Southerners: Want More Rallycross?

Hey guys.

So I've been watching a ton of rally and rallycross videos and doing a lot of thinking/dreaming. I live in Western NC, and there is a tragic lack of motorsports. There are no more drag strips and the hippies turned our circle track into a bicycle track. We have autocross, but that's all. There's rallycross in TN, East NC, and Ga. So why not here in the mountains too? Aren't the mountains the perfect place to do something like this?

So here's what I'm thinking: Let's get a bunch of people together and have a day of rallycross at The Flats offroad park in Marion, NC! If we could get enough people, we could rent out the flattest part on the park (I doubt we'd be able to use the rock crawling or hillclimb areas. haha). Now, I'll admit, I have no idea how one would go about organizing this sort of thing. I'm 23 and usually broke and overworked. I just want to get out and have some fun in a beater car. I can't be the only one.

Here's a video of part of the course. This looks like a damn special stage. Skip to around 2:30 if you don't want to see the fist 20 yards of the course over and over.

What do you guys think?

Insurance is going to be your biggest hurdle. If you're an SCCA member and can wrangle up the appropriate people it's quit affordable through them. Or just go without it, which works if you're a tight knit group that can trust each other.
Need cones too.

RoughandReady wrote: "I wanna race in WNC"

Send me an email at cjp28803@charter.net, I'll see if the powers that be at Highlands SCC are interested in such a thing; we're on a constant lookout for new venues/events. I've been toying with that very idea but didn't have a location in mind. I can also get you approved for the message board there. Thanks, Chris

Contact your neighboring SCCA regions, up here most of the rallyx in lower Michigan is organized by the Detroit region for some reason, so its definitely possible to have overlapping turf.

Now I'm praying the HSCC will pick up the idea. ECORS does racing out there, but don't allow 2wd cars. 2wd on dirt sounds even more fun than 4wd/Awd, to a kid like me.

We used to organize TSD Rallys but interest dropped off during our autocross heyday (13-14 events a season). Some of us have reasoned that decent parking lots are in short supply but there is a ton of farmland out there, so maybe we need to branch out a bit. Hillclimbing is also on the list but CCR-SCCA pretty much has that covered (and they do a great job).

how far away are the groups in eastern carolina and tennesee? I ask because generally within 4 hours is considered "local" for rallycross, inside of 2 hours is quite rare.

I'm quite interested in trying to get some rallysprint "in a box" type events going following the model posting on NASA's site by Anders.

captdownshift wrote: how far away are the groups in eastern carolina and tennesee? I ask because generally within 4 hours is considered "local" for rallycross, inside of 2 hours is quite rare. I'm quite interested in trying to get some rallysprint "in a box" type events going following the model posting on NASA's site by Anders.

4 hoursish for east NC and GA. 3 hoursish for TN. If 4 hours is local, then an event in WNC would be smack dab in the middle of the three events in TN, east NC, and GA. So maybe it would attract drivers from those areas, especially if it was a great course (with hills)?

4 hours opens a lot of options .

chrispy wrote: 4 hours opens a lot of options .

What do you mean?

In reply to RoughandReady:

go on nc4x4 and see if you could get a hold of the guys that run the flats. I am not sure if the flats has a suitable location for rally x.

Where is the rallycross action in TN and GA?

TIGMOTORSPORTS wrote: Where is the rallycross action in TN and GA?

Looks like it's in Sweetwater and the GA side of Chattanooga.

RoughandReady wrote:

chrispy wrote: 4 hours opens a lot of options .

What do you mean?

You can be in several different regions in 4 hours (250 miles). I thought 1.5 hours for an autox was extreme.

I'm not a southerner but I want more rallycross.

You might want to talk to the Indiana Rallycross folks. They run at an off-road park without SCCA affiliation.

In reply to chrispy:

you have to look at the number of people that participate in each disipline. generally you have 7-8 autocrossers for every rallycrosser. Thus to have the same number of drivers (or even half) at an event you need to pull from a wider geographic area of pull. Most drivers will only opt to drive in 1 or 2 events a month, thus if you over staturate an area with events you'll find that driver numbers drop at 30-40% per an event (if adding a 3rd location to the scope of event influence), for some organizers that would doom their series. I urge interested parties to driver attend series within a 4 hour drive and dual enter cars with friends to increase interest and share fuel costs to and from events.

Thanks for the insight. I know rallyx will not appeal to many of our members due to the cost of prepping another car (or modifying the current ride for "off road" use) but there is a market for it. We seem to have a lot more options to investigate for rallyx than autox since our inventory of parking lots keeps getting smaller. My comment was more of a general observation as to how far some people are willing to travel for an event. I think, locally, we've become spoiled with having events within a 30 minute drive. Maybe its time to branch out, in other words.

makes sense. I've kicked around the idea of putting together some very cheap, but quite capable rally-x beaters for rental, even having 2-3 or the same models prepped with the same parts (both wear, tune up and any "performance" ones that may end up on it down the road). What i've found though, as it's been suggested and realized, is that most people once they run 2-3 events either decide that it's not for them or that they'd rather drop auto-x to persue rally-x. Depending on the rally-x location, if the surface is hard packed enough and doesn't rut, some auto-x cars do quite well without any added modifications. You'll still found that most people won't spend more then 1 weekend a month at an events though, and thus choose to do just one or the other.

^I'm confused as to what this argument is about.

i'm suggesting that if there are 2 other groups that offer rallycross within 4 hours of your location and you start a 3rd that attracts more then 10 drivers that it's a recipe for at least 2 of the groups to ultimately fail.

No argument, just a conversation with someone who is knowledgeable about the subject at hand.

chrispy wrote: No argument, just a conversation with someone who is knowledgeable about the subject at hand.

Ah cool. Should I post this up at the HSCC forum? How does one pass this idea on to the HSCC council of elders?

here is the schedule for ETN rallycross strsccr It is just outside of sweetwater, TN and about 2.5h from asheville. Which isnt too bad.

chrispy wrote: Hillclimbing is also on the list but CCR-SCCA pretty much has that covered (and they do a great job).

Where are hillclimbs held in the ET/WNC area?

I want more rallycross in NC, but Marion is a hike for me.

Other than terrain, there is absolutely no reason why a car can't do both autocross and rallycross.

Proof!

Rally:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfsw3BmQAfQ

Auto:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxoRdnifd9A&feature=youtu.be