At this year's Rim of the World rally, there will be a number of heavy rally drivers present. Patrick Richard, Canadian Champ WRC vet and Snow Drift winner, Seamus Burke and Leon Styles in thier very fast EVOs, Ramana Lagemann ex SRT USA driver and ex WRC vet and Wyeth Gubelman fresh from the Corona WRC rally. Just too many to mention. Check the full 80 car field entry list on the website. We will have the Sony/Subaru drive simulator. A small indoors RC track will offer kids a chance to rally Subaru electric cars. I will have a number of '05 Legacys and Outbacks on display for a local first.

Of course the location and venue is all new. The Antelope Valley Fairgrounds were just completed last October. They have a 7,500 seat grand stand. The Organizers have put together a first in the US...side by side racing on the four Special Stages. The track will be about 1 mile in length, it will have two jumps, one off angle and a water splash. This of course is all in front of the grand stands.

A lot of focus was done on the spectator stages. There were lots of problems last year induced by the crowds, illrgal parking and weather. This year special remote parking has been developed and rented. Shuttle busses will take spectators from the special remote parking area to the viewing areas and back. The sites will have toilet facilities, water, food, security and radio communications. The extensive website has detailed info on the spectator area required tickets and pictures with descriptions of the viewing areas and suggestions on what to bring.

Most all rally activities are focused in the fairgrounds. All Service Break teams and vehicle work is right there behind the grand stands. This will give the fans a great opportunity to view all the prep and repairs between stages. No need to travel to remote areas to view all the pit activities.

Local Rally Radio will be broadcasting, so a walkman would be a good idea to bring. The rally timing will be live and projected onto a screen in the Exhibit Hall. This will be the live leader board.

There will be a Performance Vendor Fair indoors with a good number of booths to check out. On site selling is permitted.

The Owners' Car Show will feature Mitsu and Subaru head to head with a large number of classes. The Subaru side of it will have 14 classes and the Suby trophies will be really neat 1/18 model AutoArt WRC/WRXs on beautiful custom lucite bases. The website again has lots of details.

The best part is the Owners' Car Show entry is cost, it is basically Gen' Admission for two. This will give one a shot at the trophys and Best of Show prize of $1,000 cash. Obviously this will also have prefered parking as well. Advance registration off the website is adviseable to reserve your spot. Of course the Car Show is open to all makes of neat cars.

General admission is $15 and parking is $3. The general admission is good for both days and nights, grand stand access and all activities in the fairgrounds. A $5 discount coupon is on the car show portion of the website. Print it and bring it for the discount. $13.00 net will give you a very full Saturday at the fairgrounds from 8:00AM to about 11:00PM

Food will be available and provided by various local charity groups.

Main website link:

www.rimoftheworldrally.com

Rally activities schedule link:

www.rimoftheworldrally.com/schedule.htm

Owners' Car Show link:

www.rimoftheworldrally.com/CarShow.htm

Rally entry list link:

http://www.rimoftheworldrally.com/En...itingLists.cfm

 

:banana:

I can't wait! It should be a blast. Even with all the problems last year, I still had fun (fortunately none of the problems directly affected me). But it looks like the organizers have taken great strides to fix every problem and to quell any doubts about the quality of this years Rim of the World. It will hopefully be one of the best in years.

 

Damn, can't wait!

 

You know i was "really" hoping to make it down there this year. But yet again it looks like i'm going to miss it.

-rich

 

aw, the benefit of NOT living here in hawaii