Why no WRC in North America?

Question

I, for one, would love to see World Rally Championship events here, but no dice. Is it because the SCCA has pretty much locked the FIA (the international governing body for motorsports that sanctions WRC and Formula 1) out of North America or is it because the FIA has never taken racing in North America seriously?

I'd really like to know. Thanks!

Answer 1

The SCCA has nothing to do with rally today! SCCA hasn't done anything with rally since 2003. They dropped the program because they didn't want the liability issues that rally has. Rally America is now the major organizers of Rally in the states today along with NASA. Both organizations are excellent at keeping rally alive in the states. Infact, they've done a wonderful job at growing the sport over here.

The WRC has actually been here several times in the past. The Olympus rally I think ran everyother year from 1982 to 1988 as a WRC event. I don't have my stat book with me now but something like this. Every rally organizer dreams of having their event as the Next WRC America event. And someday, I believe it will happen again. Rally New York 2006 was actually a perspective WRC place. However, due to some pissed off drunken locals who breached the closed road barriers and challenged rally cars head on while the roads were hot it probably ruined their chances for good. I feel very bad for the organizers because of this. The boys up north in Washington havn't had very much luck either in securing roads from the forest service. Which is probably the main reason why you wont see a WRC event here in the near future.

First,
The forest services in the United States are a fickle bunch and the WRC can not take the risk of organizing an event here if they can not secure the roads. By secure I mean guaranteed that the roads will be granted to the sanctioning bodies at the time of the race. The forest service is mostly made up of people who love mother nature and feel there is no need for fast moving motorized vehicles in their forest spilling oil and running over little bunnies. However, that is a whole other topic.

Second,
Support. America is perhaps full of too much Beaurocratic Bull (thats a hard word to spell). I think the red tape would be impossible to get threw in an effective manor. But the WRC knows that there has been interest by Americans. That is why there is the WRC in Mexico right now. What do you think the opposition in Mexico is like compared to America.


So something along these lines. My facts are probably not 100% but you get the idea. I have attempted to organize events in the past and its a big pain in the ***. I have yet to do on successfully. So the best you can do is show up to as many events as possible and support us. Go here for the 2007 schedule:
www.rally-america.com
or
www.nasarallysport.com

Only go the SCCA.org if you're interested in rallycross, but please keep in mind they dropped us like a bad habit... no hard feelings though.
Thanks,

Mitch
www.cp-racing.com

Answer 2

Wrc Usa

Answer 3

Very interesting question. My impression is that for some reason or another, the types of racing popular in North America are very different from those in Europe. Oval racing does not take off in Europe; likewise, rally cars in the States.

A partial answer might be to compare the roads in both places: North America is geographically flatter and less populated, and tends to have long, relatively straight roads (even in urban areas, which tend to be laid along grid lines unlike Europe's older cities). N. Am sports cars thus tend not to handle bends and curves too well; ergo, car rallies probably cannot attract sponsorship from local manufacturers.

European and Japanese makes tend to dominate the rallies (Peugeot-Citroen, Subaru, Mitsubishi). The best-known rally car launched by an American company, the Ford Escort, was actually a British design; the North American Escorts are redesigned from the European models.

Answer 4

There is a lot of rally driving in the USA, under the SCCA and other organizations, but it is not racing in the European sense. It is "racing" against a clock over timed segments and the segments are timed to stay within public speed limits on the roads used.
Part of the problem is the attraction of watching racing of cars that are similar to those used on the road or which have a strong national identity, like Ferrari. The problem being that the best rally cars in European racing were smaller front wheel drive cars (Sterling Moss and his sister separately won and often drove and won in hopped up Morris Minors, for heavens sake) and American sneered at them and bought big rear wheel drive road warriors.

Answer 5

Insurance. People can pretty much go anywhere they want along the course with no safety other than common sense. Some stupid person gets hit and their family sues say goodbye to WRC.

Not sure it would make a good race to watch in person where you can only see a cars for a few seconds before they are gone but its great on tv.

Answer 6

Because if a spectator was killed the organizers would be sued for a about 10 zillon $. Seriously-liability insurance for WRC in the US would be astronomical.

Answer 7

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