2022 WRC News & Rumours

[focus206]

Choosing a tiny event in USA with few international entries, almost no homologated local cars and almost no rally culture over Rallye Deutschland, which has all of that... just for the sake of having another event outside Europe, who cares. World championship should also mean the best rallies of the world, not just rallies all around the world.

[Eli]

Choosing a tiny event in USA with few international entries, almost no homologated local cars and almost no rally culture over Rallye Deutschland, which has all of that... just for the sake of having another event outside Europe, who cares. World championship should also mean the best rallies of the world, not just rallies all around the world.

Couldn't agree with you more, and I definitely think we should have Rallye Deutschland back as soon as possible, if not 2023, then 2024.

[WRCStan]

What I read:

Choosing a tiny event in USA with few European entries, almost no European cars and almost no European rally culture over Rallye Deutschland, which has all of that... just for the sake of having another event outside Europe, who cares. World championship should mean the European rallies of the world, not just rallies all around the world.

[Eli]

On that subject: http://planetemarcus.com/une-manche-...ons-de-la-fia/

"Two events, one on asphalt (Germany) and the other on gravel (USA) which could overshadow Estonia, which has not yet signed an agreement like Belgium, which remains on a provisional substitute status."

[focus206]

What I read:

"Few European entries" means few entries, because vast majority of overall entries on WRC events are European.
"almost no European cars" (Toyota, Hyundai?) means almost no cars, because in USA there's very few Rally 2, Rally 3, Rally 4 cars.
"almost no European rally culture" means almost no rally culture. Whether one likes it or not, Europe makes up 90%+ of world rallying.
If one wants to go outside of Europe there's NZ, Australia, Japan, Argentina etc... they'll have much less entries than Deutschland, but they're better alternatives than Tennessee, and they deserve few spots in the calendar. No offence to the Tennessee fans.

[WRCStan]

"Few European entries" means few entries, because vast majority of overall entries on WRC events are European.
"almost no European cars" (Toyota, Hyundai?) means almost no cars, because in USA there's very few Rally 2, Rally 3, Rally 4 cars.
"almost no European rally culture" means almost no rally culture. Whether one likes it or not, Europe makes up 90%+ of world rallying.
If one wants to go outside of Europe there's NZ, Australia, Japan, Argentina etc... they'll have much less entries than Deutschland, but they're better alternatives than Tennessee, and they deserve few spots in the calendar. No offence to the Tennessee fans.

Any round has to be world class, agreed. I can't say for Tennessee.

Much of what you speak of though is a feedback loop from having a Euro-centric World championship. Vast majority of entries are European? No shit! Every Superbowl winning team has been American! Rally pyramid homologations are not needed in a WRC-free US, regs are causing a stand-off.

No rally culture in the US? Block and Pastrana were highlighted as the biggest rally stars on social media. Subaru are doing the netflix/prime thing many are calling for in WRC. (Subaru are doing the netflix/prime thing instead of WRC!!) Nobody rivals Dirtfish for global reach in the rally journalism space.

Why is the Rally2/3/4 entry list important? Genuinely. WRC should revolve around the highest class rally surely? Attract a global audience and more manufacturers, grow the sport, don't choke it. As much as I love seeing European privateers, they don't need to tie down world rallying if they don't want to rally the world.

[focus206]

Much of what you speak of though is a feedback loop from having a Euro-centric World championship. Vast majority of entries are European? No shit! Every Superbowl winning team has been American! Rally pyramid homologations are not needed in a WRC-free US, regs are causing a stand-off.

WRC is a Euro-centric world championship, it has always naturally been like that. For many years the championship has visited NZ, Australia, Argentina, Kenya etc. and we've only had a handful of non-European regulars who were able to reach the top class. And continental championships like APRC, CODASUR always get very few entries.
Superbowl is an American championship event, isn't it? I don't see the correlation, I don't think any foreign team can even take part?

No rally culture in the US? Block and Pastrana were highlighted as the biggest rally stars on social media. Subaru are doing the netflix/prime thing many are calling for in WRC. (Subaru are doing the netflix/prime thing instead of WRC!!) Nobody rivals Dirtfish for global reach in the rally journalism space.

Block and Pastrana are highlighted as rally stars because they're (other than internet TV/personalities) American/anglophone. When it was up to them to show their value in WRC, they did pretty bad. Countries like Spain or Italy have much bigger rally culture and much faster rally drivers, but guess what, nobody will hail their local rally drivers as superstars. First because they're not stunt drivers / TV hosts / Youtubers, second because nobody cares about Spanish and Italian medias abroad as they have little reach.
In a big country like USA, where they speak the international language and with their medias having huge reaches, all they can offer is 2 rather mediocre stunt/rally drivers and Dirtfish. You can find rally culture in Namibia as well, it doesn't mean it's enough for WRC.

Why is the Rally2/3/4 entry list important? Genuinely. WRC should revolve around the highest class rally surely? Attract a global audience and more manufacturers, grow the sport, don't choke it. As much as I love seeing European privateers, they don't need to tie down world rallying if they don't want to rally the world.

I don't find a rally entered by just 10-11 Rally 1 entries, or little more, worthy of a world championship. And I don't see how going to Tennessee will attract manufacturers (who, Chevrolet?). Even if you'd go there for multiple seasons, it probably wouldn't change a thing. In the 80's there was the Olympus Rally: from those years, we didn't get any regular WRC American competitors nor American brand joining.
To me a way to choke the championship would be adding many non-European events: costs go up, we lose manufacturers, we lose plenty of European Rally 2 regulars (who will be reduced to run just few events), for what? Maybe 1 or 2 non European drivers doing some events and probably no new manufacturer (I can only imagine Chinese manufacturers as 100% new entries).

[WRCStan]

We have different philosophies, that's fine. I'm 99% sure any US round won't even make candidacy point, but if it does we can pick up this topic then.

[TypeR]

Ofcourse WRC should go to the States..
Can't be worse than Kenya's startlist or less spectators than in Australia..

Motorsport sells in US and local stars like Block and Pastrana can make it more interesting to fans. Add Oliver to the list, who has driven in Subaru team..

As been to the States many times and really loved it, I'm sure it will be great event!

[pantealex]

Ofcourse WRC should go to the States..
Can't be worse than Kenya's startlist or less spectators than in Australia..

Motorsport sells in US and local stars like Block and Pastrana can make it more interesting to fans. Add Oliver to the list, who has driven in Subaru team..

As been to the States many times and really loved it, I'm sure it will be great event!

Actually Mexico ( = American event) has had worse entry list than Safari has (Mexico has had less than 30 entries even with all NAT rally cars counted)

I´m OK with USA event but don't get your expectations too high.