DirtFish RallyCross National Championship Registration Opening

TOPEKA, Kan. (July 18, 2018) -- Looking ahead is important in every form of motorsport. And while the DirtFish SCCA® RallyCross National Challenge season is only about to begin, it’s already time for competitors to think ahead and prepare to register for the 2018 DirtFish RallyCross National Championship taking place Oct. 12-14 at the National Balloon Classic Memorial Balloon Field in Indianola, located just outside of Des Moines, Iowa.

Returning to Indianola after a visit to Kansas’ Heartland Park Topeka in 2017, online registration for the 2018 DirtFish RallyCross National Championship will open July 25 at 6 p.m. Central Time. A change from last year, registration will be open to ALL competitors at that time. There will be no staggered registration. Competitors also have the opportunity to purchase a commemorative shirt or hat from SCCA Gear during the registration process.

The entry cap for this event is set at 125, and all competitors must be annual SCCA members. The cost this year is $150 per entrant. Early registration closes at 11:59 p.m. Central Time on Sept. 30, at which point the entry fee becomes $200 per competitor.  Then on Oct. 10 at 6 p.m. Central Time, online registration ends.

The 2018 DirtFish SCCA RallyCross National Championship begins Friday, October 12, with event check-in, class inspection and Tech.  Courses will be open to competitors for walking tours later in the day Friday, and a pay-per-run practice course will be available to drivers.

Again, there will be three unique course layouts over the weekend.  Runs are timed to 1/1000th of a second with missed “gates” resulting in a 10-second penalty.  Class winners are based on the total time of all runs Saturday and Sunday.

While the DirtFish RallyCross National Championship is on the horizon, there’s still plenty of time for prep at DirtFish RallyCross National Challenge events.  The first such event takes place this weekend, July 20-22, at Sebring International Raceway in Florida with the DirtFish Dixie National Challenge, followed by the DirtFish Finger Lakes RallyCross National Challenge August 10-12 at Watkins Glen International in Upstate New York. A third and final event, the DirtFish West Coast National Challenge, will take place August 17-19 at the DirtFish Rally School found in Snoqualmie, Washington. And for those really looking to excel at this year’s Championship, don’t forget that SCCA members get 15 percent off any DirtFish Rally School program. Details can be found on the Member Benefits webpage at SCCA.com.

As SCCA’s most widespread and readily accessible form of extreme motorsport, RallyCross is a scaled-down version of a rally stage laid out on a non-paved plot of land where the course is delineated by traffic cones instead of trees or rocks. Participation requirements are considerably less than those associated with other forms of performance rally, so drivers usually only need a mechanically sound, hardtop vehicle and a helmet to come play in the dirt.

The Sports Car Club of America®, Inc., founded in 1944, is a 67,500-member motorsports organization that incorporates all facets of autocross, rally and road racing at both Club and professional levels. With headquarters in Topeka, Kansas, the SCCA annually sanctions over 2,000 events through its 116 Regions and subsidiary divisions. Much of the SCCA's activities are made possible with support from the following Official Partners: Chevrolet, the Official Truck of the SCCA; Hawk Performance, the Official Brake Products of SCCA; Mobil 1, the Official Oil of SCCA; Sunoco, the Official Fuel of SCCA; and Tire Rack, the Official Tire Retailer of SCCA. To learn more, please visit www.scca.com.

Photo Credit: Rupert Berrington