SCCA ProRally at Ojibwe Forest

[666fast]

Well, I went to it over the past weekend. It was the first rally I had ever been to so I was expecting it to be a great time. The exact opposite happened though.
The drive was farther than expected which was a downer, but not too big of a deal. On the way, we did get pulled over, 69mph in a 55mph zone. :roll:
Not a single other car on the road, except the State Patrol officer. It'll only be about $70, but still, I think it's bullshit.
Finally we get to the rally. We were told the first stage would start at noon. We arrived at about 11:30, only to find out the first stage wasn't untill 5:45pm! So getting up at 5AM was a waste. I could have used the extra sleep.
Finally, the race is about to start. Well, the first stage was about 50 miles away from the headquarters! After another hour of driving, we get there. This is where everyone, I mean every single spectator there, got pissed.
At the last event in New York I believe, two spectators were killed. A tragedy yes, but the Insurance the covers the SCCA had a fit. So you can't get right up to the road. They had spectator areas, which were obscene. Imagine a T intersection. The road where to cars passed was the top of the T. We had to stand in a two lane road and watch the cars roar by in about 5 seconds. They also made us standabout30 feet away from the road. So all in all, you got to see about 5 seconds of each car as they went by. From 30 feet away.
What kind of bullshit is that? :x One of the best things about rally racing, is being able to get so close to the action. All they would have to dois put up a sign that says enter at your own risk, or have everyone sign a waiver. But no, they ruined the stage.
Onto the second stage. We left thinking it would be just as bad. We looked at the map that the SCCA gave out, and guess what? The second stage was another 50 miles away and started at 7PM. Needless to say, we had no chance in hell of making it. Basically, you had to choose what to see. the first or second stage. Yet another strike against them.
After that stage, they had their tech session stuff. The teams get a little while to fix cars and such. We decided to go and eat instead.
Finally, at 10PM we check into the hotel. Then we head off to the last stage, which starts at 11:30PM. Cool, a night stage. Well, the map they gave us was so horrible, most people never found the spectator area. Now everyone is really pissed!
After two hours of driving around in the middle of nowhere, we give up. We ran across many people trying to find it, of course we were no help.
But get this, one of the many people we came across was the Team Hyundai truck. Even they had no idea where the hell to go.
We went back to the hotel, which was full of people that were there to see the rally. Everyone was out in the parking lot drinking, so we figured we would join in.
I didn't talk to a single person that managed to find the last stage and none of them were happy about the spectator areas.
So all in all, I spent about 12 hours driving, $80 in gas, $80 for the hotel room, a $70 speeding ticket, $30 going out to eat and it was all for nothing!
In total, I must have seen about 10 minutes of action. I didn't even turn on the video camera and my friend didn't use his or his digital camera. What a waste.

If I ever go to a rally again, it won't be in this country unless they drastically change some rules. The SCCA seriously botched this one up.
My friend said we should save up and go to the Acropolis rally and see some real action. It just might happen.

[geekdiggy]

Originally Posted by 666fast All they would have to dois put up a sign that says enter at your own risk, or have everyone sign a waiver.

i guess it's not like japan where you say "don't pass this point" and everybody will obey. "enter at your own risk" for most americans is an open invitation to come in just to see if you'll get hurt or not. this is one of the reasons the US will never EVER have a WRC event, cuz everyone has such a hard time organizing/following rules. and when spectators die, it's their fault.

as for getting pulled over, well when you have a badge with a number on it, you can pull over and abuse anybody you want, even when the only other being on the road is a ran-over squirrel. God bless america

never been to a real rally before but from what i hear, your best bet is to chuck it over to finland instead of greece. greece will be bloody hot and slow, finland is like, FAST. plus if you go to finland, no matter what you wear you'll still be more stylish than everyone else 8)

[stracing]

you finally lost your rally spectating virginity

i know how you feel about going all over the place to watch each stage. over here they once started the event in the city and then the second stage was moved to a town about the same distance you had to travel.

but that really suck that you only saw 5 seconds each time. the best thing is watching them slide their way in and out of a corner. thats the point of spectating rally events. the organisers really need sort it out for the fans.

[666fast]

I was wondering if anyone was gonna reply to this thread! LOL

It truly was terrible, I found a guy online that actually made it to the nightstage. He said that there was maybe 20 people there! :roll:
Here is a little video from the spectator area of the nightstage. it's not much different from the stage we actually made it too. You'll see how crappy it was.
http://home.comcast.net/~amohrlant/temp/ojib.avi

Geekdiggy, I myself said Finland, but everyone that was with us said Greece. If I went to Finland, I'd be by myself. Which I don't mind. I wouldn't mind going to Rally Great Britain either.

[rp]

Damn, never knew the rally scene was this dire in the states... What about rallycross?

[666fast]

As far as I know, rally Cross doesn't even exist in here.

[novass]

i had the same assumptions when i went to Rim of the World Rally, my first rally too. man it fuckin sucked!! it was freezing, constantly raining, windy as hell, mud everywhere, and they never even ran the fuckin cars cause it was too foggy. to top it off, some jackass broke his truck in the middle of the road so no one could drive up the mountain, we all had to hike about 2 miles thru mud, while raining, and everyone that parked at the base of the mountain got their car towed, thankfully we left before that happened.

im willing to go again, just gonna think a little bit harder next time and do some pre-planning. we sat in bushes for 3 hours waiting for the fucking cars to go, but they cancelled it without tellin all the people up there, so our only option was to get drunk in the bushes in the freezing cold, wet bullshit!!! ahhh im still pissed.

[Billyjuan]

Well i was with Novass at the Rim or the World Rally which sucked because it fucking rain and they had to cancel everythign and we didnt even got to see any rally at all. But as like novass " i am willing to give it another try at it"

[novass]

Originally Posted by Billyjuan Well i was with Novass at the Rim or the World Rally which sucked because it fucking rain and they had to cancel everythign and we didnt even got to see any rally at all. But as like novass " i am willing to give it another try at it"

HA!! your bitch ass left, you lazy bastards didnt even make it to the top of the hill. LOL it sucked up there :cry: :cry:

[geekdiggy]

Originally Posted by 666fast As far as I know, rally Cross doesn't even exist in here.

rally cross does exist here in the US but it's only about as mainstream as street racing, and their presence are both similar in that rally cross is often run on a race-what-you-brung format in some places. they hold official events organized on very low budgets it seems, but it's here.

[666fast]

So auto cross is basically our form of Rally Cross then?

[geekdiggy]

oh wait nm i think i confused rally cross with auto cross

[666fast]

Just came across this picture, it was one of the cars at the rally I attended. Look at the license plate!




Another wierd thing about the car, it uses Corvette brake calipers. I found that kind of wierd on a Mopar sponsered car.