Ok, I’ve been thinking about the whole Daniel Carlsson thing about running out of money and unable to complete his original programme. The same applies to Gigi Galli as well with the loss of a major sponsor.

So who is out there with the Big $$$ able to put a decent budget forward? The answer is the tyre companies. With M1 and M2 teams having to shod Pirelli from 2008 here’s a chance for other rally tyre manufacturers to showcase their brand by funding a privateer outside of M1 & M2.
We have already seen examples of this with Gigi in the Pirelli badged 307 last year.
To me this car really stood out as far as branding was concerned.

At the moment, IMO the BF Goodrich shod WRCars don’t really showcase the brand to its full potential. We the rally enthusiast know what they are using but does Joe Public? A small BF Goodrich sticker on each corner of the car almost disappears at race pace. A fully dedicated livery on the side of the car is much more visible (like the Gigi 307).

So for those drivers sitting on the sideline here is an oppuntity for some real sponsorship money.

Apart from Michelin/BF Goodrich and Pirelli I can think of 7 additional companies making rally tyres (Dunlop, Silverstone, Yokohama, Falken, MRF, Hankook, Kumho). Sure I know a lot of you will rubbish some of these brands and they may struggle against the established brands but ‘beggars can’t be choosers’.

In the APRC Fast Jussi and Taguchi drive for the MRF Tyre team out of India. MRF are showing they want to promote their brand to a bigger audience, so maybe the WRC is the next step. Also Neil McShea is running Kumho in the PWRC, another company with a potential to step up.

I remember in the late 90s here in the NZ there seems to be a lot of cars with fully dedicated livery from Falken. Former NZ Champ Reece Jones approached the parent company and got enough money from to take his car (Group N Evo) to a handful of European WRC events. If an unknown from here can do it surely a big name driver has such a better chance.

Anyway just a thought, but hopefully we may see a fully liveried Yokohama 307 or a Hankook Focus in next years champs.