If I'm not mistaken, being a promotional event means that one car from every team is mandatory.
EDIT: I was mistaken. Urmo Aava said that "the organisers can't force anyone".
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today there could be an announcement that the rally is cancelled....the problem? money....suddenly Estonian Autosport Union wants a share of it, they say that they are basically left out and they require 100 000 euros from the organizers. Estonian Autosport Union board members dont even hide that they want to fill the union thin pocket with this money.
The rally organizers said they are not able to meet such a requirement by law, the Board of the Estonian Autosport Union imposed an international rally registration fee of EUR 100,000. Given that last year the registration fee was € 2000, it was increased by 5000%.
Aava is sain that they have tired to find a compromise etc but nothing so far.
Also this: "However, it has been understood from the Autosport Union that the withdrawal of the Rally Estonia organizers does not necessarily mean that the top rally will be canceled. The federation may also consider organizing a top rally event itself. It is believed that this can be done in a simpler format and at a lower cost than Rally Estonia."
i would like to see how they would manage it. Aava and his team have a very good reputation among the teams and wrc world and they have a huge experience now.
there is a sayin in estonian that "eestlase lemmiktoit on teine eestlane" meaning "estonian favorite food is another estonian" and it bodes well here.
Umh, like many nations have presidents as representatives, i believe that is the case here also. These conspiracy theories may lead to many-many wrong accusations.
Money is always nice, business is business. Just some people saw an opportunity where to get more and since they have an advantage, they took it.
I have a feeling that EAL wants to bypass Aava & Co. and organise this rally by themselves. I guess they see how much they can make and attract sponsors.
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But could they really attract so many sponsors etc, if there isnt Aava & Co, who are organizing it? I mean RE team have done very good job and I guess sponsors kinda trust them.If some other guys try to manage it, then im pretty sure that, EAL wont pull it off. At the end of a day its 10 years of hard work, that have bring them to this point, EAL could make it work with this kind of quality.
exactly and its just so wrong.
Aava and co have worked for 10 years their asses off to get all these sponsors, money and etc and to make this rally happen every time.
Now suddenly EAL wants a share of it. Go work yourself up and earn your money. Where were you when Rally Estonia wasnt doing so well? Nowhere!
and whats also bad, for sure these news have now spread outside estonia and its such a bad publicity for Aava and co. considering they really want a wrc round here in the future.
ridiculous...
comment from head organizer Tarmo Hõbe
The main concern is the registration fee for the competition, which amounts to 100,000 euros. "That's justmindblowing sum of money. What's happening is unrealistic, as no 5,000 percent price increase has been seen in any country. I dare to say that this is a violation of competition law, »
Hõbe was also surprised that bringing the WRC rally to Estonia was no longer a top priority. A year ago, the position of the EAL was quite different. “Last year we knew that bringing the WRC rally to Estonia was a priority, and so we signed a Memorandum of Understanding. It was signed by us, the WRC promoter, the Estonian state and the EAL. It is very surprising to hear that this is no longer the main goal for them anymore. »
This year, Rally Estonia should celebrate its tenth anniversary. Unfortunately, it is not clear at the moment whether this is happening at all. Much work has been done to this end. Hõbe stated: «Rally Estonia has been carried by 3 people and now EAL wants to take part in it. Previously, no interest in the event was shown. Now that we've got the organization and funding in place, they are just starting to do disservice. We definitely want to work together, but they should come to their minds first. »
I wouldn't be at all surprised if something like that happened in my country...but I really thought there's no such behaviour in Estonia!
Well, you live and learn...
But I'm more and more sure, that this unquenchable human greed will be the end of us all, sooner rather than later...
Here’s a “story” of the situation https://youtu.be/UsgkK520bUc
And the saga continues...
EAL (estonian autosport governing body) announced that Rally Estonia has been misinforming the public and things are not so as they seem. Blaming that they receive very small proportion of governing support (90000 € vs. 980000 €) and throwing some other facts on to the table which in further investigation were not true at all.
Today Tallink (biggest shipping company on Baltic Sea) announced that they will withdraw their support from EAL and continue with Rally Estonia only.
For EAL this now getting very bad publicity as even our Parlament is today discussing this feud.
And now Oleg Gross has released a statement that he will personally pay the 100 000 € fee for Rally Estonia.
Crazy world were living in....
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Crazy opera. Today at 2 (Estonian time) will be a press conference held by Rally Estonia. Anyone who knows Estonian or just want to watch here is the link
https://sport.delfi.ee/news/auto/wrc...si?id=89052911
This is like crazy thing that is happening. I think we only know about quarter, maybe half of the things. There has to be something more behind it, why such moves were made. And I think RE gave some kind of ultimatum, so mr Gross had to do it to save Estonian Autosport Union?
Anyway... will update soon about the press conference.
Tried to read translation to english
https://m.sport.delfi.ee/rallyestoni...hp?id=89053179
Rally Estonia 2020 will be cancelled
Cancelled officially.
I really would like to know the real reasons behind it.
What a bad publicity for our motorsport and country.
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How convenient that Oleg Gross made just an hour before Rally Estonia press conference a statement that he will personally pay for the fee.
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I think the damage was done, RE organizers let them know that this is not how we will continue and we are going to cancel the event. Then to save his own ass, mr Gross told ok, I'm going to pay this fee for you because I love autosport SO much. But decisions were made already beforehand and no way back.
Really really sad day for Estonian Autosport, the greed of people possibly destroyed our dream of a WRC event in the near future when Tänak is still one of the fastest. It was slim before this, this is none now.
The ironic thing is that Autoglym rally also announced just a week ago that they're not going to run this year, so there's no test event for Rally Finland in plans. One can only speculate whether Autoglym's decision had something to do with Rally Estonia getting all the big names for the last two years.
The problem with Autoglym was that it was very different character compared to NORF. I have talked to some teams who took part and they were not happy with the "test conditions." One of the team boss even told that it was so strange that Rally in Finland was so different to NORF while RE was very similar to NORF and much better for test (he had cars in both rallies).
I guess it is because Rally Estonia organizers have paid enormous effort in order to transform the roads into conditions as they are in Finland. They have built trampolines and jumps in order to get the character of the roads suitable. Also for example the ''Truuta'' area which adds a custom designed superspecial stage effect into one of the most famous stages, creating a new dimension to spectating a special stage.
Nevertheless, so frustrating spectacle to see such innovators of the sport forced into unthinkable solutions :/
i have been thinking all yesterday and today what to say...
but im just lost with words and actually cant even think what to say.
the guys in EAL dont even realize what damage they have done to Rally Estonia and also for themselves.
this is just sad, very sad....:(
I have received some small portion of information from members of EAL and it changes quite bit my understanding of the whole situation. Unfortunately I cannot reveal all of it but just let me say where's smoke there's fire and this feud is caused by both parties, not just by EAL.
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Strange comment about Autoglym roads. What I have heard from interviews they used difficult stages, some of them even more demanding than Rally Finland. Some teams asked more narrow and slower roads too but if they did find those from Rally Estonia - I'm very surprised.
Can't help but think there has to be other issues too than the extra fee of 100k.
Why nobody questions about the fee Rally Estonia has paid to WRC promoter in 2019. Maybe that is secret amount but in any case that fee is huge too.
Or does somebody believe they did not pay to WRC promoter :)
I would say that Autoglym has used faster roads than Rally Finland, especially in the last two years with Rally Finland using more of smaller roads. Autoglym has been an event mostly for historic cars and partly for drivers without pace notes, which doesn't usually get too fast on wide public roads. In turn, these roads withstand rallying better and require less repairing. It's also true that the roads in the area of Autoglym are a bit different to Jyväskylä area, but not so drastically. It's more about the road selection than the geography.
As for Rally Estonia, to me it seems half of the roads are super fast, much faster than Rally Finland has, and half are slower. I mean, I haven't been to Rally Estonia or any Estonian gravel roads myself, but from videos it seems they get more rutted and are generally softer than anything in Rally Finland. Even the smallest roads in Rally Finland like Oittila or Pihlajakoski beginnings are more technical and have more stones in the mix than the Rally Estonia roads. Meanwhile, the fast sections in Estonia are often super fast with "long" crests and bends whereas Rally Finland often more crests and they are sharper. There seems also to be some sections with no ditches but instead "banks" on the side of the road.
At the same time, I don't have a reason to doubt bluuford's comment. It's surprising but interesting to hear.
But do you know if this information that you have is "coming out" in some form? Of course I'm not that naive to think that everything that was said and done was also made public but on the other hand I can't understand if there is blame by Aava and co. towards EAL, then why won't EAL say the things Aava and co have done? But can you reveal (based on the info) is it about money or something else?
They had to pay those promoter and manufacturer fees last year as well? It's what you need to get the WRC Promotional event status?