Saw on the Rally America page that OFR will not be part of the 2010 Rally America National Championship, but it will only be a Regional Event. http://www.rally-america.com/story.php?article=540
i am happy that i was able to attend the last National OFR. i hope the event can survive as a regional and keep the costs down.
It's nice to see some of the big names with really nice cars run also (don't get me wrong any rally to me is a blast to watch), and for some of us without the time/money to travel to see other events only had OFR to see them...
if this change means that a driver will have to run every event to win the series and there are no dropped events i think that it will be good for the sport as a whole. more drivers at more events means more competition. more competition means that there is a better story to be told. if that happens we will see US rally on TV again. I hope OFR is still run. it would be a shame to lose it. but costs need to come down and that might be hard to do without the added national entries. time for rally in northern MN to get back to its roots.
so what will become of OFR now? I saw this post by Mr. Larson on ss OFR isn't close to a major city. Without the draw of the big names will many people come to spectate? Will enough people even come to volunteer? Will the event be able to have as many stage miles or even close to the same?
as much as this sucks to hear bout OFR im still will to come out and work cause its a very short drive for me! its weird that they wouldnt do the rally in the HQ's state for the whole rally company!
RA is a business, they do whatever they think makes the most sense for their business. I hope it all works out for the average competitor in the midwest - traveling is so expensive, I can't afford to go around the country to race in a large event. Let's hope OFR and LSPR can still carry on with solid regional entries
100AW is pretty "close" oh yea, now I guess I definitely won't be building an SP car since the close national events are gone. gonna have some fun doing an Open build instead this winter.
Wow, that sucks. Then even axe LSPR. I guess I don't see it, but I do. I know for me, I probably won't be heading up anymore. I wanted to see our local guys compete on the big stage with the best of the best. If it is just going to be a regional, it is basically going to be a bigger, longer Nemadji Trail rally. I am not driving 5 hours for that. As for the RA side, They do have a serious issue that needs to be taken care of. I have been going for the last 8 years. This year was the first year that I have ever heard them call the sheriff multiple times to have people removed from a location. As the sport has grown, so has the amount of spectators. Then you throw in Ken and Travis and the spectator group gets even larger. And now you have everyone with their self-centered entitlement telling marshals to go f-themselves, you will run into more problems. By far this year had the most radio chatter about spectator problems. In years past it was either cows or people who don't know how to park. Either way, it is pretty sad for the rally and the region. So much for trying to plan a huge rallyfest for next year. Russ
agreed multiple times did i see as soon as a car went by 5-10 people every time running accross the track even after they stated no one move. i mean at the beginning the spacing was pretty good on the cars but at the end with some of the slower runners and what not there were some faster ones catching each other and the idiots could have very well been hit. On another note it would be nice if they set up more spectator areas because this would cut down on the amount of people feeling they need to run willy nilly to try and find a good spot. i understand that they only have a limited amount of places that are accessable without walking down the track for x amount of miles and have a limited supply of volenteers but meybe they could do something like that in the future. just a thought
I mean this with absolutly no disrespect towards you Russ, But if you and other volunteers have that attitude about OFR being a reagonal only... that is how it will die. If the only reason volunteers came out the OFR or LSPR is because "the big guys" were there, then they will die without volunteers. It does kinda suck, on a certain level. but on the other hand when SCCA decided they were going to drop Rally 5 years ago... some thought it was then end, but look at where has gotten in the last few years. Nobody can safely say what will happen but only time will tell. I HOPE that the 2 rallies can make it as reagional only rallies! but that wont happen unless we still get competitors, and more importantly, volunteers to still come to the rallies! Just my $.02... and again please do not take it the wrong way.
if i had found out about it sooner i would have deff loved to be a volenteer and being it my 1st rally i thought it would be good to just watch and not be running around chasing little wankers that cant follow the rules.
agreed, we need to keep up interest in OFR and LSPR around here to keep the events strong. Let's not let this format change negatively impact these races! I'm happy to have gotten to run them this year and I absolutely loved the experience - I'm hoping for the best for next year.
yeah it sucks, but either way it will still be a ton of fun and if the damn polish teams continue to grow we won't need the national guys to come out to LSPR and OFR....:biggrin:
ugh i wanted to murder some of them polish guys they were deffinatly horny if u know what i mean haha. they would not lay off them things every 2 seconds i swear
I am coming from the standpoint of wanting to see more people than the usual suspects. If OFR can get the same amount of people coming to the rally, I will continue to go. If it is going to be 8-10 cars, for me, it is not worth it. I am by no means says that because SRTUSA won't be here next year, I am not going. I want to see more than 10 cars. I want to see different cars that are not going to show up at the Nemadji rallies. *I* can't justify the cost to see the same 10 cars that I can see by going to the Nemadji rally. I have tried to help. I have offered the use of the club to help get the rally to run smooth. I have tried for 3 years. I have been shot down every time. Not much I can do. Russ
I think alot of the National teams made the decision that OFR didn't count anyway (of course it counted but why don't the other teems really show? It is like they decided they could live with out the points), even before this news. Look at how little competition SRT usa has at these events. No one else seemed to worry to much about it before hand either.
Im with Russ on this. I really enjoy seeing the teams from out of state come in for OFR, and Im not talking just travis and ken. Its the little guys in the sport that dont have huge name sponsors come in. I mostlikely will not be attending the OFR regional rallys cause ill be saving money to go to snow drift or 100AW, and ill still work the nemadji series. also im mad because they still have not posted the winner of the OFR photo contest!!!
would be interesting to see a statistic on how many people actually attend from fargo. how many will still go now that there is no Travis or Ken?
only 10 teams come to nemadji because it isnt worth taveling from out of state for such a small rally. IF ojibwe can keep the length people from out of state will come out. one way to get out of state people to come would be for a club to offer to pay some of the entry fee for a team.
after the P10 car show they got a very large influx of volunteer registration from fargo people. since the rally will be on a smaller scale it could be possible to move the rally hq down to park rapids. that will save drive time for the fargo and twin cities people and cut down on the transit time to the stages. i would guess at least 50 people came from fargo and many of them volunteered. erick nelson and i will be doing a big PR push here in fargo for the 2010 events. hopw many people are gonna come with out the big show? i dunno, i hope that all the people that worked will still come.
im from fargo and i still plan on going, and im going to try to get some of my friends to still go! greg if you guys need help getting the word out,let me know and ill try to do my part and help keep this alive!
As long as I have a job where i can get friday off i'll volunteer, I know ricetiva will as well... If it's in PR that'd be sweet, since I have lots of family which means free place to crash, lol...
you can volunteer just one day too. i just went down saturday this year and helped out and then crashed on a floor saturday night after the party.
hey, on the bright side the new Open class minimum weight limits only apply to cars running in national events. http://www.specialstage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38702 now you can make that thing as light as you want.
^ what he said... I was thinking bout putting up some polls on the local forums to see how many ppl are interested...
you got my vote! ill be there 2 help out and im going to try to get as many people from fargo as i can!!!
