Official BRC highlights of Ceredigion:
https://youtu.be/gh4Gkhzk9zE?si=O3dp0XPkThWUOszO
I’m getting more and more impressed with the quality of their event coverage, just a shame the (BRC) entry was so poor :(
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Official BRC highlights of Ceredigion:
https://youtu.be/gh4Gkhzk9zE?si=O3dp0XPkThWUOszO
I’m getting more and more impressed with the quality of their event coverage, just a shame the (BRC) entry was so poor :(
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
To comply with Fast Eddy's request, old WRC cars would need new, smaller restrictors and re-mapping. Not cheap!Quote:
Originally Posted by PLuto
The BRC only allows cars complying with FIA homologation - look how popular that is. If those rules were applied acrosss UK rallying as a whole it would kill the sport entirely in the UK. You could argue that Rali Ceredigion looked daft with "national" R5+ cars competing against "international" Rally2/R5 cars with less power but without those "national" entries there wouldn't have been an event at all. The same situation will still arise if Rali Ceredigion is in the full ERC, but then we should see that the higher quality of drivers in that championship will be quicker in their lower powered cars than the UK "national" competitors in their R5+ cars.
I still don’t understand why banning the larger restrictors on R5/Rally2 cars on national events has anything to do with older spec WRC cars. Barely anyone is driving them these days and so having your bigger restrictor on your R5 just means on you’re on an equal playing field with other R5+ drivers on national/clubman events.
If they were all using their FIA internationally homologated rally cars without the one thing that makes them running to ‘national’ spec what difference would there be? A flood of people trying to buy late-generation 2.0 litre WRCs?
If you wanted to drive something completely removed from current FIA homologation - WRC 2.0, WRC 1.6, A8, Mk2 with a 2.5 Millington - you still can if you’re that wealthy and enter national events.
Look at the entry history for UK events. We got here with R5+ cars because without the larger restrictors there wouldn't have been any R5 cars at all. They were allowed under UK national rules and still are. How would you re-write the MSUK technical regulations to outlaw them without banning a lot of other cars? You write a rule that says R5/Rally2 cars have to run to their FIA homologation and I turn up to an event with a Fabia, RHD, 4WD and Rally2 engine with oversized restrictor. I say it's a Fabia built to MSUK technical rules not a Rally2 car (it can't be Rally2, it's RHD) how do you write a regulation that bans that car without outlawing all other self-developed cars?
Don't forget that Rally2/R5 cars run in a different class from R5+ cars.
Anyway, if the new MSUK running order proposals become the rules for next year there might not be any forest rallies left.
https://www.rallies.info/webentry/20...ies.php?type=u
The Stratos is back (hopefully!). Seb Perez entered in the car for the Malton Stages with dad in the Porsche.
Interesting decisions been made regarding the Scottish Rally Championship and Carlisle Stages Rally. Carlisle Stages Rally is running two events a ~70 mile event which includes two stages Friday night and the ~45 mile Saturday event.
Seemingly SRC tried to include the full ~70 mile event as the SRC round but was met with the minimum 15% objection from entrants. And because the Friday night stages use some of the same road mileage as the Saturday have concluded that you cannot receive championship points if you compete in the full ~70 mile event!
I imagine that's a blow to the organisers who will have lost a significant number of Friday night entries. The championship seems to have gone through the process textbook so not sure if blame can be given but a shame for any SRC entries wanting Friday night action.
edit: However I have also noticed the post I saw outlining this has disappeared so potentially discussions still ongoing.
I honestly despair at some of the people involved in UK rallying.....No wonder it's going nowhere.
Well why can’t it be as simple as any bona-fide Rally2 car must run the standard restrictor size? How many self-developed rally cars are there fitting that description in the UK? The closest thing I can think of (and so far there has only been one example ever running on a single event of I’m not mistaken) is the TEG-Sport Skodaru. A car which nobody will argue is just an R5 car with some tinkering, it’s got a ruddy 2.0 Subaru WRC engine.Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Boyd
I fear I’m still missing the point, but I’m quite dense so please bear with me :D
What’s this on running order proposals and why would it have such a drastic effect on forestry rallies?
Any car running in a class for R5/Rally2 cars has to be in accordance with it's homologation and run the standard restrictor. This is a requirement for the BRC.
For events that have an "open" 4WD turbo class, outside the BRC, MSUK regulations apply. This is often an additional class to a class for R5/Rally2 cars running as homologated. MSUK regulations permit turbocharged or supercharged engines up to 2000cc to have a 34mm restrictor. This "open" 4WD turbo class includes older WRC cars and anything else that complies with the MSUK rules. The MSUK rules for modifying a 2WD car to 4WD include the FIA bulkhead and floor drawings so the bodyshell of anything like the Skodaru will end up looking very similar to the bodyshell of an R5 car. Once you get to that point, if you want to compete in the open class it's easier to get an old R5 car and put the running gear that you want in it. If that running gear is the original engine with a 34mm restrictor, that's within the rules and there are a few of them in the BTRDA championship. The difficulty with saying R5 cars have to be as homologated is that if I turn up with a 1600cc Turbo 4WD Felicia that I say I've built to MSUK rules and therefore fitted a 34mm restrictor. How do you stop me from running it. I'll say it isn't an R5 car because I've built it, and anyway it's right hand drive.
Regarding the running order change. Most BTRDA events run the 2WD cars first on the road with the slowest cars first. After the fastest 2WD car there's a gap of 5 to 10 minutes before the 4WD cars which run fastest first. This has been the practice for a few years. MSUK have decided that from January 1st the first group can only include cars up to 1400cc and Category 1 historic cars and they must run fastest first. All other cars will then follow after a gap, again fastest first. This will raise a number of issues. What if the historic field includes an 850cc Mini. That's probably going tho be the last of the first group. The next car on the road could be a WRC, R5+, or Rally2 car. The gap between them can't be more than 10 minutes. So stages have to be kept short so that the Mini isn't caught. How's that going to impact event planning? The BTRDA championship has a couple of historic classes with cars like the Avenger, Sunbeam, Mexico. These will currently be running between 1/3 and 1/2 way down the field after the smaller, less powerful cars. With the new rules they'll be last on the road. How's that going to impact entries?
Personally I liked the running order that used to be used on the Dukeries (and I'm sure on other events as well) where the field was split into 3: 1400s and slow historics, all other 2WD cars, then 4WD, with each group running fastest first. I know the Dukeries always used fairly short stages, but it seemed to work quite well from a spectators standpoint.
The irony here is that MSUK has stated that the changes are to make it better for spectators.Quote:
Originally Posted by archie106
Fourmaux now on the Trackrod entry list however the numbers are in the "supporting" Historics and BTRDA rounds rather than the BRC as per usual.
A temporary "halt" to the running order proposals for 2024 has been agreed. Will be interesting to see what developments will now occur.
The Historic Cup and the Trackrod Forest Stages usually have strong enough entries all on their own that they could run as two mutually-exclusive rallies to give us a 140/160km ‘International’ Rally Yorkshire.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sal yet again
Would the loss of the pitiful few extra well-heeled gentleman drivers who aren’t interested in that length of rally be outweighed by more international drivers being tempted to do a proper rally?
In order to get that mileage you'd need to double-run the stages - there's nothing significant available in Yorkshire that isn't already being used on the event, and Dalby is already being used twice. The double useage might put a few off. You then have to ask where these international entries are coming from. If your proposed event was a round of the ERT or some European national championships, then you might get a few foreign entries, but without that I doubt you'd get any.Quote:
Originally Posted by HKSjbg
Three Shires Stages around the roads of the Malvern Hills (Ledbury & Eastnor).
Oliver Solberg enters the RAC Rally !!
https://dirtfish.com/rally/oliver-so...ars-rac-rally/
Will be very interesting to see how he does, he surely has to be favourite for the win, but can he keep it on the road?
Also, I imagine its the first rally he has done in a while without a recce, and with the number of very experienced crews entered, his lack of experience in Kielder and Scotland might make it tighter at the top of the times.
Was interesting last time around when everyone started throwing it off the road towards the end and Ryan C came through to win. Will be a slightly different experience for Oscar in managing his pace rather than being on it from the get go as much although even the Albert is more of a sprint now in real terms than it used to be.
A 574km sprint? Longer than it ever has been in 15 editions? What do you mean exactly?
I suspect he means you can no longer play your way in and see where you are after a day or two; you have to be on the pace from the start. Like in Endurance Sportscar racing; they're all sprints nowadays - whether 6/12/24 Hours.
Ahhhhh makes sense. I was just being pessimistic and assuming it was another British rally complaint :D
You should know me better than that by now!
My point is that most of the top guys compete against each other on the BHRC regularly and the pace on the Albert now is like several one day events stitched together rather than one continuous marathon. Its a proper test for sure and I suspect there will be more than one UK driver fancying a pop at someone of Solberg's stature. It can only be a positive.
Do we know who is co-driving for him? An experienced co-driver would be a massive help, especially in somewhere like Kielder, etc
Elliott
An experienced co-driver will help but, now they allow organiser's approved route notes, it won't be as big a help as it was when the event was secret - unless Oliver opts to run as a "secret" competitor without any notes.Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyRAC
It's a proper test for any driver and especially if the conditions are bad which they often are. He clearly has great pace, but driving an Escort will be a lot different to his modern 4wd machinery. Plus he will be up against people with way more experience of the car as well as the stages.Quote:
Originally Posted by archie106
I think his planned conservative approach will pay the best dividends.
https://www.rallyyorkshire.co.uk/spectator-information/
No tickets to be bought on the gate; all online....
In an area with poor phone signal... Happy to hand over cash, in fact rallies are one of the few things I carry notes for now, but I shan't be paying online, where some third party usually wants all your details too.Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyRAC
Fourmaux onboard in Dalby in the dark:
https://youtu.be/SMyKWqeqFp4?si=LaEyo-OcRwPdKBuS
Fourmaux has won the Trackrod and the BRC, both expected to be honest!
https://dirtfish.com/rally/brc/fourm...ally-champion/
A shame that he won’t be at the Cambrian but completely understandable as it’s the same weekend as CER
Congratulations to Fourmaux, he never put a wheel wrong all year despite new events and some very tricky conditions at times.
But this must be the most one-sided BRC Title win in the history of the Championship. As soon as Cronin pulled out it was all over as any sort of contest.
It's a crying shame how we have lost the top drivers we have (Edwards, Cave, Pryce) and the great battles we could've seen. And looking ahead, other than James Williams, I dont see much quality coming through.
I think the quality of Fourmaux has at least made it worth watching this year. No one wants to see a championship be quite so one sided but I can still appreciate watching a world-class driver absolutely dominate.
He won’t be back, as it was all about developing the Fiesta Rally2 but it would be nice to see the BRC try and build on this for next year - which they won’t.
I don’t think this ‘Gentleman driver+’ status is doing anything for anybody. Either the BRC should just become clubman-length rallies again - but a mixed-surface championship to differentiate it from the BTRDA or ARC - or it should try to attract a field of drivers of Fourmaux’s calibre to elevate it to the same level and stature as BTCC, BSB, BGT et al
I really don't know how they do this....and I suspect they don't know either.Quote:
Originally Posted by HKSjbg
Those who want to do it, can't afford it - whereas those who can, don't want to do it as it takes up too much of their time; hence the popularity of one day 45 mile events.
On another issue, I saw Meirion Evans commenting about the confusing running order on forestry events:
https://twitter.com/TheMeirionEvans/...46922038010170
Reverse seeding letting the slower 2wd crews go first, then the 4wd, makes sense. Plus the live coverage did the same split.
But after that it was a total mess with a mixture of cars from the different Championships coming through.
According to ewrc-results next year’s Trackrod will be a week later, running on the final weekend of September.
Can we expect next year’s calendar revealed in about a month’s time like last year?
Another accident in Ireland.
https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/...t-1530584.html
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/meeke...t-clark-rally/
Kris Meeke entered for the RAC, going to be some event this year!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRrt...lyChampionship
BRC - Trackrod Rally highlights......