- Rally races are competitions to get around driving courses which have variable sensitive rules that have been determined by the Rally Master to act as the course and technique to follow when competing. A rally team consists of a driver, a navigator and a car. The team is given the instructions on how to get around the course, and the goal of a rally car team is to follow the instructions precisely as described in the rally race rules. Because each rally race can include a different format for success, a rally car event is more about technique and following directions rather than getting to the end first. The format of the race is up to the Rally Master, who hosts the event, and the winner might be decided on timing, speed, gas mileage, riddles, or clues, get it? A rally car race offers fans and competitors more than the average race around the track. By including unique rules for success, a rally race is more a driving experience than a competition of automotive power.
- Rally racing was established by local car owners who wanted to race against other drivers on natural road courses for local bragging rights in the 1960's. Countries like Sweden, France, UK, Belgium, and Italy developed races and teams to compete against other European participants in these fast-paced endurance motor-sport competitions. The WRC (World Rally Championship) format that is run today was established in 1973 as a culmination of efforts these localized teams had on the future of rally races. In 2008, 15 countries hosted WRC races that earned drivers and car manufacturers points towards the World Rally Championship.
- Car rallies are the stadium for rally cars and team members to perform before crowds of enthusiasts who love this format of car racing more than any other. The car rally will test the endurance of driver and navigator, and the performance power of a customized rally car. By setting a track that covers paved and natural courses, car rallies are the way many manufacturers experiment with driver controls and structural tendencies that many new models of performance cars are tested. Over a complete season of rally car races the winners and losers will be determined and a WRC winner will be found. Professional and amateur drivers and their cars are tested by the WRC challenge and many find that the competitions improve both car and driver over the length of a complete WRC season.
- Car Rallies have an environment of danger. For drivers, the race courses are insane combinations of different track types and road surfaces injected into unbelievably hard driving conditions and threat of driving off course is always present. For fans of car rallies, the course is littered with dangerous areas to watch the drivers and their cars navigate around the track. Many fans have been injured during a car rally from vehicles that left the track into crowds of enthusiasts who sit as close as possible to the track during a race. The most favored danger spots are near hair-pin curves and jumps that leave the car vulnerable to going of course and into the crowd.
- Car rallies do not follow a set format of course types and conditions. Car and driver must be matched well with the course for a team to be competitive. Wheels, tires, engine packages, and suspension all must be adjusted to fit the course needs so that the track is able to be handled well enough to make it around the course quickly. The average speed of WRC races varies because of the different types of tracks and race formats which may be all about the fastest, but many car rallies have other requirements to take the win. Average speed, mileage, and pit stop navigation can all effect who wins the race, and each type of rally car must be set up appropriately for the car rally that will be competed in. Equipment adjustments and driver specialties will be considered before entering a team and its car into a car rally race of the WRC.
- Stig Blomqvist, was one of the first competitive rally car team drivers who started in the sport pre WRC, and continued to race in the World Rally Championship until 1996. He began to race in car rallies in 1964 racing Saab vehicles in local car rallies and built a reputation as a winner in the sport of rally car racing. He won his first WRC race in the inaugural season of the WRC in his home country of Sweden racing a Saab manufactured rally car. His first WRC came in 1984. His drive to compete against and win the hardest car rally in the world was realized over 20 years of rally car racing and with his regular co-driver Benny Melander, Stig Blomqvist was Sweden's premier representative of Car rally racing in the WRC circuit.
