RE: Wales Rally GB: Pic Of The Week
Friday 7th November 2014
Most motorsport events contrive an air of glamour, with sun-kissed locations, bikini-clad brolly dollies and glitzy grandstands housing expensively catered hospitality suites. Not so Wales Rally GB. Windswept hillsides. Hardy spectators with flasks, Gore-Tex and bobble hats getting showered with mud, gravel and water. And sideways cars all wearing the same grey-brown uniform of Welsh clag, sponsors' logos buried beneath.
Wales Rally GB: Pic Of The Week
Bring on the mud - Wales Rally GB starts next week and POTW gets in the mood
And that's the way we love it, right? You can keep your dust clouds!
OK, so PHer Thomas Middleton - the lucky winner of our Wales Rally GB competition - will be getting the full VIP treatment. But even that can't guarantee he won't be touched by the odd raindrop. Congratulations also to runners up Alun Denbury, Scott Bishop, David Harrison, Martin Wright and Robin Lovelock who all get passes to the RallyFest stage at Kinmel Park.
To get us all in the mood for the event POTW celebrates last year's winner Sebastien Ogier, flat out in his VW Polo WRC in typically Welsh conditions. Enjoy!
For all the info on the event see the official website. PH will be there and reporting back once we've washed the gravel out of our hair.
Traditional (4:3)
Computer widescreen (16:10)
TV widescreen (16:9)
Portrait (smartphone, etc)
Photo: LAT Photo
Discussion
unpc said:
Used to watch rallying religiously as a kid (70s) but haven't watched it for many years. Where did it all go wrong?
If you go and watch it live it is far from wrong. These cars are faster round the stages than Group B and the drivers are a different level. I mean obviously watching a Quattro is more fun than a Polo....but when you are actually watching it none of this matters.
GravelMachineGun said:
If you go and watch it live it is far from wrong. These cars are faster round the stages than Group B and the drivers are a different level.
I mean obviously watching a Quattro is more fun than a Polo....but when you are actually watching it none of this matters.
Agreed! I mean obviously watching a Quattro is more fun than a Polo....but when you are actually watching it none of this matters.
All the people who say it isn't a spectacle anymore, are the people who don't go...
I've been every year since 1985, and I am no less staggered every single year.
Get out in the forests, find a 4th-5th gear bend, and then you can see who is brave, and who isn't!
Well, I posted the comment below four days ago (Pistonheads Motorsport on Monday 3/11/14) about the forthcoming Wales Rally GB and the whole PH piece only generated three comments including mine. So, not a great deal of interest then...
Today's Wales Rally GB POTW has so far only generated a couple more comments. More of the same? At least the forests won't be overcrowded and there'll be masses of room to park...
Good luck to those of you who are going. If you have even a quarter of the fun we had back in the 1970's, 80's and 90's, then good on you - you won't have wasted your time.
"Really? You mean that FINALLY, we might be seeing a glimpse, in the not-too -distant future of a chance to get back to where rallying was some 20-30 years ago? Isn't progress simply amazing?!
Well, a decent entry is at least a good start as is the greater variety of cars - albeit running further down the field. That was always the great attraction of the old RAC rallies - the fact that the amateur rally driver (in virtually any car providing it was homologated) was able to compete in the same rally as twenty or so of the world's greatest rallying names and compare their stage times against those of the aforementioned best. This continually gave the RAC Rally far and away the best competitor entry list of any rally in the world (including the Monte) throughout the 1960's, 70's, 80's and 90's.
A major percentage of the challenge of those old events was the endurance element which faced the cars and the crews (and that included service crews), what with 36-hour non-stop 'loops' etc plus a welter of mega-long special stages of between 20 and 30 miles in length - not just the odd long stage thrown in as per today.
Sadly, today's Health & Safety culture mitigates against the endurance element on the grounds of 'tiredness can kill' etc and yet, in 30-plus years of Motoring News rally report reading, I've never encountered coverage of a rally crew falling asleep on the public highway mid-event and causing an accident (and, let's face it, it was never going to happen on the stages themselves either, was it). It's amazing how adrenalin overpowers tiredness to keep you going, isn't it!
Still, maybe the current crop of rally organisers are finally waking up to what made rallying so great. It kind of reminds me of how Cubby Broccoli always said to his daughter Barbara, once she'd taken over the reins of the family's Bond franchise; "If you ever get creatively stuck or lost then go back to the original Fleming novels and pick up the thread again". Maybe the WRC ought to do the same and go back to the old rallying templates. What goes around, comes around, so to speak..."
Today's Wales Rally GB POTW has so far only generated a couple more comments. More of the same? At least the forests won't be overcrowded and there'll be masses of room to park...
Good luck to those of you who are going. If you have even a quarter of the fun we had back in the 1970's, 80's and 90's, then good on you - you won't have wasted your time.
"Really? You mean that FINALLY, we might be seeing a glimpse, in the not-too -distant future of a chance to get back to where rallying was some 20-30 years ago? Isn't progress simply amazing?!
Well, a decent entry is at least a good start as is the greater variety of cars - albeit running further down the field. That was always the great attraction of the old RAC rallies - the fact that the amateur rally driver (in virtually any car providing it was homologated) was able to compete in the same rally as twenty or so of the world's greatest rallying names and compare their stage times against those of the aforementioned best. This continually gave the RAC Rally far and away the best competitor entry list of any rally in the world (including the Monte) throughout the 1960's, 70's, 80's and 90's.
A major percentage of the challenge of those old events was the endurance element which faced the cars and the crews (and that included service crews), what with 36-hour non-stop 'loops' etc plus a welter of mega-long special stages of between 20 and 30 miles in length - not just the odd long stage thrown in as per today.
Sadly, today's Health & Safety culture mitigates against the endurance element on the grounds of 'tiredness can kill' etc and yet, in 30-plus years of Motoring News rally report reading, I've never encountered coverage of a rally crew falling asleep on the public highway mid-event and causing an accident (and, let's face it, it was never going to happen on the stages themselves either, was it). It's amazing how adrenalin overpowers tiredness to keep you going, isn't it!
Still, maybe the current crop of rally organisers are finally waking up to what made rallying so great. It kind of reminds me of how Cubby Broccoli always said to his daughter Barbara, once she'd taken over the reins of the family's Bond franchise; "If you ever get creatively stuck or lost then go back to the original Fleming novels and pick up the thread again". Maybe the WRC ought to do the same and go back to the old rallying templates. What goes around, comes around, so to speak..."
im actually going to try and make the effort to attend atleast one stage.
The SS2 St Gwynno stage is directly behind my house, used to love the rallys with my dad as a kid, was only a 15minute walk from my bedroom! I believe they stopped using our stage in 2001.
Actually took me weeks to find footage of WRC cars slamming through my local foresat..then found Colin McRae in his Focus on said stage. A proper nostalgic moment, for me anyway!
http://www.streetfire.net/video/inboard-colin-mcra...
Since they stopped using the stage behind my house, and once attending the Super special in the millennium stadium, ive been so off put by it all. Im sure they did some sort of super special in the Walters Arena for a few years too. Cant beat a proper forestry stage though.
The SS2 St Gwynno stage is directly behind my house, used to love the rallys with my dad as a kid, was only a 15minute walk from my bedroom! I believe they stopped using our stage in 2001.
Actually took me weeks to find footage of WRC cars slamming through my local foresat..then found Colin McRae in his Focus on said stage. A proper nostalgic moment, for me anyway!
http://www.streetfire.net/video/inboard-colin-mcra...
Since they stopped using the stage behind my house, and once attending the Super special in the millennium stadium, ive been so off put by it all. Im sure they did some sort of super special in the Walters Arena for a few years too. Cant beat a proper forestry stage though.
Well, I've not been for some years now after being a regular for about 15 years but thanks to the last PH comp for Catalunya that I won I've got the bug again. We really enjoyed the 28deg heat watching it on tarmac but this picture makes Wales look even better.
Thanks to Autosport mag for sending me tickets so I can take my petrol head boys to experience Wales next Saturday following my interview in Spain really looking forward to it
Thanks to Autosport mag for sending me tickets so I can take my petrol head boys to experience Wales next Saturday following my interview in Spain really looking forward to it
firebird350 said:
Well, I posted the comment below four days ago (Pistonheads Motorsport on Monday 3/11/14) about the forthcoming Wales Rally GB and the whole PH piece only generated three comments including mine. So, not a great deal of interest then...
Today's Wales Rally GB POTW has so far only generated a couple more comments. More of the same? At least the forests won't be overcrowded and there'll be masses of room to park...
Good luck to those of you who are going. If you have even a quarter of the fun we had back in the 1970's, 80's and 90's, then good on you - you won't have wasted your time.
"Really? You mean that FINALLY, we might be seeing a glimpse, in the not-too -distant future of a chance to get back to where rallying was some 20-30 years ago? Isn't progress simply amazing?!
Well, a decent entry is at least a good start as is the greater variety of cars - albeit running further down the field. That was always the great attraction of the old RAC rallies - the fact that the amateur rally driver (in virtually any car providing it was homologated) was able to compete in the same rally as twenty or so of the world's greatest rallying names and compare their stage times against those of the aforementioned best. This continually gave the RAC Rally far and away the best competitor entry list of any rally in the world (including the Monte) throughout the 1960's, 70's, 80's and 90's.
A major percentage of the challenge of those old events was the endurance element which faced the cars and the crews (and that included service crews), what with 36-hour non-stop 'loops' etc plus a welter of mega-long special stages of between 20 and 30 miles in length - not just the odd long stage thrown in as per today.
Sadly, today's Health & Safety culture mitigates against the endurance element on the grounds of 'tiredness can kill' etc and yet, in 30-plus years of Motoring News rally report reading, I've never encountered coverage of a rally crew falling asleep on the public highway mid-event and causing an accident (and, let's face it, it was never going to happen on the stages themselves either, was it). It's amazing how adrenalin overpowers tiredness to keep you going, isn't it!
Still, maybe the current crop of rally organisers are finally waking up to what made rallying so great. It kind of reminds me of how Cubby Broccoli always said to his daughter Barbara, once she'd taken over the reins of the family's Bond franchise; "If you ever get creatively stuck or lost then go back to the original Fleming novels and pick up the thread again". Maybe the WRC ought to do the same and go back to the old rallying templates. What goes around, comes around, so to speak..."
A truly excellent post. Though in some ways I think the WRC almost became a victim of it's own success. I started spectating in 1983, in what I considered the halcyon days of the sport. My first RAC rally found me in Dalby or was it Wykeham ? or perhaps Hamsterley ? at 1.00am in the morning. And despite the large numbers of spectators who attended the event back then, there were no more than 20-30 of us at our corner in the pitch dark at that time of the morning.Today's Wales Rally GB POTW has so far only generated a couple more comments. More of the same? At least the forests won't be overcrowded and there'll be masses of room to park...
Good luck to those of you who are going. If you have even a quarter of the fun we had back in the 1970's, 80's and 90's, then good on you - you won't have wasted your time.
"Really? You mean that FINALLY, we might be seeing a glimpse, in the not-too -distant future of a chance to get back to where rallying was some 20-30 years ago? Isn't progress simply amazing?!
Well, a decent entry is at least a good start as is the greater variety of cars - albeit running further down the field. That was always the great attraction of the old RAC rallies - the fact that the amateur rally driver (in virtually any car providing it was homologated) was able to compete in the same rally as twenty or so of the world's greatest rallying names and compare their stage times against those of the aforementioned best. This continually gave the RAC Rally far and away the best competitor entry list of any rally in the world (including the Monte) throughout the 1960's, 70's, 80's and 90's.
A major percentage of the challenge of those old events was the endurance element which faced the cars and the crews (and that included service crews), what with 36-hour non-stop 'loops' etc plus a welter of mega-long special stages of between 20 and 30 miles in length - not just the odd long stage thrown in as per today.
Sadly, today's Health & Safety culture mitigates against the endurance element on the grounds of 'tiredness can kill' etc and yet, in 30-plus years of Motoring News rally report reading, I've never encountered coverage of a rally crew falling asleep on the public highway mid-event and causing an accident (and, let's face it, it was never going to happen on the stages themselves either, was it). It's amazing how adrenalin overpowers tiredness to keep you going, isn't it!
Still, maybe the current crop of rally organisers are finally waking up to what made rallying so great. It kind of reminds me of how Cubby Broccoli always said to his daughter Barbara, once she'd taken over the reins of the family's Bond franchise; "If you ever get creatively stuck or lost then go back to the original Fleming novels and pick up the thread again". Maybe the WRC ought to do the same and go back to the old rallying templates. What goes around, comes around, so to speak..."
For me the lack of spectators in the stages out in the wilds was a massive part of the sport's appeal. The same applied to Corsica when I went there in '95.
I remember turning up to watch at a decent corner on a stage 45 mins/an hour before the first car was due, there was one Gendarme, a coupe of mums and their two kids with them.
Over the next hour maybe another 25-30 people appeared (no marshalls, no tape, just a gendarme) and that was it, no air horns, no fireworks, just 30 people quietly chatting before the arrival of the course cars and the first competitor.
Fast forward to Corsica 2007 or Germany 2013 and you'd have struggled to find a decent corner to watch at without a mass of spectators with air horns, fireworks etc.
The RAC rally was (beyond the first day Mickey Mouse Stages) an "underground" affair, that only those in the know (Clarkson's famed "Bobblehatters") really knew about, or indeed where to spectate (god bless you Motoring News, Car and Car Conversions and Autosport)
As the sport's popularity gathered momentum (and TV coverage) a big effort was made to cater for the general public, and to make knowledge of and access to the stages easier. The McRae and Burns years only served to increase the public's awareness of the sport and popularity.
But that popularity came at a massive price IMO. The TV friendly Cloverleaf format (and re-running some stages on the same day) along with the loss of the first day Mickey Mouse stages effectively sealed the sport's fate. The loss of the sport's two top British drivers only served to further reduce it's appeal.
I live in hope that those governing the sport will indeed instigate changes that once again make our sport a real test of endurance.
I'd have to agree with some of the previous comments. Get the event back as an Endurance event. This year is about 200-ish miles....a sprint!
The current organisers have got a cheek calling RallyGB "Rally of Legends".....er, no... That was the RAC.
But, I urge people to go; you'll enjoy it, and the speed of the top guys is breathtaking.
The current organisers have got a cheek calling RallyGB "Rally of Legends".....er, no... That was the RAC.
But, I urge people to go; you'll enjoy it, and the speed of the top guys is breathtaking.
It's just not the same any more and I can't excited about it :-(
I was lucky in the mid 90's, living as a kid in Cheshire and the rally was based in Chester.
Sunday my dad would take me to Chatsworth and latterly Tatton Park for a 'Mickey Mouse' stage, then it was either across to Chester in the evening when the ramp was on the main street and we would stand on the rows watching the drivers being interviewed on their return (and the same again on the Monday and/or Tuesday night). Or sometimes we stood at the traffic lights on the A54 at Middlewich and if we were lucky the lights would be on red so we were feet away from Kankkunen's Celica, Carlos Sainz Celica, McRae's Impreza, Ari Vatenen's Cosworth etc etc whilst they sat waited. One year someone opened the door on Malcolm Wilson's Escort Cosworth for a chat :-)
Or we would go rally car hunting and try to find the service trucks on the industrial estate at Winsford or drive the roads around Oulton Park and get a rally car coming up behind on the way to the night stage.
I was lucky in the mid 90's, living as a kid in Cheshire and the rally was based in Chester.
Sunday my dad would take me to Chatsworth and latterly Tatton Park for a 'Mickey Mouse' stage, then it was either across to Chester in the evening when the ramp was on the main street and we would stand on the rows watching the drivers being interviewed on their return (and the same again on the Monday and/or Tuesday night). Or sometimes we stood at the traffic lights on the A54 at Middlewich and if we were lucky the lights would be on red so we were feet away from Kankkunen's Celica, Carlos Sainz Celica, McRae's Impreza, Ari Vatenen's Cosworth etc etc whilst they sat waited. One year someone opened the door on Malcolm Wilson's Escort Cosworth for a chat :-)
Or we would go rally car hunting and try to find the service trucks on the industrial estate at Winsford or drive the roads around Oulton Park and get a rally car coming up behind on the way to the night stage.
The last time I attended, it was the Lombard RAC Rally, and it did actually tour the country. Remember going to Clumber Park and watching them all go flying over the bridge over the lake. Absolutely bloody brilliant. Its a shame it just sticks to Wales now, really would be great to see it go nationwide again. Until then, I think its a long way to go just to stand freezing my balls off for a few seconds of action. I am going to stick to the local events which incidentally are quite entertaining and easy to get to. Starting with the Premier Rally in Sherwood Forest in a couple of weeks time.
Jerry Can said:
used to go to the rac back in the 80's and 90's. then didn't go from 2002 to 2012. I really want to go this year, but it's a three hour drive, this in itself is not to much of an issue. Going by myself however, is. if only I had some rally friends.....
There'll be a number of petrolheads at the event.Approach a few strangers and make new friends.
soad said:
Jerry Can said:
used to go to the rac back in the 80's and 90's. then didn't go from 2002 to 2012. I really want to go this year, but it's a three hour drive, this in itself is not to much of an issue. Going by myself however, is. if only I had some rally friends.....
There'll be a number of petrolheads at the event.Approach a few strangers and make new friends.
All his rally friends hark back to the halcyon days of the RAC and would prefer not to traipse all the way to Wales.
soxboy said:
soad said:
Jerry Can said:
used to go to the rac back in the 80's and 90's. then didn't go from 2002 to 2012. I really want to go this year, but it's a three hour drive, this in itself is not to much of an issue. Going by myself however, is. if only I had some rally friends.....
There'll be a number of petrolheads at the event.Approach a few strangers and make new friends.
All his rally friends hark back to the halcyon days of the RAC and would prefer not to traipse all the way to Wales.
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