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BangShift Question Of The Day: How Would You Route A “Rally Safari” In North America?


BangShift Question Of The Day: How Would You Route A “Rally Safari” In North America?

Between 1953 and 2003, the event most widely known as the Rally Safari has brought drivers and skills out to the wilds of East Africa for miles upon miles of punishment, wide-open stages, and mechanical brutality that no European rally stage can offer without the word “crash” somewhere in the description. If it’s dry, the roads become dusty and the heat will bake you. If you manage to get an early take on the rainy season, you’ll get mud like you wouldn’t believe and the humidity with cause you to make matzo ball soup in your shorts. With over 3,000 miles of stages for the event, drivers will get the workout of a lifetime and the winner rightfully gets hailed as a champion of the wilds.

For the 2003 season, the Rally Safari was kicked off of the World Rally Championship race list and it stayed that way for eighteen years. Well, make that nineteen years…it was supposed to return to the WRC schedule but thanks to COVID-19, that’s been delayed. But that got me thinking…over three thousand miles of widely varying terrain that offers up a wide mix of terrain, spectacular scenery, and the X-factor that television promoters would go nuts for?

I’m partial to the western half of the continent, so without treading into Canadian territory that I know very little about, I’ll stick to my known: the Rocky Mountain range. Start in Colorado Springs. I’ll suggest at The Antlers hotel on Pikes Peak Avenue and Cascade Avenue. Parade them north on Nevada Avenue before starting the stages heading up through the mountains, into Wyoming’s wide-open lands, and up into the breathtaking beauty of Montana. From there, curve down into Idaho before entering Nevada’s rough and tumble region I refer to as “Roadrunner Country”…mountains as far as you can see in the Great Basin. From there, turn East, rip through Utah, and head back, crossing the spine of the Rockies. If your car parks at the Antlers at the end of the rally, you deserve the accolades.

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2 thoughts on “BangShift Question Of The Day: How Would You Route A “Rally Safari” In North America?

  1. David

    You could almost…use the Rocky’s or the Appalachian Mountain Range’s.
    Canada, to Mexico, for the Rocky’s…and Canada to through the Carolinas.

  2. Matt Cramer

    I was thinking the Rockies would be perfect for this too, but I’m not familiar enough with the area to suggest an actual course.

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