Greetings, everyone,

The 2023 season for rally and rallycross has started up!

Our first points events for the rallycross championships have been held in both northern and southern California, beginning with an event at Antelope Valley Fairgrounds and in Marysville. You'll be seeing results from those events soon.

Coming up next month will be the first CRS stage rally of the season, the Oregon Trail Rally (OTR). There's a full entry list including several CRS members.  If you haven't signed up for OTR, there's still (a little) time.

If you'd like to check out OTR without the expense of a rally car, come up and volunteer!  They're still looking for people to help in key positions and, depending on where you're stationed, you might see some driving techniques that will help improve your own performance.

BTW If you have not renewed your CRS membership for 2023, be sure to do so prior to Oregon Trail if you want to earn championship points for our series. This is true on the rallycross side as well.  Remember that your membership is based on calendar year, not a 12 month interval, similar to ARA.

Lastly, and unfortunately, this year's Rally Nevada has been put on hiatus until 2024. The CRS website has been updated accordingly.

I look forward to seeing all of you at an event soon!

John
CRS Director

Update: See schedule on the left for updated rallycross information.

Thousand Oaks, CA.  At its annual awards banquet on January 28th, 2023, The California Rally Series (CRS) announced its 2023 season for rallycross and rally events.  The CRS continues to maintain its place as a premier rally and rallycross championship for club-level competitors in the Southwest with a full calendar of events in both categories.

The 2023 season starts off with the traditional CRS Rally School.  The school is a cost-effective way for people interested in getting started in rally or rallycross to learn more about the sport and get some hands on instruction behind the wheel or, for budding co-drivers, reading pace notes on a rally stage.

After two years of purely on-line instruction due to Covid-19, this year the school will be a hybrid event combining the best of in-person and on-line teaching.  In addition to driving and co-driving skills, there are seminars focused on the nuts and bolts of rally, for example team management and logistics, car preparation, and a complete "what to expect at your first rally," including how rally controls work and emergency procedures.

Some instruction will be on-line (February 28th and March 2nd, and again March 7th and 9th), along with a full day of on-the-ground driving instruction on March 4th, and a day of on-the-ground co-driving instruction on March 11th (depending on interest).

The rallycross season begins in Lancaster on March 4th/5th at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds, then turns north to Thunderhill (April 15th/16th), Marysville (May 27th/28th), and Prairie City (June 11th).

Competitors return to the Antelope Fairgrounds twice more: July 15th and 16th, and November 18th and 19th. In between, Thunderhill (September 23rd and 24th) and Marysville (October 28th and 29th) host their second events.  (Check the CRS web site to see which days earn points towards the CRS rallycross championships.)

The CRS outgrew the "C" decades ago and has featured exciting stage rallies in several western states over the years.

This year the rally season kicks off on May 19th-21st with Oregon Trail Rally (OTR) based in Portland and Dufur, Oregon and Goldendale, Washington. It's a combined co-3 and co-2 event. (A "co" is a "coefficient" indicating the scoring multiplier for championship points calculations.)

From the grueling challenges of OTR, competitors can head south to mid-state California for the Prairie City Rallysprint earning co-1 points on June 10th.

The CRS then returns to Rally Colorado on July 22nd/23rd for the third year in a row, as a co-3 and co-2 event.

A new co-2 rally, still to be named (wanna be the title sponsor, anyone?) has been added for September 9th 2023, this one in Columbia County, Oregon, employing roads last enjoyed over twenty years ago.

After a several year hiatus, the Prescott Rally in Prescott, Arizona returns Sep 29th/30th with a co-2/co-3 combination.  Featuring some of the most scenic rally roads in the country (including the famous First View stage out of Jerome), the Prescott stages take competitors on a high-speed run through picturesque red-rock southwest desert landscape.

Rally Nevada returns again this year with a co-3 event based in Tonopah, NV on November 11th.

Also as in 2022, The Ridge Rally headquartered in Lancaster, CA, will wrap up the season for 2023 on December 9th.

The California Rally Series is the premier performance rally championship in the southwestern United States. The Series incorporates events from various sanctioning bodies in order to create a meaningful regional championship for its members. The series, founded in 1975, celebrates almost five decades of performance rally, making it the longest running rally series in the United States. To learn more about the California Rally Series visit www.californiarallyseries.com and follow @crspress on Twitter.

Rally on!