Parce qu’il est français. La Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile est l’organe directeur de la Formule Un Grand Prix du Championnat du Monde et le Championnat du Monde des Rallyes.
Translation: Because it is French. The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile is the governing body for the Formula One World Championship Grand Prix and the World Rally Championship.
For any sporting event to grow in popularity to the degree that participants will repeatedly cross oceans en masse throughout the season, it will require television coverage, for without television, there will not be much sponsorship, and without a lot of sponsorship, participants will not be able to afford the travel. American motorsport television coverage is already pretty much locked up by stock car racing. Secondarily, for Americans, this would be particularly onerous, for given that most WRC events are in Europe, American teams would pretty much have to relocate there (the way skiers and soccer players do). That in turn would distance (literally and figurative) the stars from their fan base, limiting their marketability.
Concerning competing against stock car racing for market share, note that Americans like watching Americans participating in American events. That means watching American drivers on American teams in races held in the USA, rather than mostly Europeans on mostly European teams in races mostly in Europe. Also note that stock car racing is relatively easy to host and is ideal for television, for the race is in a confined venue in which all spectators can gather together to watch the entire event in comfort and relative safety, and which is easily televised due to the confined venue and due to the primary activity tending to be head-to-head in a pack. With rally, there is nowhere near as big a crowd event, and spectators only get to watch a few seconds of brief drive-byes of individual cars, without an overview of the ongoing competition. Televised rally racing is disjointed, and entirely lacks a sense of competition other than the announcer giving interval times. In short, stock car racing may be dull compared to rally racing, but it is better suited to being a major televised event than rally racing.
Then there is the whole safety thing. Spectators at stock car races are for the most part protected from the vehicles. Yes, there are incidents in which spectators are injured or killed, but the rate isn’t that high. With rally racing, it’s pretty much up to the marshals to tape off unsafe areas and shoo spectators away, and in the WRC they have been doing a relatively good job. That works well enough when there are not many spectators, but becomes unmanageable for rally racing with large crowds, whereas it does not become unmanageable for stock car racing with large crowds. A big crowd for a major rally race is about 10,000. When 40,000 turned up this summer in Sardinia, there were so many spectators on the course that a section was cancelled when not all the racers could take their turns. Now imagine what would happen if a quarter of a million spectators turned up, à les Brickyard 400 and Daytona 500? I expect that the popularity necessary to take market share away from stock racing would smother rally racing, for I doubt if it could safely handle crowds on that scale, particularly given how litigious Americans are. It isn’t for nothing that the Baja offroad races are essentially American races held in Mexico.
Finally, there is the whole issue of signing on for what is a foreign controlled outfit. That will increase the embuggerance factor, and decrease self-determination, which in turn will tie up resources while at the same time reducing the ability to respond on a timely basis to the demands of the teams, the spectators and the sponsors. IIRC, ACCUS is the US liaison to the FIA. SSCA is the rally member of ACCUS, but SCCA sold off its interest in special stage rally racing to Rally America, which as far as I know is unaffiliated. This plays back to the safety issue, for SCCA’s rallycross is contained in a constructed spectator environment (just as NASCAR, INDY and F1 are contained in a constructed spectator environments), whereas Rally America’s equivalent of special stage racing isn’t (SCCA’s rally these days is traditional “don’t exceed the speed limit” competitive non-racing rallying without the special stage balls to the wall racing). If Rally America signs up with WRC, it won’t have as much control over its own destiny, and thereby the destiny of rally racing, as it does now. That would add embuggerance without much to show for it.
I expect that the internet will remain the easiest access to watching WRC races, and that rally racing will not take much market share in the USA from stock car racing. Without the major broadcast market and all the hoopla that goes along with it, a lot of folks won’t learn about rally racing, let along get into it. Without people getting into it, the top racers in the USA will continue to orient to NASCAR and INDY, leaving rally racing in the minors in the USA.
I think that’s a pity, for although rally racing lacks head to head competition, it has real driving under real conditions (which is why I like the Baja off road races and the – mostly head to head real driving under real conditions).
