[KevinG5Hahn]

Just what everybody wants to read about!

The cross promotion of Rally in the modern Motorsports world.

As a background in the last month I have attended a Colorado Hill Climb Association event, an AMA Motocross, and while on vacation stumbled upon a KTM adventure ride/rally raid. At the two motorcycle events I did spend a considerable amount of time talking with other spectators and competitors about their sport, the event, and the sport of rally.

A couple things became very evident during these discussions.

1) Most motor crossers were very un aware about rally or that there was in fact rallying in North America outside of Rally Mexico.

2) The motor crossers that did know about rally generally speaking thought rally was kind of boring, when I showed them some pictures and video clips from US events they all quickly changed their tune and thought it was the greatest thing ever after motor cross.

3) At the adventure ride/rally raid almost every single person there knew about the WRC, BRC, Baja 1000 (there were factory supported Baja competitors there), and Cross Country Rally Raid (the factory Dakar bikes where on display). Almost every single person had no idea that rallies were held in the US. There was a group of riders from Maine all hailing from the Rumford area in addition to a group from Lancaster CA that claimed to be regular riders in the Angeles Forests that had no idea about rallies and closed our conversations with questions about the events and how to get involved and/or attending them.
These guys rode or towed motorcycles across the country to ride for 8 hours to pay KTM money they would disclose to me. This deal was big enough for 5 count them 5 KTM box trucks or semi?s to be onsite.


From just brief discussions there seems to be a huge amount of cross application of interest and a huge potential for cross promotion of sport (how many rally enthusiasts are into dirt biking or cycle racing?). As both NASA and Rally America try to further promote and grow their respective series in addition to the sport of Rally it seems as though a large segment of people that could be readily won over to rally are being overlooked. These are passionate people and represent a highly desirable demographic that could certainly bring in more competitors but help elevate the profile and marketability of rally to help fund the growing of the sport.

Discuss as you see fit.

 

[Flyboy]

>A couple things became very evident during these discussions.
>
>1) Most motor crossers were very un aware about rally or that
>there was in fact rallying in North America outside of Rally
>Mexico.
>
>3) At the adventure ride/rally raid almost every single person
>there knew about the WRC, BRC, Baja 1000 (there were factory
>supported Baja competitors there), and Cross Country Rally
>Raid (the factory Dakar bikes where on display). Almost every
>single person had no idea that rallies were held in the US.


Heh, heh, I know what you're talking about. When I showed my car at World of Wheels a few years ago, numerous people asked me how I got the car to Europe and back for all those races. Oh how I only wish...

Dennis Martin
[email protected]
920-432-4845

 

[Jim]

I found out about the US rally scene at an autocross. A rallyist (Mark Utecht) was there autocrossing his rally car that day. I knew about rally elsewhere, but did not know anything of the sort existed here short of TSD and the TSD guys never talked about anything but TSD.

 

[KevinG5Hahn]

Point was that there are tons of people that would trapes out to BFN to watch rally cars and go to events and watch the TV coverage that have no idea we are playing in the woods. Want to grow rally, want to get sponsors, boost the demographics and exposure. Here's an easy way to do it.

 

[KevinG5Hahn]

I've wondered why more rallies haven't tried to hook up with a rallycross or auto cross, although the obvious answers would be; where to have one, whom to organize it.

Interesting idea though, might have to pursue a dual use venue and hook up with the autocrossers and do a multi surface cone killing event, 2 RX runs and 2 AX runs on the same day, could get interesting....

 

[cyRALLY]

We just happen to have one of the most famous / popular guys to ever ride 2 wheels starring in the RA Championship. Travis Pastrana.

Watch him on primetime this week (ESPN and ABC) at the X-Games.

If we are lucky there may even be some rally footage of Mr. Pastrana played during the X-Games - on network tv.

Cross pollination with other action / adventure sports is the key to growth for rally.

-cy
Vermont SportsCar

 

[KevinG5Hahn]

Bingo.

But we shouldn't nor do we need to ride Travis on a path to higher exposure. Although if he wants to promote rally we are all the better.

 

[RichardM]

Exposure for both the sport and any sponsors comes from views of the car. Some keep mentioning TV as if it was the only way to get views. While it is true that this brings a lot of views, it is not the only way. Getting the car to shows is another good way to get views. These shows can be hot rod car shows, charity events, trade shows, almost any thing where people walk buy and see the car.
Richard

 

[KevinG5Hahn]

>Exposure for both the sport and any sponsors comes from views
>of the car. Some keep mentioning TV as if it was the only way
>to get views. While it is true that this brings a lot of
>views, it is not the only way. Getting the car to shows is
>another good way to get views. These shows can be hot rod car
>shows, charity events, trade shows, almost any thing where
>people walk buy and see the car.
>Richard



No denying that either.

TV is the best way to reach a mass audience and is necessary. It also represents the best way to present actual numbers.

Getting people to look and go cool is what its all about. Car shows, autocrosses, parades, festivals, carnivals, where ever there is a good amount of people there are people that have never heard of rallying.

 

[RichardM]

>
>No denying that either.
>
>TV is the best way to reach a mass audience and is necessary.
>It also represents the best way to present actual numbers.
>
>Getting people to look and go cool is what its all about. Car
>shows, autocrosses, parades, festivals, carnivals, where ever
>there is a good amount of people there are people that have
>never heard of rallying.
Actually Kevin, we get attendance figures for the car shows we go to. Most of the organizers have a rough idea of how many people go through. We have a fair idea of the total number of views we get per year depending on the shows we attend.

Autocrosses and evening gatherings at the Dairy queen get a mention but not a count.

For television, you not only need to know how many people were watching but how long your car is actually shown during the show. NASCAR has companies that do nothing but watch the races and time how long a certain car has its sponsor logos visible and also count how many times that sponsor is mentioned.
Richard

 

[KevinG5Hahn]

You can only get so so numbers from car shows.

I know you can get a mass audience head count but you can't show how many of what age group are watching in such an accepted method for marketing purposes as Nielsen ratings.

Eye balls matter. Knowing what age group those eye balls matter a whole lot too.


Having 12,000 males age 16-23 might be worth a whole lot more then 12,000 males age 45-65 to a company, and vise versa. There is no arguing there is value to 12,000 pairs of eyes seeing your car and sponsors but not all views are created equal in the marketing world.

 

[rhino]

Doesn't RA have a marketing group that's supposed to be promoting the sport or the RA series? If that's their job, they're not doing it very well. The biggest local race is in a couple of weeks (OFPR), and I live in Minneapolis and haven't heard a thing about it.

-Looking from the series directors standpoints, why do we want to make it more popular? They don't make any money off spectators. It's just another headache for them when 100 more people go out in the woods to watch. Then they try to prove they're faster than the guys they just watched, wadding up their car in the process and giving us a great public image.

 

[LowMan]

Was wondering how many Historic Class competitors took their cars to car shows intended for those older vehichles?

 

[Flyboy]

>I've wondered why more rallies haven't tried to hook up with
>a rallycross or auto cross,

Because Autocross sucks! }(


Dennis Martin
[email protected]
920-432-4845

 

[Texrex]

The problem is US rally is advertised as a bunch of old guys running threw the woods for fun. People want to see huge battles with high HP machines "jumps/watersplashes ect." Its all about image - wrc just looks cool... People come to an event they are normally lost and the events are not very flashy ... I wouldnt mind building a jump at a spectator area to make it more exciting.. Hopefully travis/dc shoes will help change this image

 

[Racer5]

It was 2001, I saw USA Rally on Speed channel for the first time. It was a short half hour show but untill that time I had no idea there was any rally in the USA.

I hit the stages in 2002.

TV = Good

Charles

 

[AaronJMcConnell]

Hopefully television coverage of rally in North America will spark mass interest and bring huge numbers of spectators! After realizing how horribly lame it is to watch soda straw cars on a straightaway from 300 ft away behind caution tape, they'll all go back to NASCAR and the sport will be right back at square one. If you guys truly want rallying to grow then let people watch the damn sport in the flesh and don't turn people away when they build cars! There are hundreds of thousands of people in this country that would love to head into the woods to watch some spectacular, sideways action. 34mm is not spectacular or sideways. 28mm is absurd!!! Excuse the bitterness, but rallying could have been huge a long time ago if it weren't for some of the eccentric fossils holding it back. I think it's great that there will be 2 series next year. The more events the better. I hope the excitement of rally will spread like ebola!

 

[Lancia037Rally]

> I wouldnt mind building a jump at a spectator area
>to make it more exciting..

See why Canadians are so much smarter. They move the spectators to the jumps.

http://www.andrewharvey.ca/images/2005Baie/CRW_6343.jpg

Building jumps is not rally.

 

[starion887]

Thanks for sharing the experience and good info, Kevin.

Hmmmm, would it make sense to have joint events with some group like the AMA? It might complicate event operation (I wonder how event insurance would be handled, for example, as I bet this was not aniticipated in negotiating rally insurance or moto event insurance), but it seems like it would serve the goal of some cross-pollination of people and ideas, and focus exposure to a large group that would redily be won over. It would not be a breakthrough step, but I think this will be done in steps, not giant leaps.

It would seem sensible to keep the premier rally events as separate showcase events, and put on joint events like this with some of our better regional events. You would not want this with a rallycross; the rally events should good strong events on their own, if you want to impress the moto crouwd and get some converts. This seems like an optimum situation to have a good spectator impact.

Sounds like a new assignment for our orgnaizers; I am sure they will be thrilled!!

Good thinking, Kevin!

Regards,
Mark B.

 

[Flyboy]

There are hundreds of
>thousands of people in this country that would love to head
>into the woods to watch some spectacular, sideways action.
>34mm is not spectacular or sideways.

Hmm, so you are saying WRC is not sideways or spectacular enough? Don't get me wrong, I hate restrictors too, but the idea that a restricted car isn't worth watching is bull.

>28mm is absurd!!!

Not if you don't know how drive, or worse, are a beginner who thinks he knows how to drive....

>Excuse the bitterness, but rallying could have been huge a
>long time ago if it weren't for some of the eccentric fossils
>holding it back.

Really? Please explain to me how allowing seed 8 drivers to run Group B cars with spectators inches from the outside of a corner will instantly launch the sport into the stratosphere of popularity. The reality is that the eccentric fossils are too busy whining on SS to actually do anything else. The guys running our series are for the most part visionaries, dealing with temporary issues of low recognition of the sport and out of control tort lawyers and insurance.


Dennis Martin
[email protected]
920-432-4845