Threads are useless for first timers as they are soon buried. I'm working on a "Rally Univeristy" section of the NRS site.

Anders

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Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.

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Anders Green
Threads are useless for first timers as they are soon buried. I'm working on a "Rally Univeristy" section of the NRS site.

Anders

What about rally Elementary School? Rally Middle School? Rally High School? Rally high! has a certain ring to it!
(about as semi-serious as I can be while making lunch for the squirmy-girls)

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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.

This comes from reading a recent thread about a cage building issue. In my business many places have a prequalification process and some places maintain a list of prequalified consultants for specific services. I think that a link on the NRS webpage that goes to list of cage builders that are "prequalified" to build NRS spec cages would be extremely helpful. The regional tech inspectors probably have a list of people/shops that should be on this list and other builders could request to be placed on the list. Of course being on the list is no guarentee that your cage will get log booked and you would not require someone to use a builder on the list.

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Matt Smith

Racing in glorious black and red

My daily life is a Saab story (sold!)

I am currently a first timer, getting my car ready for my first season. Here are some things I am having a hard time getting definite info on. I apologize if any of this is in the rulebook and I missed it but there is a lot of information to process all at once. Also i see some things on the interwebs that seem to contradict the rulebook.

-what do I need in my car saftey-wise other that a cage?
what's in a spill kit?
what's in a first aid kit?
anything else like battery cutoff, ect.............?
do we need a hans device? couldn't find it in the rule book but someone mentioned it here in the forum.

-how early do i need to sign up?

-what are all the fees i have to pay before i get there?

-does my co-driver pay any?

-what decals do i need and where can i find them?

-what do i do when i first get there?

thanks a lot for doing this. having all the info in one place will make it easier to get started.

Anders, I agree about the numbers and decals and such.

One rally I did provided them, the rest didn't. None of them say in the supps whether I am expected to provide numbers, ro if the rally will provide them.

The RA rules have this picture about approved locations for all sorts of RA advertising stickers, event banners, RA banners, and such, but those don't actually ever seem to be used, and I've never actually displayed them.

Nasa just says it's up to the 'championships' to define sticker packages.

I remember when I was first looking at this stuff, one of the rulebooks said to go to some specific site to get the stickers, but that site (rallygrafix) didn't sell them because they were out of business for a while.

Where can I get my cage built?

I found a place that did a lot of road race cages, and showed them the rules, and still had to take it back a couple of times to add gussets and change some tubes. Would have liked to have taken it to a place that specializes in rally cages, so I didn't have to do all of that.

For the noob this question is the most important.

Which direction should my flat bill cap being oriented?

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Nick Taylor.
Knobhead.
Los Angeles, CA.

For my first co-driving experience, the hardest part... Or atleast what worried me the most, was everything that didn't involve actual racing.

Where to be, when, and how. Transit without a working ODO, meeting times, regrouping times etc.
Luckily for me Tom Barton is extremely experienced, and this was only a Rally Sprint.

You mean I can just sign up and do a rally? I was surprised but thought it was great that I could just pay the fee for a licence and go...

Where do I find a codriver? (hint: get an experienced one)

A bit more advanced, but a guide on how time cards and controls work would be great. Its a stressful one to learn by doing.

Worth stating the obvious: In order to avoid heartbreak its critical to talk to experienced folk. Its really surprising how friendly and helpful your future "competitiion" turn out to be, as well as the scruteneers..

And how you do pronounce "recce"?

why should I read the rulebook when I can just ask someone on a forum for the answer?

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-KTurner
Stomp down on the exhilarator and hold on to the wheel.

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alkun
You mean I can just sign up and do a rally? I was surprised but thought it was great that I could just pay the fee for a licence and go...

Where do I find a codriver? (hint: get an experienced one)

A bit more advanced, but a guide on how time cards and controls work would be great. Its a stressful one to learn by doing.

Worth stating the obvious: In order to avoid heartbreak its critical to talk to experienced folk. Its really surprising how friendly and helpful your future "competitiion" turn out to be, as well as the scruteneers..

And how you do pronounce "recce"?

Wreck-ie, reck-eeeee.
From WWII British Army slang for reconnaissance. Ya know the same people who brought you such pithy terms as carbie, dizzy, sparkie plug, piccies, and the great "Wellie" as seen in the co-driver's ecouraging "Give 'er full wellie, man!"
Full wellie ?

This is a pair o wellies:


They are the most common footwear once you're off the High Street..
And obviously what everybody wears in the countryside and as rally is a rural sport, around the rally car.
So full wellie is "full gas".

Now since you drive a Swedish car the phrase you need to know is "ger järnet" (the g goes soft like 'y' in front of some vowels) and this is what they mean:
From Google images for the above


Originally this is what they were referring to, this man is about to give it the iron


Klart?

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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.

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john vanlandingham
If I have a blue Subaru GC8 with graphic pack, and enter, does the organsier pay for the Groupies, or are they free?

Where are the groupies?

Are there groupies at all the Parc Exposes? What about at regrouping controls?

Have the groupies been thru a medical check or should I just sheath me ol John Thomas with a foot of FIA approved roll bar padding?

I have a lot more first time questions but I may have forgotten the best ones..

Oh John... This made my day.

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ofensus
Anders, I agree about the numbers and decals and such.

One rally I did provided them, the rest didn't. None of them say in the supps whether I am expected to provide numbers, ro if the rally will provide them.

Not entirely true, Chris. NNR had a section in the supps that said that you were to provide them, and if you didn't have them you could contact one of the organizers (me) to have some numbers cut. Prescott provided them, as it was a USRC event and those always provide them (but that may not have been clear in the supps). It was only Mendocino and HDT where it was unclear. (Mendo was unclear about a lot of stuff though...they're workin' on it...)

I think having a general rally-college guide is a great idea, Anders. You'll probably want to split parts of it into subsection that answer questions specific to various regions/series. For instance, ARC signups are done via your system and probably have a whole different set of questions from RA signups which are done via, um... who knows? And those have a different set of questions from CRS signups which are done via the Gibeault system (and the CRS website should have a section to handle that one, a project I'll stick on our agenda.)

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Self-righteous douche canoe

A big thing I see is people not having the proper insurance info. They just show up with the small proof of insurance card instead of what my insurance company call the "binder" that has the limits on it. Same goes for other required forms.

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hoche
Not entirely true, Chris. NNR had a section in the supps that said that you were to provide them

Hoche, you're right. I shouldn't have said none, but some.

I'm not trying to knock the organizers, and not trying to complain. It's just something that a first timer may have trouble figuring out like I did, between supps, and the two different rulebooks, and the fact that what's in the rulebook (at least for RA) doesn't reflect the reality of what's actually required.

It's not a big deal, and I have a vinyl cutter at my shop, I cut numbers at cost of materials anyways.