Rally Car Racing...it's the talk of the town. © Sarah Henderson

Rally Out of Control

The one event that has everyone talking at X Games 12 is without question Rally Car Racing.  With souped-up VW GTIs, Subaru WRXs and Mitsubishi Lancers all racing around hairpin turns and flying off jumps at speeds of over 70 miles per hour, the addition of Rally Car Racing to the X Games is something that should have happened a long, long time ago.  And while the action sports purists may give ESPN some heat for the addition of this new event, I can tell you firsthand that the rush you get from being in a Rally Car is definitely on par with catching a sick wave, stomping a clean kickflip to front board at full speed, or boosting a sky-high Kiss of Death out on the dirt.  Don’t believe me?  Read on…
 
So they told me that I’d be riding in a rally car on Friday because one of the other writers couldn’t make it.  Totally amping on the opportunity, I had to fill out a waiver basically signing my life away and made my way down to the Rally Car Pit Area.  Meeting up with driver Lauchlin O’ Sullivan and co-driver Scott Putnam (#90), I got fitted with a helmet, hopped into the tricked-out Subaru WRX and was on my way.  Hell yeah! 

Photo Credit- Sarah Henderson

Reaching speeds of nearly 80 miles per hour around the Home Depot Center, we blazed through blind curves with ease and soared off jumps in the FMX area like we were on the run from the 5-0.  Lauchlin was mad skilled behind the wheel and owned the entire course like the seasoned pro that he is.  Going into sharp 45-degree turns doing 70 and downshifting only a few feet before the barriers, any other driver would have been road kill by that point but my boy Lauchlin breezed through it like it was the Interstate 405.  Sick! 
 
In retrospect, Rally Car Racing is no doubt one of the coolest things I’ve ever done and is up there with skydiving and getting shacked out in the water.  In my book, Rally Car Racing is definitely an action sport and the rush you get from it is totally unreal.  Mad props go out to X Games for being on the cutting edge of what’s hot and including it in X Games 12, where I am sure it is here to stay.  And most of all, thanks to Lauchlin O’Sullivan and Scott Putnam for hooking it up and giving me one of the best experiences of my life!    

 
-Glen Braunsdorf