Quote:
Originally Posted by A1337STI
That's usually the perception from people out side of the sport. Having been to 60+ autocrosses and 30+ rally crosses. I've done more damage to my STI @ PDX than i have at rally cross. I bet there's more $$$ of damage per driver at a PDX then at a rally cross.
cody had a high speed off at a PDX that Easily could have been a roll over with a car total. maybe you forgot 
But hey go ahead thinking that , go ahead telling everyone one that, but don't wonder when turn out suffers. lol
Maybe you should compete in a rally cross sometime, or even watch videos of them?
People can and have crashed or rolled cars at auto cross, and its happened at rally cross.
Even though i disagree with your perception, .. A large % of the reno SCCA member agree with you, and for that reason yes it might fail.
My GF and I just Rally crossed my sti last weekend, she did great (and beat over 1/2 the guys) we are looking forward to the local events here, and i bet at least 10 others from sacramento come up .. we did lose a fender liner though. 
the club VW ... could be in trouble though ..  Lots of novice (to dirt) drivers , and everyone with the "well its not my car" syndrome ...  |
I did more damage to my WRX just driving down a dirt road at 15 mph that the sum total of my hours driving at PDXs.
And I guarantee there are more rollovers at rallycross than autocross. In the 7 years since I started autocrossing in Reno, I've seen a single rollover. Yet back when I was originally trying to start a rallycross program here in Reno, I was warned multiple times from those in the know about how easy they occur without tons of careful planning in course design. I'd say you're at much higher risk of a writing off a car in the dirt than on the pavement.
But none of that was my point. My point, which Kevin noted, is just that people don't want to go un-pretty up their daily drivers in the dirt. The cost of repainting a car is so much more expensive than the cost of brake pads and tires. I guarantee the average cost of PDX damage is far less than the average cost of rallycross damage... you just don't think so because you don't consider showering the side of your car with gravel "damage". So while you don't care if you beat the snot out of your $30k STi, the vast majority of people do. Not to mention, the vast majority of people interested in local level motorsports don't even have a car that would survive rallycross. Can you rallycross a Vette? Yeah, I guess you could, but I don't expect to see one out there.
It's simple: rallycross is not as popular as autocross simply because it's not as accessible to new drivers. You have to have a dedicated car, or be willing to hammer on your daily driver in a way that even the harshest n00b autocrossing/PDXing probably won't. So, I'm not trying to shit on rallycross. I'm just trying to be a realist when it comes to expanding programs in Reno. Just like our race program seems to suffer from false starts, I expect to see rallycross suffer from false starts, and basically for the same reasons.
It's just bad form to start a new program that has to cannibalize funds/equipment from the autocross program in order to operate a new program that's possibly doomed to failure in a down economy. Hell, it was wrong when we did that to start the race/trials program and that was when we were flush with cash! We're super lucky to have such a good autocross program in Reno considering just how small the motorsports community really is here. I'd hate to see anything hurt that, which is why we should all be careful and realistic about the rallycross program. It's also why the club is attempting to use a club-car to spark interest... get people hooked, and they'll go out and buy/build those rally beaters. I just hope that little club-car can put up a good fight against having to make 100 runs a day with n00b drivers behind the wheel that don't necessarily care about saving the car for the next guy running.
So, don't get all panties-bunched because I'm pointing out the emperor has no clothes. Not everything negative said about rallycross is a personal attack on you.