Quote Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC View Post
As usual these days, money is what it's all about... sport comes second...

"There is a real interest in going to a city like Mexico. There are 24 million people. We are really meeting potential customers that we do not touch in the Leon region. This is a request from the manufacturers to go to the public", confirms Matton.
It's about the money but also about the sport! Come on, do we want WRC and rally sport limited to Europe or do we believe that the series and the sport are fine enough to be developed in other parts of the globe?

It’s not easy to make the sport popular in places were most of the people doesn’t have a clue of what’s rally. That’s the point of these SSS’s: make the rally visible to the general population (9M in Mexico City, 21M on MC Metropolitan area) that otherwise would have none or very little contact with the event.

Ok, apparently there were a lot of flaws on this first attempt, but if we want to see more fans and drivers involved in Mexico Rally or in any other distant country that receives WRC, we should be a bit more supportive and tolerant.

One final thought: ideally this kind of SSS should be run a couple of days prior to the event (at least before shakedown), without making part of the rally itinerary. That way the mess that we’re having today would be avoid. It was done like that a couple of years ago in Portugal Rally: the event was still run on the south but on the Sunday before the start a rally stage/show was run on the streets of the northern city of Porto. It was great and everybody enjoyed it.