Your thoughts, my American friends...

Discussion about all other motor racing categories - GP2, GP3, Rallying, NASCAR, F2 & F3, MotoGP
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emmetyak
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Your thoughts, my American friends...

Post by emmetyak » 27 Jan 2012, 20:57

Why has there never been a WRC event in North America?
My dad used to make me sit up late to watch the likes of Ari Vattenen and Stig Blomqvist thundering through the forests.
In all the time since, I can't remember a single WRC event in North America. I may be wrong here; I smoked a lot of weed when I was younger, and my memory isn't what it used to be.
Anyway, where was I?

Cheese on toast....

Yeah, do you think it's just not "commercially viable" (TM)
Or is it....
Dare I say it....
Because Americans can't drive? (Ken Block. I rest my case.)
There, I said it.

Discuss.

All in good humour, sorry, humor, of course!

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reppo
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Re: Your thoughts, my American friends...

Post by reppo » 30 Jan 2012, 19:24

emmetyak wrote:Why has there never been a WRC event in North America?
My dad used to make me sit up late to watch the likes of Ari Vattenen and Stig Blomqvist thundering through the forests.
In all the time since, I can't remember a single WRC event in North America. I may be wrong here; I smoked a lot of weed when I was younger, and my memory isn't what it used to be.
Anyway, where was I?

Cheese on toast....

Yeah, do you think it's just not "commercially viable" (TM)
Or is it....
Dare I say it....
Because Americans can't drive? (Ken Block. I rest my case.)
There, I said it.

Discuss.

All in good humour, sorry, humor, of course!
Well I'm not American, but there has been totally five US races in WRC calendar, and not a single one for over twenty years. I have no idea why not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Rally_Championships

NightBird_GDA
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Re: Your thoughts, my American friends...

Post by NightBird_GDA » 07 Feb 2012, 06:24

emmetyak wrote:Why has there never been a WRC event in North America?
My dad used to make me sit up late to watch the likes of Ari Vattenen and Stig Blomqvist thundering through the forests.
In all the time since, I can't remember a single WRC event in North America. I may be wrong here; I smoked a lot of weed when I was younger, and my memory isn't what it used to be.
Anyway, where was I?

Cheese on toast....

Yeah, do you think it's just not "commercially viable" (TM)
Or is it....
Dare I say it....
Because Americans can't drive? (Ken Block. I rest my case.)
There, I said it.

Discuss.

All in good humour, sorry, humor, of course!
Well, technically Mexico is North America, but I'm guessing we're talking US and, to a lesser extent, Canada.

Hard to believe the first Yank to answer this one is from the last state admitted to the union, but here goes...

Rally in America (and by that I mean the contiguous 48) is mostly a niche market. There are those of us who are fanatical about the sport, and then there's everyone else in the country.

I've heard it said, and I'd probably agree, that the typical 21st century American isn't the type to hike deep into the forest or climb up some mountain just to sit around a corner waiting for cars to pass by and then pack up and move on to the next special stage. I guess that's why they trying to promote this Global RallyCross thing; put the action in a stadium where people can sit, drink beer, and watch. Kind of like NASCAR but far more exciting.

As for Mr. Block, say what you will about his driving skills, but what he does best is draw attention to the sport. I have friends who wouldn't know Ari Vatanen from Mikko Hirvonen but at least know what rally is thanks to Block and the success of video games like Dirt 3. I'd actually like to see him film Gymkhana 5 with the likes of Loeb, Solberg, Latvala, and Ogier et al to really up the visibility of the sport in this hemisphere.

What actually gets me is that we get absolutely ZERO television coverage here, not even on ESPN47 (lol). The only way I can see what's going on in Monte Carlo (or Sweden; here's hoping!) is by checking in on this site.

Mark h
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Re: Your thoughts, my American friends...

Post by Mark h » 17 Apr 2012, 16:36

This is only an opinion but I agree with the above posts. The number one reason why rally isn’t big in America is because no one is making money off of it. No one is lining their pockets with fat dollar bills and therefore no one is putting money back into the sport. Why not? Because we are mostly all fat butted(can I say @$$ on here?) drunks who are incapable of trudging through the forest to watch a rally. Why do that when we can sit at home and watch it from our big screen tv? But we don’t watch rally from our big screen tv, we watch Nascar. Oh Nascar, where would you be if it wasn’t for prohibition? Nascar is going pretty good now but it has had its rough years in the past.
American’s are terrible drivers. The average person has difficulty just driving down the road without crashing into a tree because of a phone. And yes, we don’t have too much top level talent either. Block has raised attention to the sport and no one can blame him for that. And yeah, even if we wanted to watch WRC on tv it just isn’t there…because not enough people are willing to pay for it I guess.
So to recap:
Money
We are fat and lazy
We have Nascar…

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Re: Your thoughts, my American friends...

Post by Mark h » 17 Apr 2012, 16:37

Oh and one more thing…if you so much as fart while in a rally car there are 6 people lined up to try and sue you for a $1million…God forbid you hit a mailbox. That type of attitude is detrimental to everything fun/dangerous do to the cost of insurance and the hassle it creates.

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