The 2018 DirtFish RallyCross National Championship is upon us! Over 130 competitors will descend upon Indianola, Iowa this weekend to get their hands and cars dirty in search of the glory of being a champion! Just because the season is winding down doesn’t mean the good, clean-ish fun has to stop. DirtFish has rally schools year-round to keep your skills sharp, the adrenaline pumping, and the grins ear-to-ear!
There are 2 ways to win a free school this week:
- If you’re at Nationals this weekend, DirtFish is giving away a One Day Rally Driving Class at their headquarters in WA. To enter for your chance to win, post a picture of your car at RallyCross Nationals on Instagram and include #DirtFishRX *Receive a bonus entry by posting a photo of how you prep before the big race! DirtFish will look at all pictures with #DirtFishRX and select a winner on Monday October 15.
- Refer a friend to SCCA membership and you will be entered to win our drawing for a free DirtFish Rally Driving class!
(Pro tip- If you miss out on the free schools this time around, keep an eye out for special deal on Black Friday and Cyber Monday and SCCA members get 15% off any DirtFish Rally School program. Details can be found in your renewal packet and on the Member Benefits page at SCCA.com.)
For beginners or drivers who want to sharpen their skills, schools are always a great idea. DirtFish Rally School, the presenting partner of the DirtFish SCCA RallyCross National Challenge and the DirtFish RallyCross National Chmapionship, is the most prestigious professional rally and rallycross school in North America. Nestled in the foothills of the Pacific Northwest and just a mere thirty miles from Seattle in Snoqualmie, WA, DirtFish Rally School was established in 2010 with the idea that the exciting sport of rally should be accessible to everyone. The past 8 years have earned them a reputation for performance driving, specialized training, education and all-out commitment to the sport of rallycross!
More than just a rally school, DirtFish recognizes that advanced car control skills taught on loose surfaces like gravel and mud directly translate to track, desert, autocross and street driving, along with also being a unique, entertaining team-building option for companies and corporations. Professional DirtFish instructors pride themselves in teaching car control, confidence and safety behind the wheel year round, through various driving techniques built from the roots of rally to over 3,000 students a year from all across the globe. From fifteen years of age with a learner’s permit, all the way up to the sophisticated age of ninety, DirtFish has a program for everyone.
Feeling like you’re ready to take the plunge? Immerse yourself in five days of intense training and instruction, with a program combining all elements of DirtFish’s renowned Three Day and Three Day Advanced programs! Beginning with a straightforward understanding of loose-surface car control, their talented instructors coach students through techniques that steadily develop each day on carefully selected exercises and courses including gravel, mud, pavement, and everything else their amazing facility contains. As the program progresses, participants experience more elaborate instruction, more technical exercises and higher speeds, with the goal to extract everything possible from a high-performance vehicle on the campus’ most challenging courses. The payoff comes on the final afternoon, when the new-found talents are sharpened on an intense course run throughout the entire property using every road they have.
Five Day Course Goals
- Understand Weight Transfer
- Throttle Management
- Left Foot Braking
- Adapt to Understeer and Oversteer
- Induce and Correct Slides
- Drive the Proper Rally Line
- Straight Line Braking
- How to Maximize Traction
- Trail Braking
- Adapt to Changing Conditions
- Pendulum Turns
- Proper Use of the Hand Brake
- Recognize and Adapt to Different Surfaces
- Recognize Limits
- Driving Real Roads
- Basic Understanding of Rally Navigation
- Handbrake with Downshift
- Linking Corners
- Acute Corners
- Overlapping Pedal Inputs
- Reading Roads
- Processing Pace Notes
DirtFish also runs a successful motorsports team competing in the Americas Rallycross Series and the American Rally Association series in events all around the USA and Canada. They’re involved with NASCAR drivers, F3 and F4 drivers (did you see the July cover of SportsCar?), desert racers and many others! DirtFish ensures that whatever the student and their ability, they will be rewarded with an enthusiastic discovery of newly learned capabilities.
DirtFish Motorsports driver Conner Martell has secured the first-ever Americas Rallycross ARX2 championship title. This is the first championship title for DirtFish Motorsports since their inaugural season in 2015!
The DirtFish Motorsports team worked extremely hard throughout the season to give Martell the best car possible as well as the most opportunities to hone his racecraft between each round. The success of this year is truly due to the tightknit, talented, passionate team that encompasses DirtFish and DirtFish Motorsports. This championship title is very important because it is the first title that has been achieved by any DirtFish driver!
