Startling Trend: Go To Every Competition and Rank Higher
[ October 13th, 2008 ] By: Charles Smith Posted in » Ramblings
Rally America is what I consider to be the top Rally Racing competition in the United States (probably North America). So while looking into the standings of the drivers, I decided to check out how and where they were getting their points. What startled me was how few of the competitors make it to every single event.
Kyle Sarasin, for example, is in 2nd place overall with 66 points and even he has not made it to every event. He missed out on the New England Forest Rally. But he is not alone in missing events. Andrew Comrie-Picard has missed two events (although ACP races in the Canadian Rally Championship also). Matt Johnson has missed two. Antoine L’Estage has missed FOUR! He has missed out on half the season! Tanner Foust has missed three events (I think he was competing in Drift events for those misses but that shouldnt excuse him). Patrick Moro has missed two events. Kenny Bartram has missed one event. Carl Jardevall and William Bacon each have missed five events. Travis Pastrana has missed none along with his teammate Ken Block. Andrew Pinker has yet to miss an event this season also. That rounds out the top 12 competitors overall.
I think that is ridiculous! Only three of the top 12 have been to every single event. If the top rally racers in the US cannot be expected to show up to the races how can spectators? I do not enjoy writing this criticism, but it is a huge problem in the world of US Rally. Could you imagine if Petter Solberg, or Sebastien Loeb had taken one WRC race off?
Hopefully the missing races is a symptom rather than a cause of problems in Rally America. I get that there is not a lot of money pushed into Rally and that is a huge reason most of the competitors do not go to every event (as they cannot afford to). It just makes me sad that only 3 of the top 12 have made every event. However it brings up a way to start placing higher (and solve the problem): compete in every single event. That will get you points just for showing up (and finishing). If you just show up and finish every event (placing outside points for positions) you would be in 18th place overall. Time to get a bankroll.
October 18th, 2008 at 2:17 am
Two forces at work here…
1. Two teams with limitless cash “Subaru USA”.
2. Privateers running as many rallies as they can with sponsors.
Keep in mind that if you want to win a RA National Championship you better have $75,000 of liquid cash handy. Not to mention a $125,000+ rally car for the season.
So - I understand the disappointment of “he who has the most cash wins”, but RA, NASA and rallying in the US is unfortunately not even marginally close to the WRC. “Subaru Team USA” may be factory supported, but it’s paid for privately.
History homework - Hyundai won the SCCA ProRally many times in the 90’s. Then Subaru came along.
Support the production :) and the spec classes that keep the car the same. In my opinion the real competition is with the guys who have to hammer a strut back together and can’t afford a new set of tires for every race.
- Kris