Drag race, rallycross, paved circle track, road course, and a dirt quarter mile oval, win it all in one crappy car at the Leadfoot Rally and you could be crowned The Ultimate Shoe.
Colorado is known for its beautiful landscape and high elevation. Up in the mountains, there isn't much air and some say it's tough to think straight. It was up there, amongst the lack of oxygen where they came up with the idea of running an automotive decathlon (that is if deca meant five instead of ten) and have folks compete in five completely different types of motorsports during one week of knuckle busting, tire smoking insanity.
The cars that can compete in the Recession Racing Class must be two wheel drive and worth no more than $2,500 (think of most ChumpCar or 24 Hours of LeMons machines if any of the teams were actually honest about what they really had invested their racecars). The 2009 Leadfoot Rally was actually won by a whipped-on black 1991 Acura Integra (above –bottom right).
The cars for the Colorado event don't need to have extensive roll cages and safety gear (of course, it is recommended) to compete. This means that Grassroots Motorsports Magazine 2010 Challenge cars ($2010 valued cars that compete for media glory in an autocross and drag race) would be good choices in this series since Grassroots doesn't require cages either. However, an event planned for the litigious State of California in spring of 2011 is going to require all the usual gear needed for road racing.
Whichever event you choose (California or Colorado) or whichever car you choose to run (Cadillac or Cordoba) you're going to need to bring your driving skills and the ability to quickly change minor set ups between a road course event and running on the dirt (possibly within a few hours of each other).
The inspiration behind the Leadfoot Rally is to give props the best all-around driver. Who has the skill set to do well in a dirt oval, an E.T. bracket drag race, and then a road course? This is sort of a throw back to race drivers of old, guys who would drive anything with wheels, anywhere, anytime. Back to a time before racing got so specialized and racecar drivers had full time nutritionists and publicists.
And if you are rich enough to have your own nutritionist and to want to run your Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera in the rally you can compete in the Leadfoot Rally Unlimited Class.
The inaugural Leadfoot Rally was won by Brad Ames, pictured above, bordered by Leadfoot creators Chuck Stovall Jr. and Mike Dudleston. Brad, and his mohawk, were crowned the Ultimate Shoe in 2009 in Colorado.
During the events the cameras will be rolling to capture all of your driving talents (or lack thereof). The series is working hard to bring the coverage to a cable access channel near you (think Speed meets Wayne's World).
The next event (or five events if you want to be specific) will be in Colorado August 4-7, 2010.