For 30 years, the Sandblast Rally has quietly held its ground as one of the most unorthodox fixtures in American stage rally.
Run through beach sand and rough, rocky, hard clay surfaces in Sand Hills State Forest outside Cheraw, South Carolina, this event compresses about 90 competitive miles into a single day, with optional night stages that exist purely for the experience of running in pitch-black darkness.
This is rally distilled to its essential ingredient: fun.
Few rally events on the East Coast host such a diversity of machinery on the same stage roads. Rally moto bikes lead the way, followed by the rally cars and SxSs, each reshaping the stages like snow plows with varying shapes of blades. Much like Rally Sweden, these roads have steep banks (obviously not made from snow!) and can get quite wide (“big road” for our Scandinavian readers), inviting drivers to push into the junctions.
And just like Rally Sweden, the character of the road changes dramatically throughout the day. The rally moto riders even get to use some of these ruts like the berms at a motocross course, leaning into them in slower corners. The roads aren’t all pillowy sand, though. Some stretches get downright Safari with sloppy mud pulling you in every direction besides finish control, yet some areas consist of harder clay that forms ruts like veins when water washes over it, leading to some washboard effects.
This variation is great for spectators, who are able to dart around the extremely short transits off the main highway to see a diverse assortment of action from the slow ‘Sandtrap Hairpin’, to the fast flowing double S on loose sand, or even the four-way junction at H Cooper Black to see some chaos as cars bounce over a hump and a ditch in the hard clay.
The spectator areas are never more than a mile or so away from the main highway, and that main highway gets you to essentially every stage of the event. Those directionally challenged among us, co-drivers included, will relish the event’s simple transits as well as the Jemba notes. Sandblast is not out to ‘get you’. Everything is straight forward, and everyone knows what to expect; therefore, you typically see a lot more relaxed faces at tech inspection and the service park the morning of the event.
The forest’s layout itself is central to the viewing experience. Replanted in orderly rows after early 20th-century over-farming and erosion, the pines stand in remarkably uniform rows, with little undergrowth thanks to the sandy, nutrient-poor soil. The result is rare for East Coast rally: clear sightlines in all directions. This is especially awesome during the night stages, where light pods pierce the pine tree branches and splinter into a million different rays of light coming around the corner. During the day, the pines provide a lovely backdrop as the sun sets behind them and the dust rises above them, showering the whole area with gold light.
Long-time volunteer Joseph Sturgill describes a “relaxed pace” shaped by the setting and the people, more akin to a family reunion than a traditional race weekend. It’s a sentiment that carries through to the award ceremony, where competitors, officials and media gather under one roof for a banquet to trade stories from the day’s action.
Set just an hour from Charlotte, and within arm’s reach of NASCAR icons like Charlotte Motor Speedway and Darlington Raceway, Sandblast sits firmly in the heart of American motorsport country.
While you may not see as many passes of the cars as you would at Darlington, Sandblast can provide potentially the most stage rally you will see in one day in the United States. Folk are often able to see four to six stages in one day if they are motivated (oh to be young), but those looking for the true relaxation experience could sit in one location and see three passes right in front of them.
For rally fans and competitors emerging from winter looking for an accessible, action-dense event, Sandblast remains one of the purest expressions of rally in the United States, and I hope it continues to thrive for the next 30 years.
