How To Start Rally

It's been killin me, I really want to start local races(rally) but how/where do I start. Do i need to sign up on anything, any fees, any licenses, you guys gotta help me out cause im acheing to go......where are the locations, ahhhh i need help

 

talk with mark utech he is a member here

 

I've built and raced a 92 Golf GTI for a couple of years. What do you want to know? I have been out of the game for the past 2-3 years, so stuff might have changed, but we started from nothing and ended up a pretty compitent G2 team.

First, you need a car, trailer and tow vehicle. Build the car to the current Rally-America safety tech specs, and bring it to a race. You will be given a log book for the car where they make notes as to which races you've run and the status of the car.

Typically, for a race weekend we would commonly spend a couple grand, EASY... Entry fees, fuel, food, hotel, and misc costs. That didn't include anything that had to do with fixing the car.

I would get on the Rally-America website and just search for a while - all of the information that you're looking for will be there.

but, if you have specific questiosns, I'm sure people here would be willing to help.

I used to run a website that fully documented our entire car build including costs and what we put into it. I wish I still had that stuff.

 

what are the steps for the ultimate noob to start this, i want to compete eventually

 

ok, so yeah, i figured it would be one of those(its hellaciously expensive) things.....what about the weekend warrior, no compete just for fun, local

 

I don't know if this is necesarily going to apply because the costs for running seem to keep going up, and the safety requirements seem to be getting tighter and tighter. I understand this, but I feel like the little "mom and pop" rally teams aren't going to be able to afford to put a car together and enter events like we did.... Anyway, here is all I can come up with before leaving work for the day.

First:
Get yourself a dedicated race car and hit as many RallyCross events as you can. You'll rub shoulders and get to know the people in the local rally community. They're all awesome. Get onto the Rally-America website and search through that completley.

Second: Figure out what group you want to run. I would STRONGLY suggest running Group2 or Group5 to start with. The platform is going to be a HELL of a lot cheaper, and you're less likely to kill yourself.

Third: Set aside a year and a moderate budget to build the car. Build it to be strong and slow. This is a sport where you'll do VERY well if you can finish consistantly - without breaking down or crashing. While you're building the car, go to every event that you can. Sign up as a volunteer and watch and take in all that you can.

Get yourself a co-driver, a tow vehicle and a trailer. Sign up for your first event and prepare to have more fun than anything else you've ever done in your life.

I hope this helps a little.

 

This is what RallyCrosses are for.

 

Ted (Gridlocked) has it right. You can also run local road rallies. There is one coming up in a week and a half. Go here;

http://www.rallymasterpro.com/tombstone/

The next RallyCross is Nov 18 in Cannon Falls. I strongly suggest you come to this event. Registration is here;

http://mnautosport.com/scca-lol/rally/rallyx/events.php

rules are here;

http://www.scca.com/documents/Rally Rules/2007rxRules.pdf

car rules start on page 18

Hope that helps.
Mark Utecht

 

Troll Specialstage.com, they'll tell you exactly what gridlock did. It's what I'm doing. I'm building up a GR2 91 civic hatch. There's actually another one in town with an LS swap already done for 1200$ You should look into it.

 

Have you been to any of the local rallies as a volunteer? I'd strongly suggest helping out at a local rally so you can get a feel for the atmosphere and structure of an event. You may also want to help crew with a local team to see how things are run on the competitor side.

Beyond that you may want to start as a codriver so you don't have to invest in a car to find out if this sort of racing is really for you. Codrivers are generally responsible for half or a portion of the entry fee and their own room and board during an event. Some teams are a little more generous than this but it's still going to cost you some cash.

Then if you're ready to build and race a car start with G2/G5 like all the above have said. As you're building it up you can take it to rallycross events to learn how it performs and get it ready for the stage roads. I'd be hesitant to jump right into AWD cars in PGT and Open classes unless you have some very deep pockets. Even so those classes are very competitive, not to say that G2/G5 is easy.

 

Oh and there's a rally coming up next Friday in the upper peninsula of Michigan, about 6 hours from the Cities.
http://www.lsprorally.com/

 

ok gotcha(to all) thank you tremendously, I really appreciate it, Some sort of sticky?????moderators???.....I really want to be able to start in a non-compete atmosphere and play around to get a feel.....thank you all

 

RallyCross is perfect for this. Plus, a lot of the people who RallyCross are involved in one way or another with local Stage Rally.

We had a full-on rally car (Todd Jarvey's Gallant VR-4), two built ice-race cars (Mark Utecht's 99 2.5RS and Kevin Beck's 92 Plymouth Sundance - don't laugh too hard, he was actually beating Utecht the first half of the day). Then there were a couple of dedicated rallycross cars with various levels of modification (my 91 Sentra SE-R, for example), and the rest of the 21 driver field was people in their street cars.

Scott Parrott, who has competed in a Group 5 Neon was there, but running in his stock Dodge Durango (and did pretty good too!). Kerry & Kathy Freund were there with their GC 2.5RS, Kerry is one of the organizers of the Ojibwe forests rally, and Kathy, his daughter works most of the local rallies and has competed as a co-driver.

Erik Dahl who shared my Sentra for the event (and beat me in it ) is a longtime organizer for Headwaters, Shooting Star, and Ojibwe.

Brent Carlson was driving his Audi A4, and as always, making that pig of a car move way faster than it should be able to. Brent is the co-driver of Jim Cox's crazy LS1 powered S10 rally truck. His wife Carrie has been co-driving in advance cars for Amy "ScandiaWRX" at events this year, look for them in 000 at LSPR.

Denny McGinn, our eventmaster for this event, has co-driven for me in an advance car, as well as radio support and co-driver for heavy sweep (the trucks that come pull the crashed cars out of the woods).

I'm sure I'm missing other rally-involved people who were there this weekend, but my point is that it's a great low-key way to get a feel for driving on loose surfaces and start to talk to people who can answer your rally questions and help you along.

I'll be at LSPR, look for the black WRX wagon with red MNSubaru stickers and an antenna taller than the car...

--
Mark Holden
Clerk of Course
Northern Lights/Shooting Star Minnesota Regional Rally Weekend 2008
www.shootingstarrally.com

 

great thread guys, i've been wondering the same thing

 

I thought I heard somewhere that when beginning to rally in Rally-America your car must be 2WD and NA until you get some seat time and licenses. Is this true?

 

Yes, unless you have extensive, documented motorsport background (not autocross or rallycross type stuff), you must start in either Production or Group 2.

You can actually rally a 4WD vehicle, in the RallyTruck class, which is a subset of production. But that means rallying something like a Chevy S10 or Ford Ranger, at which point you'd probably get spanked by even a lightly modded VW GTI or a a Sentra or Civic.

An older FWD Subie would work for Group 2 also. I wouldn't suggest running an older car of any make in Production, as you must use OEM parts for most everything, and they must match the MY of your car, etc. Gets expensive when you break stuff and can't just get a new piece at the dealer because they don't stock them anymore.

 

^Good to know thanks

 

and you cant drive away with the fast fill gas can still in your car

 

That might be tough, at least someone will be holding on to it pulling it out

 

how about some age requirements? to compete? co drive? volentueer?

 

Valid state driver's license (not learner's permit) to drive. 16 and up to co-drive regardless of DL status. Any responsible age for many worker positions. 16 and up for remaining positions. Anyone 17 and under must have a signed minor waiver (parental/guardian consent). The form can be obtained from Rally America.

Mark Utecht

 

Mark,

How old was Tyler Dill when he was rocking the RX7, 18 or 19?

NOTE: The shoelace coming out of the black vent on the drivers side, going over the mirror. He broke a throttle cable while on stage, took the shoe lace out of his shoe, hooked it up, and was pulling it with his left hand while driving... Keep in mind, he had to shift with his right... And, to top it all off, I think he had a stage time in the top 10 or something silly.

 

Does that guy have three hands or did he just steer with his knee?

 

HA HA.
We've been talking about building "Rally Land" for YEARS and years.
Unfortunately, it's a pipe dream.

 

and you could paint ball on it too!

 

I do not know his age but he was still in high school at the time.

Mark Utecht

 

give me a year, I'm working on cheap 3-5 acres.

Plus, if anyone dares, we have a heavily wooded area (like so heavy it scrapes your paint even in the best line) that is a Rally-style Rally-x course. You get up to about 60 in a honda, 80 in a 2.5 rs, working on a better jump, water splash etc. If anyone wants to make the trip (to moorhead) get a hold of me and come have some fun. I spend as much time out there as I can, One day I used a full tank of gas out of my civic....

Edit: the rally-x track is a couple loops, there are 6 variants with out running backwards. Also, we're expanding thanks to John Deere
We only have records for the three major loops so far.

Records:
Shortest: 45.8 seconds
Middle: 1 minutes 45.2 seconds
Longest: 3 minutes 13.4 seconds.

Average speed is 30-45 mph
My average speed is 40-55 (in dry) but I also wreck a lot.

By these times I'd say the track is considerably longer than an average Rally X course, obviously smaller than any true stage rally. But it does make for some fun chase/enduro style racing with friends.

Also, we have a huge bonfire pit for those that prefer to drink and watch.

 

I dunno, Jim Cox was pretty competitive in his truck for a long time. Or at least he was at SnoDrift because he could navigate his way out of the snowdrifts and banks with all that clearance. But with the trucks you don't learn about high-centering like you do in the cars...

 

He was competitive in P class yes, but how many P class cars were there? Not that there are any more now than then (less, probably).

I'd honestly rather run a 2WD S10 in G2 than a 4WD one in P.

 

F-ing-AWESOME!!!

How about taking it to the next level some day, too!!!
Multiple stalls of heaed work area / storage area.
A bar & grill on the main road to help fund the project.
Dorm style lodging.
Heavy equipemnt for track repair / watering/ modification.

 

I'm trying my damndest to the bank to approve a loan for 3-5 acres, a 150 x 100 steel building (10 stalls, 2 lifts) and a older newholland skid steer from my current employer. the hard part is the 20% down. I just paid my house of this year (after owning for only 3) so i'm supper short on liquid asset right now. Plus, i make very little money on paper.

 

it's a bit slow today, so I hosted a couple of the pix of my build. When I was putting the car together, I did an extensive job of documenting all of the details including cost - and had a blog of sorts... Thats no longer, but here are some pix of how I started...

Bought an 89 Golf GTI with tranny issues for $500.00


Started gutting it - and found a TON of rust.


Took the engine out to get to the tranny.
Stich welded the engine bay seams, steering rack, strut towers, and anything else I could find.


Built a custom dual master cylinder that my team mate designed.


Brought the fuel pick-up into the spare tire hole, re mounted the fuel pump and ran the lines inside the car via stainless steel tube.


Got the car back together- mostly...


Ended up trying to get the car to run right for 3 months. Extreme amounts of frustration and anger. Turns out whe had the timing about 270 degrees off, so it would run but not right...


Don't punch a car, it's not it's fault.

 

Re-located battery to back of the car and did a bit of cheap strut tower strengthening.


Got a sweet hydraulic E-break that some guy fabricated.


Took it to a couple Rally Crosses. The Welded diff was a REAL pain to drive on the streets, but hooked up like nobody's business on the dirt. And the VR6 front springs jacked up the front end pretty high... :biggrin:






And, finally sold it to some guy in Michigan to have an extra $2,800 to use to buy my house.


Holden an Utecht, do you guys miss my GTI as much as I do?

 

Love the snow pic, i does look a little jacked up in front via the springs

 

I miss your antics more than the car but the car was pretty cool.

Mark Utecht

 

I never saw the car actually move.

I do recall the Saturn of Power though.

 

That's not the one that had the engine catch fire and the aluminum head melt into itself at Headwaters, was it? Was that one of Micah's first entries or was that someone else?

 

No, that must be a different Saturn.

The Saturn of Power was Gridlocked's old daily driver before the WRX. It was something of a sarcastic name

But he made it go around in the dirt at rallycrosses pretty good.

 

ha ha ha.
SARCASTIC!!! What are you talking about?!!?!
That was 16 valves of pure... something.
hahaha.