Red bull GRC rally cross event

[claydough]

Anyone ever attended one of these?

There is an event in my home town this weekend and I'm planning on checking it out. I enjoy watching these events on tv, and I imagine they are very exciting live. Short track, lots of contact, different road surfaces, jump, lots of races.

The American series is clearly a step behind the European World Rally Cross, but I imagine this is one of the most live-spectator-friendly Motorsports in the country.

Thoughts?

 

[DangerMouse]

Wife and I went down to Bristol a few years ago and it was a good time. We were supposed to go to the Memphis event but things came up. We are going to try to make it to Indianapolis. I wish it would come to the Chicago area. If it's in your town, definitely go for it.

 

[joeyofthestate]

It's alright. I went to the Dallas one a couple years ago. It's since been cancelled, probably because the course was just a big parking lot with some dirt jumps in it. The cars are so fast, but the course was so small that you couldn't really get an appreciation of what the cars were capable of. Listening to the ridiculous anti-lag systems was the most fun part of it for me, it's crazy how loud those things are.

It was cool being able to walk right up to the mechanics' areas for the teams and watch them work on the cars from 5 feet away.

 

[claydough]

UPDATE:

I really enjoyed this event!

The racing was loud, fast, and very competitive. I went both Saturday and Sunday; each day was awesome and well worth the $65 weekend ticket.

The lites series was an unexpected surprise. Though roughly half the horsepower, the cars are all identical spec, making this driver-development series entirely based on driving skill.

Another benefit of the lites series is that it kept the action moving. With twice the number of sessions, there was just enough on-track action to entertain without the lulls between sessions approaching boredom.

Checking out the paddock was a cool part of the whole fan experience, but I spent most of my time with eyes glued to the track.

There are definitely areas in which the event could improve, but overall I would highly recommend attending if interested. I fully intend on attending again in the future, should the series return to my town.

 

[DangerMouse]

This weekend was one of the best "racing" GRC has had in awhile. Would have been nice to see Arpin get the win but congrats to honda on their first win.

When my wife and I went to Bristol, I had no idea who Steve Arpin was. We waited in line for almost two hours to be up front for autographs. At the last minute the lady that was in charge for Bristol removed a gate and let all the people in front of us that had just got in line. We were surrounded by kids that were waiting just as long as we were and they missed out on getting to meet their favorite drivers.

Steve Arpin realised what had happened and got up out of his seat and went around to every kid that was in line and talked to them and gave them autographs.

He even made his way to me and I thanked him for going above and beyond. He was very nice and polite and made a lot of kids happy. He even joked with my wife about his autograph cards still being from nascar autographs that's all he had, since was new to GRC.

He made me a fan even though I was sick of the Fords always winning at that point in time. Now that the series is continuing to grow and progress and the Fords rarely getting the win, and now that I have a fiST, I root for him every race. I know he almost didn't get to race this year and he is the general manager as well as driver, so his plate is very full with day to day to operations, not just being able to concentrate on driving like the others. He has passion and the desire to win and he is so far backing it up this year with back to back podium finishes.