F1 is THE glamour sport, but there are many reasons to believe that the Rally driver is facing more pressure.   A rally is, in essence, many qualifying sessions back-to-back.  Each segment and the race in total is a qualifying lap, as you are no normally seeing how well the other drivers have done until after your stage is done.  That pace is run all the time, with the driver's ultimate goal being total elapsed time.

Some points to help persuade you to see a rally:

-You are soo close to the action.  If daring enough, the spectator can actually be scrraped by the passing cars.

-The marshalls are not aggressive to the spectators as the event is FREE.  That's right, no six-figure incomes needed.

-The general pit area are accessible to all.  There is a parc fermé for administrative purposes, but it is like CART in that you can see the cars being worked on and the drivers discussing the day's events to press and team alike.

-The fans are very knowledgable and down-to-earth (another by-product of the free admission).

-You can actually hear yourself think and hear the drivers working the car.  It's not a routine lap each time.

-The race courses are spectacular to get to.  You sometimes run the course yourself to get to a vantage point!

-The support drivers run with the Big Boys of rallying.  Locals run with Makinen and McRae.  Something special to use as a comparison and an inspiration.

Usually the race is run over three days.  I went to see about 6 stages of Day 2, run on public mountain roads in the centre of Piemonte, Italy.  The speeds these cars run are tremendous, with cars flying over jumps and into quick turns at around 160km.  Hairpins are attacked, not negotiated.  Cars are abused in the worst ways.  It is incredible.

Remember too that these drivers have not seen the course before the stages.  They have a map and some basic instructions which the navigator/co-pilot tells the driver while running the race.  These instructions will tell the team roughly how sharp each turn ahead is.  It's up to each pair to decide how they will approach the turns.  Actually, you can be heavily penalized for seeing the course ahead of time.  Such cheating, whether intended or not, adds to a driver's total time.  François Delecour of Peugeot was caught riding a bicycle (!) before the first day and had 2 minutes (an eternity) added to his time.  It was under appeal until race end but didn't matter as Delecour retired with electrical problems.  The photos do some justice to the atmosphere at a rally.  Make sure you go with someone who knows all the short cuts to the stages. 

Finally... that photo at the top with me and the skinny kid in the fisherman's hat.  That 20-year-old kid is  the best motorcycle racer in the world right now.  His name is Valentino Rossi, and he has just won the 250cc World Championship on his Aprilia.  It was his rookie season at 250cc class.  He should jump to 500cc soon enough, but he probably should get a bit stronger first.  I compared him to Gilles Villeneuve after I saw his performance in South Africa (3 days before the photo was taken).  He is gutsy, daring and loved.   But his results are far more mature: 8 victories in his rookie year, and dominant in the extreme.

Put Valentino's South African GP in perspective, he took it easy in qualifying, started 5th, and his best lap was faster than the Pole Position lap.  He won the race easily, passing other riders in the most impossible places with little effort.   Remember this kid: Valentino Rossi.