Rallying in Finland - numbers

It is interesting to read other on-line forums to learn the perceptions about rallying in the USA. I think this quote sums it up pretty good:

"I want to try out some rallycrosses, but full on rallying is VERY expensive and time consuming."

Somehow we have taken a sport that back in my dad's time you could buy a decent 510 or in his case Colt do some minor work to it, still drive it to work during the week and then rally it a few times a year, into a VERY expensive sport with very fast cars that you would not drive to work.

To some extent this perception is due to the focus on only the fastest cars by the SCCA head office. There is almost nothing that says you can participate, you can afford to join the fun without spongers. The sport is being promoted as a profession not a hobby, but the reality of the situation is there is not enough money in the sport to make it a profession so it is becoming a sport of the wealthy with a few odd sponsored cars mixed in.

Another reason is the total lack of support for beginners, it took me almost a year to get my 2nd rally car log booked as when I called around to the officials I got a name for someone 2 hours away who was never avaible. Not once in all my efforts did anyone point out the 3 other people who could log book the car with in 15 min of my house. (my first car was so long ago it pre-dates log books)

I expect Finland has a mentioning program for young or new drivers, I also expect they promote the idea of go out have some fun see what you can do, then and only if you do well should you look to make it into a professional effort. We need to do the same.

Derek Bottles

>Another reason is the total lack of support for beginners,
>it took me almost a year to get my 2nd rally car log booked
>as when I called around to the officials I got a name for
>someone 2 hours away who was never avaible. Not once in all
>my efforts did anyone point out the 3 other people who could
>log book the car with in 15 min of my house. (my first car
>was so long ago it pre-dates log books)
>
>I expect Finland has a mentioning program for young or new
>drivers, I also expect they promote the idea of go out have
>some fun see what you can do, then and only if you do well
>should you look to make it into a professional effort. We
>need to do the same.

Derek, it sounds like you have a subject for a new editorial piece! ;-)

Ben

Hi guys,

In Spain, some kids want to be the next Alex Criville and some kids want to be the next Carlos Sainz, but ALL kids want to play for Real Madrid.

Spain has a reputation for being a two wheeled country but that is a bit of a misconception. Most of the people who follow cycles also follow rallying and vice-versa. Marca, a domestic sports paper did some kind of poll a few years ago and ofcourse, Football or as some call it, Soccer, was no.1 by a large margin, but the gap between rallying and motorcycles was not very big. The thing there is that unless you grew up in downtown Madrid or Barcelona, chances are no matter where you live, you are within a 10 minute drive, or even walk from a special stage. In my home province, which is roughly the size of NJ, we have an 8 round regional championship, plus two asphalt nationals (all stand alone), two gravel nationals, and 7 or 8 hillclimbs a year. The regionals normally average about 150 entries and consistenly draw around 100k spectators per event. If you live there, It's almost impossible not to witness some kind of rally activity at some point in the year. If you are there long enough, chances are there will be some road, somewhere, that you will not be able to drive on because of either recce, testing, stage, etc, so in some way you are forced to spectate. With motorcycles, you still have to go to the track and pay your entry.

My point, in countries like Spain, Portugal, and Italy, still only motorcycle fans pay to see motorcycles races, but every one goes to rallyes. So, even thought the number of hardcore fans is not as large, the overall number of spectators is much larger. I have never met a person from my province between the ages of 13 and 55, male of female, who has not at least once, spectated a rally, and that is not an exageration.

Good example of why the numbers don't do justice. I was back home in '97 and M-sport had arranged to close some roads for a day of tarmac testing. Sainz was still with Ford at the time and a rumor started going around the day before that he would be there. Make a long story short, Ford had to delay their test and wait for local police to help with spectators because about 8000 people turned up, on a work day. Sainz never showed up but Juha did, and spent a lot of his testing time signing autographs.

Cheers,
Jose
www.eurosportrally.com

>Another reason is the total lack of support for beginners,
>it took me almost a year to get my 2nd rally car log booked
>as when I called around to the officials I got a name for
>someone 2 hours away who was never avaible. Not once in all
>my efforts did anyone point out the 3 other people who could
>log book the car with in 15 min of my house. (my first car
>was so long ago it pre-dates log books)
>
>I expect Finland has a mentioning program for young or new
>drivers, I also expect they promote the idea of go out have
>some fun see what you can do, then and only if you do well
>should you look to make it into a professional effort. We
>need to do the same.
>
>Derek Bottles

This is not breaking new ground, IMHO the biggest differance is the motor clubs and the role they play in introducing new guys to the sport and supporting them. In the UK you have to join a MC before you can get a license, they are supported by the RACMSA and every town of any size has one.

I understand MC exist and offer the same support to new and experianced competitors in Italy, Scandinavia, France, Belgium and so on.

A MC gives you a social place where you can look for mentoring and learn new stuff in a relativly low pressure enviroment. You gain an instant network of like minded loonies who have been there and understand where you are and are willing to help.

That is exactly what is missing here...

As to the number of rallies in the UK, there are at usually 3 or 4 a weekend, sometimes more, I've been part of 180 car fields. They range from single stage events (think big rally-sprint on an old airfield or simular, maybe 25-40 stage miles and no transits) to multi-venue events lasting the entire weekend.

Most MC put on an event every year, which also spreads the load on organizers a lot wider. I was a memeber of Thame MC, a very small club with maybe 40 active members, we organized a multi-venue, 8 to 10 stage rally (the Aylesbury Stages) for the 4 or 5 years I was a member.

Just my thoughts...

Dave Kean
[email protected]

RE: fragmented racing venues

>>---
>I had older brothers who hooked me up with motor clubs in my
>area but when I moved, it was almost a year before I could
>find the local SCCA and find a member to sponsor me to join.
>This computering and Googling is a big improvement over
>flagging down MG-TC owners on the street.
>---
>There are many small motor clubs around, I think the Albany,
>NY ice racing club has talked about running dirt
>competitions in the summer. I'm sure there are interested
>people all around NA.
>rz
Randy, SCCA does not require a present member to sponsor you to join. It did once upon a time, but not for the past 25 years at least. Each local region is separately incorporated from the national organization. Some local regions are more active than others. And only in a few cases are the local regions rally oriented versus solo or race. Also, once upon a time, women could not race in SCCA. Or professionals. Read B. S. Levy's books.
Richard