Inexpensive racing in the dirt! Dirt Cheap Rally

Wow! Lots of talk here, I'll try to cover it all.

First, John, I"m sorry if the post seemed vague. My name is Erik Torgeson. We are running at Reno-Ferneley and SuperToys Adventures in Redmond, OR. I'm also working with a few other locations on the west coast to get an event hosted in 2011, I would be thrilled with 4 total spanning the whole coast. My goal was to introduce the series and lead people to the website, not to overwhelm with a wall of text. As it is, I'm happy to answer any questions when I find time to make it back here.

As to the cost, you guys do have the cheapest STAGE rally I know of, and that's awesome. Rally is a vague term in and of itself - RallyX only costs $35 or so. This is another way to play in the dirt with cars, so the term Rally seemed appropriate.

And hey, if you guys want to host a forum area for my company so I can bring the discussion here, I'd be thrilled - just didn't seem like a feasible thing to do.

Hoche - I was at LeMons Reno too, driving the Killer Bee! What an awesome event. John Wood is all ears for helping get this going, the support has been awesome. We're not on the track, we're using the 50' wide gravel service and safety verge on the edge of it. There are some track crossings, and we take some dirt short-cuts, so it really is a multi-surface event. Mostly though, it's gravel.

For everyone commenting on the not cheap cheap cost - as someone else stated, this is right in line with LeMons and Chump (and actually a lot cheaper than, because there are no licensing fees, no transponder rental, no crew passes, no this and that fees. $900 is it). For the rest who haven't done a LeMons/Chump event, there is a requirement of three team members minimum - so that's $300 each. And, if your car performs all weekend, that's FOUR HOURS of competition seat time per driver for $300. THAT is what makes it a great deal, $75/hour for wheel to wheel dirt racing.

On that note Doivi is right - this is Chump or LeMons on lose surfaces. That is exactly the idea. I've been the guy running the operations side of ChumpCar for the last year and a half, and just tipped my hat to them a month or so ago.

NoCoast - I've been talking with Dave Coleman when I get a chance about this. He has given me some recommendations here and there, and I'm hoping to get more input from him when they get back from France. For the rest, go check out the MotoIQ stuff Dave has written. But, take it with a grain of salt - their team is the best team in $500 racing history, you don't have to be THAT good to still come have fun.

Pete - those were a few awesome runs. Also, they were 1 minute long, and there was no one to race against. RallyX is great, but I'm hoping to do the next step up for those that can't quite afford to build a stage rally car and the support it requires.

OK! There's the wall of text. Hit me up with your questions, comments, suggestions. I'll try and check back in to active threads as often as I can.

Is the Killer Bee a yellow MGB that I've seen parked off Bird in Willow Glen?

I think I first remember seeing that car at the R-F Lemons in 2009.

We were the #85 Golf. Blew our motor at about 5pm and it took us until midnight to get going again.

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12xalt
However, I bought one of the colts that's in the process of becoming a rally car for $550.

So, I suppose that you can also get into rally with a $500 car (or in some cases a $100 car, I think that's what Mike Bosch paid for the one he ran OTR in this year (though it might have been $150). Could he keep up with Kristen? Nope. But he still had a great time.

You might have paid $550 for the Colt and Bosch might have paid $100 for his car in the first place but it's gonna cost a bunch more than that by the time it's a RA or NASA legal rally car ready to start it's first event.

My point is there is no point in comparing the Dirt Cheap Rally event and a stage rally event, they are two different things. If you total up the costs for a typical stage rally weekend you would be doing pretty good to get away as cheap as doing a DirtCheap or LeMons or Chump Car event... including the car.

Yep, that's the one. I've been friends with Pete since about 09, so that's in the right area. I was at the Reno 09, too. We had the MR2 with the owl flying above it (and for awhile the windmill on the trunk lid powering a turbo). Good time, good times....

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Dirt Cheap Rally
I've been the guy running the operations side of ChumpCar for the last year and a half, and just tipped my hat to them a month or so ago.

Tell me that John from ChumpCar is nowhere near your organization and I'll start building a Volvo 240 for the series next month after we get back from LeMons at ORP.

Price always has to be evaluated on the amount of fun you have or think you'll have. Just looking at the entry fee can be quite misleading. Sounds like a hoot to me but I've raced fender to (or in) fender on dirt. I think you get lots of seat time, massive grins and probably will be worn out at the end of the day...what's that worth?

You can have a free car for rally, but when equipped, prepped and entered it will be quite a large dollar amount. Maybe you'll get an hour of seat time for one driver for a very large expense and a weekends worth of effort ( not counting the weeks or months of prep). None of the crew get to play, just sit in service for hours waiting for a few minutes of insanity. Very hard to make valid comparisons between different motorsports.

Erik, find a track somewhere in the Northwest and I'm in! I have just the car for this kind of thing.

Edit: Oh, Redmond. Right. Well... I'll be there.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/2011 11:14AM by Slowwpoke.

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Doivi Clarkinen

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12xalt
However, I bought one of the colts that's in the process of becoming a rally car for $550.

So, I suppose that you can also get into rally with a $500 car (or in some cases a $100 car, I think that's what Mike Bosch paid for the one he ran OTR in this year (though it might have been $150). Could he keep up with Kristen? Nope. But he still had a great time.

You might have paid $550 for the Colt and Bosch might have paid $100 for his car in the first place but it's gonna cost a bunch more than that by the time it's a RA or NASA legal rally car ready to start it's first event.

My point is there is no point in comparing the Dirt Cheap Rally event and a stage rally event, they are two different things. If you total up the costs for a typical stage rally weekend you would be doing pretty good to get away as cheap as doing a DirtCheap or LeMons or Chump Car event... including the car.

I guess I don't see either of them as "cheap". Rallycross and Autocross are cheap (unless for some reason a person decides to make it not cheap, but that's personal preferrence). Just because it's not as expensive overall as rally doesn't make it cheap. Maybe "moderately priced dirt rally" would have made more sense to me. I still wish there was something in that gap between rallycross at $35 and something like this at $700 (is that what the entry fee was for Redmond?). I'd say "almost cheap" would be in the $150-$350 range to me.


I believe that the rallyx that was supposed to happen in redmond this coming weekend (canceled) was $75 per day entry, but with some pay out for top finishers in 4 classes.

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12xalt

I guess I don't see either of them as "cheap". Rallycross and Autocross are cheap (unless for some reason a person decides to make it not cheap, but that's personal preferrence). Just because it's not as expensive overall as rally doesn't make it cheap. Maybe "moderately priced dirt rally" would have made more sense to me. I still wish there was something in that gap between rallycross at $35 and something like this at $700 (is that what the entry fee was for Redmond?). I'd say "almost cheap" would be in the $150-$350 range to me.


I believe that the rallyx that was supposed to happen in redmond this coming weekend (canceled) was $75 per day entry, but with some pay out for top finishers in 4 classes.

too bad you arent closer to MN, this sounds exactly like what you want:

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We are proud to announce that NOS Energy Drink is sponsoring the 2011 Nemadji Trail Series and it's kicking off June 18th!

There will be $250 in competitor & workers prize money for 1A/1B on June 18th and another $250 for 2A/2B on July 30th!


$100 will be awarded to the top AWD Team

$100 will be awarded to the top 2WD Team

$50 in worker prize money

Competitor Registration will be open very soon....look for updates.
Worker Registration is open now http://www.rallymasterpro.com/workers/

Early Entry fee is only $125 per event

Entry Fee Schedule
Through June 8th…… $125per event (cash or check)
June 9th through June 17th……..$200.00 for each event (cash or check)
June 18th.…... $500.00 (cash only)

(There is a credit card processing fee when paying on line.)

Description – Nemadji Trail 1A and 1B Each Event

Total course distance: 26.76 miles
Number of special stages: 2
Number of gravel stages: 2
Total distance of Special Stages: 16.58 miles
Type of road surface: Hard packed class 5 gravel, occasionally rocky, tight and twisty.



Nemadji Trail 1A and 1B will be headquartered at: Duquette Community Center, Hwy 23 @ Cty 47, Duquette, MN 55756. All event activities will be held just outside of the Duquette General Store or the Community Center. Registration and awards will be at the Duquette Community Center. The Service Area will be located in the lot to the north of the General Store.

weather has eliminated the 3rd stage that is usually run for the june event. they usually run 2-3 of these a year the last couple years.

250 dollars for 33 stage miles aint half bad.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/2011 12:09PM by Greg Donovan.

Greg, yep.

Well, cept that being closer to MN thing, more like I wish we had that here. Even for "cheap" rally I don't think I could move away from the NW.

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12xalt
Maybe "moderately priced dirt rally" would have made more sense to me.

Moderately-Priced Dirt Rally is a terrible name!


I vote for Aqua Teenage Mutant Rallyformers.

In Space!

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hoche

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12xalt
Maybe "moderately priced dirt rally" would have made more sense to me.

Moderately-Priced Dirt Rally is a terrible name!


I vote for Aqua Teenage Mutant Rallyformers.

In Space!

Great, now I've got the Muppet Show stuck in my head. PIGS IN SPACE!

The hardest part is going to be dust.
We have this facility outside Denver called CORE. We have a 2.xish mile rally course. We wanted to start a cheap wheel to wheel series there. Problem is the dust. You literally cannot even get close to the person in front of you since you can't really see them. It's just our surface but I think dust and rutting will be your biggest challenges. Latter especially considering length of time racing.

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12xalt

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Doivi Clarkinen

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12xalt
However, I bought one of the colts that's in the process of becoming a rally car for $550.

So, I suppose that you can also get into rally with a $500 car (or in some cases a $100 car, I think that's what Mike Bosch paid for the one he ran OTR in this year (though it might have been $150). Could he keep up with Kristen? Nope. But he still had a great time.

You might have paid $550 for the Colt and Bosch might have paid $100 for his car in the first place but it's gonna cost a bunch more than that by the time it's a RA or NASA legal rally car ready to start it's first event.

My point is there is no point in comparing the Dirt Cheap Rally event and a stage rally event, they are two different things. If you total up the costs for a typical stage rally weekend you would be doing pretty good to get away as cheap as doing a DirtCheap or LeMons or Chump Car event... including the car.

I guess I don't see either of them as "cheap". Rallycross and Autocross are cheap (unless for some reason a person decides to make it not cheap, but that's personal preferrence). Just because it's not as expensive overall as rally doesn't make it cheap. Maybe "moderately priced dirt rally" would have made more sense to me. I still wish there was something in that gap between rallycross at $35 and something like this at $700 (is that what the entry fee was for Redmond?). I'd say "almost cheap" would be in the $150-$350 range to me.

I think you're forgetting the fact that with DirtCheap or LeMons or ChumpCar you are are splitting the costs between 5 or 6 drivers (however many you want, really) so the whole weekend (including the cost of the car) could be done for $300 each. Sounds like right in your range.

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Slowwpoke
Erik, find a track somewhere in the Northwest and I'm in! I have just the car for this kind of thing.

Edit: Oh, Redmond. Right. Well... I'll be there.

You gonna send the taxi cab out in spectacular fashion? You know we gotta be on the same team together sometime. Gotta happen.