RallyCross, like its older brother autocross, is an inexpensive form of very short course racing.
RallyCross mimics the sport of rally driving on a smaller scale. Full bore rally racing, like you see in video games or occasionally on TV, takes place over miles of closed roads. These roads are usually undeveloped dirt logging roads or really crappy paved ones. Most races, even long NASCAR ones, take an afternoon or so. Rally races take place over days. The cars are timed over one course after another. At the end of the race all the times are added up, and he or she who has the fastest time overall takes the win. Rally racing is dirty, exciting, fast, and like all other serious racing, very very expensive to do, even half-assed.
That's where RallyCross comes in. It's purpose is to provide some of the thrills of off-road rallying, at a much more modest cost. Rallycross usually takes place on an open field somewhere, using orange road cones to mark out a course. The course itself usually takes minutes to complete, as opposed to days. Each driver is usually given three runs at the course over a period of hours. At the end, all the driver's times are added up together, just like regular stage rally, and he or she who has the lowest total time is the winner for a given class.
Rallycross cars are organized into classes depending on the level of preparation. Regular old cars running all-season tires are at the low end of the classing, and a fully prepared rally car is at the sharp end of the classes. You can indeed spend quite a bit of money going rallycrossing, but you can also show up with your winter beater and have at it.
The Western Ohio Region SCCA , which is based out of Dayton, holds rallycross events throughout the summer. Expect events to be around 2 hours from Findlay. Their next rallycross event is June 20-21 at Preble County Fairgrounds in Hebron, Ohio. You can click on the link to the left, or just go to:
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