Is the WRC a dead horse being flogged?

  • Thread starter Thread starter somebody
  • 37 comments
  • 3,674 views
And Carlos won more than McRae. Its a game that could go on all night, personally I don't believe that the current state of the WRC is on the same par as post group B. I can remember those days and a real fear existed that the sport/championship would be banned, certainly things are not that bad at all.

I'm more than willing to acknowledge that the sport is going throw a low point at present, but I would have say that it still the WRC still does present some fantastic racing and driving. I could however be called slightly biased as rallying has always been my first motorsport love.

Regards

Scaff
 
I'm going to re-start this thread in light of the news that the WRC is going to be shortened from 2009. Instead of 16 events, we'll be getting just 12. And why? Because it's too expensive for television crews to get out to the destinations.

I visited the "last" Rally Australia in 2005 (we had it again in 2006 because Perth missed the closing date to withdraw), and I remember some of the commentary from Ross Dunkerton out on one of the stages. He said that rallying is a funny mistress, because you're standing out under a baking sun, you sweat until you're dry (usually about an hour after arriving) and you're getting harrassed by flies and insects (I swear Western Australia breeds a few that are resistent to repellant) when a car blasts past. "Who was that!?" you call out once the dust settles. She's a funny mistress, our ralling, but you just love her to death.

Television crews shouldn't dictate the sport. Rally routes have been hampered because the crews can't make it out in time. But what about us, the fans and spectators who go there? We're more than willing to jump in a car and go tearing halfway across the state, watch the WRC cars and maybe a few Group Ns because getting back in the car and haring off into the middle of nowhere (again) to rinse, lather and repeat. It's all part of the fun. Instead, some excellent stages haven't been used in years while the drivers waste time doing re-runs of stages!

What rallying needs is its own version of the Concorde Agreement. 2002 was one of the last times we saw full manufacturer support with Peugeot, Ford, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Skoda and Citroen all pledging works cars. Sure, teams need time off to develop a new car, but shouldn't they be doing that either in the off-season or elsewhere while the current championship is running? I'm sick of teams saying "Well, we're coming back, but we're only doing half a season." Teams that agree to compete should either pledge full support to a season or not at all.

We need to ditch SuperRally. Sure, it adds to the excitement that drivers can re-enter if they retire, but it reomves any and all skill from the competition. Once you're out, you're out. And if it's your own fault, you shouldn't be given another chance just to keep television happy. Having one chance means drivers will not only be more careful, but they'll demonstrate that they are the best. Now we just get competitors taking risks knowing that if they end up out of the event, they can just re-enter witha five-minute penalty (which is nothing these days).
 
Personally, I loved WRC. But times have changed since then as ITV took over broadcasting the events. At first they were alright an 1 hour long show on a Sunday. Then ITV started to pay less atention to WRC and cut it down to a rubbish "Highlight Show". I started to lose intrest even though it was my favourite motor sport. Then this year they start to only broadcast it on ITV3 which I don't watch, as I never check it. So at the beginning of this year I said to my self that, this was it , I can't watch it anymore.

Also as more official teams started to drop, I just couldn't be bothered anymore. I loved the sport, I always dreamed of going to Wales Rally GB. But now....it's turning into another sport like F1, there in it for the money not for the pleasure of it all just for the money.

When I found out about WRC dropping many events starting with Australia last year, I was horrifed. Austrailia was WRC's best event by far and now they are just dropping events like fly's.

As I said at the beginning I used to love WRC, now I don't and it's ITV's fault.
 

Latest Posts

Back