Which rally should they add to the WRC-calendar?

How do you like this? Much of my thoughts.

MAXRALLY - CALENDAR: the argument for staying the same

“Why the constant fiddling? Why the great intrigue? What’s the trouble with what we’ve got?

What am I talking about? The calendar for the 2014 World Rally Championship.

At the moment, it seems to be one of the world’s greatest conundrums. And I don’t know why. We seem to be firmly in the situation where we’re trying to fix something which isn’t broken.

Yes, yes, I know President Todt wants to take rallying around the world, but, to be quite frank, the world’s not ready for rallying at the highest level yet. So, let’s stop messing around and stick with what we’ve got.

We’re told the Acropolis is for the axe, along with Sardinia. MAXRALLY’s newshounds regularly report that these two are at the bottom of the FIA’s league table, but having attended both events this year, MAXRALLY can report both to be in the rudest of health. The Acropolis was a classic, with day one as tough as any day in Greek rallying history (with the possible exception of the 1979 event, which included more than 1000 competitive kilometres, 58 stages, four days and about 10 minutes’ sleep).


And what about Rally Italia? Sardinia was supposed to be the real black sheep of the family; the one which simply wouldn’t come into line and go to the mainland. What, I ask you, does mainland Italy have that Sardinia doesn’t? Sanremo advocates will blether on about a stunning coastline and fabulous mountain scenery. Sardinia’s coastline goes all the way around and the inland moonscape is just mental. And this year there were more spectators than ever.

We start with the Monte and finish with Rally GB and what’s in the middle is fine by me. OK, there is just one possible exception… could we have New Zealand back please?

Forget all this energy being wasted on emerging markets like China and Brazil – in rallying terms they’re not even emerging yet. And the last thing we want to do is get there and suffer a rally being run at a standard way below what the WRC has come to be judged by. These things take time, so let’s give them time and enjoy the brilliant events we’ve got in the calendar right now.

Apart from being on the wrong side of the Tasman, I’m 100 per cent happy with where we’ve been and where we’re going this year.

And keeping things the same would give rallies the chance to develop long-term business strategies in the way Rally Finland did with long-term agreements with both a national television broadcaster and the then WRC promoter.

Long-termism’s about the best ism around. Let’s not ignore it.”

MAXRALLY - CALENDAR: the argument for making changes

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Originally Posted by Eli

MAXRALLY - CALENDAR: the argument for making changes

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I read that news also. Would be nice to have those two guys in a live chat and see how it ends up (both sitting nicely in their chairs or….) :arrows:

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Originally Posted by OldF

“Why the constant fiddling? Why the great intrigue? What’s the trouble with what we’ve got?"

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I don't think there's a problem with the calendar as it is. But I also think that if new events can be found that offer a greater challenge, then they should at the very least be considered for inclusion. If an event is just going to be a carbon copy of another rally, then it's a problem, but if you can find an even with its own distinct character and stages with their own challenging surface, then it should be considered.

For example, if you ran a rally somewhere in northern India, you could conceivably have an event run at high altitude in the foothills of the Himalayas. The thin air would affect the engine's performance, giving the event is own character. Similarly, if you had an event in Malaysia, then it could be a rally run in oppressive tropical humidity, which also gives it character. And that, I think, is the sort of thing that should be considered.

it looks as if more & more they will take down rally acropolis & sardegna and instead have poland so my theory calendar for next year is:
Monte-Carlo
Sweden
Mexico
Portugal
Argentina
Poland
Finland
Germany
New-Zealand/Australia
France
Spain
Wales GB

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Originally Posted by Prisoner Monkeys

I don't think there's a problem with the calendar as it is. But I also think that if new events can be found that offer a greater challenge, then they should at the very least be considered for inclusion. If an event is just going to be a carbon copy of another rally, then it's a problem, but if you can find an even with its own distinct character and stages with their own challenging surface, then it should be considered.

For example, if you ran a rally somewhere in northern India, you could conceivably have an event run at high altitude in the foothills of the Himalayas. The thin air would affect the engine's performance, giving the event is own character. Similarly, if you had an event in Malaysia, then it could be a rally run in oppressive tropical humidity, which also gives it character. And that, I think, is the sort of thing that should be considered.

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“Why the constant fiddling? Why the great intrigue? What’s the trouble with what we’ve got?"

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Those were not my words, just copies from the article and not my key issues from the article.

I’m not saying any new rallies outside Europe shouldn’t be added to the calendar but it should be a rally, as you said, offering great and new challenge.

I don’t understand the point that FIA want to have a rally in a country just because it’s a growing market if the rally hasn’t any local interest from people and media and especially if the manufacturers are not interested. If the manufacturers are interested it’s OK but only thing I’ve read about is VW is interested to go to Brazil.

Maybe FIA should do some test marketing in the growing markets to have a clue how much media exposure a WRC rally would have in a growing market country. I know construction companies does this in Finland before starting a new project to get some view if it’s worth to start building houses in a certain area or not.

A more worldwide WRC would of course be nice which could mean a stronger ERC. The only problem is that the manufacturers should be more interested (putting more many) in ERC or ERC teams getting more sponsorship. As I recall for example Renault haven’t been involved in rallies outside Europe since the Alpine era. Maybe Europe would be a market large enough for some manufacturers to invest more in a strong ERC?

It's been said before, yes we want a global Championship, but if there is no market or interest in the WRC in the BRIC countries, no point in going there.

Concentrate on making the current events even better, and keeping hold of the 'classic' events - as well as having a more even spread of Tarmac/ Gravel. Endless dry, dusty gravel events are boring, and have no 'road relevance' to the Manufacturers.

it's really frustrating, the FIA is really not doing it's job properly, who the hell cares about Poland rally, and to take out rally sardegna and acropolis for it???!!!

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Originally Posted by Eli

it's really frustrating, the FIA is really not doing it's job properly, who the hell cares about Poland rally, and to take out rally sardegna and acropolis for it???!!!

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I care, and I want to go there if it is run. Amazing fast and flowing stages in my opinion. :) Somewhat like Finland, but more open, more narrow, and a softer surface. The stages were nice when it was in WRC in '09, but for me, from videos, the stages they used last years when it was ERC look even more impressive. On top of that it's always nice to discover something "new", therefor the years with alternating calendars were not bad at all... :) All events that made it into the WRC are nice, in my opinion.

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Originally Posted by tommeke_B

I care, and I want to go there if it is run. Amazing fast and flowing stages in my opinion. :)

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Like wise. The 2009 event left me with very good emotions. The roads were interesting, the atmosphere was great and the region is just stunning.