With almost no rally experience, I dont see any sense of this step. Only big promotion (in first races)...
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Cheaper season, a lot more seat time, new experiences etc. I don't see why people on this forum are always so negative about everything.
For me it sound like a great change for him and even if he hops back to WRX after one season he is still many experiences richer, so why not?
Nitis has also done some rally events in Latvia and I wouldn't be too surprised if he continues to race more since WRX is becoming so expensive.
Mahonen saying current rallies are too long. I'm sure this will go down well: https://www.motorsport-news.co.uk/ne...eing-too-long/
I can see his point about service to an extent. But he wants more, shorter stages, all based around a population zone with accommodation for the teams, guests etc. You can't have it all.
Wales really did bend the rules about having really many stages with no service inbetween. Although, we still had probably less WRC retirements than in any other rally. Also, the long saturday loop with no service was compensated with just two night stages as the second loop. And like stated in the article, Wales didn't really utilize the service park well enough. And of course the long liaisons, we don't want that either.
All in all, he doesn't say the total length of special stages in a rally should be shortened, and that's what's most important to us.
A few years ago the stages had to be longer, now they want them shorter again.. Rally needed to be brought to the people. Wales and Sweden are now being criticized for having not enough SS mileage compared to the total mileage. Well, they have it because they brought the rally to the people with their stupid super-special-stages (Karlstad and Cholmondely). Maybe it's not so bad Mahonen retires at the end of the year.
Mahonen is one of the biggest jokes there's ever been in the sport. He tried his best to kill the national scene when he was running things in Finland back in the 90's and almost succeed in it. It's no wonder he has said something as idiotic as this (that the current rallies are too long). The less he's involved in any decisions, the better for the sport.
Mahonen just lost vote for Finnish ASN's AKK Motorsport's chairmanship. Current chairman Juhani Pakari stays in the position. Vote was very close, 199-178, which means clearly that the motorsport field in Finland is divided into two camps. From what I've heard, Mahonen would've been the choice for rallying scene - if someone knows more, please tell. I can understand that for Finnish ASN Mahonen would've been understandable choice given his international contacts. I'm not saying I like him, but this isn't a popularity contest.
Considering Evans' article (what Colin Clark probably describes as a work of world class journo!) and things Mahonen brings forth there - it's the difficult question of how to please manufacturers (who pay for this), desirebly bigger light user service park goers (who pay for this) and consideribly big, but not easily growing heavy user special stage goers (who pay for this). We can't have all. We also can't have rallying as per pre-95 because that society isn't here anymore. We can't have more events without giving away something from the old. There's a lot of pressure involved, for decision makers like Mahonen especially. I think we all understand the different sides, but there isn't working standard solution for every event in the current format. My ideal is relatively close to what we have now.
I am really happy that Mahonen will go out. He is/was cancer for rallysport.