[Editor's note: This article first ran in 2009. While some information may be different today, the basics hold true.]
Story by Tom Heath • Photography as Credited
Where would we be without the efforts of heroic drivers? You know, like the Bandit or them Duke boys? Thanks to these guys—and a hefty sprinkling of Hollywood magic—a generation of Americans grew up …
Just did my 1st event last weekend. Awesome time. I'll definitely be returning to other events
Just an update for you....Rally America ceased to exist a couple years ago, with pretty much all of the events it sanctioned taken over by ARA.
The primary rally organization in the US these days is ARA (American Rally Association), which is not related to RA.
SCCA, at least on paper, is also doing RallySprints (mostly at Team O'Neil up in New England), which are basically mini-stage rallies.
In reply to irish44j :
Thank you for that information. I know this ran in the June 2009 issue, so I'm not surprised that a lot has changed since then. 
The only way to "save rally" in the US is to re-invent it every few years, haha......it's, of course, the running joke and answer to every "new thing" that happens in the rally community.
"This rule will SAVE RALLY!" <with much sarcasm> 
Best way to save Rally is to make it grassroots again. Rallycross sort of does that, but needs more venues, and again, less rules.
if you make it a fun way for people to get together and have fun (Gambler, I'm looking at you) it will work. Keep the rules minimal and just for safety.
The reason for this, I believe, is that you'll have Johnny Deeppockets show up with his modded to the moon wrx, and he wins, and he dominates. And maybe next year it's a different Johnny. But at the back of the pack, every race, there was this one guy that had a blast every time. He is the guy that tells his buddies "dude, it only costs this much to have the time of your life". And rally lives on by this dude.
I've wanted to participate for a while. Looks more fun than autocross because sideways. Problem is it would be hard to convince me that this doesn't trash your car to the point of needing a designated rallyX car........ Convince me otherwise, I'm listening.
_ said
less rules.if you make it a fun way for people to get together and have fun (Gambler, I'm looking at you) it will work. Keep the rules minimal and just for safety.
I've done two Gambler 500's events here in Texas (planning for two more this year), and have had a blast.
It is as close to a rally as I will get.
Trying to make all the waypoints makes it were you have to push the speed if conditions allow it.
There's one in the Hill Country and one in Big Bend this Spring. The BB one should feel like an expedition.
Doing them in my stock 99 xj with autozone shocks, brakes etc. Lifetime warranty rocks.
In reply to NoBrakesRacing :
If you really want a challenge, do it in an 80's Corolla, with stock wheels and tires.
_ said:Best way to save Rally is to make it grassroots again. Rallycross sort of does that, but needs more venues, and again, less rules.
if you make it a fun way for people to get together and have fun (Gambler, I'm looking at you) it will work. Keep the rules minimal and just for safety.
The reason for this, I believe, is that you'll have Johnny Deeppockets show up with his modded to the moon wrx, and he wins, and he dominates. And maybe next year it's a different Johnny. But at the back of the pack, every race, there was this one guy that had a blast every time. He is the guy that tells his buddies "dude, it only costs this much to have the time of your life". And rally lives on by this dude.
I don't feel the rules are restrictive at all in rallyx. Maybe you end up in a higher class than you think you should be, but since it's not wheel to wheel racing it doesnt matter if you're there for the fun. A beater car is tons of fun, and a car can be capable of running at the front for not much money if the money is spent in the right places. Good tires, decent shocks, a limited slip, and 200 hp will definitely be capable of winning with a good driver. Driver skill is worth a LOT more than any car mods.
gearheadmb said:_ said:Best way to save Rally is to make it grassroots again. Rallycross sort of does that, but needs more venues, and again, less rules.
if you make it a fun way for people to get together and have fun (Gambler, I'm looking at you) it will work. Keep the rules minimal and just for safety.
The reason for this, I believe, is that you'll have Johnny Deeppockets show up with his modded to the moon wrx, and he wins, and he dominates. And maybe next year it's a different Johnny. But at the back of the pack, every race, there was this one guy that had a blast every time. He is the guy that tells his buddies "dude, it only costs this much to have the time of your life". And rally lives on by this dude.I don't feel the rules are restrictive at all in rallyx. Maybe you end up in a higher class than you think you should be, but since it's not wheel to wheel racing it doesnt matter if you're there for the fun. A beater car is tons of fun, and a car can be capable of running at the front for not much money if the money is spent in the right places. Good tires, decent shocks, a limited slip, and 200 hp will definitely be capable of winning with a good driver. Driver skill is worth a LOT more than any car mods.
Yeah I'm really not sure the rules can be that much more open. Okay, Prepared is a little odd in the combination of things it does and doesn't allow. But realistically as long as it's not muddy pretty much any reasonable car on any reasonable snow tire can compete at any prep level if it's driven well. And considering there's maybe five cars nationwide even approaching the full allownaces of the Mod class rules, you can't really argue that there's any perception that you need an expensive build to have a chance which is one of the issues autocross tends to have. In my experience most local events are a group of people who want to meet up and BS about cars and stuff and then eventually slide their cars around in a field for a while...not really sure it gets much more grassroots than that without losing all semblance of organization or structure.
In reply to _ :
Corollas never die
In reply to dps214 :
Prepared is actually really simple: The class spirit can be condensed down to "Bolt on mods only on a streetable car". No removing of parts, no drivetrain mods except for bolt on plumbing parts (headers OK, intake setups OK, must retain stock turbo and intercooler). Suspension wise, if you have to modify the chassis with welding or new holes you can't do it, unless it's a repair or adjustment procedure outlined in the factory service manual.
In that light, the "idea" of the rules is pretty simple, and they only look complex because they need to take out certain gray areas.
The accessibility is the biggest problem for me. Being now in Northern NJ, the closest event to me (as far as I'm aware) is in Central PA 3-4 hours away. That isn't necessarily a problem as I'm motivated and intend to start rallycrossing as soon as I have a suitable car for it. But in college it was easy to grab some buddies and say "for $50 or $60 and a drive under an hour away you can race your car" and we did plenty. That put me up and down the state doing autocross which I loved, but it's a much harder sell on 3 hours+ of driving.
dps214 said:gearheadmb said:_ said:Best way to save Rally is to make it grassroots again. Rallycross sort of does that, but needs more venues, and again, less rules.
if you make it a fun way for people to get together and have fun (Gambler, I'm looking at you) it will work. Keep the rules minimal and just for safety.
The reason for this, I believe, is that you'll have Johnny Deeppockets show up with his modded to the moon wrx, and he wins, and he dominates. And maybe next year it's a different Johnny. But at the back of the pack, every race, there was this one guy that had a blast every time. He is the guy that tells his buddies "dude, it only costs this much to have the time of your life". And rally lives on by this dude.I don't feel the rules are restrictive at all in rallyx. Maybe you end up in a higher class than you think you should be, but since it's not wheel to wheel racing it doesnt matter if you're there for the fun. A beater car is tons of fun, and a car can be capable of running at the front for not much money if the money is spent in the right places. Good tires, decent shocks, a limited slip, and 200 hp will definitely be capable of winning with a good driver. Driver skill is worth a LOT more than any car mods.
Yeah I'm really not sure the rules can be that much more open. Okay, Prepared is a little odd in the combination of things it does and doesn't allow. But realistically as long as it's not muddy pretty much any reasonable car on any reasonable snow tire can compete at any prep level if it's driven well. And considering there's maybe five cars nationwide even approaching the full allownaces of the Mod class rules, you can't really argue that there's any perception that you need an expensive build to have a chance which is one of the issues autocross tends to have. In my experience most local events are a group of people who want to meet up and BS about cars and stuff and then eventually slide their cars around in a field for a while...not really sure it gets much more grassroots than that without losing all semblance of organization or structure.
Actually guys, while I mentioned rallycross, my finger pointing was at stage Rally. Rallycross, like I said, does a pretty good job of keeping things fun.
Sk1dmark said:The accessibility is the biggest problem for me. Being now in Northern NJ, the closest event to me (as far as I'm aware) is in Central PA 3-4 hours away. That isn't necessarily a problem as I'm motivated and intend to start rallycrossing as soon as I have a suitable car for it. But in college it was easy to grab some buddies and say "for $50 or $60 and a drive under an hour away you can race your car" and we did plenty. That put me up and down the state doing autocross which I loved, but it's a much harder sell on 3 hours+ of driving.
Some people you will never make happy. Back when centralohiosubarus was a thing, and we had an AWESOME site at National Trails Raceway on one of their GIGANTIC grass parking lots (GRASS. PARKING. LOT. Say it with an offensively Eastern accent) there was one member of COS who said he'd RallyCross if only it wasn't so far away.
I said dude, WTF, National Trails is like two exits outside of the 270 ring around Columbus, it's a half hour drive for you, I'm driving in from Cleveland (160mi away) and there are people driving in from Fort Wayne and Lafayette, IN (lots more).
We had someone drive in about 8 hours from the opposite end of Pennsylvania to SPECTATE. We used to have a regular regional competitor from Wisconsin, which was like 12+ hours away, to boot.
In reply to Knurled. :
At the NeOhio event last year , the guy I worked a corner with had driven 3+ hrs from Stuebenville, got a motel room the night before, was non stop excited about the fact he was "rallying" and telling me no one back home was gonna believe him. I used to drive to Beaverun (2hrs from Cleveland) just for rallyx practice runs they used to have in the early days of PIR. Its diffucult to find places to hold these type of events, so they usually are in the middle of nowhere. I think I'm more of a 2 hour radius type of guy especially without a trailer.
Knurled. said:Sk1dmark said:The accessibility is the biggest problem for me. Being now in Northern NJ, the closest event to me (as far as I'm aware) is in Central PA 3-4 hours away. That isn't necessarily a problem as I'm motivated and intend to start rallycrossing as soon as I have a suitable car for it. But in college it was easy to grab some buddies and say "for $50 or $60 and a drive under an hour away you can race your car" and we did plenty. That put me up and down the state doing autocross which I loved, but it's a much harder sell on 3 hours+ of driving.
Some people you will never make happy. Back when centralohiosubarus was a thing, and we had an AWESOME site at National Trails Raceway on one of their GIGANTIC grass parking lots (GRASS. PARKING. LOT. Say it with an offensively Eastern accent) there was one member of COS who said he'd RallyCross if only it wasn't so far away.
I said dude, WTF, National Trails is like two exits outside of the 270 ring around Columbus, it's a half hour drive for you, I'm driving in from Cleveland (160mi away) and there are people driving in from Fort Wayne and Lafayette, IN (lots more).
We had someone drive in about 8 hours from the opposite end of Pennsylvania to SPECTATE. We used to have a regular regional competitor from Wisconsin, which was like 12+ hours away, to boot.
Hell, we even towed out there from DC once ;) I'd say almost everybody in the DC area is driving a couple hours or more to our events.
In reply to westsidetalon :
He tailgated me in as I flailed around Aurora trying to find the site, and paddocked next to me. A thoroughly enthusiastic dude and full of cool airsoftin' stories.
Also a fellow fan of Life of Boris 
In reply to _ :
I've owned this Cherokee for about 12 years, but I'm still hoping my neighbor sells me his early '90's manual Corolla to hoon with.
I can see doing auto and rallycross with it.
irish44j said:Knurled. said:Sk1dmark said:The accessibility is the biggest problem for me. Being now in Northern NJ, the closest event to me (as far as I'm aware) is in Central PA 3-4 hours away. That isn't necessarily a problem as I'm motivated and intend to start rallycrossing as soon as I have a suitable car for it. But in college it was easy to grab some buddies and say "for $50 or $60 and a drive under an hour away you can race your car" and we did plenty. That put me up and down the state doing autocross which I loved, but it's a much harder sell on 3 hours+ of driving.
Some people you will never make happy. Back when centralohiosubarus was a thing, and we had an AWESOME site at National Trails Raceway on one of their GIGANTIC grass parking lots (GRASS. PARKING. LOT. Say it with an offensively Eastern accent) there was one member of COS who said he'd RallyCross if only it wasn't so far away.
I said dude, WTF, National Trails is like two exits outside of the 270 ring around Columbus, it's a half hour drive for you, I'm driving in from Cleveland (160mi away) and there are people driving in from Fort Wayne and Lafayette, IN (lots more).
We had someone drive in about 8 hours from the opposite end of Pennsylvania to SPECTATE. We used to have a regular regional competitor from Wisconsin, which was like 12+ hours away, to boot.
Hell, we even towed out there from DC once ;) I'd say almost everybody in the DC area is driving a couple hours or more to our events.
I think that's one big differentiator for me personally. With my current situation I would likely be driving my SVT Focus, but I would have to drive it there, rallyx it, and then drive it back. Once I get out of free AAA range I start to get a little nervous at something that I can't imagine is terribly kind to everything in the car. But, you guys know far more than me, am I over-blowing the "dangers" of rallycross?
In reply to Sk1dmark :
I drove several different cars to rallycross events for a few years in various states of craptitude- I drove home missing a couple of wheel studs once, and was stranded once and had to get a tow from a friend when the 1mz in my MR2 blew up (which probably would have happened at an autocross too). Go for it, the worst that happens is you have a long day involving somebody else's trailer, and that's relatively unlikely.
I'm also a first-timer this year. I plan to drive to/from events about 1 hour away on ancient used snow tires with a couple backup street tires and a jack. I'm also a card-carrying AAA member 
Sk1dmark said:irish44j said:Knurled. said:Sk1dmark said:The accessibility is the biggest problem for me. Being now in Northern NJ, the closest event to me (as far as I'm aware) is in Central PA 3-4 hours away. That isn't necessarily a problem as I'm motivated and intend to start rallycrossing as soon as I have a suitable car for it. But in college it was easy to grab some buddies and say "for $50 or $60 and a drive under an hour away you can race your car" and we did plenty. That put me up and down the state doing autocross which I loved, but it's a much harder sell on 3 hours+ of driving.
Some people you will never make happy. Back when centralohiosubarus was a thing, and we had an AWESOME site at National Trails Raceway on one of their GIGANTIC grass parking lots (GRASS. PARKING. LOT. Say it with an offensively Eastern accent) there was one member of COS who said he'd RallyCross if only it wasn't so far away.
I said dude, WTF, National Trails is like two exits outside of the 270 ring around Columbus, it's a half hour drive for you, I'm driving in from Cleveland (160mi away) and there are people driving in from Fort Wayne and Lafayette, IN (lots more).
We had someone drive in about 8 hours from the opposite end of Pennsylvania to SPECTATE. We used to have a regular regional competitor from Wisconsin, which was like 12+ hours away, to boot.
Hell, we even towed out there from DC once ;) I'd say almost everybody in the DC area is driving a couple hours or more to our events.
I think that's one big differentiator for me personally. With my current situation I would likely be driving my SVT Focus, but I would have to drive it there, rallyx it, and then drive it back. Once I get out of free AAA range I start to get a little nervous at something that I can't imagine is terribly kind to everything in the car. But, you guys know far more than me, am I over-blowing the "dangers" of rallycross?
I mean, I only towed because as a stage rally car with race seats, it would be brutal to drive it 7 hours with no heat or AC too. Plus we were dual-driving and going for a 2-day divisional so it made sense to have the truck.
If it was more of a streetable car, I probably would have just driven it. Josh Sennett drove his turbo e30 from DC to the same event.
irish44j said:I mean, I only towed because as a stage rally car with race seats, it would be brutal to drive it 7 hours with no heat or AC too. Plus we were dual-driving and going for a 2-day divisional so it made sense to have the truck.If it was more of a streetable car, I probably would have just driven it. Josh Sennett drove his turbo e30 from DC to the same event.
That's totally fair. Well I suppose the worst case scenario is similar enough to autocross. Still don't know how easy it'll be to convince my old college buddies but I'll definitely be going to get to brag to my roommate that I do more rally than him and his WRX! (although just helping at ESPR when he refused already put me ahead on that front.)
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