Wales Rally GB 2017

[doubled1978]

We kept being told by the marshals on Alwen that there was a risk of losing the 2nd running of the stage, not sure how much truth there was in that. I did overhear on the radio that Junction 8 was overcrowded and they had more spectators than the pens had space for. But if you try to cram two stages close together and get 2 runs of each in a few hours then you're always going to have trouble. They definitely need to rethink what they do on the Sunday, people were parking miles back on the road in to Brenig/Alwen but also the space within the car park didn't seem to be used well. There was one marshal that parked his van across one of the forks in the road to shut off part of the car park, but when we walked up it there was space for easily another 20-30 more cars. It wasn't even like the spaces were well out of sight, you could see half of them from where he'd parked the van

Can't really comment on the other stages as we walked in, other than to say that I'd have been pretty ticked off if I'd paid £30 and had to walk as far as some people were.

I agree, I have said this for years. That by having so few stages to chose from on a given day, and in a lot of cases only 1 car park to use, when the numbers pick up they will be in trouble. Through the years when nobody was going it was fine, but its completely insufficient now. When we were leaving some of the car parks, the distance some of those folks would have had to walk uphill would have been dreadful. And there were cars all over the verges on the roads that were supposed to be clearway. I don't profess to have all the answers, but there must be a way to spread the people out better. Either more stage locations per day, or more car parks per stage.

Last year in Alwen we had the same, but there were some people stood in stupid positions on that occasion near where we were. The safety cars wouldn't move until they moved.

[SubaruNorway]

It's a finance-issue though. Adapta and Prokop have a team of mechanics there and Mads needs a car running, hence they got together. Paying M-Sport is not really an option.

Adapta will hope to iron-out the car issues ready for 2018.

It sounded like going back to M-Sport support was an option. They found out that running one car took more than enough work and Prokop not joining in made running one car out of Czech Republic too expensive so that's why they went back to Adapta running it since Spain.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

WRC cars in action at the Cholmondeley stage:

https://youtu.be/h1JXi4yrctI

[tommeke_B]

For controlling the crowds I wouldn't be surprised if the organizers were to sell different tickets. For example a ticket for the even (2-4-6-...) and for the uneven (1-3-5-7-...) stages. I think they've done that some years ago.

[Whinlatter]

Although I agree that the rally now needs more options for spectators if it is to continue to grow, I think the organisers are quite limited by the access roads they can use - some of them will lead to areas where the terrain cannot accommodate large numbers of spectators safely, and some of the forest access roads are narrow and overgrown and would require a lot of work to make them viable as car parks. There may also be PR issues on some roads around the forest. More car park options also requires more marshals to run them, and to clear up after the scum who leave litter and disposable barbecues behind.

Meanwhile, some more of my photos...

[Simmi]

It's a finance-issue though. Adapta and Prokop have a team of mechanics there and Mads needs a car running, hence they got together. Paying M-Sport is not really an option.

Adapta will hope to iron-out the car issues ready for 2018.

Nah didn't Adapta and Mads effectively do a deal to develop parts separately from M-Sport and have worked themselves down blind alleys and into reliability issues the works cars don't have. Maybe better to spend that money elsewhere - like on M-Sport support. I know it's not always that simple but still.

[AnttiL]

I was wondering... Do you know why Ostberg didn't use DMACK? (Because he didn't right?)
I was thinking that maybe DMACK themself didn't allow that because they knew they had an advantage and did want their official car to win the rally, not a private one.

So a double win would have not been more spectacular? Or if Evans had run into trouble they would have still won? Does not make sense. Although now we see that Østberg was far from winning pace, no matter the tyres.

It's a finance-issue though. Adapta and Prokop have a team of mechanics there and Mads needs a car running, hence they got together. Paying M-Sport is not really an option.

Adapta will hope to iron-out the car issues ready for 2018.

As we know Østberg split with Prokop's Jipocar team after Rally Finland and went back to his own Adapta team, but as we've seen, probably it does not continue like that next year. I'd guess he's going to be a paying M-Sport driver with Onebet support and Adapta will run just R5 cars.

[Mintexmemory]

https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/1...-2017-problems

Organisers will react to increased spectator numbers and full car parks next year. Will be interesting to see what they do.

If I'm any judge - expect a hike in the ticket prices! However the early October date next year means the rally isn't running during school holidays so less rugrattage will be in evidence. The stories of people walking miles from ticketed car parks just confirms my view of accepting the walks and avoiding the tickets

[Simmi]

Finally got my pics sorted for GB. No Shakedown but still three good days in the forest. Had sun and a surprising amount of 4G this year. Long may it continue!

Full set: https://www.flickr.com/photos/949985...57687849693731

1 by Richard Simpson, on Flickr
2 by Richard Simpson, on Flickr
4 by Richard Simpson, on Flickr
3 by Richard Simpson, on Flickr
11 by Richard Simpson, on Flickr
7 by Richard Simpson, on Flickr
13 by Richard Simpson, on Flickr

[car]

Finally got my pics sorted for GB. No Shakedown but still three good days in the forest. Had sun and a surprising amount of 4G this year. Long may it continue!

Full set: https://www.flickr.com/photos/949985...57687849693731

1 by Richard Simpson, on Flickr
2 by Richard Simpson, on Flickr
4 by Richard Simpson, on Flickr
3 by Richard Simpson, on Flickr
11 by Richard Simpson, on Flickr
7 by Richard Simpson, on Flickr
13 by Richard Simpson, on Flickr

Great pics mate! It was an amazing event wasn't it?