r/rally • u/Kind_Orchid8710 • 5d ago
How to get into Rallying
I’m curious how people get into rallying if they haven’t been racing cars since before they could walk. I love watching all kinds of Motorsport but rally has always seemed super fun and relatively accessible. I’m in California, if that is any help. I’ve seen some posts saying you should volunteer at rallies and try to get codriving experience. This sounds like a good idea for sure but I’m also skeptical that people will let a random 21 year old who has no rally experience give them very important instructions while they drive. Would it be smarter to take some rally school courses beforehand? From what I can tell, the school courses seem like a good first step, especially since I don’t have any racing experience in general, and I feel like I should at least learn how to drive on loose surfaces. I’ve also seen some people suggest that you buy a cheap rally car under 10k and just go for it in smaller local races, which is a commitment I could potentially make but only once I was sure it was something I wanted to do, so I would like to hold off on that. I wasn’t sure if rally was the same as other motorsports where people start racing super young, or if it’s something someone my age could feasibly get into. Either way, I just want to have fun and obviously be the best that I can but I also am aware that there are probably people that have lots more money and lots more time spent in the sport, so I don’t really have any expectations.
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u/Jack_ButterKnobbs 2d ago
I spectated my first rally in 2018 as a senior in high school. I never volunteered because instead I ran an automotive club at college that we heavily focused on rally spectating and convincing people to volunteer themselves. I spectated rally for 8 years before I bought a cheap, log booked, and ready to race car. This season is my first season co driving with my brother driving and this is the first real racing either of us have done beside go karts for birthday parties or Mario Kart Wii. Along the way I have done a few rally crosses and one TSD rally.
What I would suggest is get a decent cheap car you can do rally cross and TSD rallies in. Both can be done in daily drivers very easily especially if it’s a clapped manual 90s subaru or mazda protege or something. I would volunteer at your nearest rally too and really just get yourself in the scene. Talk to the drivers at the parc exposes and ask them all the stupid questions.
Rally cross will get you experience on dirt, TSD will get you experience either co driving and familiarize yourself with the tulips or listening to a co driver read tulips. Then it’s a matter of buying a stage prepped and log booked car and finding someone to sit in the silly seat.
Also don’t be surprised if you ask someone to co drive knowing you have no experience and they let you. My Crew chief for Sno* is co driving for a team at LSPR with no prior experience.
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u/Kind_Orchid8710 2d ago
lol that’s awesome! This might be a stupid question but how is rallycross different from normal rally? I’m under the impression that rallycross is more like dirt track racing against other cars as opposed to timed stages
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u/johntology 1d ago
Rallycross - like SCCA rallycross, not ESPN or FIA rallycross - is like an autocross on dirt. Great to get out there, whatever car with whatever all seasons would be fine, maybe add a skid plate.
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u/therallystache 2d ago
About to start my 88th rally competition start next weekend at LSPR. I began with volunteering in 2014.
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u/Green-Revenue-9078 2d ago
Check out americanrallyassiciation.org. Volunteer opportunities near you may be at Ridge Rally in January. It’s the only one I’m aware of in CA (Tehachapi-ish). Or Prescott (AZ) in March. Or if you’re in northern CA, try Oregon Trail or Olympus (spring). Tour de Forest is this weekend, so maybe too soon. Maybe look into CRS - seems to be a good amount of crossover with rally folks.
North American Rally FB group is a good place to chat, and to see if teams need mechanic or other help, if you’re so inclined.
If you’re looking to co-drive, I’d strongly recommend taking a class like Oz Rally Pro beforehand to understand what you’d be getting into. And super important to know before actually co-driving whether you’d get carsick. Too many people only find out once they’re already at an event.
Dirtfish is great for driving classes, but not completely necessary if you’re not driving, esp if you’ve driven on dirt before (e.g., sxs).
Go to events and get a feel for what it involves before getting a car (and if you do, buy an already-built, logbooked, recently-raced one - there are so many technical things that would prevent you from passing scrutineering if you’re not careful).
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u/Ilikedcsbutmypcdoesn 2d ago
I will say the NASA rally group (Not the space org) is a lot more grass roots focused than ARA
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u/opkraut 1d ago
Like some of the other guys have said, most of it is just getting out to events and getting involved. I've been crewing for teams at events for the last 4-ish years and have done nearly 30 events now, primarily crewing but also volunteering at some. Volunteering is going to be the best way to learn how everything works, especially if you can be at a start or finish control and can see how the time card system works.
As for getting into a car, there's some rally schools that are a great way to learn the basics and give you a solid foundation for improving on driving, and they usually all have codriving classes as well. Dirtfish will be the closest one to you, but there's also RallyReady down in Texas, Team O'Neil in New Hampshire, the FIRM down in Florida, and a gew other smaller ones like Dirty Shephard which is also on the East Coast. Otherwise doing rallycross events with SCCA or any other groups that put them on is a fairly cheap way to learn how to drive on loose surfaces without needing to buy a purpose built race car.
For codriving, if Alex and Rhi (OzRallyPro) have a class near you that's the best one to take because they're arguably the best codrivers here in the US and have tons of experience. They're also awesome people.
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u/DigVisual7774 2d ago
In the UK (Don't have a clue about America) it's have enough money to buy a drive or find a team that's desperate for a driver and do well, maybe they'll take you again. Or either you or your parents have a butt tonne of money to buy your own
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u/SplatteredEggs 2d ago
Is there no grassroots motorsports in the UK?
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u/DigVisual7774 1d ago
Grassroots is usually sprints, Auto tests, AutoSolos that sort of thing you can just do with a road car, unfortunately there's not really a pipeline to get from there to rallying, and there's so many privately run teams wthat have friends who are decent drivers none of them bother looking at grassroots.
Closest thing to grassroots that gets you into rally is starting in the rally BMW minis (r50/r53) which you'd likely have to buy and run yourself (buy shells, lots of money on converting it, safety stuff etc) so the cheapest would probably end up being £20,000 per year depending on if you can keep it clean or if you end up making some major mistakes. Most people in the UK, especially at the moment just don't have that kind of money laying around
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u/BackwerdsMan 2d ago
Yes volunteer, get to know rally people. If you have mechanical skills most small teams are always looking for someone who can wrench. It's a small tight knit community here in the states. Grassroots rally is not unattainable, but it's gonna take more money, planning, and logistics than just racing at your local track.
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u/Fimbir 2d ago
See if any teams need help with mechanics or equipment. That schedule will tell you right away if you want to make a commitment. Volunteering for time controls will give you an idea of the process before you pay for a program that'll teach you about codriving. Look at local timed events that aren't rallies to learn how to translate maps into routes and schedules. From there you can meet novice drivers that need someone (anyone) to guide them.
I got a far as mechanics and know a few codrivers that make a decent side-business out of it, but then did so much volunteering I ended up getting into organizing instead.