Rally America question.

"norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback" (norskracer98) 08/12/2014 at 01:05 • Filed to: None

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Has anybody been to a Rally America event? If so how is it? I'm thinking about possibly going to the one in PA next year if I have time.

Dusty Ventures > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback 08/12/2014 at 01:27

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I've been to a few RA events. Spectated one, volunteered at one, crewed at four, and competed in eleven. Fun events, great roads. Spectator-friendliness varies event-to-event. (Case in point, there was no spectating for Olympus 2012 due to forest fire concerns, and there's only one stage you can drive yourself to at New England Forest because all the stages are on private logging land. To get to the others you have to take a shuttle bus). Fortunately STPR is one of the best events on the calendar for spectating.

Bryce (thoushalthoonrallytires) can comment as well, he's spectating every Rally America event this year.

mcseanerson > Dusty Ventures 08/12/2014 at 01:35

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Have you been to PA and RallyWV events? I'm trying to decide what would be the best coming from Ohio.

Dusty Ventures > mcseanerson 08/12/2014 at 02:19

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I've been to the PA event (that's STPR). Fantastic, as I said. It takes place in the area's state forests and parks, so the area is absolutely gorgeous, and contains the epic Pine Creek Gorge, better known as the " Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. " Since it's all parklands spectators are free to hike around to wherever they want to spectate from (just don't stand somewhere stupid) and even camp overnight in the park (in certain areas).

Everyone tells me Rally West Virginia is awesome as well, but they're currently a bit shaky in regards to infrastructure. The rally was cancelled this year due to the chief organizer's work schedule changing at his day job and, in turn, being unable to give the rally the necessary attention to make it happen. No definitive word yet on if it will be back next year.

mcseanerson > Dusty Ventures 08/12/2014 at 02:22

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Yeah that seemed crazy to me that they canceled it. I can't imagine such a large event couldn't have anyone else step up to fill in.

Dusty Ventures > mcseanerson 08/12/2014 at 02:39

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Ah, time to talk about the fragile state of rally organization. We'll take a Rally America national event as an example, because those are bigger than Rally West Virginia (RWV is a regional event run by NASA Rally Sport, which advertises itself as "Grassroots Rallying").

More than a month before the rally there are about four-to-eight people working on the event. None of them are Rally America employees or work as a part of Rally America in any capacity. They're all local to the area and have regular day jobs that they must fit their rally organizational endeavors around. The money they earn from the rally is precisely zero. Two or three of them may be lucky enough to have their fuel comped, but that's it. Their duties include coordinating with the owners of the roads to get permission (be that the town or private road owners, or each party owning a part of the road), monitoring and assisting with maintenance on the roads, negotiating with various landowners to find places to put the service area and fan parking, negotiating with area hotels to offer event discounts, finding sponsors for the events, attending town council meetings to debate with opponents of the rally as to why it should happen in the first place, coordinating environmental impact studies, numerous meetings with area fire/rescue/police/hospital resources to coordinate and create emergency action plans for every conceivable problem (and a few dozen inconceivable problems), tracking down experienced volunteers for the difficult parts of the rally (radio operations, course opening car/sweep cars, safety stewards, etc), coordinate with Jemba/P-Sport and set up a time for them to drive the roads and create the notes, have said notes printed and bound, coordinate with every resident and property owner on the stage roads (and many of the transit roads) to ensure they fully understand when the roads will be closed/in use, and on and on and on. All that is done by just a half dozen people in their spare time. And that's for one of the biggest rallies in the country.

mcseanerson > Dusty Ventures 08/12/2014 at 02:56

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Wow. Did not expect such a lengthy reply or such a laundry list for such a small group of volunteers. Now I feel like I'll never be able to revive The Sunriser 400 in Chillicothe, Ohio.

Dusty Ventures > mcseanerson 08/12/2014 at 03:09

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Actually, now would be a good time to try. There's a decent rally base in Ohio (and lots of teams in surrounding states that would gladly travel to Ohio for a rally), including two higher profile/budget names who I'm sure would be glad to give support and assistance. Pete Hascher's out of Akron, he's been rallying for well over a decade and currently races an old Prodrive Subaru that (allegedly) used to be Colin McRae's recce car. Matt Brandenburg is in Englewood and is one of the most passionate, insane competitors out there right now. He's also got a good chunk of cash, a compound, a few Ferraris (which he keeps saying I need to go drive, because he wants everyone to drive them), and a big team and fan base. Get his help and creating a rally in Ohio would be a lot easier.

That said, I wouldn't try to revive the Sunriser right off the bat. That's a big event to start with, and depending on how much the population in the area/on the roads has grown, and the political/environmental leanings of the community, those roads may be gone for good. Your best bet is to start with trying to create a rally sprint. NASA makes it easy with their " Rally Sprint In A Box ", providing pretty much everything you need in regards to information and documents/resources. It'll be easiest if you can find a privately owned road/road network and convince the owner(s) to let you use it for the sprint, that way you don't have to deal with town council meetings and all that nonsense. Give a rally sprint like that a go, and if it goes well (or at least well enough to not scare you out of organizing), you can go bigger.

mcseanerson > Dusty Ventures 08/12/2014 at 07:19

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Thanks for all the info. A lot of the roads that were used back then all ran through the state parks surrounding my town as well as the city park downtown. Most of them have been paved since back when they had a lot of gravel. One major change is Chillicothe had the same mayor over and over, guy just kept getting re-elected. We finally have a new mayor and he's a republican so maybe he'd be more interested in things that attract tourism.

BKRM3 > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback 08/12/2014 at 07:28

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Next year? You know there's a hillclimb in Reading this weekend. Google Duryea hillclimb.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback 08/12/2014 at 13:54

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DO IT!!!!! And make sure you go to the Parc Expose. You can talk to the drivers/co-drivers, check out the cars up close, get goodies like rally bells and posters.

Before you go, make a rough plan for what you want to do. Depending on the rally the stages can be spread out and a little difficult to get between. Because of time you definitely won't be able to see them all either. Another thing to check out is the service area. I haven't actually done that, but I plan to make a point of it the next time I watch a rally.

As for the spectating, make sure you follow the maps to the designated spectator areas and follow the instructions of the marshals. They are there to keep you safe and can shut down a stage if people aren't being safe. Generally the spectator areas are going to be good viewing spots anyway. You will also be very close to the action. I've never gone to one and not been peppered with gravel while spectating.

SubiSanchez > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback 08/12/2014 at 14:38

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I attend Oregon Trail Rally every year and it is a great event. The stages for the first day take place at Portland International Raceway and are as spectator-friendly as you can get for stage rally with grandstand seating, concession stands, restrooms, and all this within 10 minutes of downtown Portland right off the I-5. The stages on the next 2 days are a whole different story. There are great spectator areas but it does take some effort and planning to get to them. You can also check out the Parc Expose and the Service Park which are great areas to catch the cars and drivers in between stages. There is usually a spectator guide with plenty of useful info for each rally. Overall it is a pretty awesome experience and certainly worth it to attend.

DocWalt > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback 08/12/2014 at 14:43

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Do it! STPR is fantastic, I've been going since before I was born and still love it. :)