Internet saves U.S. rallying? It very well could
By: Phil Berg on March 5, 2012
Since the 1970s, U.S. rallyists have envied and briefly emulated the European model of national championship events with massive television coverage, multiple factory-funded teams and thousands of spectators.
In the United States, sponsors such as B.F. Goodrich, Bridgestone, Audi, Toyota, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Mazda and Nissan have come and gone in cycles, as has media and fan interest. Meanwhile, the hardcore, longtime hobby drivers continue to perform heroic real-road drifting and masterful car control largely unnoticed.
Volunteer-staffed events filled with entries up to 100 cars shrink to a handful of competitors periodically and in some cases die. Observers liken U.S. rallying to soccer—hugely popular anywhere but here. The reason often is explained by cultural differences.
“Americans like their gladiators served up in coliseums,” noted Toyota motorsports manager Wes Unger at the 1987 world championship Olympus Rally in backwoods Washington State.
This year, however, U.S. rallying's leading sanctioning body, Rally America, has proof that this culture has finally—and painfully at long last—changed. Thanks to the Internet, every laptop is the “Coliseum.”
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http://www.autoweek.com/article/20120305/MOTORSPORTS/120309912
