Pastrana gets former world champ co-driver

I know i'm in for an ear bashing, but after reading the comments about the x-games and Ken Block, i think some people are forgetting who one of the participants was........Colin Mcrae.

So why was what Colin did not embarrasing? Oh yeh, he couldn't even beat these RA guys and even on the stages in 2006 he wasn't far infront. Doubt anyone will give Colin any flack, but maybe the RA guys deserve a little more respect for being able to bring a little media interest to the sport in a way they see fit. The way I see it is that Rallying just isn't exciting to most people in the USA.

Also, we have to understand that people in the USA like to do things differently......their own way!

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Originally Posted by Doon

I know i'm in for an ear bashing, but after reading the comments about the x-games and Ken Block, i think some people are forgetting who one of the participants was........Colin Mcrae.

So why was what Colin did not embarrasing? Oh yeh, he couldn't even beat these RA guys and even on the stages in 2006 he wasn't far infront. Doubt anyone will give Colin any flack, but maybe the RA guys deserve a little more respect for being able to bring a little media interest to the sport in a way they see fit. The way I see it is that Rallying just isn't exciting to most people in the USA.

Also, we have to understand that people in the USA like to do things differently......their own way!

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McRae won't get flack for it for 2 reasons: 1) He's dead. 2) He had nothing to prove by that point; he had already done it ALL. His involvement in the X-games, we can only guess it was either about money, or just something to do.

Ken Block has achieved nothing in rallying, yet seems to think that he is some sort of superstar. There is no comparison.

Wasn't trying to compare. But i think Colin's motives were the same as Ken Block's, to promote the sport in the USA.

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Originally Posted by Doon

Wasn't trying to compare. But i think Colin's motives were the same as Ken Block's, to promote the sport in the USA.

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I know you were not trying to compare. ;)

Regarding promotion of the sport, McRae was a great ambassador for the sport of rallying; Block's version of rallying, well, I wouldn't even call it rallying, but I get your point.

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Originally Posted by RAS007

I know you were not trying to compare. ;)

Regarding promotion of the sport, McRae was a great ambassador for the sport of rallying; Block's version of rallying, well, I wouldn't even call it rallying, but I get your point.

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I totally agree, his idea of Rallying (x-games, huge jump in a rally car, extreme rally/snowboarding) is far from what we know, but for most Americans this is all very cool and probably the only way to get them interested in Rallying. Anyway don't they call it Rally Racing?lol ;)

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Originally Posted by Tomi

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: , quite amusing, for outsider it sounds like rally in US is more how it looks like, not how it is, when do yu think we can wait to see someone who actually can drive from the US, any ideas?

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Hej Tomi, actually everything in America has always been what things look like rather than what it is.
It's crazy really, but it is deeply ingrained in the American character.

Advertising and promotional parasites know this and do everything that they can to reinforce the idea. There was some stupid soda-pop company who had a line in their ads "Image is Everything". Think for one half second (longer than the average American consumer it seems) and take apart the statement in it's relationship to a soda-pop drink: IMAGE????

This image thing (which you know is linked with the well known American superficiality, and simple thinking) is connected to the American tendency to fixate on promoting and glorifying "THE WINNER" and of course anybody who didn't "win" is a "loser".
This well know tendency leads many guys here to not even think of building a car and trying rally, because, as I've heard dozen of times since I started in 1984 "If I can't win.......I'm not going do it" because all they have ever seen is some WRC on TV and now maybe the Rally America hype---because of course reading is right out of the question.

Hej Tomi this is getting to your question, just want to lay a foundation or "grund" so you see the depth of the problem.

Now if Americans are socialised and conditioned to think simplistically of "Winner" and "loser", you know that there will be conflict if they are confronted by a more complicated reality where nobody wins every time out every week forever at everything.
So Americans cook up various solutions to this nasty problem.

In nearly all motorsport here in USA, the organisers introduce seriously DOZENS of classes often with 1 or 2 people in the "class" (And yes if you ask any of the 27 different people who might have won their class at a US "autocross"--where they drive in parking lots and try to kill orange rubber cones---how the event went, usually, nearly always the guys will answer "Oh I won" and NEVER will they say "I won my class and there was really only one other guy, and he's a beginner"

One organiser in rally when I asked why he was pushing the tendency from other car racing of multitude of classes he said "More classes means more winners, more winners means more trophies, and more trophies means more happy racers"

As a society it means we reject History as a country because history is complicated and America, just like every other country in the World , doesn't always win at everything they try to do.
Really it means we re-write history, and then reinforce that fiction with decades of movies and TV so the THE IMAGE of America as ALWAYS shown as "the winner".
And in recent years this has become more and more absurd.

What this means is Americans tend strongly to avoid hard competition and hard fights and tend to want to do those things where they can be called
"a winner".
So guys with more or less unlimited funding, either thru private fortunes or via sponsorship dollars will tend to STAY in USA where they can spend $50,000 per event and win, even when they can afford to go overseas where the fight is much harder and they risk being "losers".

So when will we see an American or a North American who can actually drive?

When there is some depth in the competition eg more than 4-5 guys with massive budgets against guys in near stock cars, or when the guys who have funding take themselves to someplace where there is depth like say F-cup in Finland.

So.....maybe never. It has been more than 22 years since an American had the balls to go toe to toe against the whole world elite and there doesn't seem to be any more John Buffums growing here--he was of a different generation who looked for the hardest competition.

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Originally Posted by Rally Hokkaido

...and two Mustangs (Double rolleyes)

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Just to explain US rally, neither of us driving Mustangs were in the national rally. Both Mark and I are regional competitors driving for the fun of driving. Now who hasn't seen the US TV show 'Dukes of Hazard'? Tearing through the woods in a high powered RWD car is fun. Of course, both Mark and I have a long history of competing in other cars such as SAABs for myself and a variety of 'proper' rally cars including a Subaru for Mark.

Plus at events such as the recent 100 Acre Wood Rally, both Mark and I get almost as much attention as Travis Pastrana because we drive "real" cars.

People are mystified about how to cook ribs properly. I'm going to walk you through every step using a basic charcoal grill.maplestoryer sell maple story mesos Obviously if you have different or more high-tech equipment, you'll need to modify these procedures. If you're setting up your backyard charcoal grill for indirect cooking, you'll want to use a disposable aluminum pan to capture the grease maple story power leveling as the fat renders while cooking. Some people add water to this pan to add moisture to the cooking environment.

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Originally Posted by Tomi

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: , quite amusing, for outsider it sounds like rally in US is more how it looks like, not how it is, when do yu think we can wait to see someone who actually can drive from the US, any ideas?

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No, allot of Americans hate change. They don't want to see the AWD Subie's, Mitsubishi's and Hyundai's dominating the sport. They would be perfectly content seeing old slow RX7's and 240 Volvo's. Who can't round a curve in a RWD car sideways? Sliding an AWD car through a tight corner is a bit trickier, especially when your making decisions on every curve to ether blaze in and slide the car through the corner or approach slower and under steer your way through and carry more speed out the other side. So they see the cars and all the new faces dominating the sport as an invasion of something they don't want. Not all Americans are like this though, that is why they have so many cars to rant over. :rolleyes: