WRC Croatia Rally 2021

[scn]

I understood that Rally Deutschland for example won't be a WRC event in the future anymore because ADAC don't want to pay for it or the costs became suddenly higher or something.

I'm not sure what happened with Tour de Corse, it seems the event hasn't been arranged in any form since 2019.

I have read in German sites that Rally Deutschland will move close to Munich because there they have enough funding.
About Corsica, I have read that teams don't want it because of expensive logistics. But I cannot understand this, as Sardinia is almost the same.

[Mirek]

About Corsica, I have read that teams don't want it because of expensive logistics. But I cannot understand this, as Sardinia is almost the same.

Sardinia is the only Italian event while Corsica is like a second French one. I can imagine that for the teams having two events in one country isn't optimal and if such second event brings another issues they highlight them.

[scn]

IMHO Ypres is much better rally than Alsace and I like it more than Germany too. For spectating it is way better than Corsica too (that's only great for driving IMHO). No idea about Japan. Ypres has a huge advantage in having very easy access to the stages in their entire length therefore the people can spread and you have a chance to choose from plenty of spectacular places while still being able to move from stage to stage. The service park on the old city square is awesome too.

I have seen Ypres only from incars, while I have spectated all WRC tarmac rallies. I am afraid I disagree about Ypres. I don't like rallies with big straights on fields, without uphill and downhill sections. But this is just personal taste.
Tarmac stages that are in the Japanese rally championship are wonderful. If they have same level of stages in WRC it will be a top rally.

[tommeke_B]

Finally some time to write down my own (perhaps too long) resume from the Croatia Rally.

All started with a message to the organizer, after hearing rumors that spectators weren't allowed. They answered in a funny way, saying that if I went, I had to say I came for the picnic. Didn't need more of an invitation to visit this rally. By the time the rally happened the message was quite widespread. It was my first WRC event since Wales '19. Only when being there I realized all things we've been missing for so long. Even doing the planning and recce, walking to the stages, hearing the cars (especially the Yaris WRC) arriving flat out... We've seen the shakedown and 11 stages. On nearly all of the stages we managed to see also most of the R5 and JWRC cars.

First about the stages. We did recce of 5 stages (first, third and fourth of friday, first and fourth of saturday). I've done recce of a lot of tarmac stages (Monte, Germany, Catalunya, Alsace, Ypres, Barum, Mont Blanc etc.), but never found roads this difficult. It's very technical with little slow sections, but always corner after corner, most blind, full of crests, some jumps in corners etc. Lots uphill and downhill. Added to that you have cuts nearly everywhere and changing grip levels all the time. Especially this white tarmac is very slippery. If it ever rains in this rally, it will add another dimension to it, making it even more difficult and unpredictable. At the end of the rally, I'm surprised there weren't more crashes. Huge challenge for the driver but also for the codriver. Especially the first saturday stage seemed like a never ending roller coaster, like a slower version of Ouninpohja, but obviously on tarmac. For driving craziest tarmac roads I've ever seen. For spectating it's quite difficult, the number of roads leading to the stages is very limited.

First up was the shakedown. Arriving through a narrow hiking trail. When arriving at the stage, a marshal (accompanied by a police officer) came to us, his words: "Please go to that area until the FIA car has passed. We have to be representable for the lady (referring to Michèle Mouton). After that you can do whatever you want." First I expected some Rally Poland scenarios in terms of safety, marshals didn't care much about anything, spectators walked along the road wherever they wanted. However after shakedown things changed quickly and the marshals started to take their work very seriously. Quite a lot of anti-cut poles installed on shakedown, however we found some nice spots to watch. Most of what we saw was uphill on quite grippy tarmac, very different from most of the rally route.

On friday we did the first and third stage on the first loop. Arriving at the first stage we could drive all the way to the tape at the stage. I call fake news on the DirtFish article where they state the organizers did what they could to keep spectators away. (Not the first nor last time the DirtFish website is twisting the facts to fit the story they want to be written.) Everyone was very welcoming, this time marshalls asked all spectators to stay off the road (similar to Rally Finland, polite but to the point). A lot of spectators arrived, and they kept arriving. I've rarely seen this amount of spectators on rallies. Maybe on some stages in Finland or Condroz Rally... Anyway nice action on some fast corners with big cuts. Big difference in terms of driving, some more agressive than others. Kalle Rovanperä was clearly on it, not yet knowing was the last thing we saw from him that weekend. The Fiesta WRC's seemed very loose on the rear end in the cuts, in comparison to others. The same could be seen throughout the rest of the event. When they push the throttle on the exit, the rear end seems to step out more compared to the Yaris and Hyundai. Off to the third stage. On recce we found some interesting spot 1km before the finish of the stage. A long straight ending in a very fast righthander over a sharp crest, which we thought could make a good jump. It was clear to see how they wrote the situation down in their pacenotes. Most drivers were quite calm, a few misjudged how much it would jump, and were very spectacular. From WRC cars only Greensmith jumped quite sideways, while Katsuta was nearly out of the road because his bad line, despite being quite slow on that spot. Gryazin was too enthousiast, jumped sideways landing on the edge of the road, puncturing his front left wheel on the impact. Pajari had a spectacular off, never seen a driver being able to continue his rally after this kind of crash, very lucky!

On the second loop of Friday we went to the first stage again. After the finish we were welcomed by a drinking tent. A lot of people were there, there were several other "parties" going on in the village. Many locals were wearing t-shirts with "WRC Plesivica" printed on it. On stage we visited some technical section which could easily be part of Tour de Corse of Catalunya, with some big cuts added to it. Downhill blind medium right into medium left-cut into flat right into long medium left-cut. There the road was relatively clean before the second loop. However the 0-car wanted to pull of some show, and spun while taking a lot of gravel on the road. Not a fast, but quite spectacular spot. A lot of understeer from the WRC cars, only Ogier seemed not to suffer from it. Off to the last stage of the day then. Arriving through some gravel roads, but they seemed too rough to do with a normal car. We just started to walk when some friendly old farmer came by and picked us up to bring us to the stage. 1,5km on the back of the farmer's cart was quite an adventure. Arrived at some fast section roughly 1,5km before the finish. The tarmac was slippery, the cuts big, gravel thrown on the road. Very spectacular section, fast without a lot of distance between the corners, seeing WRC cars sliding from one corner to the other is quite unusual on tarmac, also for JWRC-cars. On the entry list, only 8 JWRC-cars might look poor, but the level of the drivers is really great I must say, all of them were a joy to watch.

Off to saturday, the first stage had only few access roads, and with the many spectators we opted for some 15km gravel road leading to the middle of the stage, an access road we used again for the second loop. Quite ironic, on the best stage of the rally we chose some of the less interesting places to watch. On the side of Samobor we expected so many spectators we opted not to go there. However, some fast sections with big cuts, not bad after all. By the time the JWRC cars were going through, the road was very littered with dirt and gravel. Off to the last stage of the loop then. A lot of traffic resulted in traffic jams, so we had to change our route. Some fast section on the slippery white stuff some 1,5km after the well-known castle. Very spectacular fast spot, some cars sliding a lot. The stage was interrupted for a while because marshals had to remove spectators on some places...

Second loop was similar. On the last stage of the day we went to a jump in a flat left with a fast right hander behind it (some video of a big moment of one of the Fiesta Rally4's was circulating on the internet, it's that spot). Nice place, some sideways landing for Suninen and Kajetanowicz, most WRC cars took it quite clean. Again a lot of spectators. Also first time of the rally we saw a few spectators with masks. One of them, an old man, was coughing a lot. Despite him having a mask, no one seemed interested to stand anywhere near him.

On sunday we started off with the first stage in the morning, long winding road in the mountains to it. On stage only few spectators, it looked like most chose to opt for the powerstage straight away. The part we visited could easily be part of Rally Catalunya. Grippy tarmac, guard rails, road with sharp edges... Like arriving on a different rally. Two nice places anyway. Lots of difference in driving style between the drivers. Neuville's driving was visibly more aggressive than other WRC cars except Fourmaux. On the second run it didn't take long before Gryazin blocked the road, so we went off to the powerstage. On the powerstage again lots of spectators. At a drink tent some party where locals were playing a song on their accordion, people singing along, very amusing atmosphere. It felt like this covid-thing was already long over and all people had forgotten. On stage we picked a spot with some long overview, at roughly 1/4th of the stage. Some fast blind lefthander (with a bumpy crest right after it) into fast right with big cut. Another fast corner before braking into some kind of chicane ending in a medium right corner. Small differences between the drivers here, everyone seemed to be pushing a lot. Mikkelsen looked quite conservative while his time was extremely fast here. Good place to end the rally.

All in all a fantastic event, and a great region and friendly people everywhere. The locals are very welcoming to the rally, and that's very important for the future. In terms of organization things looked fine, from a spectator's point of view. All they'll have to think about for next editions is that there'll be much more spectators, so they'll need to be well prepared in terms of itinerary, spectator access and safety. Also an interesting note is that now nearly all spectators were just local people who took a chance to have a look. If you have the more dedicated rally fans from Italy, France, Czech Republic, Poland etc visiting the rally, they'll know where they want to go and what they want to see, meaning they're more difficult to manage in a safe way, for organizers.

I'll try to post a few photos tomorrow.

[tommeke_B]

Some photos from the rally:











Some more on the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...61461573865680

[Pršljen]

Excellent report and great photos, thanks. Let's hope for a crowded rally Croatia in 2022!

As for the spectators, as I already mentioned, COVID regulations in Croatia are much more liberal than in the most of Western Europe, as you probably have seen here. It was to be expected that people will spectate in huge numbers and as you said, organizers were "blind" for that. A week later, we have a steady decline in COVID numbers. As for now, everything seems perfectly fine and there's no sign that rally caused problems on that matter.

Everyone happy.

[Rallyper]

Nice reading, Tom.
And makes me feel I want to go there next time.

But what about Covid spreading after the rally? Anyone heard how it´s going in Croatia?

[Ds3]

No problems, even go down .......

https://covid19.who.int/region/euro/country/hr

[Pršljen]

But what about Covid spreading after the rally? Anyone heard how it´s going in Croatia?

I already answered in the post above yours. No problems at all, kudos to the organizers for letting people enjoy the rally. I hope that FIA will have that in mind when analyzing the event.

[Mirek]

Nice reading, Tom.
And makes me feel I want to go there next time.

But what about Covid spreading after the rally? Anyone heard how it´s going in Croatia?

There is very low risk outside on the fresh air. I haven't heard about a single confirmed case here in CZ where someone would get infected outside. Basically everyone gets infected indoors or in a car.