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john vanlandingham
What did ordinary humans not driving unreliable blue Jap-shit pay?

You sure about the contingency...somebody with an older car--the still just fine for 99.9% of us 1st gen Legacy---said their money was for 05 or something and later.
Don't know since its not a factor.

Subaru does 100% pay for the regional contigency no matter what year you drive. I pushed them to accept 1990 and new Legacies back when I got mine because for some reason they stated only 1995 and newer Legacies were eligable. Quick e-mail to VTCar (who handles it), and it was decided to let the older body style Legacies get payouts as well.

The contigencies do play a big part in decideing what events I'll do. One example is STPR vs RWV. I'm tempted to lean towards STPR mostly from the cost perspective. And I do look at things from a cost per mile or cost per minute of seat time more reaslistically. I factor in fuel for towing, lodging, food, and whatever I need to do to prepare for the event.

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alosix

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NoCoast
Are you spending a large amount of your personal wealth trying to become a professional? Then you are an idiot Ken Block.

If you think Ken Block spent any of his personal wealth on his own rally efforts... you just might be the idiot.
(I'll grant you he may have spent some money early, and likely covers his wife's efforts out of personal funds, but in terms of bankrolling the big program - I'd be shocked if he had any personal money involved)

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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.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2013 02:24PM by Morison.

Some people very close to KB say he did.

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Morison

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alosix

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NoCoast
Are you spending a large amount of your personal wealth trying to become a professional? Then you are an idiot Ken Block.

If you think Ken Block spent any of his personal wealth on his own rally efforts... you just might be the idiot.
(I'll grant you he may have spent some money early, and likely covers his wife's efforts out of personal funds, but in terms of bankrolling the big program - I'd be shocked if he had any personal money involved)

Why lean toward STPR? Using your criteria, it is further and the hotels cost more if you can get one.
The service moves, the waste management cow path is a car breaker, the forest stages are too fast and the event is not fun. (read: tech sucks) RWVa is the winner between the two.

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heymagic
Some people very close to KB say he did.

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Morison

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alosix

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NoCoast
Are you spending a large amount of your personal wealth trying to become a professional? Then you are an idiot Ken Block.

If you think Ken Block spent any of his personal wealth on his own rally efforts... you just might be the idiot.
(I'll grant you he may have spent some money early, and likely covers his wife's efforts out of personal funds, but in terms of bankrolling the big program - I'd be shocked if he had any personal money involved)

If you listen to him in ESTD it sounds like at least for the WRC effort he put a good bit into it. The guy seems smart enough financially to have not bankrupted himself over it though.

I'd imagine stateside/GRC there's enough $$ flowing around to keep that mostly covered.

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This isn't floor mat anarchy

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heymagic
Some people very close to KB say he did.

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Morison

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alosix

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NoCoast
Are you spending a large amount of your personal wealth trying to become a professional? Then you are an idiot Ken Block.

If you think Ken Block spent any of his personal wealth on his own rally efforts... you just might be the idiot.
(I'll grant you he may have spent some money early, and likely covers his wife's efforts out of personal funds, but in terms of bankrolling the big program - I'd be shocked if he had any personal money involved)

The other question is: do you consider endorsements for the Gym videos and GRC which also flow onto the playing in the woods car as personal wealth money? I'd not be surprised to see that doing those other two things pays the bills and indirectly funds the rally car playing out in the woods. If that's the case...is it really rally paying the bills?

Dave

Someone way smarter than me and faster than all of us once said to me something like, I never remember how much I spent, I remember how much fun I had. Thus I really care mostly if the roads are awesome... Pretty sure Stpr is one of closest events to this person. You'll never see him entered though...

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Grant Hughes

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DaveK
The other question is: do you consider endorsements for the Gym videos and GRC which also flow onto the playing in the woods car as personal wealth money? I'd not be surprised to see that doing those other two things pays the bills and indirectly funds the rally car playing out in the woods. If that's the case...is it really rally paying the bills?

I'm guessing, at best, and the reality is when there's that kind of money moving around it'll get grey really fast.
I'd imagine the rally funding to come directly from the Gymkana and GRC that offsets the 'loss' of the rally program. Could he make more personally if he did the other two and ditched rally? I'd think so. Is keeping a loosing 'business group' of a company alive the same as spending personal wealth... maybe.
One thing for sure is there's a handful of people who make a living supporting his efforts.

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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.

Aside from like a 1 mile stretch I dont think WM is that bad anymore. Its gotten better every year I've done it.

Some people say US rally needs to look more professional? Now im confused so to be a professional I need to make a living at it. Now I also need a clean nice haualer and freshly painted clean rallycar. Hand out posters and give away merchandise. Im fine with that but whats the title of the teams that are fast? Anders said winners but that doesnt seem to fit. Im going to go to a winners driving school so I can learn how to be a winner?

For years I thought to be a pro was to be competing at the top level of a given sport.

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First rally 2013
Rally car type AWD subaru
Total rallies as driver 6
Total rally cars built 2
Total rally cars caged 3
Total rally cars repaired from offs 4
Total years racing exp other then rally 19 yrs
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Morison
the idea people would likely pay more for better roads and better event operations.

Since you and I both organize rallies, and the quality of event operations is something that is of great interest to us, we both WISH racers made choices based on this parameter. However, I don't think they do. It's usually eight to ten rallies into their "career" before they can get to where they can judge good or bad rallies, to really have a framework to judge anything against. And since about half of all rally drivers do 3 or fewer rallies ever, that half cannot possibly use that parameter.

And none of them keep measurements or metrics on that sort of thing, so there's no communal knowledge. I've been a proponent of a "driver's union" where the racers would keep stats (and make them available) on all the events on things like scoring promptness, documentation accuracy, road book accuracy, scheduled vs run stages, all that.

I'd put money that if you picked three metrics related to event operations, measured them, and tried to correlate them to event attendance (the ultimate measure of driver choice) you would not find any large correlation.

Sadly.

Anders

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Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.

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Anders Green
I'd put money that if you picked three metrics related to event operations, measured them, and tried to correlate them to event attendance (the ultimate measure of driver choice) you would not find any large correlation.

If you do that and hire Grant out to make the statistics say whatever you want, then he could turn pro!

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Reamer
Some people say US rally needs to look more professional? Now im confused so to be a professional I need to make a living at it. Now I also need a clean nice haualer and freshly painted clean rallycar. Hand out posters and give away merchandise. Im fine with that but whats the title of the teams that are fast? Anders said winners but that doesnt seem to fit. Im going to go to a winners driving school so I can learn how to be a winner?
For years I thought to be a pro was to be competing at the top level of a given sport.

Some people are wrong.
US rally needs to be more entertaining. US rally needs more real drivers instead of a field mostly composed of people trying to look fast.

Are there teams that are fast? I haven't paid as much attention in recent years but I thought Block and Diggins are about it? Pretty sure Reeves showed how mediocre the rest of the field is...

Professional is competing at the top level of the sport OR being paid to compete. Top level is WRC or ERC. US premiere "championship" is nowhere near top level. Nowhere...

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Grant Hughes

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Reamer
Some people say US rally needs to look more professional? Now im confused so to be a professional I need to make a living at it. Now I also need a clean nice haualer and freshly painted clean rallycar. Hand out posters and give away merchandise.

Actually, that's pretty much what "the Spitzner proposal" of a decade ago came up with.

http://linaracing.com/temp/VisionGuide.pdf

"Appealing team image. Vehicle appearance. Team presentation."

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Grassroots rally. It's what I think about.