only 50 cars for the RAC

[stockhatcher]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/79064

according to autosport there shall be only a paltry 50 cars for this years RAC Rally Wales Rally GB. What a joke of an event it now is. 20 years ago we used to have 180+ entries all vying for their shot of televisual stardom with Tony Mason. May be next years rumored move to Newcastle will make a difference... It needs to.

Here is a reminder of how it used to be :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1vp4hoZ9HQ&fea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEZv7khq4mM&fea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xahprrKaZHg&fea...

[Derek Smith]

There will be more on the grid of a GP soon.

This aspect of Mosley's mismanagement of motorsport, together with WTC and WSC, seems to be ignored. He's been a disaster.

[hot metal]

Yep , rally whateveritscallednow is crap, as are most of them.Couple of days covering a few hundred miles at best,pah.

[Flat 1]

Sad, sad, sad.

I remember those McRae days, the Group B days. I uesd to love the lead in to Xmas with the RAC action.

Someone with a brain needs to re-brand the WRC asap!

[Flat 1]

There is not even a thread for Chris Meeke (or have I missed it)?

I blinked;

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... IRC Rally Sanremo.** Spoilers**

Edited by Flat 1 on Wednesday 30th September 19:53

[Mojocvh]

Flat 1 said:

Sad, sad, sad.

I remember those McRae days, the Group B days. I uesd to love the lead in to Xmas with the RAC action.

Yes exactly! Just how do you stop the rot, it is as if Motorsport like this has been demonised.

[mat205125]

stockhatcher said:

Here is a reminder of how it used to be :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1vp4hoZ9HQ&fea...

That is fantastic. The lack of detail that Russell Brookes gets from his co-driver is amazing. Amazing that he could driver so fast, and so commited, despite being drip fed the occasional note .... "Flat right .... er, no HAIRPIN right ... through a gate? Tight?"

[MonkeyHanger]

If there was ever a reason to need Ari Vatenen in the big chair at the FIA, then the current state of the WRC is it. You only have to look at the popularity of historic events like the Roger Albert Clark Rally to see what a joke the "big" events are.

Quattros in Grizedale...them were the days !

[Derek Smith]

I don't go anymore. But we were once turned away from a car park in Wales at 04.30 because it was full. It was snowing, there was a wind straight off the Urals, it was force 8 at times, I was blown over, and I'm not the lightest person you'll ever find, it was Monday and the car park was full at 04.30.

We drove to the next stage and got stuck in a traffic jam. In Wales, in November, in a fog.

Nowadays most people can't be bothered to watch it on TV.

Come on. Ari. Win by whatever means you can.

[MonkeyHanger]

Derek Smith said:

Come on. Ari. Win by whatever means you can.

Indeed.

I could have sworn i posted a pic earlier but it seems to have disappeared. Hmmm.

[VX Foxy]

Derek Smith said:

I
Come on. Ari. Win by whatever means you can.

This

[aeropilot]

MonkeyHanger said:

If there was ever a reason to need Ari Vatenen in the big chair at the FIA, then the current state of the WRC is it.

As pro Ari as I am for the FiA post, Todt isn't exactly lacking in experience when it comes to the WRC, or Sportscars or Rallyraid type events. In that respect Napoleon has a pretty complete CV for the job.

[MonkeyHanger]

aeropilot said:

MonkeyHanger said:

If there was ever a reason to need Ari Vatenen in the big chair at the FIA, then the current state of the WRC is it.

As pro Ari as I am for the FiA post, Todt isn't exactly lacking in experience when it comes to the WRC, or Sportscars or Rallyraid type events. In that respect Napoleon has a pretty complete CV for the job.

This i know. But i still wouldn't trust Todt as far as i could throw him.

[fatboy69]

only 50 cars? what a joke. how many people used to turn out to watch the Lombard RAC Rally - as it was called in its heyday - to watch the spectator stages on a sunday & then disappear 'up north' to the Keilder Forest & all the other proper specialist stages?

tens of thousands for every stage, every day. in all weathers. fabulous. particularly in the Group B days.....

year after year & in all sorts of foul & crap weather? i did. there used to be 150/160 cars if not more as the rally was the highlight of many drivers season.

toil all season so they could get an entry onto one of the truly great epic rallies.

& now? a couple of days slogging around Wales which, if we are honest, isnt a patch on the Lombard.

what a shame & what a pity.

[fatboy69]

i wonder how many of todays drivers would cope with the likes of mikkola, vatenen, toivenen, waldegard, alen, mouton etc etc.

& how would they cope with quattro's, delta s4's, rs200's, 6r4's etc etc. i dont think they would somehow.

[stockhatcher]

fatboy69 said:

i wonder how many of todays drivers would cope with the likes of mikkola, vatenen, toivenen, waldegard, alen, mouton etc etc.

& how would they cope with quattro's, delta s4's, rs200's, 6r4's etc etc. i dont think they would somehow.

i suspect with respect to the cars that they would cope very well, i also suspect that the best of today's drivers would thrash the likes of Mikkola even if we could time warp them back to the '80's. Today's drivers are so much more professional and the nature of rallying these days requires 100% commitment on every corner of every stage. this wasn't always the case back in the day.

BTW It pains me to admit the fact about today's drivers I was always a Pondie fan, no real interest in Loeb - ace tho he is.

[fatboy69]

Oh yeah. Tony Pond. A true legend. His exploits in the TR7 V8 were fabulous. As were his drives in that bloody geat big Rover SD1 V8.

Truly the stuff of legends. Long gone & greatly missed.

[fatboy69]

If Todt gets elected we might as well all buy Ferrari gear cos all we will get is Ferrari this, Ferrari that, Blah blah blah.

Vatenen is the obvious choice for the job although with Max & Bernie seemingly favouring Todt i'm not sure that the result will be a true reflection of what people really want.

I think delegates who can vote will be brow-beaten into voting for Todt. Who clearly is the wrong man for the job.

[BobM]

Much as I dislike Mosley and what the FiA has turned into, I do wonder whether we need to look elsewhere for the dwindling entry list.

My impression is that the rally scene has just died a death recently and that a lot of this is down to the recession. It seems to me that most of the privateers are people funding their rallying via their own businesses and have just had to pull their horns in. The rest are dependent on either the motor manufacturers or other big sponsors, all of whom are suffering.

A local outfit who specialised in rally prep have gone out of business simply because no-one was spending any money on rally cars any more.

[Derek Smith]

fatboy69 said:

Oh yeah. Tony Pond. A true legend. His exploits in the TR7 V8 were fabulous. As were his drives in that bloody geat big Rover SD1 V8.

Truly the stuff of legends. Long gone & greatly missed.

I drove overnight to see him in the 6R4 in one special stage on the Sunday. I was half way round the first stage, standing with a group of a dozen or so Pond fans, and he managed to crash out of the rally before he got to us. I then had to drive all the way home.

It's no good blaming the recession for the lack of support for WRC. It's like blaming the iceburg for the Titanic. The bloke in charge is there to steer the sport around such difficulties. Mosley has virtually ignored WRC for years and the recession only speeded up what had become inevitable under his control. The ACO manages to keep a full entry list for Le Mans while the FIA controlled WSC wallows in obscurity.