I love rally racing. I love it conceptually. And I love to watch it.
I mean, think of it. No mutant thoroughbred always-turning-left-around-a-circle Indy racer. Heck, even NASCAR is artificial compared to taking cars and running them in time trials across back roads, doing real driving on real by-ways, making real turns and real jumps over real … stuff.
It’s real. Teams of mechanics aside.
Maybe that’s one reason I drive a Subaru. The company is famous in rally racing circles. Part of what makes them fun cars and all-wheel-drivey.
Rally racing isn’t big in the US like NASCAR. NASCAR is a lot easier to gather the rubes together and sell them lots of beer and put lots of ads up on the stadium walls. Rally racing is like bike races — brief glimpses of the contestants swooshing by, and then they’re gone. It works just fine for TV, as I noted on our last visit to the UK, but, for whatever reason, it’s not caught on in the US.
NPR had an article about it this afternoon. It was actually kind of patronizingin tone — “Oh, woe is me, no grandstands to sit and slurp my Bud upon” — but it was nice to see at least some publicity to the sport.
Heck, maybe I’ll check the DVR for rally events, now that I think about it.
Yes! What passes for racing in this country is about as interesting as watching a model car on a phonograph record. But even John Kerry lost political ground by faking it; “Who among us does not love NASCAR?”
I also enjoy off-road racing, for the same reasons you apply to ralley racing. Baja 500, for instance. That’s a race.
Yes. The two are very similar, and enjoyable for the same reasons.
Rally racing GT and F1 are all better than IRCA and NASCAR racing. But then I like Steeple Chase more then watching the horses going in a circle as well.
Rally, GT, and F1 are all great becaus you do more than make left turns. You have to plan your route around the course. GT is great because the car manufacturers always scramble to come up with new a faster better handling cars every year. Rally is the same way with Audi, Suzuki, and Subaru trying to come up with the next best thing every year.
But, the race that they are doing for the X games doesn’t sound like a true rally race, but more like the SCCA solo racing system, which is also fine.