My first love, when it comes to dirt, is rally. It's ultimately my dream, so to get my fix, I volunteer to help friends compete. Last weekend, while AZ crawlers were camping, I was playing crew chief for an open 2wd classed Dode Neon rally team in Prescott. There is a serious need for Gearheads with 4wd vehicles and/or ham licenses to help.at these events - sweep (towing out dead rally cars), road blocks (keeping civilian traffic off the closed course), and more. Figured I'd share my experience as service crew with everyone here. Rally racing does not happen in North America without people lime us stepping up to keep everyone else safe and going fast. Hope this inspires you to find a rally near you and volunteer. It's almost camping with race cars!

http://gearboxmagazine.com/have-you-ever-volunteered-as-rally-service-crew/

Any questions about rally, just ask. If you're reading this, you have more in common with rally racers than you might think. Press on regardless.

I'm up for volunteering some time.

I'll keep you in mind next time I'm headed out, chief!

Coming up to NorCal, I can lend some space for wrenching? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

i have done my share of volunteering at various rally events in calif.

started around 2002 (or is it2003) when i first volunteered for the RIM OF THE WORLD rally.

that year i met petter solberg. coolness.

since then i have received my ham license and worked at various events as a blockage worker.

unfortunately, being unemployed the past 2 years has cut into this cool events for me... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

last one was 2010 when i worked the north nevada rally...

I came onto the American rally scene a bit late for Rim, unfortunately. Seen some in-car from the last year it ran. (Some of those stages looked more suited to off-road trucks than rally cars, but it is what it is.)

One of my favorites was Laughlin. Nevermind 99% of the racing actually took place closer to Phoenix than Laughlin; this was a great rally. Multiple services in a day, massive silt, multiple DNFs, the WRC-style start/finish ramp in the hotel parking lot, the two-at-a-time Super Special Stage out behind the hotel. I loved Laughlin.

That was the year the Rallynotes.com "Red Army" (about 10 of us volunteering as service crew, all wearing red shirts) huddled together for warmth in the service vehicles on a playground on the reservation when the call came in car 761 was down and needed crew. A caravan of three or four service rigs (other teams flew too high on that stage as well) made their way down the dustiest roads I've ever seen, where we collected our battered Neon and hauled it back to the hotel.

We were up late repairing a fuel tank, replacing a fuel pump that had been knocked out of the tank, and making sure the rest of the car was okay. The damage was so bad, we were eyeballing Dodge Neons in driveways and salvage yards along the way back to Laughlin, even stopping at a couple to see if we could buy spares.

As the final cars returned to the hotel to drive over the start/finish ramp, we got ZE NEON back together and everyone cheered as the little red and white 4-door crossed the ramp under its own power. A great weekend I'll never forget.

Shame the event ended up being collateral damage in a messy divorce or something.

Press on regardless, mate. You'll be back in the saddle soon.

You can come up the hill and work on my rally car if your bored.... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Haha. I have plenty I can do right here in Glendale, mate. It's been a while, though...

Well, my rally days go back to the time when one of those twin stopwatch thingys and a map was the limit in rally gear, and the winner was the guy who resisted his head-scarfed wife's insistence they put the top up on the TR3 and install the windows (took about half an hour, and made you late for the next checkpoint, and with all that canvas and milky plastic in place, you couldn't see the landmarks and missed a lot of turns)

Preparing for the rally consisted of cleaning the windshield, topping off the oil leaks, airing up the tires which leaked through the sieve-like wire wheels, which were about as true as potato chips, and topping off the oil in the SU carbs, and giving the knock off wheels a couple of solid raps with the little brass hammer.

If you didn't have one of those limey button down brim hats and a briar pipe, you were disqualified. As you were if you had a front wheel drive car.