[ERC] Rally Poland 2023

[PLuto]

Perhaps there was no one able to comment on this forum, because people actually visted the rally (crowds not seen since 2017), and there was very little LTE available (cause rally is located in "wild" region of Poland).

Main themes of picnic talks were: why so many people? Is it a change of date? The weather? Good starting list? All of these reasons?

Until the start of rally, weather was really bad. After combination Canarias+Portugal, it was like winter. Thanks god for rally days the sun came.

[Rally Hokkaido]

Just 5 pages of comments here !

There were 23 pages for Rally Fafe. What is going on ?

I was also hoping for some more comments as it seems I missed following a nice battle between Sesks and Paddon.

[meh]

Actually, I can understand the silence a bit. To follow all WRC and ERC live-coverage requires a lot of time. It just takes entire weekends off and if you have some other responsibilities in life (read: family) you just can not follow all.

From competition wise, for me, ERC is quite far ahead from WRC. But in WRC, people are into it also because of Rally1 cars.

From weather point of view - good weather was supporting spectating rally on spot and was not supporting to watch rally at home I think the bad weather before the rally was good for rally - it was not that dry and dusty.

Coverage - ERC covers basically at least 15 cars. A lot of times it's twice more than on WRC events. It means, it produces twice more rally-stars and personas to follow than WRC, but it all takes time. Like I wrote before, so far it's fun to watch stage-end interviews, those are not polished by PR-departments and drives answer like they naturally answers - making jokes, sometimes quite dirty-ones.

One more thing I noticed and liked, and maybe a bit surprise for me, was mature approach and cool-head reality - good example was Sesks, stage end interviews from stage-end to stage-end wanted to develop some fighting talks Sesks vs Paddon or pressure talks to Sesks but Sesks always answered clearly that he is doing is job (enjoying the rally) and ignored the hook. Also Paddon, he had punctures and respected the speed from Sesks - he did not claim that "without punctures I could win the rally" or "I was fastest" etc (or "I got most of the punctures"). 3rd place - Marczyk, he was many times asked or hinted that is he disappointed that he can not fight for the win or falling out from battle etc. He stayed calm-head and clear-minded and said that he thinks that this is their pace, others are just faster and there is no point to overdrive from what they have.

Leg 2 only:
* 1. Sesks
* 2. Heikkilä +19.5
* 3. Ostberg +21.3
* 4. Marczyk +23.5
* 5. Paddon +31.4 (had punctures and took on stage easy to attack on PowerStage)

Fight for the podium places were quite clear for Sunday, but the fight for 4th was open. On Sunday Ostberg and Heikkilä found the speed (and/or fixed setup) and it was interesting to follow.

To conclude all that, I'm afraid I will lost many more weekends now for following rally...

[Fast Eddie WRC]

I was wondering (worrying) that the strong start to the season by Paddon and the relatively poor starts by others doing the full Championship - Ostberg, Llarena etc - was making people less interested, thinking that the Title is a foregone conclusion.

[Sulland]

I like ERC, and most of the rallies are very exiting and it is close fighting in the top class from many.
Juniorclasses are usually also better in ERC than in WRC, and they have 2wd as a championship.

Rally TV need to have expert commentators that are or have been drivers, and they need to get in people that are not only brits. Many of them talk too fast for non native speakers.

[Danny0405]

Well, I follow the rally but didn’t have time to make comments.
The global level in the series is clearly better than last year: but yeah, for sure, Paddon has already taken a good margin. Let’s hope Ostberg or Sesks can make some results in Latvia and Sweden to be in contention but he sounds better on tarmac then.

I follow also ERC Junior: a bit a pity for Schulz who did some really good time for a newcomer; Dapra not that simple, if Nore can repeat this in Latvia and Sweden, he could become contender even if he is really weaker on tarmac (quite strange season with a big split between first half on fast gravel and second half on tarmac).
And even if it’s not Junior, I follow the results of the Japanese guys: well, as expected, they have a LOT of job to do to reach the level; they did some good times (they cumulate 10 stage wins + 8 podium stages in RC4, especially Yamamoto the most talented of them IMO) but really inconsistant ... only positive is Kogure (the weakest of the 3) that has succeeded in finishing above Dapra with some good times in the last day.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

My pick of the fan videos... really shows the speed of these guys !

https://youtu.be/U8aTE_NvoBM

[RS]

My pick of the fan videos... really shows the speed of these guys !

https://youtu.be/U8aTE_NvoBM

Good find, as ever the fan vids give a much greater impression of speed than the official footage, although i enjoyed that too.

Anyone who thinks Rally2 cars are boring should watch this and reconsider, the top 6 crews or so are really on it!

[AndyRAC]

To be honest, it was a busy weekend of motorsport, and my primary focus was on my favourite race of the whole year, the N24; though I kept in touch with Poland.

[Lead]

My pick of the fan videos... really shows the speed of these guys !

https://youtu.be/U8aTE_NvoBM

Met them last year at WRC Estonia. Really dedicated in what they are doing. Great guys and awsome videos!