GET INVOLVED!

YOU...YES, YOU!! You can enjoy the thrill of racing in the comfort of your own car!! Read on to find out about the different kinds of events that are held and check out our video page to see how much fun it is.

The EDMONTON RALLY CLUB has 3 different types of rally for you to get involved in (text blatantly stolen from CARS ;)

Navigational (TSD)
These rallies are also known as time, speed and distance or TSD rallies and are run on public roads. A driver and a navigator have to follow the precise route the organizers have laid out and maintain precise timing so that the rally team is always at a specific place at a specific time.

The object of the event is to follow the organizers' directions and timing instructions and while this seems easy, sometimes the directions are not so easy to follow dependent on the nature of the instructions.

The speeds set are always below the posted limits and all rules of the road are expected to be obeyed at all times. Scoring for navigational events usually is determined by arrival times at the checkpoints the organizer has along the route. (In some navigational rallies, answers to questions where the answer to the question can be found along the route also play a part in determining the scores.)

A navigational rally is NOT a speed event and early arrivals at checkpoints result in higher scores than being similarly late. Navigational rallies are run in rural or less populated areas and provide challenges to both the driver and navigator. Interpretive abilities and team work are the skills needed to succeed. This is an inexpensive way to get involved in rallying because you can do it in your every-day street car!

For a primer on TSD rally and sample route book pages, please check out the BC Classic Rally site

Rallycross and Rally Sprint
These rallies are club level performance rallies where fastest total time wins. The courses in rallycross are on private land such as gravel pits or private properties where a short course (less than 3 km) is set up on loose surfaces and with a single car on the course at any one time.

Rally Sprints are generally held on private or controlled public roads and are made up of short stages (closed to public traffic and less than 3 km in length) and transits (open to public traffic). While rallysprints require the crew and vehicles to meet all safety equipment requirements of the CARS rule book, rallycross courses are designed such that regular road cars are able to compete. Participation can build car control skills that will improve your ability to cope with the daily challenges of driving.

Performance Rallies
These rallies are made up of special stages (controlled and monitored roads) and transits (on public roads) where time penalties determine the finishing order. The lowest total time taken on the stage portions of the rally combined with any time penalties on transits determine the winner of the rally.

 Performance rallies are organized by member clubs and all are either regional or national championship events. The Canadian Rally Championship is currently made up of six events while there are regional performance rally championships in Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario and Rally West/Rally Pacific Motorsports have a joint championship in Alberta and British Columbia.

The teams are made up of a driver and a co-driver and they compete in one of several vehicle classes (Open –usually made up of 4WD, turbo vehicles with few restrictions on modifications; Group 2 –an open class for normally aspirated 2WD vehicles also with few restrictions on modifications; Group N –an FIA world class for production vehicles where only restricted and homologated changes to the vehicle are allowed; and Production Class –where vehicles are divided into 4 sub classes (P1, P2, P3 and P4) based on adjusted displacement limits and allowed modifications are designed only to improve reliability and safety.

Teams competing in performance rally range from teams running selected events on a low cost budget to full factory teams which are contesting for outright victory in the Canadian Rally Championship. The average regional rally will contain about 100 km of special stages and the winner's total time will be about one hour while a typical national rally will contain a minimum of 150 km of special stages with the winner's total time being 1hour and a half to 2 hours.

Here's a membership form for you to fill out and mail in, or deliver it in person at one of the club meetings.