A question that I get asked a lot is "What is rallying?" Usually this question comes right after I tell somebody that I participate in rally. I also see a great variation between the North American scene and the rest of the world in terms of what events are called what. This obviously will cause confusion so I will attempt to maintain some background on what I participate in and the other forms of motorsport that I follow. Obviously this is not an all inclusive list and rules and sanctioning bodies are constantly changing.
Rally:
TSD Rally- Time Speed Distance is what the accronym stands for. This is very remenice of historic rallying from the early 1900's up till maybe the 60's and 70's. This is all time based compeition where you are given a target speed and a route and are supposed to follow said route at said speed. There are probably hundreds of variations on this theme. Touring would probably what most people's TSD experience is. I believe events such as Poker Run and Harescramble style events also stemmed from this format.
Stage Rally- This is what you might see on TV. Ken Block, Travis Pastrana, and other big names have helped get stage rally a lot of face time in recent years. This type event is marked with much higher speeds and safety levels. Competition is against fellow competitors in a shortest time wins format. In america this is becoming a more expensive sport every year with the higher and higher levels of vehicle preparation and safety requirments, insurance, etc. Very fun and exciting all the same. Very similar to FIA rally except that more North Americans are given route books/stage notes rather than writing their own.
Rally Raid- This form of rally is not explicitly performed in North America. You can see elements of it in the desert racing of the southwest and at some stage rally events. This is very similar to Stage rally except on a much longer distance and time scale. The infamous Paris-Dakar race is a perfect example of this style of racing. Since moving to South America the Dakar series, and therefore RallyRaid, is getting much more attention in North America.
Trials:
Again this form of racing doesn't exactly exist in North America. These would be like SCCA auto-cross on a large scale with many mile long circuits.
Off road/Truck trials are still active in North America but not by that name and only on a small or local scale.
Hillclimb:
There are a few hillclimbs still alive in the USA. Mostly in the NorthEast and Rocky Mountains. With other events scattered about. This is basically a one-way trial up a hillside. Characterized by tight turns and high horsepower machinery. Very exciting to watch on TV but less exciting in person. (Just like Baseball! j/k)
Autocross:
Here is one of the major variations between NA and the rest of the world. FIA autocross is an all dirt course that is rather short, competition is wheel to wheel between small groups of cars. The vehicles are very similar to tarmac rally cars, with lots of local variation. In America autocross is an extremely short, all sealed surface, time trial against the clock. I would actually relate Euro-style autocross more to stock cars on dirt than anything else in North America.
Rallycross:
Another form of racing that is esentially non-existant in North America. FIA rallycross is autocross only with part of the track being sealed surface. There have been a couple of feeble attempts at this in NA over the last couple of years but I have not seen much success.
Stock Cars:
This is a destinctly American sport. It has counterparts in the rest of the world but nothing quite as much of a success as the American model. The most humorus part of the title Stock Car is that there are no longer any vehicles even remotely close to a stock car. These are all tube-frame closed bdy, closed cockpit cars that loosely resemble a sedan-like-blob when viewed on television. If you are interested in racing (as opposed to being interested in cars: there is a difference) then you will very much enjoy the actual racing and driving in stock cars. Extremely competitive and Extremely high dollar racing when you get outside of the local level. Fairly affordable on the local level.
Desert Racing:
I will give this class of racing it's own catagory since I see the North American variant being far enough removed form RallyRaid to be it's own world. This form of racing is a relaly potpori of everything. The long track (read SCORE organizers of the Baja1000) has a class for every vehicle under the sun: Trophy trucks, stock class vehicles, motrocycles, quads, buggies, etc. Typically considered very high budget racing. Short track off-road truck racing sprouted from this style of racing and uses similar machinery on short prepared courses. This is a high visibility sport that has pockets all over the US.
I do not participate in Motorcycle or Quad racing so i cannot say much besides there are also dozens of different competitions and styles. Hillclimbs, MotoCross, SuperMoto, as well as the televised sealed surface events.
I will try to come back and spruce this post up as I think of things. Hopefully this will illustrate a few things you may have questions about. Feel free to contact me if you have particular questions! I always enjoy talking shop with other fans!
