Some sports take something which is already dangerous and make it even more dangerous. Some sports are so dangerous that they can only be tackled by absolute professionals and even then, it is not enough to guarantee the safety of the practitioner.
Imagine motorsports, but with added elements of difficulty such as terrain which is basically against you all the time. Well, rallying or rally racing, is a very broad term that describes all sorts of vehicular off-road racing. Let us take a deeper dive and see if anyone would dare try it after learning more about it.
Rallying – Origins
Every sport has to start somewhere and the same is true for rallying. Rallying started off in 1894, with the Paris-Rouen Horseless Carriage Competition. This was the first of its kind, which attracted lots of sponsors. The term rally, however, can probably be traced back to the Monte Carlo Rally in 1911. Prior to that, the term was not used to describe tournaments and races of this format.
Rallying had a hard time because of the two world wars that brought a halt to racing. Compared to popular belief, rallying is not a type of race that is run only on dirt roads. Rallying also takes place on asphalt, dirt, snow, mud, water, and many other types of roads.
Rallying in the Modern Days
Modern day rally race courses are pretty wild in terms of the obstacles. They can be either a single type of track for the entirety of the race, like all asphalt or all dirt, or a combination of multiple tracks, depending on the race and series. Rallying is different because it has stages of races which are called closed stages, as the roads are closed to traffic. When going between stages, drivers have to go through regular traffic, something called liaison roads.
They have to be there at a certain time. Drivers carry time cards, but they also have to respect all traffic laws when traveling from stage to stage. Similarly to most races, the World Rally Championship awards points to their racers the same way as F1 does, using the same system, the winner gettin 25 points and the others progressively less, up to the tenth person.
Three manufacturers contest rally races nowadays, Toyota, Hyundai and Ford, which is a huge letdown from the once present Audi, Saab, Subaru, Lancia, to name a few.
Types of Rally Races
Rallying can be done on asphalt, gravel, snow and even ice. Races are not typical circuit races. In a rally race, a driver has to beat their own time, and that of the competitors.
This is unique, as the courses are usually point A to point B, and are not repetitive in the same fashion other motorsports are.
This, combined with the uniqueness of rallying, makes for a very interesting motorsport. Rallying also takes place over the entirety of a year, meaning races in bitter cold and scorching hot, not to mention monsoon rains.
Rallying can be a rather dangerous sport, but that is up to the driver as most rally races put the driver against the clock. Rallying is thus a much safer sport, however, it can be daunting for everyone who is not a professional, due to the conditions, which are far from what most people are used to, meaning city driving.
