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heymagic
There is a small difference between choosing to non-sanction and being refused sanction.

I think that it would be next to impossible to get road permissions if the event had applied for sanction and was refused. I would guess that a decision to not seek sanction, 'self sanction,' or seek sanction by the local authorities would have been based on informal discussions with RA/NASA rather than an actual application.

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heymagic
Lack of disclosure is a big one also. I don't remember Idaho mentioning that a lot

That Idaho wasn't sanctioned completely slipped under my radar... had I been aware I wouldn't have been recommending the event to teams from here. None went in the end, but I was talking it up as the roads are great.

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Everyone has to be imported. So volunteers have to spend several hundred dollars just to go.

Not that uncommon. Merritt events are probably 90% imported volunteers. But yes, a real challenge.

interesting...yeah, doesn't seem like I'd want to run WW either, even if I was close enough. although, i should revise my 1st statement above because I did run Idaho this year and enjoyed it and will go back next year. In my mind sanctioning and insurance go hand in hand, but yes, technically....you can be insured and not sanctioned.

Idaho was sanctioned last year. Really don't know what the story was this year. Rockrohr is a good guy and that decision was made on its own merits and not distress. Seems there are/were a few people that didn't know about this year.

Sanctioning bodies aren't the only answer, but they tend to be a good answer. Nice to have somewhat independant oversight and someone to fall back on. If nothing bad never happened we wouldn't nedd insurance either.

People should be free to make their own choices, but those must be informed choices. I would never judge someone because they ran an unsanctioned event, might question the wisdom but I don't always do what people think I should either. So be it.

Well , I'm a championship chaser (does this event give points in the series I'm trying to win?)

competing in the CRS, and USRC (west) fits very well with my vacation days and budget. I can skip a few events, but still mathematically have a great chance to win the series.

so unsanctioned events don't have much appeal to me at all, no points.

I might finally do a rally or two this year "just for fun" I've done a few so far where i didn't care about the points. I'de check insurance "Am i covered if i run over a spectator" type scenario and i'de check "what if i get hurt"

If both of those look good, and the roads look fun. then why not? the road surface looks smooth and car friendly, but they roads look to be more of a car test, than a driver test. (straight roads are for fast cars, twisty roads are for fast drivers)

I think an unsanctioned could be a lot of fun. no need for a certain graphics package, could pull out the ballast, pull out the restrictor, etc, etc, what ever the organizer decides to allow. Bikes, ATVs, etc ...

Noticed this on SS.com

According to the event website, Wild West has been canceled

http://www.wildwestrally.org/competitors.html

boo.

doesn't sound like we are losing a "rim of the world" event here, but still a bummer. i was thinking of making the drive up ... meh oh wells

They haven't up-dated last years info yet. However I suspect they won't need to anyway....

is it actually canceled, or is it just a bad copy/paste of last year's page?
the original poster on SS hasn't been back on since the original post, so who knows...

The rest of the information is 2011, Supps and stage schedule not posted yet (listed as 'check back on July 23')

Don't know if the cancellation was listed before or not, it was the first time I looked at the page.

While I hate to see events go away, sometime that is what is needed for good events to flourish. Mountain Trials was cancelled this year but that might make way for new roads in new locations. Other events are at risk, and maybe the end result is a good thing.

Part of what has to happen is that when people are upset an event is being cancelled they need to ask themselves what they could have done to keep the event alive. Yah, I've heard that there are cliques of organisers who don't want to share the secret handshake, etc., but if that is why events are going away then there isn't much that can be done. That said, I can't imagine any organiser refusing good help that is offered up.

There is also a reality that some events are just destined to fade away.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2011 04:50PM by Morison.

Alex just save your money so you can do Big White Winter Rally. It's in my top three for sure and probably my favorite rally. Recce, some really cool stages, a lot of stage miles packed into one day. Plus bouncing off soft snow banks is fun . I'm hoping to make it up there again. I just need to find someone that needs a navi.

I feel like for my budget "more events" isn't what I need.

Events with more stage miles that aren't so far away would help me out much more.

Having lots of events that have smallish turnouts don't do anything to help entry fees or competition.

The solution I am pursuing is more close events that are short and cheap. Instead of one single 100 mile rally that costs $750 to enter I'd rather have four or five 30-50 mile sprint events with a $250-350 entry fee. Single road using Anders' RSIB methods to keep costs down for organizers and competitors.

I'm going to try to make Big White! It is probably the only time you could go rallying on Saturday and go snowboarding on Sunday. It's only 1200 miles from me making it one of the closer rallies...

Seems like I remember WW needing well over 100 volunteers to work last year, and it wasn't even close to the number we had registered. Nowadays for people who are just getting by to drive that far, pretty much spend 2 nites of lodging and get home at midnite Sunday is a lot to ask of volunteers. Many competitors want 2 day events, more bang for the buck I heard recently. The cost of that in volunteer expenses is huge. Not everyone wants to 'camp out'. I ain't sleeping on the ground for anyone...couldn't move for hours in the morning anyway (old people). Ralliests entry fees cover only a small part of the big picture. You rally at large expense of the volunteers.

It takes as much work to organize for 10 cars as 60 basically. The volunteer numbers relate to roads used, stage crews, road guards etc. more so than car count. Building car count at good events is a great goal. More cars, more excitement, more competition, more economic impact ...everyone wins.

And see, I'd rather camp because camping tends to be cheap and I've got a battery operated device that fills up my air mattress. Heck, at Medocino camping is free, which is prolly the only reason my friend and I are able to go. I camp at Hood (heck, I camped at hood when I was codriving). I camp at OTR. I camped at Olympus this year (when normally I get a room in Aberdeen) so that my friends could come too. And I've camped every time I've gone to WW in Pomeroy and we camped at Idaho the year I got to go there. If it weren't for camping, I prolly wouldn't be able to volunteer at all. No way I'd camp at Big White though.

Years ago on the East Coast there were events that had no sanctions or insurance. Today they would be called Rally Sprints. You would be surprised at who ran these events if I named names. Everyone behaved themselves, and a good time was had by all. I don't know if a full stage event could pull this off today, but a single road event would not have a problem running under the radar in my opinion.

Sean Gallagher