Loeb against endurance rallies

[N.O.T]

I think the rallying part of rallying is ok for any driver....

Its the Recce and the media stuff that make a bit of a nuisance and drivers get bored.

[dimviii]

That guy is allowed to drive as fast as possible on very nice and beautiful roads, and he's still complaining. That's really unfair. I wish I could drive those stages in a WRC car, as much as possible.

[AndyRAC]

For me 3 days of rallying, just as it is now most of the rallies is fine! Friday, Saturday,Sunday..I don't see why everything should be done within 48 hours.
Monte Carlo makes no sense imo..way too long event and too big timegaps between the stages.

Monte-Carlo didn't work. Should have been finished on the Friday night, as in the IRC versions. Dragging it out until Sunday was unfortunate. That's not an Endurance event.
I'm not against having some events start Friday evening for 3-4 stages, then all of Saturday for a 20:00 finish. Lots of stages/mileage in a short time period. Variety is what is needed, not identikit events.

[janvanvurpa]

Once upon a time rallies were endurance, like Monte carlo classic and Safari rally omongst others.

My feeling is that the calendar should have 2 endurance rallies, due to the fact that a world champion should also master that kind of 'Classic' events, that require a different kind of tactics than todays 'sprint' rally format, with 'full gas' from start to finish!

There is ONE of the problems but expressed as na solution.
The problem is the small minded push towards UNIFORMITY---pushed by stupid people. Pushed by cynics.. Bought not by humans but by Corporate types and their "target demographic": consumers..

You see there are a lot of differnt views in the world on everything , including rally, a lot of climates and foods, weathers, languages, TERRAIN...

Some humans like and delight in the difference....for example motorsport was for me primarily, and conciously a means for seeing the world---and getting paid for it..


But mental midgets say "Wwe should have the exact same format in every WRC so consumers can .....blah blah....the WRC product blah blah"
And for us poor bastid who are only lowly clubbie rally guys we have even less creative parapsites who say "We need the exact same format on every event so that...."

Variety and play up the variety, hype the flexibility a driver MUST have for mastering sprinty type, or (a couple) of Acropolis type, or "the Finnish Grand Prix" or...overnight occasionally ( I can and have driven over night, occasionally, so can WRC heroes), and with that different format, delight....


But to do that the Promotion and "media" types need to be whipped into submission. Maybe even beating with real clubs. THEY and those wishing to profit off the media have been the engines of change toward this CONFORMITY push.
Satans fan Sulland you hit the nail on the head...

[AndyRAC]

Yes, I agree - good post.
The sport only needed minor changes; sadly they went OTT and followed the F1 example....now look?
The sport is much worse off, and the coverage, Promotion is pretty dire. And look at how many events have commercial sponsors: Finland, Portugal & New Zealand.....

[denkimi]

personally i would prefere 2 or maybe 3 long days of rally.

starting at 06:00 in the morning, and continuing till 02:00 at night. doing much more k's of special stage, with long stages and little time between. that way, it becomes some sort of endurance race (like le mans), but without the disadvantages of the usual multiple-day formats.

[Barreis]

It's the same for Loeb, he wins one way or another. So way not shorter way.

[Franky]

starting at 06:00 in the morning, and continuing till 02:00 at night.

I don't think that 4 hours of sleep will be safe, when you are driving lots of long stages very fast.

And I think we can't bring any kind of analogy with circuit racing because those endurance races are totally different. In Le Mans one driver drives max 4 stints in a row. I can't remember how long the stints were in minutes. Those guys go in circles for ever, in rallying you see one turn usually once or twice. So the conditions are very different.

[bubbaontour]

are you serious ???? ???? ????

for once i actually agree with you... this just shows a spectacular level of ignorance!

[Gregor-y]

I generally like how US events are scheduled, with stages on Friday afternoon to midnight or so and all of Saturday starting around seven and ending late. That means I only need to take two days off since all these events are 400 or more miles away and I prefer a full day to get there and back.

That said I'd take extra time for a rally chock full of stages over more than two days. The old RAC would be a nice example if one could find the sponsors and willing local governments.