The 2019 DirtFish SCCA® RallyCross National Championship is officially in the books. The word for the weekend was traction. Courses started off on grass with minimal footing and quickly turned to gummy, grippy dirt that became super slick mud, leaving competitors creatively trying to find fresh grass for a toehold once the rains set in. Those who competed at the National Balloon Classic Memorial Balloon Field in years past came prepared with mud tires in tow, while some first timers scrambled for traction solutions.


Saturday morning runs started off dry and tacky, making for some great competition and quick times on competitors’ three runs. The rains came in shortly after the start of run group three, turning the clutching dirt into a layer of slick mud with hard-packed clay beneath.


Rains all night Saturday and into Sunday morning left questions about track conditions on the second day. But when it was offered to “call” the event at the morning drivers’ meeting, the undaunted RallyCross community responded with an overwhelming cheer to keep on going!  This turned out to be a great move as determined drivers started on a fresh, third course Sunday which proved to be a thrilling endeavor. Course designers did an amazing job using conditions to their advantage by including broad, sweeping corners that linked amazingly well with the slick conditions. The rain had paused at the beginning of run group one, but light sprinkles returned in the middle of run group two, slowing times slightly. Sprinkles continued through run groups two and part of three, but then subsided -- leaving the course muddy but consistent throughout the fourth and final run group.
Mark Hill was a crowd favorite in his Mitsubishi “E-Voh.” He made the slick courses look like child’s play with his mud tires and extensive racing background. Hill ran away with the Prepared All-Wheel Drive Championship, leaving Mark Macoubrie -- who also made some very impressive runs -- over 20 seconds behind for second place in his Subaru WRX STI. Riley McDowell was only 2.906 seconds behind Macoubrie in another Subaru WRX STI. McDowell got a 10-second missed gate penalty on his third run that ultimately landed him in third place.


Bret Hunter wasted no time showing he meant business in his Honda CRX, laying down some very fast times and taking the lead over Andy Thomas in his Toyota Celica. Hunter added a second or two to his lead each run on Saturday. Michael Gallant, in a Volkswagen GTI, was lurking in the shadows just behind Thomas throughout the day Saturday. However, everything changed Sunday when the Modified Front-Wheel Drive class, which lucked out with decent course conditions, got its first real taste of the mud. This became a race all about the tires. Gallant came out swinging, besting Hunter by over six seconds on his first run. Thomas got out of shape and hit a cone, dropping him back to sixth place and allowing Chris Zanis, in a Volkswagen GTI, to slide into third place. On the second and final run Sunday, Gallant bested Hunter by nearly four-and-a-half seconds, thus stealing the championship by a mere .458 seconds!


Brianne Corn came out Sunday morning with her sights set on the best time of the day with the most unlikely drivetrain and conditions to do it in. Her Modified Rear-Wheel Drive Mazda Miata, nicknamed General Wee, was all business. Corn put on an extremely impressive show, throwing some massive rooster tails and beautifully handling her highly modified Miata through the slick course, which put 10 seconds on the car’s owner and dual driver, Peter Dozeman. Doug Leibman, in his Volkswagon Super Beetle, started off giving Corn a run for her money and besting Dozeman Saturday morning. But after the rains came, Leibman’s time started slipping as traction went away once again, showing just how critical tire choice can be. Leibman’s times continued to deteriorate, coupled with a cone penalty, pushing him back to fourth place and leading the way for Vaugh Micciche to swoop in for the third-place spot in his Porsche 924 S.


The weekend was a mix of weather conditions that made competition challenging, particularly for those in Stock classes. But this also made for some fun, exciting courses and an excellent weekend of competition which brought out the very best in RallyCross comradery among competitors.


Below are provisional results for the 13th annual DirtFish SCCA® RallyCross National Championship held Sept. 20-22 at National Balloon Classic Memorial Balloon Field in Indianola, Iowa. Each notation contains the class, winning driver, hometown, car and winning margin.


-Stock Front-Wheel Drive: Will Geyer; Colorado Springs, CO; Volkswagen GTI; 12.698


-Stock Rear-Wheel Drive: Collin Oelkers; Dalhart, TX; Mazda Miata; 17.849


-Stock All-Wheel Drive: Josh Armantrout; Mount Pleasant, WI; Ford Focus RS; 5.247


-Prepared Front-Wheel Drive: Jim Rowland; Rogers, AR; Nissan Sentra SE-R; 4.653


-Prepared Rear-Wheel Drive: Gonzalo San Miguel; Draper, UT; Mazda Miata; 22.092


-Prepared All-Wheel Drive: Mark Hill; Lawrence, KS; Mitsubishi Evo IX; 20.158


-Modified Front-Wheel Drive: Michael Gallant; New Bedford, MA; Volkswagen GTI; 0.458


-Modified Rear-Wheel Drive: Brianne Corn; Maxwell, TX; Mazda Miata; 10.758


-Modified All-Wheel Drive: ZB Lorenc; Dublin, OH; Subaru Impreza; 1.058


Photo: Michael Gallant digs his way through the mud.
Photo Credit: Rupert Berrington

TOPEKA, Kan. (Feb. 21, 2019) – It’s never too early to start thinking about sliding cars around in the dirt and mud of a Sports Car Club of America® RallyCross® event, which is why the Club is excited to announce the 2019 schedule for the new DirtFish SCCA® RallyCross National Tour, formerly known as the RallyCross National Challenge series.


Three events are planned for this year’s DirtFish RallyCross National Tour. The season opens in May at Utah Motorsports Campus in Erda, followed by a June visit to Chillicothe, Ohio and the Ross County Fairgrounds.  The third and final National Tour event then takes place at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri, before drivers converge on National Balloon Classic Memorial Balloon Field in Indianola, Iowa for the DirtFish RallyCross National Championship in September.


Dates for the 2019 DirtFish SCCA RallyCross National Tour are as follows:


May 24-26: The Rocky Mountain Challenge
Utah Motorsports Campus; Erda, Utah


June 14-16: The Great Lakes Challenge
Ross County Fairgrounds; Chillicothe, Ohio


July 19-21: The Mid-America Challenge
Lucas Oil Speedway, Wheatland, Missouri


RallyCross is the SCCA’s most widespread and readily accessible form of extreme dirt motorsport. The activity is a scaled-down version of a rally stage laid out on a non-paved plot of land where the course is delineated by traffic cones instead of trees or rocks. Participation requirements are considerably less than those associated with other forms of performance rally, so drivers usually only need a mechanically sound, hardtop vehicle and a helmet to come play in the dirt.


National Tour events mimic the DirtFish RallyCross National Championship. However, there is room for local organizers to insert local “flavor” to an event, with the objective being to allow for some experimentation of new concepts/procedures. The exact degree of variance is coordinated with the RXB and National Office. All 11 official RallyCross national classes may compete at National Tour events, but there is also the potential to include a limited number of local classes to bolster attendance and interest. Each National Tour event includes two days of competition on at least two courses with between six and fifteen scheduled runs.


Each RallyCross National Tour event has a National Steward selected by the RXB and/or SCCA National Staff. The host Region/Division, however, manages all event functions, including but not limited to: site procurement, registration, course design, tech, timing and scoring, safety, protests, trophies and social components.


For additional information on DirtFish SCCA RallyCross, visit https://www.scca.com/pages/i-want-to-rallycross.

TOPEKA, Kan. (Oct. 8, 2018) -- What does it take to crown a United States RoadRally Challenge (USRRC) champion? This year, the answer for the annual SCCA event was four days, four diverse road rallies, some 500 miles of winding rural Illinois roads across from St. Louis and the Gateway Arch, 58 controls (checkpoints) and the ability to succeed in conditions that ranged from moonless fall nights to intense pop-up afternoon thunderstorms.

Hosted for the fourth time by the St. Louis Region, the 24th edition of “the Challenge” Oct. 4–7 was dominated by veteran teams. In Equipped, Bruce Gezon and Bob Morseburg won two of the four events, while Limited and Stock Challenge champions Jeanne English and Karl Broberg (Limited) and Jessica and J Toney (Stock) each picked up three class wins.

“The roads were great as usual and the concepts were well executed,” Gezon said. “It was nice to have confidence in what the committee intended for us to do. My favorite was Monopoly Redux. Tom Von Hatten did a masterful job of making an interesting and fun finish to a memorable USRRC.”

The weekend opened Thursday night, Oct. 4, with Tulips by Night, an 80-mile Monte-Carlo-style divisional Touring rally that featured passage controls. “Tulips” was followed by the Kaskaskia Trails National Course Rally on Friday and the Petit Rallye du Rocher National Touring Rally on Saturday. The weekend concluded with Monopoly Redux, a divisional GTA (gimmick) rally Sunday morning, Oct. 7.

Monopoly Redux was the sole rally the three winning teams did not dominate. Based on the well-known board game, the rally was won by the Indianapolis Region’s Wendy Harrison and Craig Beidelman. In Monopoly Redux, Gezon and Morseburg finished second, English and Broberg, 13th, and Jessica and J Toney, eighth.

In the weekend’s optional (non-official) classes, the Arctic Alaska Region’s Cheryl Babbe and Gail Engblom won the USRRC’s Rookie Class and David Zemon and Art Zemon won the Gateway Regional Cup.

The Rookie Class was designed for teams who, together, had participated in no more than four national or divisional rallies. The Gateway Regional Cup was a special combination of Saturday’s Le Petit Rallye du Rocher and Sunday’s Monopoly Redux that offered new or occasional rally teams, or teams from other SCCA disciplines, an opportunity to discover classic SCCA rallying or just spend a weekend having fun with their wheels.

Jim Crittenden, SCCA Road Rally Board chair, hosted a Friday night Road Rally Town Hall meeting at the USRRC and offered these comments about the weekend: “I’d like to give a special tip-of-the-hat to our President, Mike Cobb, for attending the USRRC. The folks at the Town Hall meeting appreciated getting to meet Mike and hearing about our organization’s efforts across all SCCA programs. Mike also worked on a checkpoint crew for Saturday’s rally and did a short ride-along for the first two legs in one of the rally cars. The team that took Mike on his ride-along, Chuck Larouere and Rick Beattie, from Pittsburgh, went on to win that rally (Le Petit Rallye du Rocher).”

Crittenden added: “On behalf of SCCA, we’d like to extend our sincerest appreciation to Jim Heine, Ron Ferris, Tom von Hatten, and the entire St. Louis Region rally committee for a great weekend. They provided the competitors with the complete range of rally styles (Course, Tour, and GTA), excellent hospitality and banquet, and plenty of opportunities to socialize with old friends and meet new ones. Well done folks, thank you!”

TOPEKA, Kan. (Aug. 3, 2018) -- The SCCA® Rally/Solo Department is on its way to a banner championship season. Back in July, the 2018 Tire Rack SCCA Solo® Nationals reached its entry cap of 1,350 participants in only 100 hours, which brought about the decision to raise the cap to 1,400 entrants. Now, the 2018 DirtFish SCCA RallyCross® National Championship has reached its cap of 125 entrants after only eight days. Howard Duncan, SCCA’s Rally/Solo Senior Director, noted this is the second consecutive year the RallyCross championship has reached its entry limit.


“There appears to be no shortage of people who want to come have fun with their cars at SCCA’s RallyCross Championship and the Solo Nationals,” Duncan said. “In the coming days the SCCA Rally/Solo Department will again sit down and figure out if it’s logistically possible to raise the RallyCross Championship participant cap. Of course, our goal is to allow as many people as possible the opportunity to come have fun with this Club. But, just like with Solo Nationals, we want to make sure we’re not compromising the event’s quality for participants.”


This year’s DirtFish SCCA RallyCross National Championship takes place Oct. 12-14 at the National Balloon Classic Memorial Balloon Field in Indianola, Iowa. There will again be three unique course layouts over the weekend. Runs are timed to 1/1000th of a second with missed “gates” resulting in a 10-second penalty. Class winners are based on the total time of all runs Saturday and Sunday.


As SCCA’s most widespread and readily accessible form of extreme motorsport, RallyCross is a scaled-down version of a rally stage laid out on a non-paved plot of land where the course is delineated by traffic cones instead of trees or rocks. Participation requirements are considerably less than those associated with other forms of performance rally, so drivers usually only need a mechanically sound, hardtop vehicle and a helmet to come play in the dirt.

Online registration for the 24th United States RoadRally Challenge, the SCCA’s premier RoadRally weekend is open at motorsportreg.com.

This year’s United States RoadRally Challenge (USRRC) Oct. 4–7 is hosted by the St. Louis Region with help from the Southern Illinois Region.

As organized by the St. Louis Region, the 2018 USRRC will include four rallies--two divisionals and two nationals--beginning with a short nighttime divisional tour Thursday evening, Oct. 4, followed by two daylong national rallies Friday, Oct. 5, and Saturday, Oct. 6. The weekend will conclude with a morning divisional GTA rally Sunday, Oct. 7, followed by an awards luncheon.

This year’s USRRC will offer several special features also, observes event chairman Jim Heine.

“In addition to the regular RoadRally classes defined by the Road Rally Rules--Equipped, Limited, and Stock--we will offer two additional classes, Historic and Rookie. They’re designed especially for beginning or occasional rally teams, whether historic or modern, or for teams from other SCCA disciplines that might enjoy participating in the USRRC. Also, we’ve designed the weekend so that Historic and Rookie teams can run all four events, or if they choose, just the Saturday and Sunday events.”

This is the fourth time the St. Louis Region has hosted the USRRC. “We are looking forward to hosting this event again, and we believe rally teams will find the weekend enjoyable,” says Peter Zekert, St. Louis Region executive.

For more information about the 2018 USRRC, visit motorsportreg.com (http://msreg.com/usrrc2018) or the St. Louis Region’s website at stlscca.org, where entry forms and current USRRC information are available also.

The 2018 USRRC will run over the historic rural roads of southern Illinois, just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis’ Gateway Arch. Suburban Columbia, Ill., will serve as the weekend’s rally headquarters.

Words & Photo Courtesy of Greggar Helgeland

SCCA® RallyCross® uses traffic cones to build race courses on grass or dirt fields, eliminating most hazards and barriers, which in turn makes RallyCross one of the least expensive and fun ways to race. The pace of RallyCross is generally below highway speeds, but the courses are demanding enough to satisfy the adrenaline junkie in all of us.

While RallyCross can be as easy or intense as you want, the basics of how to compete are simple.

What You Need

Driver’s license: You need a current driver’s license to enter an SCCA RallyCross event.

Helpful tip – If you are under 18, you will need both your parents to sign a minor waiver for you. The signature must be notarized or witnessed by an SCCA Registrar.

Vehicle in good working order: Although RallyCross doesn’t require the same safety gear as traditional race cars, your car must be in good enough mechanical condition for competition. The suspension must not have loose or worn parts, the battery must be securely held in place, the tires must have no cords or metal showing, the brakes and seatbelts must function properly, the windshield must not be structurally compromised and there should not be any serious fluid leaks.

Helpful tip – When you get to an event, the tech inspector will make sure your car is ready to go.

Helmet: You will need a helmet when you’re driving on course, but you can usually use a loaner helmet provided by the regional host of the event. If you bring your own, keep in mind it must meet certain safety requirements.  First thing to know is that helmets with ONLY DOT ratings are not allowed. A helmet with a current Snell rating, or one of the two previous rating periods, is required.

Helpful tip – If that is too confusing and you’re not sure if your helmet is OK or not, show it to a tech inspector who can verify if its safety certifications meet the requirements.

How to Participate

Find an event: Go to the RallyCross events webpage at SCCA.com. Enter your zip code to find your region’s event schedule and then choose a race to attend.

Register: Some regions require that you sign up online before coming to an event and some allow you to enter the day of the race. When you find an event, look for details about registration requirements. While costs vary between regions, most events cost between $25 and $60 to enter.

Helpful tip – SCCA members are a helpful bunch. If you arrive early and tell someone you have never raced RallyCross before, chances are you’ll get a quick primer on how the process works. You might find you have a few new friends, as well.

Show up: Once you’re ready and have registered (or know how to register), the next step is to get to the race and join the fun. Because RallyCross® races tend to pack a lot of activities into each day, pay close attention to the schedule of tech inspection, when registration opens, when the course is open for walking, when drivers’ meetings are held, etc.

Helpful tip – RallyCross runs in almost any weather, so make sure you bring appropriate clothing and weather gear, closed-toed shoes and food and beverages for the whole day. Since no loose objects are allowed in your car during the race, plastic organizer bins are helpful to store items while you compete.

Get your car checked out: The technical safety inspection, also known as “Tech,” is where one of your fellow competitors will double-check your car and make sure it meets safety requirements. They will look under the hood, inside the interior and trunk, check your tires, make sure your suspension is tight, verify your helmet is good to go and see that there aren’t any loose items in your car.

Helpful tip – It’s best to come to tech with your car empty and with the hood and trunk open for inspection. Also, if you don’t have a number plate and the inspectors don’t have shoe-polish to write the numbers on your windows, ask them for some low-adhesive painters tape to make numbers and class letters.

Walk the course: Since you will only get a handful of laps, it’s important to walk the course in order to plan how to drive it. You should walk the course at least once and they usually take 5-10 minutes per walk depending on the venue.

Helpful tip – The course should be marked well enough that you don’t have to memorize it, but the better you learn it the faster you will usually go. Also, don’t be afraid to ask other racers to help you plan your race as you walk the course. Just like asking for help when you arrive, you’ll probably make some new friends in the process.

Help Out: One of the things that makes RallyCross less expensive than other forms of motorsports is that the competitors are also the organizers and helpers. That person who helped you sign the waiver? They’re probably driving today. The person who helped you register? Yep, also driving. The tech inspector? Well, you get the idea...

There will be a time period during the day where you will help run the event. This might include recording lap times, directing cars from grid to course or re-setting traffic cones on course after they are knocked down.

Helpful tip – Work and race schedules are typically announced during drivers’ meetings. That’s when you’ll find out what group you’re driving in, which group you’re working with and when you will have some down time to relax, socialize or just watch the race.

Drive: This one is self-explanatory. Before you start your race, there will be an area, or “grid,” where you park between runs while you wait for your turn. Workers there will tell you when to approach the start line. Have fun, monitor your lap times and try to improve them with each run. Repeat until all your runs are completed.

Helpful tip – Look ahead and relax. Looking ahead helps you better see where the course is and relaxing enables you to better feel what the car is doing so that you can improve your times.

So that’s it – those are some of the essential facts of what you need to know and how to race RallyCross. From there, the only way is up. RallyCross has several classes of cars from low-budget to highly-modified, as well as National level competition and Championships. We hope to see you at a RallyCross® event soon.

​TOPEKA, Kan. (March 19, 2018) -- Online registration for the 24th United States RoadRally Challenge (USRRC), the SCCA's premier RoadRally weekend, is open at Motorsportreg.com. This year's USRRC is hosted by the St. Louis Region Oct. 4-7 with help from the Southern Illinois Region. The annual celebration of sports cars and classic sports-car rallying will test the teamwork, time-keeping and route-following skills of SCCA® RoadRally teams from across the country.
 
As organized by the St. Louis Region, the 2018 USRRC will include four rallies -- two divisionals and two nationals -- beginning with a short nighttime divisional tour Thursday evening, Oct. 4, followed by two daylong national rallies Friday, Oct. 5, and Saturday, Oct. 6. The weekend will conclude with a morning divisional GTA rally Sunday, Oct. 7, followed by an awards luncheon. This year's USRRC will offer several special features, says event chairman Jim Heine.
 
"In addition to the regular RoadRally classes defined by the Road Rally Rules -- Equipped, Limited and Stock -- we will offer two additional classes, Historic and Rookie," Heine said. "They're designed especially for beginning or occasional rally teams, whether historic or modern, or for teams from other SCCA disciplines that might enjoy participating in the USRRC. Also, we've designed the weekend so that Historic and Rookie teams can run all four events, or if they choose, just the Saturday and Sunday events."
 
Last year, the SCCA's Arctic Alaska Region played host to the annual event, with Anchorage, Alaska, serving as the headquarters city. In 2016, the USRRC, under the guidance of the SCCA's New England Region, showcased the rural roads and fall colors of Vermont. Other past USRRC locations have included Pittsburgh, Pa.; Santa Maria, Calif.; La Crosse, Wis.; Portland, Org.; and Fredericksburg, Virginia. But 2018 will be the fourth time the St. Louis Region has stepped up to host the USRRC.
 
"We are the first SCCA region to host the USRRC four times," notes St. Louis Region executive Peter Zekert. "We last hosted it in 2005. We were selected again for 2018 because of our central location and because teams that run the SCCA's national RoadRally series, of which the USRRC is a part, enjoy coming to St. Louis."
 
Before 2005, the St. Louis Region, also with help from the Southern Illinois Region, hosted the USRRC in 1998 and 2001.
 
As with this year's USRRC, the 2001 and 2005 St. Louis based "Challenge" events were run in southern Illinois, observes SCCA Southern Illinois Region executive and SCCA Board of Directors member Chris Albin. He is pleased that the October weekend will again highlight the rural landscape of the "Metro East."
 
"There is a long history of cooperation between our regions, not only in rallying, but also in other activities, and this is just another example of how the Mississippi River doesn't divide us," Albin said.
 
"We are looking forward to hosting this event again, and we believe rally teams will find the weekend enjoyable," Zekert added.
 
For more information about the 2018 USRRC, visit motorsportreg.com(http://msreg.com/usrrc2018) or the St. Louis Region's website at stlscca.org.
 
Photo Credit: James Heine

Unlike most forms of racing, RallyCross® doesn’t have the luxury of competing on established racetracks or existing roads. RallyCross requires open spaces such as grass fields, farmlands, fairgrounds or undeveloped properties. Finding such places is often challenging for RallyCross organizers, even though RallyCross events are good for local communities and landowners. If hosting a race sounds appealing to you or possibly somebody you know, please take a moment to read the details below.
RallyCross creates increased traffic to nearby businesses. The average RallyCross participant spends $600 per weekend on food, gas, lodging and entertainment. Most racers bring along friends and family for fun, support and camaraderie, often turning a race day into a weekend stay. RallyCross also draws participants from a wide geographic area, creating new customers for surrounding businesses. Those new customers represent a wide demographic of people, most of whom are married homeowners with an average household income of over $130,000 per year.
RallyCross events present no financial risk to hosting landowners or local communities. RallyCross is relatively low in speed and prioritizes safety over competition, but in the unlikely event of an incident, SCCA provides comprehensive general and liability insurance coverage that exonerates landowners of all financial obligations. SCCA also ensures that all owner rules and local ordinances are strictly honored.
RallyCross does not require any involvement from landowners other than a place to compete. Because RallyCross is a work-to-race event, it provides its own labor teams that take care of things like monitoring entry, set-up, race management and tear-down. RallyCross also brings its own equipment and resources, such as generators, garbage cans and porta-potties. Unlike most forms of racing, cars run individually and compete against the clock rather than race together as a group. This increases safety and reduces the amount of land required. When necessary, water trucks are used to minimize dust picked up by the cars. Organizers and participants also clean up after themselves so nothing is left behind for landowners to deal with.
The end result is a seamless relationship that involves little to no effort on the part of landowners outside of simply receiving a check for the use of their land. One way to increase the level of compensation above that of just hosting a race is to allow onsite camping before and/or after race day. This reduces travel requirements for participants, which in turn creates greater visits to nearby businesses.
All regions strive to develop long term, financially sustainable relationships with landowners that provide years of racing action. This is where you come in. Do you know of a place where your local SCCA® group could have some fun in the dirt? If so, please find and contact your local SCCA region at https://www.scca.com/regions.
For further information regarding potential RallyCross sites, please contact Brian Harmer at bharmer@scca.com.
Words & Photo: Greggar Helgeland