PERFORMANCE RALLYING
by Mark Utecht
One of the fastest growing motorsports in America is Performance Rallying. This sport is also known as stage rallying and SCCA ProRally. Lately, you may have seen this sport on ESPN2 and Speedvision. Basically, it is racing through the woods, as fast as possible, in street legal cars. Two phrases that have been used to describe this sport are;
We were extreme before extreme was cool.
Real cars on real roads, real fast.
First off, let’s mention the cars. Unlike many other forms of racing, you don’t need much beyond a good solid street car to start in performance rallying. Anything from a VW Rabbit, a Dodge Omni, a Mazda RX-7, an Eagle Talon to a European spec Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI can compete. There are 7 classes, which makes almost any car a possible winner in its own class. The cars must be registered for the street and carry liability insurance. Also you must have specfic safety items installed such as roll cage, harnesses and fire suppression equipment.
Second, you need a team. The real trick to performance rallying is you don’t get to see the "course" ahead of time. Because of that, you need a driver and a co-driver. The driver is self-explanatory. The co-driver has many tasks to handle. First, the co-
driver must read from the route book and tell the driver which way to go at intersections, where a possibly dangerous corner or jump is, where the finish of the stage is, etc. Also, the co-driver is mainly responsible for determining when the team needs to check in at controls (checkpoints) along the course. Needless to say, either the driver or co-driver can win or lose the rally. Also, you will need a crew. During the rally, the course will take you to selected service locations (pit stops). Here, you will have a specific amount of time to make any repairs possible to the car. It may be five minutes or it may be more than an hour. However, if you take more than the alotted time, you will be penalized.
The course is the fun part. Depending on the location, it could be a snow/ice covered rural road to a clean gravel forest logging road to a spectacular mountain road. These are typically public roads that the organizers have obtained permits to temporarily close to public traffic and use them for this event. You will typically start at the headquarters and have a transit to the first stage road. These transits are on open public roads and highways, and thus the teams must obey all traffic laws. If a team violates any traffic laws on a transit, they may be disqualified from the event. Once you get to the start of the first stage, there will be a control (checkpoint) that will give you an assigned start time and start you on the stage at that time. The cars start at one minute intervals, but if you catch someone, or someone catches you, a pass must be made and that can get very exciting on a one lane forest stage. At the end of the stage, there will be another control, and
then you transit to the next stage and do all this again. With a service thrown in after every 2-5 stages, that is what makes up a rally.
Obviously, these events require a large number of organizers and workers. One of the best ways to get into this wonderful sport is to volunteer to work the events. It takes just as many workers to have a rally as it does competitors. Our local events are the Headwaters ClubRally in mid-May and the Ojibwe Forest ProRally at the end of August. Feel free to give us a call and we will help you see the fun that can be had in Performance Rallying.
Mark Utecht 651-408-1203
RallyCross, cont from page 10
"doing donuts" in parking lots but were afraid to get caught, RallyCross on ice is for you! Here’s your opportunity to learn how to steer your car in icy conditions and get good at it. Don’t worry, everything happens at a much slower speed on ice and at our events there’s no bridge abutment or road sign to do damage to your car. It’s a lot of fun.
Competition classes are handled differently for winter RallyCross. There’s four-wheel drive, two-wheel-drive with the engine over the drive wheels and two-wheel-drive with the engine opposite the drive wheels. The classes are further split into "rubber to ice" and "studded tires". Happily, our first RallyCross winter season offered eight events!
If you have any ideas, suggestions or questions, please contact Todd Erickson, LOL-SCCA RallyCross Chairman at (612) 425-3150 or Clubrally@aol.com
Tonneau On-Line 2000 Auto Show
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Copyright 2000, Land O'Lakes Region Last revised: March 13, 2003
