Quote Originally Posted by Simmi View Post
I get what you're trying to say but you've massively over-simplified the situation.

The level of WRC2 is not very high. I don't think anyone is denying that. After the top talents there is a real drop-off in ability - but at least you have a decent championship battle across the course of a season. Albeit a battle that no one can see unless you're actually on the stages.

The ERC can give you a bigger fight on some individual rallies and obviously you are competing for the overall win. ERC benefits from lots of local talent in places like Estonia, Barum, Ireland etc. But let's not kid ourselves - move these drivers out of their home specialized rallies and and for the most part they would nowhere.

Just look at the championship tables and of both and then talk about level of competition.
The way I see it, the level of competition on individual rallies is (mostly) higher in ERC than in WRC2, as has been the way for a number of years also comparing IRC to SWRC. For a developing driver being in tight competition is really important. I'm not really sure the championship battle for WRC2 is really better than ERC this year, it's down to two guys in each really and in WRC2 one of them missed the first four rounds.

Of course WRC2 is good for learning the events for the future. I think the approach that Lappi has been through is a good one - winning ERC and then moving on to WRC2 to learn the rallies before progressing to WRC.

BTW, the driver with the most points per event started in WRC2 is.... Jan Kopecky.