These ain't bumper cars folks! Rally Car Racing is a completely different animal. © Futuregamez.net

Rally Race Car Preview

The road that I lived on in Maine was gorgeous. It was 4.2 miles from the main road (a small two lane highway running through West Bethel) to my house.  My road rolled and cascaded, sweeping through the Maine countryside, through the woods & hills, carving a more or less straight line right through an otherwise beautifully forsaken area of the northeast.  And, I suppose in a fit of irony, someone named it "Flat Rd."

I was too young for a car, but my friends loved rally racing.  VW, Subaru, Audi.  Golfs, Jettas, A4s.  They loved it.  But it wasn't until the first time I ventured down that 4.2-mile stretch in my friend's WRX that I really appreciated what they loved and saw why they drove with such passion.  It's an unbelievable feeling, twisting & turning, curving & sloping.  After the first time your stomach rises through your chest when you come around a slanting curve and straight down a hill, careening through the woods there is no turning back.  It's like nothing you've ever felt before.  I knew it then, and I know it now - it was my first experience using a car like this.  And I was in the back seat.

Now I'm older, with Driver's License, and bit more knowledge.  I like to think that I know the limitations of my VW, and I choose to stay far away from them.  If VWs are made to be raced through the woods on dirt & gravel, if that is what cars live for, then mine must be very close to suicide.  I use it everyday, but only to drive through different parts of Los Angeles (which I'm sure is a more exciting life than most VWs live, but nonetheless...) and every now and then on a road-trip to some snow, or a good friend.

This is why I have so much respect for rally drivers & navigators.  It is a feeling that I love, and wish I could experience frequently, but simply & unfortunately do not have the balls or the commitment to drive like that.  Not that I have the car, talent, or proper venue anyway - but now I'm just making excuses.

A rally team is made up of a driver and a co-driver (or navigator).  Drivers cannot pre-run the course for practice, so they must rely on their navigator to guide them through each turn safely.  When you think about the speeds & the equipment used you see that rallying is as much a sport of communication as it is of talent & courage.

And it's a sport on the rise.  The two drivers I'm the most excited about are Travis Pastrana (the FMX superstar) and Ken Block (Owner of DC Shoes).  Both of these gentlemen will be racing at X and that says a lot about the spirit of competition there - Pastrana is sponsored by DC, so this means he'll be racing his boss really.  Which puts Block in a good situation.  If he wins then he wins, if Pastrana wins then...Block still wins really.

Rally is the newest event at this year's X Games so of course, anything could happen, and anything will happen.  The two stages will be split between the Forest Stage at Hungry Valley State, and the Special Stage at the Home Depot Center.  But both will be broadcast straight into your living rooms through that box against the wall, so turn it on and see how much of that feeling they're able to capture through the feeling, because even if they only catch a fraction of it - it'll still be one of the craziest, yet most graceful events at this year's X Games.

- Cody Allen