The birth of rallycross? GRM evidence exhibit A

On the last two issues of GRM from a giant box as a gift from aussiesmg at Quaker Steak, like 2 years ago. Flipping through the March/April 1998 issue (which looks REALLY different from current issues) I found this:

Now I'm curious when rallycross got "going"? This was probably written Jan/Feb 1998 saying it's going to happen later. A friend saw me post this image on Facebook and said

"We were running a "Mud Run" car @ 93-96 in the fall at Gilbert's party barn. Then later @ 2000 we were doing 'RallyCross' as sort of a break from TSD rallies. All through WOR (SCCA region). Soon after it became a National event. We had to take the jumps out when it went National... Kinda lost some of its character after that."

TSD rallies. Mud runs. All this cool E36 M3 I missed while married to the ex (soul sucking she-devil).

I believe my first scca rallycross was in 98 at Mt Snow resort in Vermont. Could be 97 or 99. I believe it was the first in the New England region. Of course we just called it field racing before that.

I remember hearing people talk about dirt or grass autocrosses from at least the 80's.

I tried some Google-Fu and didn't get much help. Even the Wikipedia page talks about the current format and classes, but no mention of when it was founded officially. SCCA page was no help either.

That might be the birth of SCCA rallycross but racing through a marked-out course on dirt or grass goes back a lot further.

My club, Adirondack Motor Enthusiast Club (AMEC) had a dirt track with about seven turns in a half mile. In 1957 !

It was called "Trials" back then.

I ran a " split level gymkhana" at Mt.Snow in 1960. I have the third place trophy for "Touring Under".

So the only thing new about rally cross is the name.

Search gymkhana, I was doing this in the early 90s, downunder

I get it. Racing on dirt has been around since dirt and vehicles. I guess I should have said when did "SCCA Rallycross" become official?

Jerry wrote: I guess I should have said when did "SCCA Rallycross" become official?

About 2003

Jerry wrote: I tried some Google-Fu and didn't get much help. Even the Wikipedia page talks about the current format and classes, but no mention of when it was founded officially. SCCA page was no help either.

In 2002, I heard about SCCA RallyCross while looking up info about 240Zs, so it was an official SCCA thing since at least then. We drove three and a half hours to Greene County Fairgrounds where WOR was hosting one. (I would like to say it was sometime in mid-May) We spectated and each got a ride in a car. I still remember it was a yellow CRX and the driver said he was going to "swing wide onto the grass where the grip was". I still can smell the hot exhaust/mud/grass smell from inside the car. We were grinning like idiots for weeks.

In 2004, I got my life back together and attended my first one as a competitor. My friend went and started a family and stuff so hasn't had time to come out even though I still egg him on to come down every now and then. Anyway, this is why WOR is and will be my region of record even though I live a bit far away.

The format back then was kinda similar, it was single fastest time per heat, olnly five classes divided by 2 or 4 wheel drive, under or over 2 liters displacement, and "4x4" which was a somewhat redundant O4. Basically M2/M4 with displacement breaks. And no rule about only being allowed to enter one car at a time. One guy consistently took 1st and 2nd overall with a 323GTX and a stock STI (in 2004... do the math)

We had an scca rallyx, as early as 98 or 99 . I even have a trophy from 2000.

Oh yeah, back then, some people had Kumho R700 rally tires (Tire Rack sold them! And they were CHEAP!) but most people were on snow tires or more commonly just whatever all-season junk they happened to drive to the event on. Real laid back, go out and work whenever, make your runs whenever.

U2 was usually won either by Coughnour Sr. in the Bug (you may have seen it...) or a Cat engineer from Colombia by the name of Andreas, who ran a Civic CX (the 8 valve D15!) on Kumho rally tires and he NEVER. LIFTED.

I know the Bug, he was trying to sell it right when I first joined with the stock MR2. Bummed he only wanted $2k for it, all set up, and I had paid $2k for the MR2 and needed work just to be decent drivable, let alone cage, tires, etc.