Rally Discussion and Bar Talk Thread

[bomber21]

I was thinking about the current WRC situation. Fans complain, no new manufacturers are interested, popularity is low in social media etc

I reached the conclusion that rallying in general is a great sport to watch from close, to be on the mountains and witness the spectacle and the sound BUT it is not so exciting to watchf from TV/phone/tablet.
And unfortunately, we live in the social media era, and this is a problem (the promoter must solve).

What is your opinion on this?

[AndersX]

I was thinking about the current WRC situation. Fans complain, no new manufacturers are interested, popularity is low in social media etc

I reached the conclusion that rallying in general is a great sport to watch from close, to be on the mountains and witness the spectacle and the sound BUT it is not so exciting to watchf from TV/phone/tablet.
And unfortunately, we live in the social media era, and this is a problem (the promoter must solve).

What is your opinion on this?

I am long time rally fan, since ealry 80th in one or other form of intensity and interest level. Excitement, personalities, nice cars.... there are plenty of issues. But the main thing - it had become too corporate, rounded, predictable, especially through the screen (as mentioned above). There is no fix to it, just turning some tides and directions to try smth new. Rallying is not F1 with all those set-formats; allow freedom to organizers, work to create real competition, look for new and interesting ideas rotate rallies to get new territories.

[skarderud]

Several wiews on this.

The cars: todays cars is insane, both in speed, spectacle, and price.
To few teams, cars and drivers, no privaters, no talents got seats.
This ruleset kills the sport, its not working at all. People wants competition, someone they can sheer on. Its hard to say, but its not like that these days.

A Rally2 based championship going to be much nicer, if FIA also open for private team can build new models, we are back to the fantastic Gr.A times again.
Of course the factoryteams going to have the egde, but some local heros and real talents has a possibility to shake things up.

Social media: its just matter of time before the rush for social media is over.
Its already quite visible that its going downwards, my kids hardly use it anymore (17 & 20 yrs) tiktok is for dancing 12yrs girls, no serious provider bother of using this kind of SoMe.
Facebook and Instagram can stil be used to "spread the word", but i think the only solution is good and easy to find websites with free stuff, not everything of course, but enough that new fans find it and can discover it without the need to pay.

And, the most important, get it on television again. Lots of people use that plattform, but as streaming via a "smart" solution.

Why not a "drive to survive" kind of consept on some streaming-plattform? And ofcourse the races on the same plattform.
Use YouTube to gather interest, some good sum-up videos from the races, background stories etc.

If you have a Rally2 based championship, both the regulars and the talents/local heroes is in the show, build up the exitment before the races with good stories, easier for the upcoming drivers to get sponsors, since they get visible "on air", present the local heroes and up&coming drivers so people get to know them proper before races, etc

Still keep the WRC+ plattform, but use all the other mentioned above to gather interest and new users/fans.

Maybe also get rid of the manufacturer rules, thats not helping the sport.


Sent fra min SM-S901B via Tapatalk

[doubled1978]

[QUOTE=skarderud;1329636]Several wiews on this.

The cars: todays cars is insane, both in speed, spectacle, and price.
To few teams, cars and drivers, no privaters, no talents got seats.
This ruleset kills the sport, its not working at all. People wants competition, someone they can sheer on. Its hard to say, but its not like that these days.

A Rally2 based championship going to be much nicer, if FIA also open for private team can build new models, we are back to the fantastic Gr.A times again.
Of course the factoryteams going to have the egde, but some local heros and real talents has a possibility to shake things up.

Social media: its just matter of time before the rush for social media is over.
Its already quite visible that its going downwards, my kids hardly use it anymore (17 & 20 yrs) tiktok is for dancing 12yrs girls, no serious provider bother of using this kind of SoMe.
Facebook and Instagram can stil be used to "spread the word", but i think the only solution is good and easy to find websites with free stuff, not everything of course, but enough that new fans find it and can discover it without the need to pay.

And, the most important, get it on television again. Lots of people use that plattform, but as streaming via a "smart" solution.

Why not a "drive to survive" kind of consept on some streaming-plattform? And ofcourse the races on the same plattform.
Use YouTube to gather interest, some good sum-up videos from the races, background stories etc.

If you have a Rally2 based championship, both the regulars and the talents/local heroes is in the show, build up the exitment before the races with good stories, easier for the upcoming drivers to get sponsors, since they get visible "on air", present the local heroes and up&coming drivers so people get to know them proper before races, etc

Still keep the WRC+ plattform, but use all the other mentioned above to gather interest and new users/fans.

Maybe also get rid of the manufacturer rules, thats not helping the sport.


I agree with most of this.

With the penalty for Tanak this rally started with 4/5 competitive cars in Rally1, that is useless for driving the sport forward. Even though 8 Rally1 cars were entered, 2 of them are currently a waste of seat and Suninen was first time in the car.

Rally2 (or similar) rule set would work, the quality/depth of the field would increase dramatically and it would be possible to run a semi-factory privately backed team with a possibility to compete.

Not sure about the Drive to Survive style programme, I think they need to get the championship back on track first before that kind of thing will become popular.

[Corcaíoch]

I was thinking about the current WRC situation. Fans complain, no new manufacturers are interested, popularity is low in social media etc

I reached the conclusion that rallying in general is a great sport to watch from close, to be on the mountains and witness the spectacle and the sound BUT it is not so exciting to watchf from TV/phone/tablet.
And unfortunately, we live in the social media era, and this is a problem (the promoter must solve).

What is your opinion on this?

I think the "promoter" is failing miserably at doing that. Although there are unquestionably far bigger issues to deal with, just a thought with regards social media and spreading visibilty of the WRC. A simple enough way of trying to improve social media would be to make use of fan recorded clips in my opinion.

Here in Ireland there is a competition on a lot of rallies where fans send in there own recorded videos and the most viewed clip wins rally merchandise. Fans capture far more of the action than the official footage does and it certainly helps spread the most exciting moments to a wider audience. Also all the videos are in the one place so easy to find so you almost inevitably watch many clips instead of just one or two.
If the WRC had something like that to help bring videos like those below together and spread them to a wider audience I think it would do more for the promotion of the sport than some of the rather repetive and almost sterile coverage that is used. Just the sound of the cars and spectator reactions beats the commentary almost every time on short videos like these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VkVb66ZgN8
https://twitter.com/paddocknews/stat...01322761347076

[SubaruNorway]

Rally2 for more competition and all that is good, but for the spectacle it's not good enough in my opinion.
I thought it would be better at the ERC event in Sweden than what it was.
I probably won't travel to watch an event further away with only Rally2, it's like watching a Norwegian event just 8-10 fast cars compared to 4-5

[dimviii]

Markus Ippach ����������
@ma_ipp
·
6h
#WRC fun facts: if Ogier wouldn't take part in the season...
Kalle would be at 188 points (+18)
Evans 126 (+11)
Neuville 123 (+11)
Tänak 112 (+8)
Lappi 93 (+6)
Sordo 51 (+5)
Taka 50 (+9)
Loubet 32 (+4)

[Jewy46]

Rally2 for more competition and all that is good, but for the spectacle it's not good enough in my opinion.
I thought it would be better at the ERC event in Sweden than what it was.
I probably won't travel to watch an event further away with only Rally2, it's like watching a Norwegian event just 8-10 fast cars compared to 4-5

I tend to agree with you about Rally2. There's 16 of us travelling to Finland next week and I don't think I or some of the rest would go that far to see the event if it was Rally2 only, they are not fast/spectacular/loud enough.
Just my opinion.

[skarderud]

I tend to disagree about the spectacle.
Cars driven at 100%, or even slightly over, are fun to watch. If its a Rally1, Rally2, or a Volvo PV from 1959 i dont care, its fun.
But, to see whatever car driven at 80% is dull, if its a WRC or not.
Maybe some real classics is ok at slower speed, if its the right car

Sent fra min SM-S901B via Tapatalk

[EstWRC]

Seems you haven’t been to a wrc round to compare the two classes

Wrc2 is boring as hell compared to rally1 even when Solberg, Mikkelsen etc top drivers come past me

It would be dull as main class