2016 News and Results

[Jarek Z]

Have you seen Kajto's new car for the ERC?
https://scontent-frt3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...47413092_o.jpg

[RS]

Things starting to come together a bit for ERC now. Hopefully the future will be brighter with Hyundai and Opel R5s on the way.

[Rally Power]

Yep, good for ERC because if Katjo keeps the strong MSport support he had last year this will mean there's at least one manu involved at ERC (even if MSport doesn't officially admit it). That could be the spark for Skoda put an ERC program in place...

On the other hand, if Katjo remains the only manu backed guy, this year ERC may be a walk in the park for him. Hope not, but to me he deserved to be at WRC2 and fight with the best drivers around (he's clearly at their level!).

[PLuto]

There is no need to have manufacturers in ERC. Actually it looks like that ERC will be about fight between Kajto and Lucas. Kajto has nothing to prove in WRC2 now, to fight against three factory Skodas and one factory Ford...

[Mirek]

If ERC ever wants to get to the level of former IRC it absolutely needs manufacturers. Otherwise it will stay an unrecognized regional trophy.

[PLuto]

I think it is almost impossible to have regular manufacturers in ERC. If company is giving money to sport programme, they always wants to be in WRC... Earlier or later. To have Skoda and Peugeot it was possible only because their "group" partners VW and Citroen were in WRC. If we dont talk about "private" manufacturers like Proton and Opel in S2000 era, only one brand without WRC was Fiat (and they were thinking about WRC)...

We will see how it will be with other R5 manufacturers, if they will be interested also in ERC...

[Jarek Z]

New livery for Lukasz Pieniazek's Opel Adam R2. Doesn't this car remind a bar of soap?
https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...01571118_o.jpg

[RS]

I think it is almost impossible to have regular manufacturers in ERC. If company is giving money to sport programme, they always wants to be in WRC... Earlier or later. To have Skoda and Peugeot it was possible only because their "group" partners VW and Citroen were in WRC. If we dont talk about "private" manufacturers like Proton and Opel in S2000 era, only one brand without WRC was Fiat (and they were thinking about WRC)...

We will see how it will be with other R5 manufacturers, if they will be interested also in ERC...

But VW and Citroen are still in WRC so why can't Skoda and Peugeot be in ERC?

I don't believe Skoda would be in WRC if VW didn't need them there. Publicity for WRC2 is so poor it can't be for the marketing?

[Mirek]

I think it is almost impossible to have regular manufacturers in ERC. If company is giving money to sport programme, they always wants to be in WRC... Earlier or later. To have Skoda and Peugeot it was possible only because their "group" partners VW and Citroen were in WRC. If we dont talk about "private" manufacturers like Proton and Opel in S2000 era, only one brand without WRC was Fiat (and they were thinking about WRC)...

We will see how it will be with other R5 manufacturers, if they will be interested also in ERC...

That's not true. In 2009-2011 which was the IRC peak there was no VW in WRC and Škoda didn't come to IRC because of VW. They came there as they saw an opportunity to make a a lot for their image through the series and it paid off hugely. Their campaign was a mega success with an enormous PR value. VW came to WRC later and it's likely their decision to come to rallying was influenced by the success of Škoda in IRC.

We can continue with the birth of the series. It was Fiat who entered first when it was a complete noname experiment. Peugeot didn't come because Citroën was in WRC but because there was another opportunity for PSA to score marketing points. Same with Proton and we can continue like that.

The alternative series can live a good live but only with manufacturers. Without them there is no real media or public attention (a lot of that PR is created by the carmakers themselves). Eurosport didn't manage to keep them in the series and they all run away to WRC. That's simply a fail even if it's caused mostly by the reborn of WRC and a change of FIA rules (ban of S2000 in 2011).

"We'll see" is a wrong stance. Eurosport shall work hard to bring them in the series again if it wants to make it something interesting again. Why shall the teams enter ERC now when there's little to win there? There are several great events which they can enter anyway (and they do) but the series as a whole has no reputation or public recognition whatsoever. The funny thing is that most of the teams who enter WRC2 do that simply because of the "WRC" name of the series. But motorsport is foremost a marketing tool and for that reason names and recognition are hugely important. Believe me that if there was something to win for them in ERC they would be there. They are not so dumb.

[Rally Power]

Maybe the solution is between a WRC alternative series, like IRC used to be, and a third level international series, like ERC can eventually become.

WRC needs to be pinnacle of the sport. Manus should be directly involved, even those with less developed cars. It’s true that these don’t get most of attention, but they can profit from the series world status in many ways and even use the experience to get at top WRC level.

This is what has happen during the many golden eras of WRC history (the F2 championship in Gr.A days is the perfect example of a less important, yet successful, manus competition), but history also shows that at the weaker WRC periods, manus will tend to desert and try other alternatives to run their rally programs (in the case they don’t simply extinguish them).

That’s what IRC become, a manus oriented alternative rally series to WRC, profiting from WRC bad shape during the late 00’s. IRC was a huge success until FIA managed to put WRC on track again and close down that alternative window. At the current revived WRC stage, insisting that ERC should be an alternative series seems to be a mistake. There’s room for ERC to be a complementary rally series, not an alternative one.

Even with the focus directed to the top european private teams and drivers, ERC doesn’t need to be a boring amateurs series, because manus involvement can happen in many ways besides the full works teams we had in IRC days: Junior programs (like the Opel Junior team or Peugeot Academy), european importers or top private teams programs with manus backup (like Katjo’s MSport Poland), well promoted Rally Cup Series for amateurs drivers and so on.

IMO, that's the kind of initiatives Eurosport must keep developing and for that it'd surely help to get a shorter calendar and keep the promotional work at the top level they get rally fans used to.