West Virginia Rally Racing (inspections, legal, safety)

[GottaHerdOn]

If anyone is interested there will be Rally Racing in Randolph county this weekend, should be rather exciting. The race on Friday is held only a few miles from my house!

Here is a link to the article on the intermountain

Rally W.Va. Gears up for Weekend - The InterMountain


Randolph County will be invaded with street legal rally cars and motorcycles this Friday and Saturday as they blast over area dirt roads during the third annual 2008 Rally West Virginia, competing for the shortest time in tackling the challenging course.

"We love the rally because it brings a lot of people to the area," Randolph County Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Brenda Pritt said. "I think it is going to be neat to watch the motorbikes."

Pritt said she went to some of the spectator areas last year and enjoyed the racing action. She said the roads involved are becoming some of the racers' favorites.

"The rally brings in many different people from different places and even different nationalities," Pritt said.

Rally West Virginia is part of the U.S. Rally Championship and Max-Attack two-wheel drive Racing Series.

This is the second year back for USRC and race three of four on the East Coast. This is also the second year back for the Max-Attack Triple Crown Racing Series part of The Rally Sports Group of America Inc.

"We are honored and a little bit humbled to be part of the MaxAttack! series," Rally West Virginia chairman Mark Bowers said. "We are excited to have their support at the event. We are thrilled with the level of competition in both the two-wheel drive and all-wheel drive divisions. I will be intrigued to see the strategies employed by teams on this long and technically challenging event."

This is the second of three events for Max-Attack in its two-wheel drive championship. It has a total prize fund of $16,000. The winner in two-wheel drive overall will get $1,500, second place will receive $1,200, third place will receive $1,000, fourth place will receive $800 and fifth place in two-wheel drive overall will win $500.

New this year will be Rally-Moto, which has 20 bikes entered. These are the same bikes that compete in the famous Pairs to Dakar Rally.

According to information from Rally West Virginia, Performance Rally racing has long been a favorite form of motor sport in Europe, Asia, Africa and other parts of the world. In these places, rallies often draw crowds in the tens of thousands. Rallying is unlike any other type of car racing.

Performance Rally vehicles require certain safety equipment to protect the crew, according to Rally West Virginia. This includes a full roll cage, with door bars and triangulation, fire extinguishers and special seat belts. The crew must wear approved fireproof suits and helmets. All the cars that compete in the event are street legal vehicles that must pass all Department of Transportation inspections.

Rally West Virginia is sanctioned by NASA Rallysport and is part of the new Atlantic Rally Cup. There are 37 Rally cars entered for the event. Returning this year are drivers Enda McCormack, Martin Donnelly and Michael O'Leary in their Mitsubishi EVOs. Simon Wright and Hampton Bridwell will also return in there Rally Spec Ford Focus two-wheel drive cars and Don Kennedy and Scott Wilburn will be running in their Subaru Imprezas.

For more information, go to Rally West Virginia August 1 & 2 2008.

[Two-Rivers]

Thanks for the heads-up. Won't make it this year, but if it continues, I've got it on my list of things I must do. Events like this are one of the best kept secrets, you'd think our state motorsports dept. (forget the exact title) would help promote things more. We hadn't heard of the Randolph Rally on this side of the state.

Right now I don't have anything street legal that I'd want to run in the dirt, I'll have to work on that because Rally is something I'd like to try. Been into dirt ovals for a while, turning right and going left.

Thanks for the links!

[GottaHerdOn]

I'm not sure how long its been going on.. This is only the 2nd year I've known about it. But it is fairly new

[Two-Rivers]

The story said third annual, so my guess is this is the third year.

There used to be a road course over on your side of the state. Is it still running? They used to have days where you could bring your street car out and run laps.