Rallying

Rallying (international) or rally racing (US) is a form of automobile racing that takes place on public roads with modified production or specially built road cars. This unique motorsport is distinguished by running not on a circuit, but instead in a point-to-point format where participants and their co-drivers ¡°rally¡± to a set of points, leaving in regular intervals from start points. The entertaining and unpredictable nature of the stages, and the fact that the vehicles are in some cases closely related to road cars, draws massive spectator interest, especially in Europe, Asia and Oceania.


History

While it is almost certain that similar competitions took place almost as early as there were cars, modern rallying originated in Europe in the early 20th century, and gained a modest foothold in car-crazy Europe. Not blind to the growing popularity, auto manufacturers began to support ¡°works¡± or ¡°factory¡± cars and sometimes entire teams in the events scattered around Europe throughout the year, and eventually a European Championship series was arranged, awarding points to the top finishers of the various respective events and standardizing rules. Later to become the World Rally Championship, this was a large step forward for rallying. There were negatives, however, as countries with multiple rallies were ultimately forced to nominate a single event for the regional and later world championship to the detriment to the other rounds. The movement truly hit its stride after the Second World War, reaching its romantic ¡°Golden Age¡± in the 1960¡¯s as the Post-WW2 baby boom g!
eneration began to grow up. Soon after, sponsors¡¯ advertisements began to pock the paint of the rally cars, and the commercialization that permeates the modern sporting world began to change rallying forever. Drivers became paid professionals and technology advanced at shocking speeds, almost totally unhindered until the mid-eighties. The World Rally Championship now visits nearly all continents, taking its stylish sideways driving style and specialized cars to a vast global market, estimated by some to be second only to the Formula One juggernaut. This has produced unprecedented levels of visibility in recent years, but in many ways removed the motorsport from its ¡°grassroots¡± past. For better or worse, rally has become a lucrative business
Rally is also unique in its choice of where and when to race. Rallys take place on all surfaces and in all conditions, asphalt (tarmac), gravel, or snow and ice, sometimes more than one in a single rally, depending on the course and event. Rallies are also run every month of the year, in every climate, bitter cold to monsoon rain. This contributes to the notion top rally drivers are some of the best car control experts in the world. Because the drivers don't know exactly what's ahead, the lower traction available on dirt roads, and the driving characteristics of small cars, the drivers are much less visibly smooth than circuit racers, regularly sending the car literally flying over bumps, and sliding the cars out of corners.
A typical rally course consists of a sequence of relatively short (up to about 50km {30mi}) timed "special stages" where the actual competition takes place, and untimed "transport stages" where the rally cars must be driven under their own power to the next competitive stage within a generous time limit. Rally cars are thus unlike virtually any other top-line racing cars in that they retain the ability to run at normal driving speeds, and indeed are registered for street travel. Some events contain "super special stages" where two competing cars set off on two parallel tracks (often small enough to fit in a football stadium), giving the illusion they are circuit racing head to head. These stages, ridiculed by many purists, seem increasingly popular with event organizers. Run over a day, a weekend, or more, the winner of the event has the lowest combined special and super special stage times. Given the short distances of super special stages compared to the regular special st!
ages and consequent near-identical times for the frontrunning cars, it is very rare for these spectator-oriented stages to decide rally results, though it is a well-known axiom that a team can't win the rally at the super special, but they can certainly lose it.

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SR Motorsport (www.sr-motorsport.com)

Commencing operations in 2002, SR Motorsport has quickly become the region's largest and one of the most visible motorsport teams. The company has offices in Malaysia and the UK, a 7000sq.ft. workshop in
Shah Alam, and representatives in Europe, Middle East, N.America, Japan, New Zealand and Thailand.

Specializing in Driver and Team Management in Rally, Race and Kart, the company has several successes to its name. Event and Results management are also part of the company's portfolio, and personnel
are often called to assist in events across Asia.

With a fleet of Group N and Group A Subaru Impreza Turbo 4WD rally cars, the team won the Malaysian Rally Championship in 2004, and successfully defended its title last year. It also won the inaugural
Southeast Asia Rally Challenge last year, in the premier 4WD category. Several international rally wins and podium places, also feature amongst the team's successes.

In 2006, the team expects to contest both the Southeast Asia Rally Challenge (SEArally) and the Formula Malaysia single-seater race series.

And, in the area of event management, SR Motorsport is now the organizer and commercial rights holder of SEArally. It is also assisting the Sepang F1 Circuit to organize a series of low-cost rally events to be held later this year.