Wrc Rallye France-Alsace 2012

[janvanvurpa]

I can't believe I have spent all of these years trying to follow the WRC on US based forums

Anyway, good job Elfyn Evans Evans!

Hi Sean, which Sean are you? Where you at? hang around a while, there's some good characters here. watch out for the Finns though, they're almost all tricky fellows---very tongue in cheek....

I don't know how many Seans i know in just West Coast rally, but maybe you're one.

[Astro83]

exactly!

You need to move to europe man!
Sadly USA dont have a WRC-event yet but it will probably never happens because of the cost for all of the wrc-teams...

But now with RedBull as new promotor, we never know...

But don't follow the WRC from US-forums, its not so good, I think. You guys only speak about Indy and Nascar over there..
But Nascar is cool but rally is the ****!

[-sean-]

Hi Sean, which Sean are you? Where you at? hang around a while, there's some good characters here. watch out for the Finns though, they're almost all tricky fellows---very tongue in cheek....

I don't know how many Seans i know in just West Coast rally, but maybe you're one.

Denver, CO... born and raised in SoCal. I've been a huge WRC fan since the early 90's but as you well know there is not biggest following for the best drivers in the world here in the US and it was not easy to follow the WRC back in the day without the use of the internet.

You need to move to europe man!
Sadly USA dont have a WRC-event yet but it will probably never happens because of the cost for all of the wrc-teams...

But now with RedBull as new promotor, we never know...

But don't follow the WRC from US-forums, its not so good, I think. You guys only speak about Indy and Nascar over there..
But Nascar is cool but rally is the ****!

Actually it's great as long as you consider Block to be the best driver on the planet.

As far as a round of the WRC here in the states, I'm not seeing it anytime soon. Maybe if we ever get a good TV deal to happen on a channel that most people actually get/watch then maybe we can start to develop a decent fan base.

US motorsports= EXTREME or turn left, that pretty much sums up the mentality.

[Astro83]

Sean: How big is the rallysport in the states if you think of all the motorsports, Nascar-Indy-Motorcross and so on??? I have always wonder...

My own reflection is that many "rallyfans" in US only follow Ken Block and his rally events over there and rallycross and so on and as you say, think of him as just the greatest driver in the whole world. And that's not the case as you absolutly know

They need to open their eyes and see the real sport of rally and not his stunt movies

Don't get me wrong, I like Block very much, he is a really fun and skilled driver and business man in the motorsport family. He really is a fun guy and I hope he will compete in all WRC-events for 2013! It's even good for the sport.

But I have always wonder how big the sport really is in US...

[Gregor-y]

Rally in the US is 1/3 kids brought in by Travis Pastrana and Ken Block, 2/3 codgers over 50 that have been involved in events back to the 70s when it was easy to enter just about any car with few rules and a handful of people like me that bought an Impreza (before or just after the turbo was made available) and found out about rallying from online forums during the sport compact craze in the 90s.

[janvanvurpa]

Sean: How big is the rallysport in the states if you think of all the motorsports, Nascar-Indy-Motorcross and so on??? I have always wonder...

My own reflection is that many "rallyfans" in US only follow Ken Block and his rally events over there and rallycross and so on and as you say, think of him as just the greatest driver in the whole world. And that's not the case as you absolutly know

They need to open their eyes and see the real sport of rally and not his stunt movies

Don't get me wrong, I like Block very much, he is a really fun and skilled driver and business man in the motorsport family. He really is a fun guy and I hope he will compete in all WRC-events for 2013! It's even good for the sport.

But I have always wonder how big the sport really is in US...

Hejsan Astro, I can tell you that in terms of participation, its not even like a good KM dvs Klubb Mästerskap rally därborta.
DM events here might get 20 cars, sometimes 30-35. If they call it a ''Amerikanskij Champignonskit'' event like we just had last week up here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, they had maybe 60 cars... There are 2 teams with utterly absurd and pointless budgets, Monster and Subaru, a few with just stupid budgets and then the rest with prep and skills about like a first or second year C driver in Sweden..,. in the last 10 years many events have half the fieed in various lightly built and mostly poorly driven Subarus, the rest 20 year old Golf, Honda, various things.....
A friend who I sorta am sponsor to said the Monster mechanics, all English were swarming around his car because it is a very well built US version Sierra. They said they went to mount and adjust lights and went down some väg-stump, smacked some rocks and banged the kevlar sump guard, so it was a $15,000 light test.. That is insane to beat a few guys in garage built Subarus. In a way it reflects the US society: there's the 1% and then there's the rest.

Plenty of people stare at you-tube but theres never more than a couple of hundred speccies in the woods..

Nationwide in this country of 312 million there are maybe 300 people that might enter an event in a year..

So we're special, we're one in a million. I remember reading a few years ago that there was a list of official scrutineers for folkrace i Sverige and there were about 1200 names on the list...

The emphasis is on, like everything in America, the appearance, and "status"....Shiny cars, shiny suits , lots of graphics, spend lots of money---and some guys on SS speed are averaging about 65 km/hr where Block might be averaging 115 km/hr...
But trust me, those boys will argue about "the indispensability of Left Foot Braking" (at 65 km/hr) and argue about "the burning need for good pace notes"

And discuss at length which on board video camera is the best..

One word is best: Larv

More than 25 years I point my friends and strangers too to Grupp H and your neighbors great series F-cup----and now in the last few years it seems there is a change and more and more guys are going back and building simpler, mostly rwd cars that they can afford to run for more than a season or maybe 2 before dropping out and disappearing...

(I build suspension for rally cars and some brake kits, and build motors (1 National Chamionship to my motors, a few Regional titles, and a record that every Saab that has ever won a US National round in our equivalent of Grupp F was full of all my parts, all 3 ... so I'm in touch with lots of people all over USA and Canada. )

And there is absolutely no clubb or volunteer numbers to support a EM rally much less a VM.

[janvanvurpa]

Rally in the US is 1/3 kids brought in by Travis Pastrana and Ken Block, 2/3 codgers over 50 that have been involved in events back to the 70s when it was easy to enter just about any car with few rules and a handful of people like me that bought an Impreza (before or just after the turbo was made available) and found out about rallying from online forums during the sport compact craze in the 90s.

Naw, most of the coders over 50 began in the 80s....I know them... wait! You tricky bastid! I'm one!

[Astro83]

The only battle in this rally, Östberg vs Sordo vs Neuville...
Who do you think is going to take the 4th place?? I think that Neuville will take it but I really hope for Sordo. Sadly the Mini is not so fast this year, so this will be Neuville's time!

I dont think that Östberg will have the pace on tarmac to hold Neuville off...

[Astro83]

Så du är svensk!??! Okej, och tack för ett mycket ingående och bra svar! Vad gör du där borta, har du bott där länge?

Thank you for a good answear! No I understand how it's working in US and can stop to "wonder"...

[-sean-]

Sean: How big is the rallysport in the states if you think of all the motorsports, Nascar-Indy-Motorcross and so on??? I have always wonder...

The above few post sum it up very well... better than I could. It's sad to say the least.
Anyway, sorry for the hijack guys. GO MIKKO!