Rally Automobile Monte Carlo Live updates! *Spoilers*

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MagpieRacer

MagpieRacer

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Maybe a little bit early but lets start the discussion of the upcoming Monte Carlo Rally here. The WRC entry list for the rally has been confirmed and here it is:

Rally Automobile Monte Carlo entry list
1 Sebastien Loeb (Kronos Total Citroen) Citroen Xsara WRC *
2 Xavier Pons (Kronos Total Citroen) Citroen Xsara WRC *
3 Marcus Gronholm (BP Ford) Ford Focus WRC *
4 Mikko Hirvonen (BP Ford) Ford Focus WRC *
5 Petter Solberg (Subaru) Subaru Impreza WRC *
6 Stephane Sarrazin (Subaru) Subaru Impreza WRC *
7 Manfred Stohl (OMV Peugeot) Peugeot 307 WRC **
8 Henning Solberg (OMV Peugeot) Peugeot 307 WRC **
9 Matthew Wilson (Stobart VK Ford) Ford Focus WRC **
10 Peter Tsjoen (Stobart VK Ford) Ford Focus WRC **
11 Gilles Panizzi (Red Bull Skoda) Skoda Fabia WRC **
12 Andreas Aigner (Red Bull Skoda) Skoda Fabia WRC **
16 Toni Gardemeister (Astra Racing) Peugeot 307 WRC
17 Francois Duval (First Motorsport) Skoda Fabia WRC
18 Chris Atkinson (Subaru Australia) Subaru Impreza WRC
25 Gigi Galli (Gigi Galli) Mitsubishi Lancer WRC
26 Dani Sordo (Dani Sordo) Citroen Xsara WRC
62 Jan Kopecky (Jan Kopecky) Skoda Fabia WRC
63 Olivier Burri (Olivier Burri) Peugeot 307 WRC
64 Gareth MacHale (Gareth MacHale) Ford Focus WRC
65 Philippe Roux (Phillips Roux) Peugeot 206 WRC
66 Riccardo Errani (Riccardo Errani) Skoda Octavia WRC
67 Austin MacHale (Austin MacHale) Ford Focus WRC
68 Eamonn Boland (Eamonn Boland) Ford Focus WRC
69 Tchine (Tchine) Mitsubishi Lancer WRC

Im looking forward to seeing if Private teams can compete with full teams on what is probably one of the toughest rallies on the calendar.

Follow this link to view huge maps for each stage in the Monte Carlo rally, i think it owuld be great if every rallies site did something like this displaying every stage.
http://www.acm.mc/ramc/ramc_main.php

If that doesnt go straight to the Rally maps, its under stage maps :dunce:
 
wrc.com
2006 title fight 'wide open', says Lapworth

Subaru team boss David Lapworth reckons the fight for this year's drivers' title is wide open thanks to the introduction of new regulations and one of the most turbulent off-seasons in years for driver moves. The outfit's lead driver, 2003 title winner Petter Solberg, starts the year as one of the favourites for the drivers' crown.

Reigning double champion Sebastien Loeb will be driving a privateer Citroen Xsara WRC this year, but is expected to remain highly competitive, while former double champion Marcus Gronholm has moved from Peugeot to Ford, which will campaign an all-new Focus WRC this year.

In addition, a host of former works drivers, established privateers and rising young guns are lining up in independently-run ex-works cars. Lapworth says that it is still likely to be a fight between the World Rally Championship's top three drivers for the title, but believes that Gronholm and Loeb's off-season moves throws up interesting questions as to how they'll perform.

"This year will be a big shake-up for everyone, and who'll be fastest will be one of the biggest questions of the rally," Lapworth said. "The drivers' championship itself won't be affected. There are still the top three drivers, Loeb, Gronholm and Solberg, all with very good teams and the battle for the championship will be as hot as ever. With the same faces and names it will be business as usual. Our goal is to win that drivers' championship with Petter."

Lapworth said he's confident of the team's chances, but admitted that the team will play a tactical game over the course of the year, and particularly in next weekend's Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo season-opener - one of the trickiest events, due to the threat of icy conditions in the mountain stages north of the Principality.

"The testing we've done on asphalt so far has been good and we're pleased with the starting ground," Lapworth said. "Petter certainly has a shot at winning every rally, but our eye will always be on the championship. We start each event looking to win, but we won't sacrifice points at the expense of the title. If a win is on the cards in Monte Carlo we will go for it, but if the weather doesn't suit us we'll strategically go for points - this isn't a case of Monte Carlo or bust!
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He is right, this season is gonna be wide open, i personally think we are in for one of those season which comes down to the wire and the final round will have like a 4 way fight for the crown or something. Its gonna be a good season despite obvious lack of manufacturer teams, good thing is we havnt lost the talents behind the wheels.
 
Ashley.
He is right, this season is gonna be wide open, i personally think we are in for one of those season which comes down to the wire and the final round will have like a 4 way fight for the crown or something. Its gonna be a good season despite obvious lack of manufacturer teams, good thing is we havnt lost the talents behind the wheels.
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While I do agree (and hope) that the title fight is going to be an open one this year I can't agree that we haven't lost talent behind the wheel.

I've been a rally fan my whole life (on of my earliest memories is watching the RAC rally as it passed my parents house - I was about five) and this year has to be one of the slimmest in terms of top level drivers.

Tommi M - retired
Carlos Sainz - retired
Colin McRae - not competing
Richard Burns - RIP
Markko Martin - not competing
Alister McRae - not competing

Now obviously we have lots a few of the above over the last few years, but it does illustrate the loss of a number of greats in my favorite form of motorsport. Some through tragic circumstances, some through natural retirement and some through rule changes by the FIA (arguably the reason why Colin McRae lost his drive was the switch to two cars per team).

I hope that this year does see some of the newer drivers to the WRC rise to the challenge and put pressure on what could be a Solburg/Loeb/Gronholm and then the rest split.

Scaff's driver to watch for 2006 = Chris Atkinson

Scaff's driver to watch for 2006 if he can stop crashing = Francois Duval

Roll on the 20th

And heres a few picture I took at the Autosport International show to get things going.









Regards

Scaff
 
Nice pics, and you are right about losing the talents, but look at drivers we still have, Loeb, Solberg, Gronholm, Panizzi, i think WRC is moving out of that shadow where we had Mcrae, Makinen, Sainz, all fighting for wins, its moving into a new age, that includes regulations.
 
Ashley.
Nice pics, and you are right about losing the talents, but look at drivers we still have, Loeb, Solberg, Gronholm, Panizzi, i think WRC is moving out of that shadow where we had Mcrae, Makinen, Sainz, all fighting for wins, its moving into a new age, that includes regulations.
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I do hope you're right, but I have to say as a life long rally fan I see the sport I love in about the worst health its ever been. And a lot of motorsport writers agree.

The two car rule introduced a few years ago was one of the biggest mistakes made in the sport in a long time. As a move to cut costs it failed (as they added more rallies in more distant locations), but what it did do was stop teams entering lesser known drivers in a third car to gain experience in a full WRC year. When Colin McRae gets dropped because of a regulation change (and he is far from a spent force in the WRC as his two apperances this year proved), then I have to say the regulations are not helping the sport at all.

The two car rule ended up in a situation were too many great drivers were fighting for too few top seats, the result was the sport loosing drivers, never healthy.

It also resulted in fewer full year seats for newer drivers which has in my opinion damaged the sport deeply, the en-mass pull out of teams would seem to indicate that they would agree as well.

I would agree with three of the drivers you have mentioned fighting for wins this year, but Panizzi only scored 7 points in 2005, as he was only entered for 5 of the 16 events. A great shame as he is a truly excellent tarmac driver, but I would not expect to see him a top contender on gravel stages.

Regards

Scaff
 
Scaff - What's your view on the newish style of small 3 day event? I look back at the massive rallies they used to have like when the RAC went all the way up to Scotland and back. Being a Northerner this really bugs me! Bring back Killer Kielder.

Back on topic. Can't wait for the WRC season to start.
 
Milliethemutt
Scaff - What's your view on the newish style of small 3 day event? I look back at the massive rallies they used to have like when the RAC went all the way up to Scotland and back. Being a Northerner this really bugs me! Bring back Killer Kielder.

Back on topic. Can't wait for the WRC season to start.
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Mixed views on it I have to say.

I grew up with the week long RAC that travelled the country and was a real challenge on driver and machine, however unless you were a fan (and handy for me my dad was and still is) or lucky enough to live near the route (had that one covered again) it was very hard to follow.

Rallycross got great TV coverage, but in the UK apart from the RAC it was nonexistant, you had to follow it in the press.

The modern three day event is more TV friendly, although here in the UK ITV just seem to screw-up any motorsport they broadcast (which now includes the WRC, F1 and the BTCC - thank god for MotorsTV), C4 did a much better job with half an hour on the Friday and Saturday and an hour on the Sunday. ITVs 1 hour on the Sunday just sucks.

Anyway, back to the subject, the three day events cover a lot less ground these days that ever before and the more challenging rallies have also been lost. For me one of the turning points was the loss of the Safari rally, the last of the true long distance challenges in the WRC.

I don't buy into a lot of the reasons given for the short distance three day events, TV coverage for Rally Raids and the Dakar are excellent and they obviously cover huge distances.

A solution for me (and this is just based on what I would like to see) would be:

Four day events
Enough to keep TV happy and enough to increase the mileage between stages without a serious impact on safety.

Lose at least four events off the calender
The current calender is just to busy, its one of the main factors is rising costs that keep private & manufacturer teams away. This should be combined with linked events, having New Zealand and Australia at each end of the year in 2005 was stupid. The costs involved in shipping a team to the other side of the world twice was huge, had they been held a few weeks apart this would have reduced team costs by quite a factor.


Increase engine power
The current limit has just created a battle to keep bhp limited while increasing torque, an expensive design and development cost. We also had the situation a few years ago were the 2litre 2wd cars were faster on some tarmac rallies as they weighed less! It should also be remembered that a 70's Mk2 Escort was packing around 270bhp, not far short of the current WRC cars, but in a lighter package.

Now I'm not suggesting a return to group B, it had its day, and even in its day it was not safe, nor would it be now. A middle ground needs to be found here.

Bring back 3 car teams
As a measure to reduce costs this failed, what gets me is that it was done at the time when more and more rallies were added to the calender. Just about everyone said it wasn't going to work; this has been the WRC's version of F1 qualifying, a disaster.

More mechanically simple cars
At least this one has arrived with the new regs on transmissions for this year, the complexity of the recent years has seen a push for higher tech cars without reliabilility. The victim has been the fans, the 307 being a classic example, its poor reliability has robbed us of drivers and cars at a time when there just has not been enough of either on the WRC.

UK only one this - Ban ITV from Motorsport
Give it back to either the BBC (F1 and the BTCC) or C4 (WRC) until ITV can stop being just so bad at it. They constantly cut away from the action during the BTCC and F1 for advert breaks and have simply the worst F1 comentator ever in James Allen (you can get your Stop the **** - Shut James Allen T-shirts here) and poor WRC coverage.

At least this year they say they will broadcast all the BTCC races live, which I will only believe when it happens, but you can be sure they won't show the support stuff until a month later an dthen at about 3 in the morning.

My advise, if you have Sky, watch it all live on MotorsTV, they may not have the best comentators but at least the BTCC and support stuff will happen the same day as the race.


Apologies for the rather large rant on this one and a few other subjects, feels good to get it off my chest. As someone who has no interest in Football at all it drivers me mad that every Divison 1000 team game is shown live with hours of pre and post match waffle, but if Motorsports you're thing (something we actual are good at as a nation) then you get almost no live coverage and even the delayed stuff is on at stupid times.


Regards

Scaff
 
I agree with you there Scaff, i absolutely despise ITV coverage, 1 hour on a sunday? they dont even get Day 3 in whole. As you said, thank god for Eurosport!
 
Cheers Scaff.

I Have to admit that I have never even thought of travelling all the way down to Wales for the Rally GB since it went there although I used to go when it still came up here. Most of the rally action I get to see now is smaller local stuff and the British Championship rounds near here.

I did get to go to the Super Special in Australia last year though. I think next time I really fancy a WRC event I'll head over to Europe. Cheap flight and a really cheap hire car could work well for a couple of days fun.

Don't even get me started on James Allen!
 
Milliethemutt
Cheers Scaff.

I Have to admit that I have never even thought of travelling all the way down to Wales for the Rally GB since it went there although I used to go when it still came up here. Most of the rally action I get to see now is smaller local stuff and the British Championship rounds near here.

I did get to go to the Super Special in Australia last year though. I think next time I really fancy a WRC event I'll head over to Europe. Cheap flight and a really cheap hire car could work well for a couple of days fun.

Don't even get me started on James Allen!
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You lucky bugger, A Super Special in OZ, great stuff.

I must admit I haven't been to Rally GB in a few years as the event was so badly organised the last time I went, as with your'self I mainly stick to more local club type events.

This however is my annual big fix

Rally Supercar Day - Castle Coombe

A great day out, and for me at a circuit only 40mins drive away.


Regards

Scaff

BTW - Buy the shirt, help get rid of James Allen - LOL
 
Rally starts tomorrow peeps, hopefully eurosport will cover tomorrows action tomorrow night.
 
Ashley.
Rally starts tomorrow peeps, hopefully eurosport will cover tomorrows action tomorrow night.
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I've had a quik look (to stick it all in Sky+) and while I can see the ITV coverage, which is 1hour on Sunday @ 4.30pm(ish), all I can see on Eurosport is bloody winter sports. :crazy:

Annoyed

Scaff
 
I have seen that Rally day advertised before but it's a little bit further than 40 miles for me to go. We get some alright stuff up here and I did go to Goodwood to see the special stage last year after promising the other half I wouldn't. It's an addiction.....
 
I've been a rally fan also for few years. It's truly a great motorsport that is very focused on the drivers themselves. Too bad that the level has degraded as the manufacturers aren't apparently too interested about it (I want toyota and french manufacturers back). Drivers come and go and it's nice to see new stars to rise. I completely agree with the changes that scaff suggested, they would definately give rally more health. If i'll get some money and free time, i could go to Jyväskylä to watch the neste rally finland event.
 
Milliethemutt
Looks like there is a preview program on Eurosport at 11:30 (GMT) tonight.
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:cheers:

Off now to set that one in Sky+


👍

Scaff

Edited to add, Eurosprt seem to be up to the usual tricks again, WRC now one Fri, Sat and Sun nights around 11pm each night. They were not in the planner at lunchtime today and knowing Eurosprt these times will be very fluid.
 
Stage one results coming in: Loeb is 25 seconds faster than anyone else!! :lol: :lol:

Good result for Panizzi, 2nd in the Skoda and Atkinson, 5th fastest.

Who says a "private" car can't be competitive?
 
VTRacing
Stage one results coming in: Loeb is 25 seconds faster than anyone else!! :lol: :lol:

Good result for Panizzi, 2nd in the Skoda and Atkinson, 5th fastest.

Who says a "private" car can't be competitive?
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Well.. when I saw that I was amazed :dunce: I like Loeb but I don't want he topping all the times again! I wan't to see Marcus and Petter winning too!! C'mon...
 
I don't think Petter has much hope now, nearly 3 minutes down after 2 stages. I suppose that's what you get when you try to drive on ice and snow using slicks. :dunce:

Is this a case of the ice-note crews getting it wrong? Or malicious spectators?

Now SS3 has been cancelled because of dramas over the opening 2 stages. Something about traffic problems? The worst thing is that all crews except the first 10 have been given notional times, which seemed to have been based on the time of the last car to get through the stages. That is terribly unfair.

Hopefully they'll do something like they do in the Australian championship when they have to give notional times. At the end of the day they calculate roughly what your time would have been on the cancelled stage by looking at your other stage times during the day.

Does anyone know if this happens in the WRC? Or does everyone just get the same notional time?
 
VTRacing
I don't think Petter has much hope now, nearly 3 minutes down after 2 stages. I suppose that's what you get when you try to drive on ice and snow using slicks. :dunce:
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:lol:
 
Breaking news: Sebastien Loeb has crashed on Stage 6, his car is badly damaged, but, should Kronos repair the car in time for tomorrow he will only incur a 5 minute time penalty dropping him over 3 minutes behind Gronholm.
 
Is Loebs car 2005 spec or 2006 with no active diffs (except the centre one)? I got a bit confused watching that preview last night with it's M1-2006 spec class and M2-2005 spec class.
 
Milliethemutt
Is Loebs car 2005 spec or 2006 with no active diffs (except the centre one)? I got a bit confused watching that preview last night with it's M1-2006 spec class and M2-2005 spec class.
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AFAIK Loeb's car is an M2 car, so it would be running in 2005 spec, I will see if I can check that.

Still this should make for some good footage on Eurosport tonight. 👍

@VTRacing Notational times are the norm for the WRC.

Regards

Scaff
 

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