Rim of the World Rally
gets ready to rock Southern California
By David Gee
The streets of Los Angeles are a veritable car show 365 days a year, but for two days in May, 40 miles outside of town, there will be a collection of cars no automobile enthusiast has ever seen in one place.
“We are taking the 2004 Subaru Rim of the World Rally presented by Autosport Engineering in a whole new direction for the SCCA ProRally Championsip,” explains Ray Hocker, Director and Chairman of the rally that takes place May 7 th and 8th. “We are trying to do for rally what Mickey Thompson did for off-road racing; namely bring the excitement to the spectator.”
What does that mean?
For starters, the rally's headquarters have been moved 15 miles north of the traditional starting location so enthusiasts can enjoy the “on-road” convenience of the new Antelope Valley Fairgrounds in Lancaster .
Then there is a 45,000 square foot rally racing and import tuners Rally Expo car show, where car nuts can see the craziest stuff on four wheels.
All the pit/service stops for the rally teams will be centralized at the fairgrounds in a lighted blacktop area that is 50-percent larger than last year.
But that's not all. Event organizers this year have added a super special stage event.
Ray Hocker, the rally's inaugural organizer back in 1976 explains.
“We've built a WRC side-by-side stage in front of a 7,500-seat stadium adjacent to the service park. It will feature jumps, flat-out sweeping turns and even a water splash. Who needs NASCAR when you watch an entire rally stage from the grandstands?”
Don't think traditional rallyists – and their fans – have been left out though. Rim 2004 will still consist of ten stages in the Angeles National Forest , ranging from four to 12 miles in length.
Competitors will run the spectator stages on Friday night, May 7 th , and then contest 97 miles of tricky forest stages on Saturday.
Rim's roads are notorious for their tight, twisty, undulating character and the fact that they run along ridgetops with steep, cliff-like sides.
That makes for some wide-eyed competitors, which this year includes Travis Pastrana, a name more familiar to motorcycle and extreme sports fans than the rally crowds. But the three-time X-Games gold medalist and Freestyle SuperCross champ is trying to change that.
“I think rally and motocross share lots of skills,” explains the dynamic 20-year-old, who went to driving school with recently retired veteran Tim O'Neill and last year's overall driver's champion David Higgins. “It's all about weight transfer, anticipating how much traction is available for cornering versus accelerating and so on.”
Chris Yandell, who heads the marketing efforts for Vermont Sports Car, the team that runs the Subaru WRX for Pastrana and co-driver Christian Edstrom, thinks an X-Games guy could be just what rallying needs.
“The sport has always been about the cars, but it really has been missing a personality. Look at NASCAR as an example; the focus is more on the drivers, and not really their rides. Travis has a chance to attract the same extreme sports audience to rallying, and bring millions of new eyeballs to at least sample the sport. New fans, new competitors; that's what you need for growth.”
Many thought the sport was headed the other way this year with the withdrawal of the factory-supported teams.
But change has also brought opportunity. Witness the overall wins by Patrick Richard in a Group N car during rounds one and two of the SCCA ProRally Championship.
“This is the year of the driver,” proclaims the Rim of the World Rally Chairman Ray Hocker. “This has to be the most even playing field the sport has ever seen. There are seven or eight teams that are real contenders and five or six more with a good outside chance. Rim has always been a rally where the predictions sort of go out the window anyway, and now that will really be true. Sometimes the top dogs go out on Friday night, and then it's a whole new rally on Saturday.”
As far as the field is concerned, Hocker says the entry list for the 2004 Rim of the World Rally is looking great, with about 77 entries ready to contest the 21 st running of the rally.
“We were concerned the loss of the two factory teams would hurt us,” continues Hocker. “In fact, the opposite is true. We have more than filled the loss of the four works teams with privateers chasing after a wide open championship.”
Murray Thomas of TAD Motorsports, who prepares the Mitsubishi Evolution for perennial front-runner Seamus Burkes, says you do have to indeed look at both sides of the proverbial coin.
“As a rally fan I'm disappointed I'm not seeing World Championship-caliber cars at our events. But then again, when the factory cars do run, the privateers don't really stand a chance of winning, so this has been mixing things up a bit.”
Also mixing it up this second weekend in May will be: former Subaru World Rally Team and Subaru Rally Team USA driver Ramana Lagemann; recent WRC Corona Rally Mexico competitor Wyeth Gubelman; former Canadian National Rally Champion Patrick Richard going for win number three on the season; 2002 Ramada Express Hotel Casino International Rally winner Mark Nelson, and local favorite Brian Hudson who returns for another Rim of the World with his son Nick along for the ride as co-driver.
You can follow the action even if you can't make it to Southern California . This year's event will include nearly real-time scoring over the Internet at www.rimoftheworldrally.com , according to rally Chairman and Director Ray Hocker.
“Rim has been called the ‘Daytona 500' of American rallies. “We're going to do everything we can to live up to that.”