Was ending the IRC a mistake ?

[er88]

*Long post alert*

Thinking back, the IRC in 2011 was by far the most enjoyable championship ive followed since all the way back to the 2001 WRC title fight.

There was just something about the IRC that was special and more exciting than the WRC for me. There was number of reasons why i loved the championship;
- The TV coverage was superb, im sure everyone remembers all the live stages in Monte at the start of that year, watching Hanninen and Solberg getting caught out making a woefully wrong tyre choice while in first and second respectively, with Bouffier and Delecour taking advantage :-). The TV coverge was good throughout the year, including 3 or 4 more events with live stages - i know Scotland and Cyprus had live stages ( Everyone i hope still remembers Neuville on the Golden stage rally pushing like hell with the rear of his car hanging off the cliff).

- The interesting calendar with the historic events such as Monte, Corsica, Ypres, Barum and Sanremo mixed in with exciting new events to a major rally championship, such as Azores and Scotland (plus a few others, Ukraine etc) was also why enjoyed the championship.

- The exciting young drivers and diverse entry lists. Many of these drivers are now in the WRC but the battles were really immense in 2011, so many final stage battles with just a second or so between drivers at the end. I remember Mikklesen binning it in Hungary on the final stage chasing his first win, and Andreas also losing out on the final stage in Sanremo to Neuville by the smallest of margines. It was great for the sport. Was glad Andreas finally got his first win in Scotland.

- Probably the biggest reason i loved the IRC though - and one of the reasons the series became so big - was the S2000 cars. The cars were so enjoyable to watch. Standing in a dark, muddy Scottish forest watching and listening to those screaming cars flying past was some spectacle. Like the old days of rallying in a way. I know the cars werent as outright fast as WRC cars etc, but when the S2000s were at full pelt they were just more exciting to watch and the noise was great.

Anyway sorry for rambling ;-), just wanted to share my thoughts. I think the IRC was at its absolute peak between 2010-2012. It was fantastic to watch and follow the championship. I highly doubt the ERC will get back to that level but hopefully it improves from its current state (Im barely interested in at all just now). Hopefully Skodas arrival with the new R5 will help but i dont know....

[Mirek]

I think that it's quite obvious that the IRC was growing together with the popularity of S2000 cars (in fact the European popularity of them was started by early IRC seasons not vice-versa). It was also not accidental that it started to fade after new S2000 homologations were banned by FIA in 2011. Whether FIA simply failed to replace them with the new over-ambitious WRC/RRC or they killed them deliberately to slow down the IRC which was in that time getting dangerously close to the WRC or that was just a plain incompetence I don't know...

[Abarth]

Fia first killed car class, and then the series.....

[Fran2013]

ERC is now bullshit....

[RS]

ERC is now bullshit....

Nice well formed argument there...

I think your assessment is a bit harsh although I understand the sentiment.. This year isn"t looking good.

ERC does arguably have Poland's best rally driver and one of the most interesting newcomers in Lukyanuk on it's books though.

I don't really know what they can do. The promotional package is much better than WRC2 and up to now it and IRC has been a much more successful career ladder than recent WRC support categories.

It's key weakness seems to be that young drivers want to learn the WRC roads.

[Mirek]

The junior championship is great. In some ways ERC is better than IRC was - there is much more regular competitors and the junior category slowly becomes the most important part of the package which isn't that wrong in my opinion. The competition on the top level is worse than in the best IRC years but we shall not pain the past in pink colors. Most of the IRC seasons were full of up-and-downs with strong events mixed with weak ones. Just remember how many drivers went to China, Brazil etc.

[Fran2013]

Nice well formed argument there...

I think your assessment is a bit harsh although I understand the sentiment.. This year isn"t looking good.

ERC does arguably have Poland's best rally driver and one of the most interesting newcomers in Lukyanuk on it's books though.

I don't really know what they can do. The promotional package is much better than WRC2 and up to now it and IRC has been a much more successful career ladder than recent WRC support categories.

It's key weakness seems to be that young drivers want to learn the WRC roads.

The promotion doesn´t mean nothing. Bernando Sousa said it well... He prefers to do the WRC2 because it is better for his local sponsors. WRC is far more stronger than ERC in main european countries and that's the main problem... In eastern Europe things are more balanced.... That is why you see a lot of drivers from those countries in ERC....

Can a british, french or spanish driver get more promotion from ERC than WRC2 ? Why there is not middle eastern pilots doing ERC ? Money ?

ERC needs to have a more balanced calendar with unique events. Rally Azores is always changing dates. One year is in May, then is February, then July, this year is in June.. It is an absurd....

This is indeed a dying series....

[RS]

The promotion doesn´t mean nothing. Bernando Sousa said it well... He prefers to do the WRC2 because it is better for his local sponsors. WRC is far more stronger than ERC in main european countries and that's the main problem... In eastern Europe things are more balanced.... That is why you see a lot of drivers from those countries in ERC....

If you're point is that ERC have no events in Spain, Italy, France, Germany then that is quite a valid one, but I suppose they try and avoid countries which already have a WRC rally?

That raises another question, about a 'world' championship which only has three events outside of Europe.

But regarding the promotion we are talking about WRC2 versus ERC. Is the promotion of WRC2 really much better in Europe than it is here in the UK? On the Monte roundup programme here they literally showed WRC2 for less than two minutes. I did time it.

[Mirek]

The promotion doesn´t mean nothing. Bernando Sousa said it well...

Bernardo said but facts oppose him. There is now around 50 registered competitors (in February) and far majority of them are privateers. IRC never had even close number of regulars to this. Just check the list and think why all of them entered: http://www.fiaerc.com/uploads/files/...rs_updated.pdf

Of course Sousa may say truth about himself but the general rule is definitely that media coverage matters and matters a lot.

[Jarek Z]

Just check the list and think why all of them entered: http://www.fiaerc.com/uploads/files/...rs_updated.pdf

The sad thing is that the quantity is there, but what about quality? Out of the 15 drivers in top ERC category only 4 drivers are good (Kajto, Breen, Lukyanuk, Consani). All others are not even good enough to win their local championships at home. Or to beat a 20-year old unknown Scandinavian driver in Opel Adam R2