X Games Rally

By now most of you have heard about the X-Games/Rally America invite only rally competition. While most bandwidth has been used up speculating who is invited no one is asking if this is a good idea. Here are my 4 cents:

Good! Good because media coverage means money to rally. More money means more competion at all levels. This has been talked about ad nausium previously so I will spare you the time wasting. You probably have shit to do.

Bad! Bad because it misrepresents what rally actually is. Rally is not a short 1-3 minute sprint event designed to fit between TV commercials. It is a much more arduous undertaking than that. The idea of a national championship made up of multi-day events involving thousands of kms in total is what rally is. I looked up the total distance the Acropolis Rally ran in 1979: 2885 km or 1804 miles. Of that mileage, 874 km (575 miles) were specials. The Criterium Molson du Quebec was a sprint event that year at only 1925 km with 417 km of specials. While even the WRC events are shorter these days the idea of long distance high speed challange remains strong.

Given the good, bad and the ugly where does the X-games/RA deal fit in? I want to see it used as a calling card left in the hands of the corporate vultures. "This is a little taste of what we do" I can here the RA guys saying. "Buy into our product and we will halo yours with the blessings of pure motorsport adrenaline." The challenge for RA is to make sure the benefits of any new financial arrangements are used to support the sport at a larger level. How you do that without an elected national board I don't know. Guess what kids? it is up to us to hold RA and their event organizer's feet to the fire to maintain the sport. This is no time to slack off. Beyond that all I can say is build your cars and support the events you like. Or organize your own...

Tony (from north of 49)

I should add that I am aware of the 2 day format of the X-Games rally. What isn't clear is how it complements RA's national series or, indeed, undermines it. It is very clearly an invite only stand-alone event quite apart from RA or USRG own national championships.

Tony

I'm all for it. So what if it isnt exactly what every rally is like. It'll be more exposure to a new audience than anything we've had recently. That should breathe some new life into the sport, I think. Apparantly ESPN came to RA with this idea, and they have a person specially appointed to "maintain the integrity of the sport."

And cue all the anti-RA blathering...

I think RA can hit a total home run with this one.

There is going to be coverage of stages run with the addition of a superspecial stage.

I'm taking a wait and see approach. Some people think that there just isn't any fun 2wd stuff worth watching, some people think there is.

Will it lead to more entries and increased competition at the regional level?

I don't like it. What the fuck is Invitation Only Rally ? Is it like Race Of Champions ? Who decides who gets invited ? What kind of a message they will give the people oblivious to the notion of rallying ?

I think it's an arrogant and poorly thought concept that may hurt the TRUE sport of rallying. But again are we really rallying here ???

I will not be surprised Barnum & Bailey tries to organise rallies next.

---

Cheers
M.Samli
Phoenix AZ
Gaylant VR4
EVO III GSR (Stolen)


Rallies are no place for traitors

TLatham Wrote:
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> ...a national
> championship made up of multi-day events involving
> thousands of kms in total is what rally is.


That is what rally used to be.

> ..where does the X-games/RA deal fit in?

It fits the attention span of kids these days.

X-games, schmex-games is not rally. Why not discuss it in the off topic forum?






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2006 12:14AM by Jens.

Thousands of km over multiple days doesn't even work in Europe anymore. It was too taxing on the drivers in Group B machinery and was killing people. That's why the FIA shortned the rallies. Yes this is much shorter.

Jens you probably don't like it because in shorter rallies people do the thing you don't like, drive faster.

Have you heard of TSD rallies? You should give them a try. Almost everyone finishes and hardly anyone drives fast.

Samli, the entrepreneurs that took a risk with their own money and created the relationship with ESPN will make recomendations to a committee to decide who will run the event. It's not an RA or NASA event. Like it or not someone else besides ourselves will decide if any of us are invited. In a sense, it is like the ROC. Do you think this is a bad thing? If so why?

sauna rocks Wrote:
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> Have you heard of TSD rallies?

Why don't you tell us all you know about about TSD rallies?

Don't forget to mention the "brisk" TSD's. If you're too wet behind the ears to have heard of them... look 'em up. They are what rally used to be before babies decided they wanted driving suits, autograph cards, and television sponsorship.

Sissies in their silly suits drive FIA-type rallies.

Brisk TSD = lame

The thing I like about the X Games rally is that the area I've been looking at to organize a snow rally at 11,000 feet happens to be very, very close to Aspen, where the winter X Games are held each year. Of course, the invite only crew can run first, and then a regional will be behind it. And they'd only get to run 6 of 12 stages.
Really though, I hope they try to be exhibitionists with this and really show off rally. Anyone see that RA is going to be on ESPN in HD this year?

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Grant Hughes

Jens

I could have figured you would play that card. And I could have figured you would make assumptions about my ears. Well just so you know I am a 16 year old kid who is really good at video games and could smoke you out of a "brisk" round of Coling McCrae. And I slam energy drinks. I'm pierced, inked, and I run the street luge.

Yep, a brisk TSD is still a TSD. I know all about them. To me driving fast is fun. Driving to be on time is like, well...like driving to be on time. Don't get me wrong, it's good practice for navigation and all but not something I go wild for.

Jens you should qualify your comments about rally from here on out with the words "TSD" or "Brisk TSD" rally. When you say the word "rally", people think of a race. That might be why you get so mixed up in contemporary discussions of rally racing. Seriously it might help if you did so. Then everyone would know what you are fond of and what you miss.

Skye, is there something you can do to make it so when Jens writes "rally" in the body of his posts that it gets printed as "brisk TSD rally"?

Jens, you are SUCH a puss.

Jakoppi,

If they do it like ROC, I would have no beef but they are not. It's their money they can do whatever they want, they can invite whoever they want. Not my cup of tea. It may help expose the ESPN watchers to something, but what I don't know.

I hope and pray they don't turn rallying into another dog and pony show with their X-Games deal.

---

Cheers
M.Samli
Phoenix AZ
Gaylant VR4
EVO III GSR (Stolen)


Rallies are no place for traitors

sauna rocks Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well just so you know
> I am a 16 year old kid who is really good at video
> games and could smoke you out of a "brisk" round
> of Coling McCrae. And I slam energy drinks.

And I thought you were a 20-something. Silly me. You're a self-mutilating, drug addict (caffeine).

Hey kid, I was running PRO Rally 14 years before you were a gleam in your Daddy's eye.


> Yep, a brisk TSD is still a TSD. I know all about
> them. To me driving fast is fun. Driving to be
> on time is like, well...like driving to be on
> time.

Just like I thought. You don't know anything about brisk TSD. Let me tell you... Brisk TSD means no one meets the time. "Brisk" is a euphemism for a basically unsanctioned stage rally without all the sissy bullshit.

sauna rocks Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thousands of km over multiple days doesn't even
> work in Europe anymore. It was too taxing on the
> drivers in Group B machinery and was killing
> people. That's why the FIA shortned the rallies.
> Yes this is much shorter.
>
> Jens you probably don't like it because in shorter
> rallies people do the thing you don't like, drive
> faster.
>
> Have you heard of TSD rallies? You should give
> them a try. Almost everyone finishes and hardly
> anyone drives fast.
>
Jakkopi poiki.
The manufacturers were agitating for less distance cause the MOUNTAIN of very expensive parts changed AT EVERY SINGLE SERVICE was killing THEM.
Th specific bullshit method used was to say "the drivers are being paid to drive so under EU (Common Market) rules governing "commercial drivers (written and intended to apply to over the road truck drivers), no driver shall drive more than 8 hours in a 24 hour period"

Guys I knew at the time thought it was bullshit, it was, and is.

As for Jens doing TSDs, and there are up his way some really fun events just over in Nuevo York in the "Finger Lakes" region....silly Jakkopi dontcha see that would involve _driving_?

Silly poiki.

Hey give me a call when you can yakk yakk, after dark here.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Jens,

Are you sure you weren't doing brisk TSDs 14 years before I was a gleam in my daddies eye?

I'm interested in these brisk TSDs.

How fast does one drive during a brisk TSD? Does everyone try to drive the same way? Is there a chance that there will be some passing? Do you need a rollcage? Are there emergency personnel available if there is an accident? Are the roads closed ahead of time and swept with course opening cars?

Is it possible that a brisk TSD is more dangerous than an organized stage rally?

Is it also possible that a brisk TSD is sort of a watered down version of stage rally where no one is really driving hard for the entire rally?

Be careful, I'm only 16 and all I really know is that girls make me feel wierd and I'm really good at Xbox.