Which rally should they add to the WRC-calendar?

Can we please agree to disagree that if there is a rally in the USA it would both be a success and failure. We have people saying yes there are supporters, yes there are people, yes people will go. We have some saying where are the people going to come from, who will run it and if there will be any drivers/teams. We have people saying it has worked in the past (70's/80's) and some saying it didn't work. We have people who drove and spectated and some people who have never been or seen rallies in the US. I think this banter should stop. If the rally happens in the US then it will. If it doesn't then it won't. People here are saying rallies in the WRC calendar have had decades and history so that is the reason why they are in the WRC... but at one stage they had to start!! You can start a US rally or a Canadian rally or Brazillian rally for the WRC. That's where the History will BEGIN. Whether someone says it won't or will work is just back and forth in the forum/Thread. Yes we can and this is a place to discuss but it's going from yes to no to yes to no - and none of us are getting anywhere. Can we change the way the US people see rally? I'm not sure. I think its best to keep it an E X T R E M E sport like gymkhana and X-games... simplifies it for the market there with the Blocks and Pastramas.

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Originally Posted by Gregor-y

You need to come east for Sno*Drift some time, assuming you can still handle the cold! ;) There actually are crowds out there nowadays. I'm always looking for people to volunteer with timekeeping since the equipment is starting to wear out...

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Drive 3500km to drive around averaging 65 to 70 km/hr with a complete lack of grip--since the organizers have decided to stonewall any discussion or even thoughts of studded tires? Why do you think its called Slo-drift? :confused: And cold? Why would cold bother me? Last event I did was in central British Columbia's Okanogan Valley based Thunderbird Rally and it was two days of nice cold winter rally---"Monte Carlo format Regularity rally----over 850 km for a nice entry of $185... And when I was out East I did Pierce Niege National where it was -40 one week and the following week after some quick roof beautification via Bondo :uhoh: , Rally Quebec where it was around -30......again no studs was my only complaint... :crazy:

That obstinate decades long refusal to even discuss honestly the possibility of studded tires by the Michigan Mafia shows an willful inflexibility that demonstartes excellently why its so hard for a US WRC round with a straight face, and why only humor and satire in discussions are the logical response. The Michigan Mafia tries transparent dismissal and redicule evrey time it comes up (yearly) then if one is persistant and doesn't accept their lame answers then argue BS dogma, to wit "It's illegal in Michigan to use studs so there neener neener!!!" 2 minutes Googling Michigans laws shows this to be completely false.
When cornered with the direct question "Has anybody ever even asked if studs could be used (under a dispensation, the same dispensation that allows us to zoom down county roads at 100 knots) One of the gang finally--very meekly answered "No we've never asked" and then---the key thing in reference to this thread of possible new WRC events----they resort to the stupidest "logic" of all : That's the way we've always done it" and the equally boneheaded "And its the same for everybody"......
All to avoid even considering a change... doesn't bode well, but that's the way it goes with those Mid-west guys.

Tavarich Gregor, even if it was close by I still don't think it would be anything for me or most of the guys I know. hell I know 4-5 guys nearby Slo-Drift who after sliding around in corners covered in polished ice (from other spinning unstudded tires) at 10 km/hr, now say "I can't be bothered, its not fun enough" especially with a around $1000 entry fee.

Note: we averaged in that BC snow event open to any ordinary car speeds very similar to more than half the field at the supposed "stage rally". No drama...just studs..

But tavarich, we better throw something in about WRC cause somebodys is getting pissed off at our friendly observations..

So, CANADA is the only hope because they have the underlying club network needed. they have clubs because they're godless Sossie Reds--they even make the leaf in their flag Red---and the basis of Red Sossi-ism is cooperation.
Damn I feel a need to belt out a few stanzas of The Internationale!
"Вставай, проклятьем заклеймённый,
Весь мир голодных и рабов!
Кипит наш разум возмущённый
И в смертный бой вести готов.
Весь мир насилья мы разрушим
До основанья, а затем
Мы наш, мы новый мир построим, —
Кто был ничем, тот станет всем"

Rallyists of the world unite!
You have nothing to loose but your brains! :D

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Originally Posted by GigiGalliNo1

Can we please agree to disagree that if there is a rally in the USA it would both be a success and failure. We have people saying yes there are supporters, yes there are people, yes people will go. We have some saying where are the people going to come from, who will run it and if there will be any drivers/teams. We have people saying it has worked in the past (70's/80's) and some saying it didn't work. We have people who drove and spectated and some people who have never been or seen rallies in the US. I think this banter should stop. If the rally happens in the US then it will. If it doesn't then it won't. People here are saying rallies in the WRC calendar have had decades and history so that is the reason why they are in the WRC... but at one stage they had to start!! You can start a US rally or a Canadian rally or Brazillian rally for the WRC. That's where the History will BEGIN. Whether someone says it won't or will work is just back and forth in the forum/Thread. Yes we can and this is a place to discuss but it's going from yes to no to yes to no - and none of us are getting anywhere. Can we change the way the US people see rally? I'm not sure. I think its best to keep it an E X T R E M E sport like gymkhana and X-games... simplifies it for the market there with the Blocks and Pastramas.

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Easy easy, my colleague from distant Czechcago and I are just sharing our love for rally and its future in our poor land.

But one thing above, the WRC sprang up from a series of already successful events that were already popular before there was a "title" artificially string them into a "series".... RAC was successful, and extremely;y popular, especially after Eric Carlsson crushed the whole world in the mighty Saab 96. Monte was extremely popular with entries into the 300s before the Series was invented, etc etc..
We should never forget that.
I try and convince my fellow dreamer/countrymen that we must concentrate on making one event a solid base, a sustainable event which sends out runners or shoots underground from which spring up and blossom other events..
Then in other places, those guys like Tavarich Gregorij, they build a solid event that survives and sustaains itself, then other comrades in whereever do the same..
Such is the only way for the "Series' to survive or flourish.
(Guess i've ben out in the garden, eh?)

Nail on head. Plenty of events were successful, popular and massive in their respective countries before they were included in the WRC. If there was no WRC, some would still run, regardless; I;e Monte, Finland.

Brazil, Russia and India are all huge markets - but how popular is the sport in these countries? No point in going if it's 3 men and a llama....

Bring back 1998 calendar.

So, I've been fiddling around with the GMaps Pedometer, and I think a rally in Austria could be very interesting. The rally could be based in the town of Graz in the south of the country, with the event run over twisty and slippery roads in the Austrian Alps. It would be predominantly tarmac, and if run in the summer, it would be a kind of Monte Carlo without the ice and snow and more margin for error.

I'm also intrigued by the idea of a tropical rally, which has really been absent from the calendar since the Safari Rally and Rally Indonesia were removed from the calendar. To that end, I think Thailand would be an interesting choice, with the event possibly being run out of the resort town of Phuket. I imagine the stages would be a sort of sandy, silty clay, and the climate hot and humid. Failing that, Malaysia could work; they already have a Formula 1 Grand Prix and a round of the MotoGP championship.

I said the other day that reviving the Rally of Japan could be a way to lure Japanese manufacturers back into the sport - but I also think that South Korea could do the same. Holding the rally in Japan might make more sense, but there are some interesing roads in Korea, particularly in the area around Chungju, Jecheon and Danyang in the centre of the country. But I think it would be a big risk, particularly if the manuacturers don't return; the Korean Grand Prix hasn't been a raging success (and I suspect the entire point of it was to lure Hyundai into the sport - so far, they haven't taken the bait).

Pardon the double-post, but it's been about a week since I've been active in here and I've just through of another idea for a rally - Croatia. There's some great roads running down the Adriatic coastline that current serve as highways, but in the next few years they're going to be replaced by a brand-new highway that runs from Trieste in Italy all the way down to Athens. With Jean Todt's push for "endurance" rallies, an event in Croatia that starts in Split and runs north to Rijeka near the Italian border could be fantastic: wide-high-quality roads loaded with sweepers that just keep climbing and climbing.

I also reckon there's potential for an incredibly demanding rally in India. There are some torturous-looking roads in the foothills of the Himalayas, and I wonder how World Rally Cars would cope with them. When Formula 1 used to go to Mexico City, it was a tough race because the high altitudes meant that there was less air to suck into the engines. I wonder how World Rally Cars would handle that, though I would have some concerns about safety if someone got stuck - some of those roads are very, very lonely.

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Originally Posted by tommeke_B

Roads themselves don't organize a rally...

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so you're saying Croatian people wouldn't be able to host a WRC event?

They already have an event in the ERC.

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Originally Posted by tommeke_B

Roads themselves don't organize a rally...

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No, they don't - I'm simply stating that I think there are roads in Croatia that would be good enough to hold a rally on. For example:

gmap-pedometer.com

gmap-pedometer.com

gmap-pedometer.com

And that's just from spending two minutes with the Google Maps pedometer.

I never said that it was a realistic proposition - just that I felt that the idea of an event there had potential. That's all any of my suggestions have ever been: ideas for events that I think will bring something to the WRC calendar that would make them stand out. I never pretended they were ever anything else. Whether or not they are feasible is another matter entierly.