The neatest thing was just being able to talk to each other,” Wilkie said. “It was just the two of us in the car for hours. He lost his sight two months ago--just woke up one morning and couldn’t see--and it was interesting to see how he handled it. He feels he may get it back, and I plan to stay in touch to see how he does.”

This was Wilkie’s first rally. “I’m coming back next year,” he said. “Darren and I want to do it together again.”

Businessman Bill Vandervegt, who came here from Holland 4 1/2 years ago, entered his first rally this year and placed second in large print with navigator Thomas Barlow, also in his first rally.

“We did all right considering the language barrier,” he said. “Sometimes he didn’t know how to pronounce the street names, and sometimes I didn’t. We didn’t have an odometer, either--but I’m ready to do it again.”