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story by per schroeder • photos by scott r. lear unless otherwise credited
Our older readers might recall humming along to the theme song of the …
I miss Matt. He was fast and pushed some of the top guys.
He disappeared just as quick as he appeared.
NGTD said:I miss Matt. He was fast and pushed some of the top guys.
He disappeared just as quick as he appeared.
The story of rally, really. So many drivers just burn out, crash too many cars, run out of cash, or get tired of it. I think Anders, who runs NASA Rally and is a "big data" type of guy, once went through all rally results for all organizations over a decade or something, and found that the average rally driver does a grand total of something like 3.5 rallies before giving it up. I'm about double that now, but it's definitely a sport that gets expensive fast (even at a super-grassroots level) and required a lot of tolerance for 4-5 day weekends since you need to do recce, shakedown, etc. STPR last year we went up Wednesday through Sunday and that event, doing it as cheaply as possible, still cost over $2500 all told and three days off work. Off all the amateur motorsports, I'd say that rally requires the most time committment "at venue" and probably them ost in the garage as well fixing things......Wife and kids get in the way of it a lot, unless they are VERY tolerant, lol...
That said, there are some seriously fast guys on shoestring budgets that regularly push the top teams (well, other than Higgins and Pastrana, perhaps). mid-Atlantic locals Adam Kimmett and Jon Kramer are both fast as hell in ratty old Subaru GCs that look crappier than that one, haha....
No idea what happened to Matt. he was gone before I started rallying...I think the last thing I can find him running was in about 2007 or so.
incidentally, that photo is reminiscent of the cover photo on our local facebook rally group - Sergei Grishin blasting in to the air on an unexpected culvert during Sandblast '17..Paint jobs are even similar :)
In reply to irish44j :
Yeah, I know what you mean. Even as a volunteer, last year at Tall Pines I was there 4 days and I spent $400 of my own money. I have had my car 2 years and I have only made one event.
Matt settled down with his girl friend, sold off all his gear and was gone.
thats what happens...u run out of money...or run into someone more important than rallying...aint love grand? :)
I work on cars out of necessity, not out of any particular love of wrenching. Could I do it? Yes. Would I want to do it? Yes. Will I do it? No chance in hell.
I figure if experience with the Supra is any indication, I'd spend WAY more time building the car than driving it, and frankly... that's just not much fun, at least not in the short term. Long term may be a different story. Now, if budget (and you know, adult life in general) weren't a concern and I could devote myself to rallying full time? I'd almost certainly never wake up without dirt under my nails. =)
Awww, thanks guys, I miss you too! Yup, I've got a wife and 4 kids. Spending my own money to be away 24 weekends of the year stopped being an option. When my kids are old enough to drive I'll take them rally crossing.
Regional rally sprints that don't require a $500 plus tow fund for an event, are touch easier on equipment, and don't have a silly national points championship are the ways to get people to stay in the sport a bit longer.
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