Hm. Hadn't thought of running a RallyCross as part of a Mendocino TSD. That would be pretty fun. Sort of a different topic though.

BTW, if anyone wants practice running with Stage Notes, go get Colin McCrae Rally 4.0 and a decent steering wheel, and then set it up with the in-car view and turn off all the extraneous visuals like the tulips and progress bar. It's actually pretty close to the notes that P-Sport provides for the CRS performance rallies. My only complaint is that Nicky sometimes only tells you that a turn tightens and doesn't say how much, and that sometime he calls things late. (I occasionally find myself yelling, "DIX FOIS! DIX FOIS TROP TARD! DIX FOIS!") Anyway, it's pretty good practice and will teach you how to listen, that slow-in-fast-out works, and that overdriving will only get you into trouble.

The other thing of note is that the ideas I've been posting are based on your feedback but are pretty much just me stirring up the waters, and that this has to shoehorn in with the rally programs of CRS/NASA/RA/etc, so there are a lot of other people who'd have to review any proposed changes. However, this is the planning time for next year's schedule, so I'm trying to get a dialog going.

 

A different topic? Lets see- SCCA doesn't sanction club or performance rally anymore..... they do Road Rally and Rally-cross, and we the "rally community of the SF region" only have that one venue for rallycross (or for performance rally school) at our disposal? I admit that might change, but its all we have right now- to my eye it seems this sort of approach could be totally on topic if we are at all interested in keeping some ties to SFRSCCA.

Ya know hoche- this is typical of the response I expect from americans, nobody in this country seems to realize or recognize that road rally can be an excellent feeder program and training ground for performance rally.

Now I admit that some of the trap concepts and some formats of road rally are quite another game in themselves, but without too terribly much alteration, basic tour (non-trap) TSD rallies are about the closest thing anyone could dream up for applying all of the things that need to go into good teamwork for a performance rally.

In europe and most of the rest of the world- rally racers tend to start out with road rallies- especially the top co-drivers.


Likewise it is also planning time for the SFR road rally program, and I'd like to see what we can do to bring more participants out for all of this stuff.

Actually hoche- you, skylar, greg and myself should try to get together for an hour or two meeting if at all possible in the next couple of weeks.

Nov 6th I'll be going to Lancaster to meet with a lot of the CRS and NASA rally people, so that might be a good time to float some of these ideas.

Despite SCCA not sanctioning Rally, I think we have a lot of valuable resources in the SFR and personally, I'd really like to see the region integrate the disciplines that the club still engages in- and channel that towards continuing to build a strong program for developing rally teams.

 

No, I'm just saying that the Mendocino Rally is a separate event, and the planning for what specifically happens there is a different topic from this one, which is about what should be covered in a rally school. TSD's are great for both team and co-driver training, which is why I'd like to run a mini-one as part of the school.

Now, if you want to consider the Mendocino Rally as part of a rally school, fine - perhaps I should step back and look at an even bigger picture than the one I'm focussed on, and we should consider having a year-long set of required training activities that include several performance driving schools and several TSD's. Is that what you're suggesting?

Yeah, I know. I'll be headed down that way too, I think. We all definitely should all get together and work out a cohesive plan for what we want to achieve next year, as well as who gets what responsibilities, and do it before that meeting.


Yes. The cohesiveness of the SF Region's rally contingent seems to be pretty strong, as does that of the CRS. I think it will survive regardless of who the sanctioning body ends up being - whether it's SCCA, RA, NASA, or even as a subdivision of CRS, with individual events being sanctioned on an ad-hoc basis by whoever's convenient.

 

Actually hadn't been thinking that big a picture, but now that you mention it that might be just the sort of thing that the insurance companies would like to see for licensed rally racers.

I'm just typing "stream of consiousness" here, but I think it might be cool to have a full year-long program for licensing requirements, sucessful completion of programs in several disciplines, driving skills, co-driving basics, completing a couple of "brisk" TSD's without incident, working controls at a rally or two, and some serious first aid/emergency procedure training- I think all of these things are going to be essential skills for the rally driver of the future, and should be discussed as to how they can be presented to aspiring rallyists.

 

that sounds like a pretty reasonable course of education for aspiring rallyists. That, along with some clinics on on-road car repairs/extraction, would get just about anybody through thier first rally without a hitch.