Back in the saddle

I have the upmost respect for the professionalism and abilities of all parties involved with NASA Rallysport west and Olympus. The best news is that Olympus is going to happen this year and for many years to come.

Before this thread gets out of hand as a NASA verses RA debate I will interject that there are some discussions better had outside of a web forum. and I say this from the perspective of someone involved with organizing rallies with NASA Rallysport East.

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Matt Smith

Racing in glorious black and red

My daily life is a Saab story (sold!)

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mothra
Before this thread gets out of hand as a NASA verses RA debate I will interject that there are some discussions better had outside of a web forum.

We totally agree.
No debate here - Just making our position clear.
We hope everyone has a great time at Olympus!

- Kris

There are some who might see the switch back into the Rally America camp as some sort of Travis-tea, but in the end the organisers had compelling reasons, or they wouldn't have done so.

Sustainable events that are affordable¹ are what is important to the grassroots competitor. I'm not convinced that being a National does anything to make an event more financially stable, but I'm also not privy to any of the financial landscape of NASA/RA Regional/National events. What I do know is that some of our national events struggle to make money while some of our regional events bring in healthy surpluses. (to the point that they financially support the national events, which is completely backwards in my mind.)

I think it is clear that it was the survival of the event for the grassroots competitors was at the forefront of the decision the Olympus organisers made. That's certainly what I take from Gene's post above.

¹Affordable is relative. Sustainable events may not be affordable for everyone.

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First Rally: 2001
Driver (7), Co-Driver (44)
Drivers (16)
Clerk (10), Official (7), Volunteer (4)
Cars Built (1), Engines Built (0) Cages Built (0)
Last Updated, January 4, 2015

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john vanlandingham
Blame is for idiots. losers.

Wow, that kinda sucks. Not the first time NASA got fucked by the event.

Interestingly, and for the record, Olympus had a non-compete under its NRS sanction if it left and went with R-A again when it was a USRC event, and NASA did not seek to enforce it when Olympus did jump, figuring that the rally world is a small one, and it is better to keep friends than make enemies.

Then, like the stupid girl who keeps getting used but dumped when the hot chick comes along, it again, when Olympus had to get out from under its non-compete that R-A was enforcing, agreed to go to the dance with Olympus.

Oh well. Or as Charlie Brown would say *sigh*

No ill will here, just some sage observation. I'm sure that if Olympus wants to come over again, that NRS will welcome her with open arms.

What ever happened to loyalty?

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"Talk about drugs. Driving a car like that, going that fast, it’s like all the drugs at once." - Tommy Byrne

"Now, Pinky, if by any chance you are captured during this mission, remember you are Gunther Heindriksen from Appenzell. You moved to Grindelwald to drive the cog train to Murren. Can you repeat that?" - The Brain

"non-compete" in rally here is just plain silly, if it was a big business here and there were 6-8 regional events in every state and a national in every state with thousands of spectators being bussed in on every stage and paid local staff for the nationals, then yeah, I could see it

Just a rant to decompress from After sleeping on it last night. I feel like.....will this happen again?

I can't complain about the need to buy another license. I've invested so much time, effort, money! Why the hell not do it, right?

Haven't been in the Rally world long enough to have any regional history to memory though

My first thought that comes to mind as Wilson so delicately put it....Where is the loyalty??

Business is bidness.... And sustainability wins in the end. NRS has been so kind to me and I would bet to others as well.

Learning from this is what I hope for in this community of like minded peeps.

Thanks for reading

Humbly

Clayton

Merrilee,

Since an event can form 1/8th or 1/10th of a championship, its loss can have a significant impact on the bottom line of a sanctioning body. So non-competes are not silly.

Wilson

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"Talk about drugs. Driving a car like that, going that fast, it’s like all the drugs at once." - Tommy Byrne

"Now, Pinky, if by any chance you are captured during this mission, remember you are Gunther Heindriksen from Appenzell. You moved to Grindelwald to drive the cog train to Murren. Can you repeat that?" - The Brain

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wvonkessler
Merrilee,

Since an event can form 1/8th or 1/10th of a championship, its loss can have a significant impact on the bottom line of a sanctioning body. So non-competes are not silly.

Wilson

if it's the difference between losing a rally, or a championship point, I think having the rally is more important

but then, when/if I ever get my car actually out on stage, it will be because I want to rally, and not because I want a championship point (any earned would be a nice bonus though)


if it's so important, why aren't they enforcing it for competitors too? want to rally in our championship, you can't run any other events in this country



lets get more roads and more rallies and more interest in the sport and more money into it before we start worrying about things like "non-compete"

Sustainability is the key. If the event can't survive then everyone loses. No event, no big show, no small show, no nothing. That's a fact Jack.

Loyalty, well how to do define that ? Olympus (reborn version) went USRC the first year and broke even. Went RA the next year (I wasn't involved with that decision) and had about 20 more entries . RA was the sanctioning body for every year after. Olympus would have stayed RA all along if not for the mess up, both sides could have done better. Sometimes being a grown up isn't about right or wrong but moving forward. NASA has never been fucked by Olympus. NASA was only involved last year because of my insistence , would have been independent otherwise. It was all arranged but I worked hard to make it NRS . The PNW has had a good relationship with both NRS and RA all along and switched sanctioning bodies whenever it benefitted the competitor.

With Oregon Trail and Olympus joined at the hip it benefits both events to be part of the same series, and it benefits the competitors in many ways. As this point I'd venture that if the RA partnership doesn't work this time it may well mean the demise of the Olympus. I doubt Olympus would happen in 2015 under NRS sanction either way. So everyone can 3rd base the decision but in the end it has been made with the best interests of our local competitors in mind, or so we intend.

"So everyone can 3rd base the decision but in the end it has been made with the best interests of our local competitors in mind, or so we intend.'
Of that, i have no doubt.

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Jay Woodward
Snohomish, WA
'90 Mazdog Frankenprotege
Chronologically, 46...

Me too

Thanks for explanation Gene!

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Clayto
Just a rant to decompress from After sleeping on it last night. I feel like.....will this happen again?

I can't complain about the need to buy another license. I've invested so much time, effort, money! Why the hell not do it, right?

Haven't been in the Rally world long enough to have any regional history to memory though

My first thought that comes to mind as Wilson so delicately put it....Where is the loyalty??

Business is bidness.... And sustainability wins in the end. NRS has been so kind to me and I would bet to others as well.

Learning from this is what I hope for in this community of like minded peeps.

Wanna talk history? Olympus started as a SCCA Pro Rally in 1973 and then jumped ship to NAR[R]A a couple years later. Then it went back to SCCA. Then it was FIA/SCCA. Then it disappeared for more than a decade. Then it came back as a USRC/NASA event for a year. Then it was RA for 6 years. Wild West ran as SCCA, RA and NASA at some point. So did Doo Wop.

Wanna talk loyalty? If Olympus was "loyal", it would have stayed with and ran as an RA event last year and would have been an RA national this year.

Wanna talk business? It takes tens of thousands of dollars, some of it needed upfront, to put on a rally. How would you feel if it was your bank account on the line, it is a couple of weeks out from the rally and you don't have enough entrants to break even?

There's my vent. Well, actually, my real vent would be about the lack of people stepping forward to organize rallies.

alan

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tipo158

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Clayto
Just a rant to decompress from After sleeping on it last night. I feel like.....will this happen again?

I can't complain about the need to buy another license. I've invested so much time, effort, money! Why the hell not do it, right?

Haven't been in the Rally world long enough to have any regional history to memory though

My first thought that comes to mind as Wilson so delicately put it....Where is the loyalty??

Business is bidness.... And sustainability wins in the end. NRS has been so kind to me and I would bet to others as well.

Learning from this is what I hope for in this community of like minded peeps.

Wanna talk history? Olympus started as a SCCA Pro Rally in 1973 and then jumped ship to NAR[R]A a couple years later. Then it went back to SCCA. Then it was FIA/SCCA. Then it disappeared for more than a decade. Then it came back as a USRC/NASA event for a year. Then it was RA for 6 years. Wild West ran as SCCA, RA and NASA at some point. So did Doo Wop.

Wanna talk loyalty? If Olympus was "loyal", it would have stayed with and ran as an RA event last year and would have been an RA national this year.

Wanna talk business? It takes tens of thousands of dollars, some of it needed upfront, to put on a rally. How would you feel if it was your bank account on the line, it is a couple of weeks out from the rally and you don't have enough entrants to break even?

There's my vent. Well, actually, my real vent would be about the lack of people stepping forward to organize rallies.

alan[/quote

Cheers Alan

Not an easy task at all to make these events happen. Where's the slush fund when u need it

It may be harder to get volunteers from the younger up and coming generations these days due to lack of instilling the mindset that it's good to volunteer and help out when needed in the community. Hopefully my free time can expand next year and actually show up for a Thursday meeting

I could say "sure, I'll step forward to organize" and then who knows how many people would end up in jail for conspiracy to commit murder.

Some of us shouldn't and know we shouldn't. I'm a worker bee, I've always been a worker bee, and I don't mean that just for rally, I'm that way outside of rally at any job I've ever had.

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Clayto
It may be harder to get volunteers from the younger up and coming generations these days due to lack of instilling the mindset that it's good to volunteer and help out when needed in the community. Hopefully my free time can expand next year and actually show up for a Thursday meeting

I get mixed reactions to trying to get people to volunteer and it hasn't seemed to be much about age. About 50% seem like they might consider it, and the other 50% just want to watch.

Sunday at OTR was a really big example of that because there was no spectator area on Sunday and I had sooooo many people asking me where to go to watch. Of course, volunteering doesn't guarantee being out on course, but there's a better chance of it then not having a chance at all. I was more diplomatic about it than that. But then, if they didn't bother reading the information about no spectator area, they wouldn't have bothered reading volunteer information either.