There’s a big rally race happening here in my part of Missouri this weekend. (100 Acre Wood Rally Potosi MO). As I understand it, rally races are point to point. Which means that, as far as spectators are concerned, you watch them go by and … that’s it. The entire experience probably lasts a couple of minutes.
Am I missing something here? Are rally races routed such that spectators can watch the cars pass be Here, then drive There and watch them again? Or is it a one and done kind of thing?
From looking at the race’s website and map, it sounds like it’s more than “the entire experience probably lasts a couple of minutes,” though it’s nothing like a NASCAR race, or even a race at a “road track,” where you’d be able to sit in one spot and see cars go by all day.
It looks like they do the race in stages, with published times that the cars will go past particular spectator spots on each day. I’d highly suspect that many (if not most) spectators move from one spot to another over the course of each day, rather than sit in one spot, enjoy a few minutes of race action, and then go home. I might also suspect that the spectators are generally hanging out and partying at each spot, in anticipation of the moment when the cars go by, before packing up and heading to the next spot.
Wait, surely the most exciting part of a rally is you get to walk on the track, and then scramble off it when a steward blows a whistle, just time for a rally car to come barrelling past you doing over a ton? Or is that not how it’s done in the states?
IANAE but I believe rally races tend to have staged starts, like each competitor starts independently every minute or so. This will extend the viewing experience significantly.
Yeah, if you look at the image above, under “Schedule”, it looks like they expect it to take about an hour at each spectator spot. So, good for a decent afternoon out, but not a whole day. Drive in, set up, have a drink or two, spend an hour oogling the cars as they zoom by, then leave. Maybe toss in a BBQ if possible?
I volunteered at one of the Missouri rallies when I was at UMR in the 80’s. We were sent out to a particular intersection to block it to prevent the public from driving onto the course. A local turned up in his pickup, asked what was going on, watched a few cars go by then left. A few minutes later a competitor goes by closely folllowed by this guy in his pickup. He must have driven across a field to get to the road.
The fastest cars go first followed by the slower classes. For us it was probably a couple hours from the time we closed the road until the rally director came by giving the all clear. So you could get a good hour of spectating at each point.