(Each month, Gonzalo “Gonzo” San Miguel, the SCCA® RallyCross® Board (RXB) Chair, presents you with the latest RallyCross news and information.)

While planning to write an article on the origins of RallyCross, I asked one of our long time Utah Region members, Karl Sealander, if he had any insights he could share. Amazingly, he pulled out an issue of SportsCar magazine from June 1998 with what is probably one of the first articles on SCCA RallyCross. It was fascinating.

According to this article, RallyCross was originally under the guidance of SCCA’s Solo department before moving to the purview of SCCA Pro Rally (that department existing from 1973-’04). The shift to the Pro Rally department made sense in the late 1990s because, at that time, RallyCross was viewed as a springboard to professional rallying. (As a side note, it appears there was a similar feeling at the time about Solo and Club Racing.)

Per the article:

Sure, Solos on non-paved surfaces – dirt, ice or snow – have been around a long time. But until recently they were under the auspices of the Solo Dept. Now the Pro Rally community is overseeing Solos on non-paved surfaces and embracing this more accessible form of the sport with fervor.

"It's an inexpensive, accessible, entry level into Pro Rally," explains Paula Gibeault, the Pro Rally Board's communications director. "The parallel is: Solo is to Club Racing as RallyCross is to Pro Rally. We'd like to see people drive by and say 'What's going on in that parking lot?' and enter."

The organizers knew that there was another group of racers that had not found what they were looking for just yet, somewhere between an autocrosser and a Pro Rally volunteer looking to have fun in the dirt without the expense of building a full-blown rally car:

Just as Solo is an end unto itself, so will many find a home in RallyCross ... Pro Rally workers wanting to get a feel for driving fast in the dirt – and newcomers who have never seen either Solo II or Pro Rally before – are apparently finding RallyCross a competition destination of its own. Central Division Pro Rally Safety Steward Beryl Ann Burton, whose Land O'Lakes Region has put on a couple of events, says she believes the sport will take on its own style.

"I think we're going to end up with a whole new group of people that are going to end up being fastest," Burton elaborates. "There're some things that are going to come from Solo that's going to be faster and some things from Pro Rally. We're going to have a whole new breed of drivers."

Along with the lower cost to get into RallyCross, there was apparently a much simpler ruleset – one we certainly couldn’t get away with these days:

The rules themselves take up about two-and-a-half columns in Fastrack. The majority of these rules are related to safety. Considering the detailed rules for other competition activities in the SCCA, the RallyCross rules are, well, rather vague. That's purely intentional, says Gibeault.

"Part of the effort in making the rules was to leave them as open as possible, and leave room for some innovation, to see what works," she says. So an event in Minnesota may not be run exactly the same way as an event in California or Washington or New York, at least not in the beginning.

Safety was always on the mind of the organizers, with the knowledge that the surface is an ever-changing factor that must be dealt with as changes occur:

One difference Soloists will notice immediately is that instead of one fast time being the basis for your finishing position, the times for all your runs are added together. This is based on one simple fact – dirt moves. Asphalt, at least in theory, doesn't. This means that, after a bunch of cars run the course, the course may have to be changed because ruts that could pop a tire or turn a car over may form. Thus, the course will undergo minor or major changes in between runs and could be a little faster for one set of runs than another.

Additionally, in the interest of safety, the Event Stewards can change the course at any time, even during a heat, if conditions warrant. If that changes the course between competitors' runs, well, this falls under the heading of what Pro Rallyists call "Force Majeur." Translation: go as fast as you can under the conditions and no whining.

"With RallyCross, it's different because the course is going to be just a little bit different for everyone," says Burton. "But still the fastest time wins."

Also, it appears that finding sites wasn’t as big of a problem as it is today for many Regions. Organizing and affording events was easier than what the community was used to compared to a Pro Rally event:

Conducting a RallyCross event is fairly easy, according to Burton and Ray Hocker, who organized Cal Club's first event in March.

"It's really very simple," says Burton. "We just find a big dirt lot, just like we would look for a Solo site, and set up a course with cones. It's a little looser than and not as tight as a Solo course."

Hocker echoes Burton's sentiments: "Compared to putting on a Divisional Rally, it's a piece of cake. The most important thing is to find a good location. We found one that was very friendly to us in a fairgrounds parking lot. They host Monster Truck events, so they weren't afraid of motorsports events. I think we paid $300 – half for the site, half for the water truck [to keep the dust down]. Another thing about RallyCross is it's very cheap to put on."

Events are run much like autocrosses, although RallyCross entrants will generally get more runs, because, at least for now, there aren't as many of them.

Gibeault theorizes that as many as eight runs per day are possible, while Cal Club's first event had four – still one more than many Solos.

"We were somewhat cautious about the number of cars we had on the course at the same time," explains Hocker. "Our timing equipment allowed us to have six cars on the course at the same time, but we didn't have enough people; and the course was close together, so we limited it to two at a time. Next time I'll spread the course out a little more and run three or four cars at once. As our entries grow, we'll try to maximize the number of cars on course at a time and be more efficient."

With the newness of the program, the classes that were offered depended on where you were competing. Regions would come up with classes that fit the types of vehicles being used, such as Pro Rally classes combined with elements of autocross, which is very interesting:

Due to the still experimental nature of RallyCross and the openness of the rules, car classes will vary from event to event. Land O’Lakes Region uses a combination of Pro Rally and Solo classes. Using the three basic Rally classes and the first three basic Solo classifications, LoL has created nine classes for cars, plus three for pick-ups/sport utility vehicles. The rally classes are Four-Wheel Drive, Over Two Liter and Under Two Liter (4WD, 02 and U2). Those three are then divided into the Solo preparation levels: Stock, Street Prepared and Prepared. Cal Club, for its first event, used the California Rally Series classes, plus Street Two-Wheel Drive and Street Four-Wheel Drive.

There are fewer classes than in Solo, but in RallyCross things like horsepower and maximum lateral acceleration don't mean as much. Tires are the most important part of the equation, and most Regions will not place any car with rally tires in Stock or Street classes.

I really like the last few paragraphs from that June 1998 article – it shows just how excited the Regions and participants were to get RallyCross going in their own Region and making it flourish:

Events have been held so far in California, Minnesota and New York, and many more are planned in Washington, Nevada, Colorado and Michigan. In Minnesota, Burton reports that prospective event masters were calling up and offering to put on an event after the first one. For their rules committee, Burton says 57 people volunteered to take part.

"The events that have been held so far, people rave about them," enthuses Gibeault. "It's so accessible. It's back to what Pro Rally used to be when we started. It's run whatcha brung and anybody can enter. That's what's so exciting about it!

"People can ride in a real [Pro] Rally car, to get a feel for it. And we're hoping people will get hooked."

One surprising result of the first RallyCrosses is how competitive the non-rally cars were. At Cal Club's first event, the top time was turned by a stock Mitsubishi Galant VR4 on Rally tires. This in a car that was never without at least one passenger and sometimes as many as three along for the ride.

This hybrid of Solo and Rally is catching on rapidly, and most events report more entries than expected. It provides an entry-level to Pro Rally and, for those who don't wish to pursue that path, a chance to try something a little different.

"I want to encourage the Solo folks to come out and try a RallyCross, because I think they will do very well," says Hocker.

"I think the Rally drivers will be able to learn a lot from [Solo competitors] about precision driving. And I think the Rallyists can teach the Solo folks a lot about driving sideways!"

Now...Let’s Talk About You

Each month, I want to highlight a Region and a RallyCrosser from that Region. The idea is that it will allow everyone to get to know their nearby Regions and fellow members better. And based on the stats, you’ll also discover that (as is the case with this month’s featured Region), many Regions are surviving on handfuls of passionate members to keep their RallyCross programs going.

Central New York Region
Division – Northeast
State - New York
City – Syracuse
Your RallyCross Director – Vince Moellering
Number of Safety Stewards – 2 active
Number of core people in your Region (regulars that show up) – 10
How many events in a typical year – 6 this year
Best local venue – Only local venue - Pastranaland in Canton, NY
Average # of entrants – 10-12
Most popular class – MA
Any National Champions from your Region? No
Have you hosted a RallyCross National Tour or Championship? No

Member: Vince Moellering
Car/Class – 2000 VW Golf GL / MF
Mods to car – LSD, some weight reduction, tires. Has been a SF car most of its life until this year
Years competing– 7 actively. Also autocross, RoadRally, ice racing
Other interests – Camping, cars, travel

Photo (from a 2005 RallyCross event) by Jerry Doctor