View Single Post
Old 4 Jun 2016, 19:06 (Ref:3647193)   #1
USRallycross
Racer
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
United States
Minnesota (the True North)
Posts: 443
USRallycross should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
Can Anything Save the GRC?

Now I know GRC doesn't have many fans on here but I had really hoped that this would see rallycross break into the US. I am currently watching the Dallas round where there are just 10 Supercars.......Mind you this is on NBC the equivalent of BBC or ITV in the UK not on some crappy small channel and in prime sports time on a Saturday afternoon.

But with this level of entry it's not much of a show for the TV audience and it's a 90 minute show. It's not what we imagined when we came up with all this not so many years ago.

So is this the last year or can anything be done to save the series?

No point debating the real courses vs. car park courses because reality in the US is that car park courses are do-able and promoters will fund their creation. Most road courses here are as full of themselves as Mr. Palmer and won't let anyone mess up their precious grass.

With so few cars thankfully the contact has reduced a lot this year and I do think driving standards led to a lot of people pulling out. When I explored entering a two car team as a 'junior' team of the one of the established teams the budget for repairs was crazy but I knew it to be real from what we saw with the Best Buy cars - and we had little damage compared to most (David always crashed the Amex or eBay cars!)

The biggest error IMHO was pushing away the privateers like Morro and Verdier. They needed 10-14 'real' super cars and then another 10-14 'clubman' super cars. We were getting there in the first year at NJMP and then in the first full year but then people saw $ signs and required stupid manufacturer entrant fees and downhill it went.

Add to that them killing the 2WD class and what had been looking like a promising start to establish rallycross in the US lost momentum after just three years and now 5-6 years on looks like it is on its deathbed.

Even Subaru (Vermont Sportscar) are choosing to run Rally America with no TV coverage whatsoever vs. running GRC with all its TV coverage.

Others have better insights now since I stepped out of the sport but I still believe it can be something.

Thoughts?
USRallycross is offline  
Quote