[WRC] News & Rumours 2019

[Portimao]

Looks like Japan is gonna be another Australia

[Rally Hokkaido]

You need to understand the Japanese culture... They don't just go an stand in the middle of a stage. That would be naughty. They go only to the designated spectator locations.

I was lucky enough to go one year to Obihiro, and I can assure you the whole city was right behind the event. One of the best ceremonial starts I've ever been to. Amazing crowds.

And don't forget, this time it will be on the main island, just a couple of hours from Tokyo...

Glad to hear you enjoyed your visit! IMHO, the move to Sapporo for the last two years was a disaster, crowd-wise - the rally shuffled off to the suburbs and nobody knew it was on. The new Rally Japan has different Organisers and strong backing from Toyota. It is not only a couple of hours from both Tokyo and Osaka by expressway, it is only 30 minutes from Nagoya (pop. 2.3 million) and centred in Toyota City (pop. half a million) so no shortage of rally fans. In fact, amongst the greater challenges the Organisers face will be controlling both spectator stage access and traffic congestion. I imagine the exclusive use of spectator buses will be implemented.

[the sniper]

You have probably hit the nail on the head within your question.... they aren’t bothered about people spectating on the events, they want online and TV ratings. This is what brings the dollars in.
Having the last round attracting a large online audience puts the promotors in a good position for generating higher profile sponsors going forward.
It’s shit, but that’s how it is.

They're making their money from event organisers. Having Japan or Australia last on the calendar is completely at odds with having a large online audience for the Championship finale, it's frankly a slap in the face for the core audience in Europe. Formula 1 learnt this lesson long ago, but sadly WRC promoter are obviously making too much money out of having the Championship concluded in the middle of the night for most WRC fans, far away from where many of these fans would be willing/able to attend...

[er88]

Would be too much tarmac to be WRC, in my world...

Really.., come on. You'd have Germany, Spain and Japan as the only 3 pure tarmac events in a 14 round championship (Monte can't be classed in the same group).

Even if Wales rally GB moves to NI, that's still only 4 tarmac events. That's how it should be.

[pantealex]

Really.., come on. You'd have Germany, Spain and Japan as the only 3 pure tarmac events in a 14 round championship (Monte can't be classed in the same group).

Even if Wales rally GB moves to NI, that's still only 4 tarmac events. That's how it should be.

No.

If there is only 1 snow event, why there should be more than 1 tarmac events ?

Each of us have our own "rally-world", in my world there is lot of snow events and gravel events. For me 1 tarmac is enough.

[the sniper]

Friends of mine who don't get rallying cant understand why the cars are driven "off road" at all.

I think it's fair to say those friends are a lost cause.

I've always found that tarmac rallying is a far harder sell to casuals. Particularly modern tarmac rallying, doesn't really work so well as a spectacle on television, especially the way they record it.

Saying that I think three tarmac events are fine. I can't see that you can have less than two. There are different types of tarmac events, the problem is that we'll probably end up with more than one smooth tarmac rally... You don't need more than one smooth tarmac rally, IMO.

[mknight]

One big issue with tarmac rallies is that they can look pretty boring. (so can very slow gravel rallies though). Thing is that there are a million different racing series that are on tarmac, while WRC is the most famous one on gravel (Dakar is famous in some countries but happens only once a year).

When adding more tarmac rallies I'd be all for a more Monte-like rally with either snowy or wet tarmac.

[cali]

Glad to hear you enjoyed your visit! IMHO, the move to Sapporo for the last two years was a disaster, crowd-wise - the rally shuffled off to the suburbs and nobody knew it was on. The new Rally Japan has different Organisers and strong backing from Toyota. It is not only a couple of hours from both Tokyo and Osaka by expressway, it is only 30 minutes from Nagoya (pop. 2.3 million) and centred in Toyota City (pop. half a million) so no shortage of rally fans. In fact, amongst the greater challenges the Organisers face will be controlling both spectator stage access and traffic congestion. I imagine the exclusive use of spectator buses will be implemented.

Been to Nagoya about 19 years ago. Still want to go back there, maybe next year I will be there to spectate. Wonderful place, lots of fond memories.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

[Eli]

I think Northern Ireland would be a great addition to the Tarmac events as well as Japan. However, I wouldn't mind mixing it up and instead of Mexico, we'd have another snow rally in say.....Canada (yes I know they are planning to join the WRC in 2023/2024).

[Rallyper]

Really.., come on. You'd have Germany, Spain and Japan as the only 3 pure tarmac events in a 14 round championship (Monte can't be classed in the same group).

Even if Wales rally GB moves to NI, that's still only 4 tarmac events. That's how it should be.

Especially having three or four in a row at the end of season... Not good at all.