Keisatsu

Does anybody know why the WRC never races in the US? I would love to be pelted in the face by rocks flung from Grönholms' car someday, but it won't happen if the WRC never comes to the US.

Why the lack of US WRC support, laws/regulations? not enough of a fanbase?

-jacob

Nick Koan

iTrader: (3)

Fanbase, the litigious nature of the US, a lot of reasons. Rally New York was supposed to be a candidate, but the huge fiasco this year is probably preventing the WRC from coming back anytime soon.

There used to be a WRC event here, the Olympus Rally in the mid-80's. It just somewhat got revived with its inclusion in the US Rally Championship this year.

rallyon

There are numerous reasons why the WRC is not in the United States. One of the biggest being the lack of money available to sport and the organizers. Why no money? No fanbase as mentioned above. Companies are not willing to fork over the $4 million dollars that it would take to put on a decent WRC event here. Also as mentioned before you would have people trying sue the sanctioning body, organizers, and competitors because they got hit by a car or rock standing in the wrong spot. When we can get 500,000 people out to watch a single rally and not sue anyone then we will get the sponsors and get the WRC here in America.

Keisatsu

Well, that's it then! I'm moving to new zealand!!!

I figured it had something to do w/ law suits. It's a damned shame!

jwainwri

iTrader: (1)

Rally Mexico is close and it is cheap down there I finally decided to go this year and had a blast.

turbo_4_life

iTrader: (4)

I just think they should have one in Vegas or somewhere nearwhere the populations is like 10 or something.

rallyon

Well there are several rallies near major metropolitan areas. There is Rim of the World in Lancaster/Palmdale, only 1 hour north of L.A. Great event with lots of entries. There is also the Laughlin International Rally in.....well....Laughlin Nevada, 1.5 hours south of Vegas. Check out www.Specialstage.com for all the rallies in the U.S.

turbo_4_life

iTrader: (4)

awesome .. but no WRC in laughlin

wait.. I just saw that there is a Reno Rally on that site ^ which is closer than Laughlin .. but where in the hell do they rally in reno? That would be awesome to go to in Dec.

Checkpoint

Jwainwri!!! Do we meet again? Or is this someone else?


Yeah... Rally Mexico is the bomb and Guanjuato is a really cool city. We got pulled over there. If you get pulled over by the cops, just speak as much english as you can as fast as you can. We had 5 people in the car all saying what ever came to mind as fast as they could....... the cops let us go. We really bugged them out.



I'm sure the WRC will come to the state again sometime soon. I think it'll be through NASA and not Rally America. But NASA needs to develope a little more. I think the WRC NY was all hype and never really a candidate. Someone might have said something at some point, but after this year, it's never going to happen. Something in CA would be more likely. I wouldn't doubt Rim.


I would love to see the WRC in NY because I'm from that area. But the locals can be a pain in the *** for sure.



Mitch the Destroyer.

TRONN

yea guanajuato is a beautiful city.. its full of colonial architecture and the square the opening ceremony took place in was packed full of people. I went in 05, but couldnt get enough cash to get down there this year.

in the service park, i got to talk to all of the drivers. we found chris atkinson standing around twiddling this thumbs while solberg was bombarded by the press. atkinson did really well that rally.

the rallies in the us are pretty cool. i was in the service crew for joanna balsamo's rally Sti at rim of the world. they had a car show, and drift event behind the stadium. in the future i plan on prepping my wrb/gold sti for PGT in Nasa's rally series.
at rim, travis pastrana was getting a lot of media coverage, which i think is good for the growth of rally in the united states.

because of pastrana, the xgames is adding stage rally as a new sport later this year.

psoper

It mostly boils down to politics and funding.

Any WRC event has fixed costs that run into millions of dollars, on top of that the organizers need to have proven that they can run an event to the letter of FIA's regs, which are still quite different from the way rallys here in the US are run these days.

Rally New York really jumped the gun this year with public announcements that they were vying for becoming a WRC event. I believe this was done primarily in an effort to get some state support and funding, but they simply did not yet have the organizational structure in place, so what the FIA observers saw this year probably set that event back several years before they will even be considered again.

The X-games will do a lot to get rallying a higher profile in the US, so maybe we will get to see some bigger sponsorship opportunities for some of the better events.

And while they do not carry quite the same level of performance and excitement that a WRC round does, Rim and Laughlin are both really fun events, both can use more volunteer support (a good way to get out and close to the action) and I also think that they probably will be the most likely contenders for when we do get a WRC round here stateside.

psoper

Yes, it is closer than Laughlin, but a lot colder too.

Last year they ran up north between Pyramid Lake and Gerlach- out by Burning man country. I think they are trying to get permissions for forest roads closer to Reno, but unfortunately a lot of that area is under a few feet of snow by then.

I will probably wind up working both events again this year, but my main focus is in Laughlin, as I am Clerk of Course for that one, just a HAM/ timing worker for Reno.

rallyon

There are a lot of politics involved with the FIA and their rules and regulations. They basically take over the event and make it their own with a someone else putting it all together. Plenty of pros and cons to it. For now lets all go to Mexico and party.

Travis has brought a lot of good exposure to the sport. The X-Games can only make it bigger and hopefully better. I think its cool that they got McRae to come over and run against them all.

Well at Laughlin this year we are planning to have drifting, a car show (wont just be import), the Adventure Rally and the Super Stage plus the International Rally. So there should be plenty of stuff for everyone, plus the hotel rooms are really cheap which is nice. We moved it so it wouldnt be so cold like it has in years past.

psoper

Ryan brings up a good point, while Laughlin might not have Solberg and Loeb, the other events that are going on that week should make it a much more diverse and exciting a "car event" than just about any other Rally in the world.

Rooms are VERY cheap, and there will be a whole lot of rally stuff going on of all kinds, so I'd say make a point of getting down there for that

Then, if you still haven't gotten enough Rally, Reno is less than a month later