The Yanks may have something right....

[grugsticles]

Ive seen the above mentioned footage and that has inspired me to actually go and watch the rallying coverage at the X games.

Im a traditional rally fan in that I love the traditional Monte, 1000 Lakes, RallyGB rallys and I like the Group A format as it relates to cars that you could buy at the time (In that its more a higher spec Group N car).
However I dislike the abundance of whoopti-do super special stages seen in the current WRC, I am appalled that every driver in each team is not given identical machinery and I, as bad as this may sound, I dislike the American perception of what rallying is about.

Now, I like the idea of the X games bringing 'youth orientated' sports to television, however Im skeptical about rallying's inculusiuon in the X games.
I'm sure the media exposure will reap its benefits through sponsorship, television audience and stage audience interest, but If the end result is that rallying changes to adopt the American perception of what it is, then I'm against it.

Let it be said Id love to see a WRC event held in the USA as I think it would put a lot of 'show of drivers' (ahem, KB) in their place.

[JFL]

At least the Fiesta's of Olsberg/Eriksson made an impression over there. Maybe we'll see some Fiesta's or WRC cars in the US-Championship in the future..??
http://tannerfoust.com/2009/08/video...y-ford-fiesta/
"“The first Division Two car is ready to be delivered. We’ve done it as a rolling shell for a Norwegian customer. We have all the patterns and parts to build a Division One-A car as well but I need to decide what’s best for us as a company, there’s a lot of interest in America now and I have teams there that want to buy Fiestas for Rally America, that will be more important than Rallycross and we will have to deliver complete cars for those customers. It could be that we will offer bodyshells for Rallycross and let the customers build-up their own car.” (Source. www.ERC24.com)

[macksrallye]

if rally is struggling in many other places, its propably because they are doing something wrong in how to introduce the sport, or maybe its just that the base is weak from the start.

I don't mean to hijack the thread but Tomi, rallying is not as easy to organise as many may think. I am part of an organising committee of a state championship event here in Australia and each year the area in which we are able to conduct our event gets smaller & smaller. It is possible that in the next few years we will only have two (maybe three) areas in a place the size of spain to run rally's, & that is only the start. I'm also sure this doesn't just happen in Australia. Rally is not a mainstream sport in Australia unlike much of europe.

[AndyRAC]

I don't mean to hijack the thread but Tomi, rallying is not as easy to organise as many may think. I am part of an organising committee of a state championship event here in Australia and each year the area in which we are able to conduct our event gets smaller & smaller. It is possible that in the next few years we will only have two (maybe three) areas in a place the size of spain to run rally's, & that is only the start. I'm also sure this doesn't just happen in Australia. Rally is not a mainstream sport in Australia unlike much of europe.

I'm not sure it is actually mainstream in Europe, apart from Finland - and that is the problem - particularly here in UK, it's virtually disappeared from view.

[lcd]

I guess rallying popularity differs from country to country...
I still haven't figured who's to blame: the fans who are accused of
not supporting the sport as the used to or the people who organise rally events
( ...reminds me of last years Acropolis-comedy rallies... )

[Tomi]

I don't mean to hijack the thread but Tomi, rallying is not as easy to organise as many may think. I am part of an organising committee of a state championship event here in Australia and each year the area in which we are able to conduct our event gets smaller & smaller. It is possible that in the next few years we will only have two (maybe three) areas in a place the size of spain to run rally's, & that is only the start. I'm also sure this doesn't just happen in Australia. Rally is not a mainstream sport in Australia unlike much of europe.

Yes, same problem here too especially smaller ones (meaning not finnish championship level events, else here every rally has atleast about 200 cars), mainly because of that the spectators leaves trash behind (if private roads)and that many good rally roads get asphalt cover.

What I mean is, that whatever they do, showstuff etc. will not help the sport in any way, ok maybe some kids buy a few caps and shirts and thats it.
What the sport needs is a wide base of national competition in so many countries as possible, from a wide base and close competition there is possibilities to come some international level drivers from more countries, that guarantee the interest in the long run.
Gimmics and to prostitute the sport, helps nothing in the long run, its about the same if u carry water with bucket to an empty well.

[RallyCat909]

Is there a logistical issue with running a full stage that happens to run through a stadium? It seems to be perfect for TV and the idea of an SS ran through city streets as a sort of exhibition is a win/win situation for the casual rally attendee and diehard alike.

[macksrallye]

I don't agree that a TV spectale doesn't help.

After Perth lost Rally Australia the amount of people that would come out to state championship level events and offical/spectate/compete dropped dramatically because we no longer had a real flagship event. There may not be many people that come over to rallying after watching something like the X Games but the ones that do we really do need. As rally people we should support events like this (not want them to happen everywhere but support them where they are happening) so that we can educate people as to what rallying is all about & hopefully help the sport grow.

Trust me, i dont want this kind of stage taking over rallying as much as the next rally person, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't make the most of them.

[sal]

I think the European Rallycross Championship has this base kind of covered!

Interestingly I was watching one of my old dvds at the weekend from the mid 90s Group A era and the Superspecial at Lousada (rallycross track) on the Portugese Rally was featured with two cars on track, a cross over/jump etc and there must have been 40 thousand speccies watching! The only difference I could see tell is that the commentators wernt saying that the actioned was " rad and totally stoked"!

[cosmicpanda]

Is there a logistical issue with running a full stage that happens to run through a stadium? It seems to be perfect for TV and the idea of an SS ran through city streets as a sort of exhibition is a win/win situation for the casual rally attendee and diehard alike.

Well, there's the risk of cars crashing into buildings and things, and also the inconvenience of closing a good number of streets. For a good rally stage, I would say you need at least 5 km of streets.

If you have a stadium in the country, I suppose it would be easier. You could have a long country stage and a finish in the stadium. Don't know how many of these there are, though.