Hard to justify 6 hours of drive/tow time, for so little seat time.

Find a dirt pit closer to T.O., and you've plenty more confirmations i'd imagine.....

PAddy wrote on 06/24/3 at 17:49:04:


That's the Holy Grail of Rallycrossing.

Unfortunately, over the years, rallycrosses/autocrosses have been forced to move further afield. Golden Horshoe pit owners are increasingly under the gun by local environmental groups and residents who want to shut them down. The pit owners are loath to do anything that might attract more attention to their operations. Running a rallycross on a weekend afternoon when things are normally quiet, frequently upsets any nearby residents. And secondly, lets face it, there is nothing in it for the pit owner. The sport can't afford to rent a pit for a day. Lastly, we've encountered concerns about damage to the pit access roads and or equipment. These are just some of the arguments tossed at us by pit owners in past years.

Dave

Hey Rich,

This year there were a number of reasons for me.

1. The pit was just too hard on my car. I needed to save it for perf events. I was biulding a car to compete with though but it wouldn't have been ready till the KWRC events.
2. I/MCO was organising the 6th event and figured that I wouldn't qualify for the overall anyhow so the first two events were a write off for me.
3. The perf sched is tapping my wallet as it is and I figured I'd rather run 1 perf event than the entire series this year.

A few comments:
Seat time is a little low but in order to make the series financially viable the number of entries seems appropriate.
Travel time, not a problem for us over here in Ottawa although I didn't see many of us on the entry list.

I never heard anyone say that they were displeased with the seat time they got, I'm also sure you'd never hear anyone grumble about too much seat time.

Winter events, WAKE UP EVERYONE! MCO hosted an event last year which was a huge hit, advertised at many different locations including the past two years RX series competitors each got a personal e-mail. Doug Logan, Tibor, Eric, and Richard made the trek from afar and I think truly enjoyed themselves. Here's a pump for the series we will be running this year.... At least three events perhaps more we'll see.

IMHO this boils down to busy lives and weining dedication to the sport. There are a few people who are extremely dedicated to doing all the work to make these events happen, and competitors tend to come and go it's as simple as that. As organisers if we don't hit everything right on the money we miss the boat. I sincerely hope that we get sorted out whatever the problem is as this is the stepping stone that our rally scene needs to enhance performance rallying both regionally and Nationally.

My 20 bucks worth.

warren

The 7 hours total commute is what has always kept me away.  Bancroft is just too far for me in the far west end of Toronto.

What does everyone think about trying to increase sponsorship of the series next year in an effort to attract more competitors?

I think having some good prizes (incentives) for people to compete could help to ensure stable entry numbers. I think people are finding it tougher and tougher to justify beating the hell of their cars for nothing (however fun it may be!.

I know this just drops back on the shoulders of the organizers, but I think that the series has a lot of potential and that it's an important feeder series to performance rally.

I had very similar thoughts.

For many, it's an all or nothing thing to enter a series and if the series is too large it costs too much. That's $300+ for gas, 1 nights accommodations each weekend (for some), tires, wear and tear, etc... Gas alone would cost me $100 a weekend at least. For those needing a room, there's another $50-100 per weekend. You don't want to know what last year cost me (but that was my own darn fault!

What we need to keep in mind is that it's still pretty cheap (relatively speaking) to compete in a rally-x compared to a regional event. It's really not going to get any cheaper either no matter what we do. Actually, it's THE cheapest variant of performance rally!

I wonder what the feedback was from last year as to how many events competitors wanted in the series? Was the 6 events requested by competitors? I always thought 6 was a little high considering it's tough to find free weekends in the summer to begin with. Maybe we should hold the events in the fall or early spring when people have more free time?

Schwabe wrote on 07/07/3 at 10:36:42:


The MCO winter RallyX was an excellent, safe, venue to try that whole left foot braking thing in a FWD auto.  So, even if you aren't trying to be really competitive (me) the seat time was well worth the bucks.  It sure saved my butt more than once that day -  it really works well and is not difficult.  I got 15 runs in during the event, on three course configurations.