Perryville Farm & Forest Rally Race

A rally car navigates a corner at speed

The premier United States rally series is coming to Perry County Missouri on Saturday, October 29th. The inaugural 2011 Perryville Farm and Forest Rally stands as the second event on the Rally America central region championship calendar. Top drivers in several classes of competition vehicles will come from across the U.S. to compete.

The Perryville Farm & Forest Rally is a performance rally car race, using street legal vehicles, which have the addition of safety gear and full roll cages. For any newcomers to rallying, a rally consists of "transit zones" and "special stages". A transit has the rally teams on the roads with the general public following all traffic rules and merely gets the competitors from one special stage to the next. A special stage is a closed to-the-public section of road(s) where teams are allowed to travel from the start to the finish as fast as they can. Teams are started one minute apart, so there is no wheel-to-wheel racing. The total elapsed times for each team over all 8 of the special stages will determine both individual class and overall victories of the event. In addition, the rally is run "blind", where the teams have not seen the roads ahead of time.

For the past 18 months, the rally committee has been working with the local government officials & economic partners, to ensure a well organized and safe event. The rally aims to help give the area an economic boost by bringing in multiple teams, their service crews, officials, and hundreds of volunteers from outside the area. The Perry county road commissioners have given the rally organizers permission to temporarily close a few county roads for short periods of time during the afternoon on Saturday. A detailed road closure schedule and maps are available online at: http://perryville.100aw.org/roads.html

Saturday will begin with a rally car show and opening ceremony, in conjunction with the Perryville chili cook-off. Saturday's activities kick off at 10:30 AM on N. Jackson St in downtown Perryville. Teams will compete throughout the afternoon, passing multiple spectator points and servicing their vehicles at the East Perry County fairgrounds in Altenburg. The public is invited to join in the festivities, see the cars up close and meet the teams at the start of the day and at the service area. There is no admission charge for any of these events.

Spectator Guides will be available in the coming weeks, including detailed maps and schedule for each spectating location. More information can be found online at the rally website, http://perryville.100aw.org

Anyone interested in helping with this event may contact Lee Hilliard at 636-734-3292 or visit the website to volunteer. Your help is greatly needed as well over 200 volunteers will be required to staff the courses on Saturday the 29th.