Rally Racing Takes Over Prescott Valley

0:00Hey everybody, welcome back to Signals AZ, where you get all of your news and events and all kinds of fun stuff going on. Today we are talking motor sports. You guys have the Prescott Motorsport rally. We have Riley. You are pretty much the chairman of Prescott rally. You've got everybody super excited, especially Kara over at Finley Subaru. I literally thought she was like all motorsports. I'm like, wait a minute, you're from Finley Subaru. You've got others going on too, but you've sparked passion in so many people with this event. It's something I'm very passionate about. It's been amazing to work with Finley Subaru and Kara. She's like an official organizer now, whether or not she wants to be here. You work there now. We'll let Jason know that you've got a side hustle now. Yeah, so now it's always been a passion of mine. I started volunteering at Prescott rally in 2008. It was the first time I'd been to Prescott rally or even heard of it, and then I volunteered and eventually competed in it in 2017, and then by 2023, I found myself organizing it.

1:06So what is it? Prescott rally is a motor sports event, and it is sanctioned by the American Rally Association, and basically the point of the event is from cars to go from A to B in the fastest amount of time. So I do every day, right? I think I've heard of the rally. So obviously it's on dirt, and okay, don't do that. Yeah, but sometimes that's a little more tough. There are secured roads we have. We couldn't do the event without volunteers. They're the life and blood of the events, and we couldn't do it without them. Our ham radio operators, that's a huge part of the event, and keeping the competitors and volunteer safe, because that's the communication from one end of the event to the other if there's an issue. So it's an actual race then. Yes. Is there what's the price? Glory. Yeah, glory. Yeah, you don't win any money, any money doing rally. The price is obviously, it's just a really

2:09wonderful community to be into in the camaraderie. In Rally is something I enjoy watching people have, and yeah, into the year there's more prizes, but definitely no money. And I'm sure it's a cheap sport too, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, my husband's building a rally car right now, and I think it's the most expensive car that we have to date. And it's not done. Oh, and then when you drive them, nothing ever happens, right? They stay in one piece. Always blow anything. It's all good. Yeah. So, you know, obviously you've got upgraded suspension components, and you have all of your safety related gear that you have to purchase. Your cars have to be caged. You have to just your safety gear alone, which is the most important. You never want to skimp out on safety. I see folks coming into the sport and trying to find the cheapest way to do it, because it is so expensive. And I say never skimp on safety by the bus. And, you know, that in itself is probably at least $3,000 for your helmet,

3:14your Honda device, your suit, boots, everything you can think of to keep you safe. So, how are you involved in this? You've got Subaru, are you? I'm assuming a great sponsor, and Rally girl, right? That is your new title. Yeah, so I'll take it. I'll take it. Finley Subaru Prescott has been involved with the Prescott Rally for many years. But Subaru, the brand has been involved with Rally racing since the get-go. So, Subaru definitely has deep, deep roots in, you know, off road dirt racing. What we're really, really excited about this year is we have been able to secure from Vermont Sports Car, the Subaru WRX STI Air Slayer. The very mouthful. It's very cool. There's lots of videos out there that you can watch to see what the driver Travis Pastrana has done in this car. Hold on. The Travis Pastrana? Yes, yes.

4:22So, I know very little about your world, and I know Travis Pastrana. Yes, yes. He's one of the biggest names out there, right? So, Subaru Motorsports driver, and yeah, he's making a name for himself, and he's been around for a while. There's a big history. What did he do before? Was he motorcycles, or was he... I've recently been doing some research and trying to learn all about this driver, but I do think he does have some history in motorcycles. I believe it was motorcycles because we used to have a video game that my kids played religiously, and it was like, you always wanted to be Travis Pastrana. Nitro Circus. That was a big one. Sounds growing up. And then just the career path of him, getting into Motorsports and motorcycles. He's a very, very skilled driver, and you can see that in the videos that they put out on YouTube. So, I encourage anyone to go look at them.

5:24They're very exciting to watch, and thrilling stunt moves that will give you goosebumps. So, it's fun stuff. So, yeah, we are having the Air Slayer, which was part of the 2020 Jim Conna video series. And I have, it's so cool. There's so much stuff out there. It's so fun. So, we're going to have that vehicle here on display for everyone to come and check out. It's going to be an interactive display. So, you can learn a lot about the specific car, a lot of Subaru Motorsports, learn a lot about rally racing. So, it's going to be a really exciting interactive event that Prescott and the Prescott Valley community can come and check out. And where are you setting this up at? So, the Park Expose, which is fancy for it's basically a pre-rally car show that the drivers all have to be at by a specific time, is going to be in the Harkins Center, the Harkins District, I should say, near the roundabout, near the construction center.

6:30Yeah, the town center. So, right over where Legato is being built, right across from Finlay, Toyota, right by the turf park, which is perfect. Yes, that's where we're doing our awards right on the turf. And the public is welcome to come to the awards and, you know, watch the champagne spray and meet the drivers. And Park Expose is really great, you know, for the community as well to come out and, you know, it gives them a chance to come out with their kids especially, meet the drivers, see the cars, have their kids sit in the cars, get autographs, and ask however many questions you guys want. We love talking about it. It's, everyone's very proud to be able to be a competitor in the sport. Well, and I think back in, you know, back in the day, you know, before all these, you know, video games and everything going on, we were always out riding bikes and we always, you know, and we live in such a great area for motorcycle riding and, you know, even dirt cars and, you know, all of that stuff. And how would you even get started? Or how would you even know if this is something that would be a passion of yours? What a great way to expose your kids to what I'm

7:35guessing is kind of a very inexpensive sport to get your kids in there. And there is, there's another option for the folks that do have drivers licenses, not the younger kids in Camp Verde. And this is where a lot of my competitors have started. There is a rally cross event every month, Arizona Rally Association. And they host an SCCA sanctioned rally cross event every month up in Camp Verde at the arena. And that is a good way, a much cheaper way to get into sliding around on dirt and dodging cones and seeing if that's something that you like. And it has grown several of my drivers for my event. I'd say almost a third of them at this point. So, which is really cool. They all used to be my volunteers at one point. And now they're my competitors. So, they're like my kids. That's awesome. So, we've got, what's the date of this show where they can come out and they can see the cars? When is that going to be March 27th? March 27th right here in the Preske Valley

8:39downtown center. And then there's a natural race, but that is kind of, they do their first safety, you know, they're kind of off the beaten path. But people can watch before they head out. And then be here at the winter circle to check out, you know, I always wanted to have that champagne like that. Yeah, it's quite sticky. Very sticky. Are you guys still looking for vendors? Are you looking for, do you need anything? How could people get involved if they wanted to get involved? I am always looking for folks that want to come out. And, you know, I always say because we don't out on the roads where the racing is being done, we don't allow spectators. But, you know, the best way to get the best seat in the house and be up close to the action is to volunteer. And you might be working on, you know, the stages directly. And that's one of the best ways to get in on the action. Always definitely still looking for sponsors for companies that want to get some exposure,

9:40put your name on the cars. We've got a lot of media that comes out and a lot of media followings through Facebook and Instagram. So if there's companies that are looking to partner and want to get their brand name out there, we've got several local companies, obviously Finley, Subaru, Bingham equipment. They've been huge. They help us with all of our tractoring. Kubota is a series sponsor for the American Rally Association. Got to move dirt. Got to move dirt. Yep. Perfect. Perfect sponsor. So if they want to, if somebody out there is like, this would be cool. How do you get involved? How do you call you? Check out our website, www.presgetrally.com. It has all of the contact information for myself. And, you know, let me know. Shoot me an email. And if you want a partner to be a sponsor, if you want to come out and volunteer, if you want more information on the part of the event that's going to be local, I'm always with a phone in my hand. So feel free to shoot me a text, questions,

10:45whatever you want. Perfect. Well, thank you guys so much for coming in. And thank you for, you know, just, I think this is such a cool event. I think it's so cool for, when you and I first talked, I was like, okay, I think it's like a car show. It was a really show. It says way more than just a car show. And then to be able to see Travis's car is going to be just amazing. And did I forget anything? Anything we want to add before we go? You've got something. I would just say outside of volunteering for the Prescott rally to get up and close and up close and personal. The public's opportunity to, you know, meet the rally drivers. Check out their cars. Talk to them. We'll be your park exposé in the morning before the drivers go out to start their stages. And then all day, the Subaru Motorsports AirSlayer will be on display from 9 to 5 in the in the same area. And then that's both on Friday and Saturday. So also on Friday, the super special is going to be a really cool thing for spectators. They've spent, they've set up a small

11:50stage where there will be cars racing and doing their times and their laps that spectators can watch that will be right here in in an area. It's going to be actually located right off of Main Street and Veterans way in that dirt. Oh, okay. So that is open to the public spectator friendly. And definitely everyone is invited and encouraged to check that out. The fans have been amazing to work with. And I'm super excited that they're so open to bringing in a new type of event into the community. And, you know, it helps support and grow the community. All my volunteers come in and stay locally, eat locally and same with my competitors. So, you know, I really appreciate them. I'm with the new hotel right here. Yep, that's our host hotel. So we help get that sold out for the weekend. I'm sure. So they've been great to work with. And I'm really excited to be involved with this with them. Great. It's fun bringing this to the community. Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, everybody always, you hear it all the time. There's nothing to do. There's nothing for kids to do. There is.

12:55And with help, you know, from like you guys and, you know, Finley Subaru and being able to be, you know, just show like, hey, there's other stuff going on. There's stuff we can, there's a lot of dirt around here. Yeah, there's marks 27th and 28th. Well, I can, the passion is real. You guys have, yeah, if you go to prosketrally.com, there's the map. There's everything. So great way to get involved vendors, great way to get involved. Kind of almost getting in on, I don't want to say the ground level, but this is, I feel like we're built, you guys are building something really, really amazing. Yeah, I, you know, like I said, I've been involved with this. I've started as a volunteer. I compete, obviously, not at my own event, unfortunately, even though I really want to. Just my event is really cool. I know. I, I co-drive, you know, around the country for other drivers. I love doing that. And I, like I said, I'm excited for it to be in Presket Valley. I've grown up here since 1996. And I see where there's a need for more type of events like this.

14:02So I think it's going to be really fun. Oh, perfect. Reach out to Riley. Reach out to Cara. Get involved, you know, the ham radio operators. Oh, yeah, tons of stuff. So, you have get involved. And come on out March 27th and 28th. We're going to be doing live interviews with some of the, the drivers and taking some pictures. And this is going to be a great event. Yeah. More details on Facebook. There's a Facebook event online. So all the details are getting out there. Perfect. Well, thank you guys so much for coming in. And I'm excited. I've got this definitely on my calendar. And I can't wait to see it. Thank you for having us here. Welcome. Thanks for coming in. We'll see you guys next time.