American Rally Association
Not sure how interested anyone is in rally this side of the pond but we are currently under going a massive growth spurt with some exciting things happening so thought I would share.
Obviously Subaru have long been dominant here and their cars have been in a class of their own and if you watch Launch Control you know that they have typically had a unrivalled budget. McKenna shocked them last year but the pandemic hit season wasn't a real comparison
At Rally in the 100 Acre Wood, McKenna turned up with a newly built Fiesta, the only major change being a regular shifter vs. paddle. Everything else ran the same and had tremendous pace. There were also double digits of R5 cars. It is not easy to run an R5 here. Firstly only the Ford Fiesta is sold here so using a Hyundai or Citroen is really difficult. Secondly, there has never been much money in US rally. The Irish boys are leading the way with the R5's and we even had our first Hyundai as well as Ken Block using McKenna's Skoda on a rental basis while he sorts out his new platform.
This is all pretty exciting because some of these R5's are being driven by young up and comers and not just older rich guys. Names like Booth and Burke are worth noting
Then on the Olympus Rally entry list are two Hyundai's . There are many rumours of what this could mean. It could be Rhys Millen Racing (RMR) coming back with R5's with perhaps Ryan Millen and Ken Block. The wilder rumour is that this could be a junior Hyundai program with WRC cars.
Solberg obviously did a season here with Subaru and I wonder if this showed other team bosses the benefits of the US. All rallies are two pass recce/unlimited recce (within time limits); feature lots of different surfaces; as well as a number of rallies with true night stages
Either way looks like the series is in its healthiest state since the early 2000's when Prodrive, Hyundai and Mitsubishi ran works teams
Also, and finally, remember Dirtfish is based here. A US round of the WRC within 5 years? I wouldn't be at all surprised and there would be a pretty healthy field of domestic R5's if Dirtfish make this happen.
Hope this is of interest to some of you.
Obviously Subaru have long been dominant here and their cars have been in a class of their own and if you watch Launch Control you know that they have typically had a unrivalled budget. McKenna shocked them last year but the pandemic hit season wasn't a real comparison
At Rally in the 100 Acre Wood, McKenna turned up with a newly built Fiesta, the only major change being a regular shifter vs. paddle. Everything else ran the same and had tremendous pace. There were also double digits of R5 cars. It is not easy to run an R5 here. Firstly only the Ford Fiesta is sold here so using a Hyundai or Citroen is really difficult. Secondly, there has never been much money in US rally. The Irish boys are leading the way with the R5's and we even had our first Hyundai as well as Ken Block using McKenna's Skoda on a rental basis while he sorts out his new platform.
This is all pretty exciting because some of these R5's are being driven by young up and comers and not just older rich guys. Names like Booth and Burke are worth noting
Then on the Olympus Rally entry list are two Hyundai's . There are many rumours of what this could mean. It could be Rhys Millen Racing (RMR) coming back with R5's with perhaps Ryan Millen and Ken Block. The wilder rumour is that this could be a junior Hyundai program with WRC cars.
Solberg obviously did a season here with Subaru and I wonder if this showed other team bosses the benefits of the US. All rallies are two pass recce/unlimited recce (within time limits); feature lots of different surfaces; as well as a number of rallies with true night stages
Either way looks like the series is in its healthiest state since the early 2000's when Prodrive, Hyundai and Mitsubishi ran works teams
Also, and finally, remember Dirtfish is based here. A US round of the WRC within 5 years? I wouldn't be at all surprised and there would be a pretty healthy field of domestic R5's if Dirtfish make this happen.
Hope this is of interest to some of you.