Sno*Drift Web Updates

Unfortunately, I see ONLY 35 cars in the Sno*Drift Pro rally

Yes, but the total number of cars in all the weekend's rallies is the same as in years past. It seems many competitors on a budget are opting to stick with the Club Rallies.

We could argue for weeks about whether or not this is good for the sport as a whole(I happen to think it is), but this seems to be what THE MASTER PLANNERS have been striving for. Remember, last year many Nationals had only about 35 cars, filled out by Club Rally entries. As the costs to stage a ProRally continue to climb faster than the costs to stage a ClubRally, I think we will see more of this. Increased costs mean increased entry fees, plus a ClubRally can often be staged as a one day event, whereas a ProRally is almost certain to require three days, not including travel time.

A healthy, hotly contested ClubRally series can only be good for the weekend competitor, as well as the NEXT BIG HERO on his/her way up.

Its too bad that likely the fastest PGT guys in the weekends
event are only entered in the club rallies.
There are some Club only entrants that may well finish in the top
ten in the national if they entered.

But Steve, you make the potentially erroneous assumption that finishing in the top ten in the national event is important to those who have entered club. We're all running the same stages, if it's important you can correlate the results after the event. I'll bet more than a few of us just want to go have fun in the woods.

Kent Gardam

What a concept }> }>

>I'll bet more than a few of us
>just want to go have fun in the woods.
>
>Kent Gardam

True, having fun is what it's really all about. But don't underestimate the competetive spirit of the Clubrally competitors. I assure you that there are several of us who are there to do our best, even though we don't have the resources to run Pro. Finishing good IS important to a lot of us, and hopefully it can help us move up in the future (I can hear everyone snickering at that comment!)

Wasn't that part of the vision for ClubRally? Hmmm, novel idea...

I agree that driving fast and having fun is the whole point
for most of us.
i just think that it diminishes the value of the pro rally when many
of the club guys are faster than the pro guys.
It may be hard for some pros to feel good about their 15th place finish
when there are 5 clubbies ahead of them on the road.

All this just re-iterates that the club/pro delineation needs to be set up more intellegently and more rigidly. As an illustration, look at the next two events on the US rally calender. One on extreme, there are seed 8 competitors entered in a ProRally at sno-drift. And on the other extreme, we have an someone who came very close to winning the ProRally title a couple years ago running in a ClubRally at Sandhills.

I'm very happy to see that we're now able to fill the fields at most events, and that we have a wide range of competitors, so maybe now SCCA can turn their attention to organizing this large competitor base?

Mike, Steve, WebGeek, and all the Sno*Drift Committee:

Just wanted to publicly thank you for all the great information that you have available on the website. It really makes planning our efforts for the weekend much simpler. Also thanks to Mary, Frank and everyone who has been so helpful in making arrangements for us. Sno*Drift is an outstanding example of what performance rally can be in this country.

Looking forward to the weekend.

Kent Gardam