Found on Youtube, is this video of a Corvette Z06 losing control and ferociously crashing into a BMW M3 E36 parked on the side of the road during the amateur "Robin Hood Rally" in Tuxedo, NY on June 25/26, 2010.
According to the poster, even though there were plenty of spectators at the scene, and despite the fact that the driver of the BMW was inside the car at the time of the crash, no one was seriously injured. End of story? Not quite, as there is more to this story than what meets the eye.
First of all, the rally is pitched by the organizers as a reality show with amateur racers driving "on closed public roads in the heartland of America", which will air on television in Fall 2010.
A search on "The Robin Hood Rally [website]" returned some very interesting findings, including another serious crash during the first race of the series in May, and more intriguingly, a report from NBC stating that promotional material from "Robin Hood Rally" falsely claimed that the series would air on NBC...
In detail and starting with the first incident, WMUR-TV reported on May 24 that one person was airlifted to the hospital after a serious race crash in Berlin, New Hampshire, during the first race of the "Robin Hood" amateur series. You can read about that incident on the station's website here.
The most interesting discovery is of course the news clip from NBC on January 4, 2010.
According to the report, the organizers of "The Robin Hood Rally" were promoting the race as a series they "may film" and "may produce as a reality-like infomercial" which "may or may not air on NBC", and that it costs $1,000 to apply for the series plus another $4,000 if you're accepted. The reporter stated "Robin Hood is just a fairy tale here on NBC" [see news video below].
A promotional email signed / sent by "Kevin Sweeney, VP Business Development, Robin Hood Rally" made its appearance last year on a bunch of forums including "Stlbmwcca", "Grassrootsmotorsports", "E90Post" and " Pelicanparts", while we also found it on a Facebook page.
In the most recent press release dated June 8, 2010, the organizers of the "Robin Hood Rally" state that the reality TV series "will air on VERSUS twice weekly beginning on Saturday, October 2, 2010 at 1:00 p.m. ET. Encore presentations will air on Mondays at 5 p.m. ET."
Leaving aside the NBC-incident that speaks for itself, the fact that each of the first two races of the amateur rally series was marked by a serious accident that could have cost lives [just watch the video with the 'Vette below to see what we mean], is something that should trouble both the organizers and the authorities.
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NBC REPORT FROM JANUARY 4, 2010
