Go to Charlevoix some time... it doesn't have to be WRC to get big crowds! I've walked miles -- miles and miles -- up into stages there, in the rain, barely above freezing... and found literally thousands (thousands!) of happy Quebeckers packed like sardines in the middle of nowhere. Campfires, cookouts, pretty girls wearing (only) Subaru flags... ahhh: best rally experienc I've ever had.
Though it needs be said, there were so many spectators there that it was manifestly unsafe. People were lining the road for at least a mile, standing either on the live stage, or 5-10 feet away. A lot of people were within easy arm's reach of cars at full speed on twisty stages. Buffum came through flat out, but many drivers backed off and pounded on the horn.
Anyway: what's my point? This sport is in a tough spot. It needs crowds. It needs spectators, and advertisers and media attention. Yet for the forseeable future it's going to be a marginal enterprise that exists out in the woods, 100 miles from nowhere, with people tromping all over the place and putting themselves in harm's way. There's just no way around that. I don't know how you can make this sport radically safer (never mind objectively "safe" ) without ruining it.
Perhaps rally,like so many other fun things in life, just is dangerous. Perhaps that's why it's fun, even -- for drivers and spectators alike. Without a minute's preparation, I could make a list of 10 people whom I have known, who have been killed, or seriously injured -- maimed -- pursuing hobbies, sports, and activities that are both fun and inherently dangerous. I don't mean to be insensitive regarding what happened last weekend at Sawmill, but it's not clear to me that there is ever a solution to misadventure.
-Isaac
