Rim Of The World Rally, 2002: Picture Dump

"Reborn Pyrrhic" (pyrrhic) 11/24/2014 at 09:19 • Filed to: rally, racing, motorsports, scca, prorally, rotw, palmdale, california, video, photo, picdump, rpiereck

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Way back in 2001 I attended my first rally race. The Rim Of The World Rally was run by the SCCA and is part of the ProRally championship, which was discontinued in 2005. I went to Palmdale on the first day and saw the Special Stage, on a parking lot and adjoining dirt lot in front of the the Holiday Inn, and then the start of the first regular stage that took the cars into the desert. Petter Solberg was racing that day, on a ProRally Spec Impreza, of course, but wasn't competing for points.

I brought along my first digital camera, a Sony Mavica FD81, a one-megapixel camera which today feels pre-historic, that recorded images and video on floppy discs: no SD cards yet! I brought along two dozen or so floppy discs and took plenty of pictures. For years I thought those pictures were lost, but to my amazement I just found them on a DVD I burned a few years back. So now I can upload them and share them on Oppo.

One thing that I find incredible looking at these photos is the variation in cars being raced. From Mini Coopers, to Hyundais, Subarus, a lonely VW Type 4, VW Golf, Mitsubishi Galants, etc. On a Rally America race nowadays you will find the overwhelming majority of cars are either Ford Fiesta, or Subaru Impreza, Mitsu Lancer Evo, and... then there are a few odd other cars. The field in 2001 was much more eclectic.

I must say that I am amazed at the quality of the photos taken 13 years ago with a one megapixel camera. The photos are quite good. The video, all the way at the end, leaves a lot to be desired in terms of video quality, but the sound is ok. Without further ado, here are my pics from the 2001 Rim Of The World Rally:

And finally the video. I won't make any apologies for the video or audio quality, just remember this was shot on a digital camera that today is considered pre-historic:

DocWalt > Reborn Pyrrhic 11/24/2014 at 09:30

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Seeing these cars feels like ancient history. Awesome, thanks for sharing!

Do-Rif-To > Reborn Pyrrhic 11/24/2014 at 09:31

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Nice. You can never have too many rally lights, never. It's amazing for far LED technology has come in the last decade, there's nary an LED to be seen on any of these cars and now even amateur rallyists are running one 36" LED bar for night stages.

Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig > Reborn Pyrrhic 11/24/2014 at 10:49

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Starlet!

Ray deGier > Reborn Pyrrhic 10/31/2016 at 11:25

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Awesome seeing these pics. I too was there and have pics of that rally. Later I would volunteer for a number of local rally’s, including the last couple ROTWs. During that time I’ve come to meet and know many of those rally participants. Oh the memories.