Question regarding special stages

Hi everyone, I am new to the world of the WRC. I have been a big fan of rallying and motorsport in general for a long time, but only last week when I found links to download this season's Motors TV broadcasts I was finally able to immerse myself in this wonderful sport.

Now, I have a few very essential questions concerning the special stages.
How do they select the stages? Do they change them from one season to the next?

I saw that in some rallies they race through the same stage twice. Why do they do that? The world is big enough for more stages :) . Do they race the stage one way and back in reverse the second time? That would make more since but I saw no reference to that on the boardcasts.

Thanks a lot and I am happy to join this community! :cool:

It all depends on the country. Some stages are reversed or run twice in a day, generally for the help of TV so that the rally is kept in one area. Also it depends on getting permission to run a stage on that track. In the UK there is a law banning the closure of public roads so we only have gravel tracks. Most of these tracks are in Forests run by the Forestry Commission so organisers need thier permission. Additionally the tracks are fairly expensive as the organisers are charged depending on how many miles they use and the number of cars going through.

Not really sure how stages are selected. Most have been used for years and are well known. Usually a WRC event would be chosen depending on where the main service park is and the area that the rally is based around. Choices would also be made depending on the condition of the roads, length and how easy they are to get to.

The stages used quite often vary from year to year, or will be held at different times over the weekend.

Glad to hear that you're taking more of an interest in the sport, try to find some of the older footage as there are many of us who think that rallying used to be much, much better than it is now :up:

Perhaps the most important and defining thing for organizers in selecting roads for special stages is of course to get permissions. That includes officials, citizens that live by the roads and so on. Thus stages that have been used on previous years often get used again, because routine makes it easier. Sometimes people that live by the road gets strong negative experience from the rally (cars and spectators) that they'll never let organizers to use the road again.

In today's World Rally Championship (and IRC) much of the rallies are based on the same format where stages ran in the morning are repeated in the afternoon. They ran them in the same direction. I don't know when was the last time stage was run to opposite direction when repeated, but that happened at least still in the mid 90s. If stages would be ran in opposite direction when repeated it'd mean some perhaps difficult adjustments to recce. Also ruts from the first run could mean many close calls on the second run.

Running same stages twice helps the organizers also with the volunteers and stage officials, meaning they can do the rally with less people needed. The number of (voluntary) people needed for organising a WRC event is measured in thousands, I guess.

One important regulation concerning selecting stages is of course how fast it is. For most of 2000s the was a regulation that average speed must remain lower than 130 km/h. For example legendary Finnish special stage Ouninpohja suffered from the rule after Petter Solberg set stage record in 2004, doing some average 131,7 km/h or so. After 2007 I think the rule changed so that proposed stages will be estimated for their safety aspect seperately each year.

Welcome to the sport!

Thanks both of you, this is so interesting!

@Mr Jan Yeo: I am also very happy I started paying more attention to the fine details of the sport, the moment I started watching the broadcasts I could understand that there's so much more to rallying than the driver.

I also heard that WRC has become boring since the 2000s. Actually I am enjoying very much right now. Actually, I thought getting hold of some of these DVDs, do you know them?

@Hartusvuori: Thanks for the very knowledgable insight. I am so glad to hear that there's so much to this sport beyond just driving (not that I'm complaining, lol). One thing though, doesn't it get boring for the drivers to run the same stage twice on the same day?

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Originally Posted by pilau

I also heard that WRC has become boring since the 2000s. Actually I am enjoying very much right now. Actually, I thought getting hold of some of these DVDs, do you know them?

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Of the 2000s season reviews 2009 is best in terms of quantity. There are good, some 30-minute reviews of each round. It's sad how early 2000s dvd's are so badly done against the fact that the competition was much broader back then. The box sets for 1985-1989 and 1990-1999 are of course recommended: there's a lot to watch, though.

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Originally Posted by pilau

@Hartusvuori: One thing though, doesn't it get boring for the drivers to run the same stage twice on the same day?

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I think it's more boring to spectators in front of keyboards. I don't think drivers think they would be boring and sometimes repeated stages are very comfortable when it comes to spectating event live.

I think having some repeated stages is good since it makes the recce much easier for the drivers (almost half as many notes), gives them the opportunity to correct the notes during competition and use them again, and decreases the road cleaning effect a bit. Running a stage maximum of twice is fine IMO, and it means spectators dont have to run around as much.

Regarding the feeling that rallying has gone downhill, it's my opinion thats mostly just the "good ol' days" syndrome. To me rallying is still as good as it ever was. It's similar to how some people like to say that tv/movies these days are lousy and they were so much better in past years, which I think is also not true. For sure there are a lot of crap movies these days, but there always have been- we tend to only remember the good ones.

About repeating stages - sometimes, such as in Catalunya (I think, anyway) they will run a stage twice in one direction and then twice in the other. I think Jordan does something a little like this with thier Baptism site stage, too. Generally stages that are used like this are re-named, though, to disguise it a little, I guess.

I recall also that events like the Acropolis and Turkey like to use specific segments of road on multiple stages, again for convenience I guess. It leads to those sections becoming very rough.


The Rally of New Zealand from 2006 - 2008 on Day Two used five long gravel stages, none of which were repeated. They've stopped doing it now and it wasn't so good for spectators, but it's kind of cool for the novelty.

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Originally Posted by cosmicpanda

I recall also that events like the Acropolis and Turkey like to use specific segments of road on multiple stages, again for convenience I guess. It leads to those sections becoming very rough.

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What do you mean? Some stages had overlapping sections?

@Hartusvuori - I guess I will go for the 2009 DVD, I think. Check it out, see what it's all about :)

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Originally Posted by pilau

What do you mean? Some stages had overlapping sections?

@Hartusvuori - I guess I will go for the 2009 DVD, I think. Check it out, see what it's all about :)

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For example, stage 2 & 5 both have there own start and finish lines, but maybe 3 miles in the mid section both stages cross over and run on the same part of the road/stage for a bit then go off in opposite directions.
Also.. for safety reasons no other traffic would be running the other stage at that time.

Hope that examples.

Rick

Yes it does thank you :)