Rally Sweden not even a mention on BBC web

[moribund]

"Motorsport" doesn't even feature on the BBC sports homepage, and when you dig deep enough to find it you see the rally section has not been updated since god knows when. Rally Sweden is not even mentioned at the moment.

Sad for the WRC and sad for motorsport in general IMO. Other than F1, us motorsport fans might as well not exist in London media land, no matter how many of us there are. Like Le Mans for example - 60,000 brits catch a ferry to France to watch the race and the result won't even make the 10 o'clock news when a Brit wins like in 2008. BBC3 and BBC4 would kill for a national audience of 60k for a programme

[C Lee Farquar]

I share your sentiment. When the Dakar was cancelled I was in Spain. Front page news, with four further pages. The hotel also had the Daily Mail, no mention even with the terrorism link.

[Scooby_snax]

moribund said:

"Motorsport" doesn't even feature on the BBC sports homepage, and when you dig deep enough to find it you see the rally section has not been updated since god knows when. Rally Sweden is not even mentioned at the moment.

Sad for the WRC and sad for motorsport in general IMO. Other than F1, us motorsport fans might as well not exist in London media land, no matter how many of us there are. Like Le Mans for example - 60,000 brits catch a ferry to France to watch the race and the result won't even make the 10 o'clock news when a Brit wins like in 2008. BBC3 and BBC4 would kill for a national audience of 60k for a programme

There was an article about Kimi in the News of the World though I think their interview was garnered from watching Motors TV

[stephen300o]

It's also dead here on PH, what would need to change for people to watch?
I can't see any contenders apart from Hirvonen and Loeb, but am interested to see Kimi's progress.

[andy97]

e-mail this chap at the BBC:

[e-mail]

I think he's head of Sport or Head of Sports news. I e-mailed him last year about coverage of the Rally GB round. I got a reply but obviously nothing much has canged. Need more people to e-mail to buyild up a head of steam.

[Parabola]

Slightly OT, but I'm also always disappointed by how little coverage Le Mans gets from the UK media. Especially considering how many people actually make the journey to France to see it.

[Steamer]

stephen300o said:

It's also dead here on PH, what would need to change for people to watch?
I can't see any contenders apart from Hirvonen and Loeb, but am interested to see Kimi's progress.

It was on Dave last night (sorry I should have mentioned it).

Kimi doing not as well as I hoped - at the moment he is new nickname is the 'snowman' - not the 'Iceman'.

He did finish though! But right down the field. Early days though.

[cptsideways]

Steamer said:

stephen300o said:

It's also dead here on PH, what would need to change for people to watch?
I can't see any contenders apart from Hirvonen and Loeb, but am interested to see Kimi's progress.

It was on Dave last night (sorry I should have mentioned it).

Kimi doing not as well as I hoped - at the moment he is new nickname is the 'snowman' - not the 'Iceman'.

He did finish though! But right down the field. Early days though.

He's getting quite good with a shovel though

[Mazda Baiter]

stephen300o said:

It's also dead here on PH, what would need to change for people to watch?.

Obviously the coverage needs to change as it is dire at the moment. The cars are not as interesting anymore since you can't buy the direct descendant in your local showroom.

I reckon 100 models to be built for homologation with the same engine, gearbox, 4WD system, cage, bodywork etc and 500 models with just the bodywork and the 4WD system.

Stop limiting the engines. The cars now have too much traction for the power they produce. Let engines be based upon the standard block, heads, turbo, crank, rods, pistons and valves (for the 100 homologation models, the block and heads have to be based on a standard road car engine produced in Xthousands per year.) 500-600hp should be quite easily obtainable and reliable.

Get the rally reps popular again and that is half the problem solved.

Get the Rally GB to be on closed roads as well as forest stages. Make it a proper National event. (Cat and Fiddle stage anyone? Hyde park special stage? Lap of Silverstone GP track? Lap of the Nordschliefe for Rally Germany?)

Bring back the Safari Rally

That should ensure a lot more interest.

Not rocket science is it? I wonder what Napoleon will come up with?

[stephen300o]

Steamer said:

stephen300o said:

It's also dead here on PH, what would need to change for people to watch?
I can't see any contenders apart from Hirvonen and Loeb, but am interested to see Kimi's progress.

It was on Dave last night (sorry I should have mentioned it).

Kimi doing not as well as I hoped - at the moment he is new nickname is the 'snowman' - not the 'Iceman'.

He did finish though! But right down the field. Early days though.

Marcus Gronholm didn't fair much better.
The inexperience in recovering from an off killed off Kimi's rally, but still managed a top six on one of the later stages.

[Mr E]

Mazda Baiter said:

Obviously the coverage needs to change as it is dire at the moment. The cars are not as interesting anymore since you can't buy the direct descendant in your local showroom.

I reckon 100 models to be built for homologation with the same engine, gearbox, 4WD system, cage, bodywork etc and 500 models with just the bodywork and the 4WD system.

I miss homolgation specials. However, the cars are changing radically soon.

Cars will be based on Super2000 spec with some changes. Much simpler (and generic) 4wd systems. Idea is to make the sport a lot cheaper and encourage multiple manufacturers to compete.

I will always miss 500+ BHP quattros screaming through the forests. A Fiat Punto just isn't the same.

[Parabola]

Mr E said:

multiple manufacturers

I really think this is key to getting more people interested again.

[AndrewW-G]

Mazda Baiter said:

Sensible stuff

Can you really see the ecolentleists and green sympathisers in Westminster going for something that would promote industry, sport and tourism in the UK?

Besides, it would have to be entirely run around London if they were involved, as we all know nothing worthwhile exists north or west from Watford Gap

[BBS-LM]

moribund said:

"Motorsport" doesn't even feature on the BBC sports homepage, and when you dig deep enough to find it you see the rally section has not been updated since god knows when. Rally Sweden is not even mentioned at the moment.

Sad for the WRC and sad for motorsport in general IMO. Other than F1, us motorsport fans might as well not exist in London media land, no matter how many of us there are. Like Le Mans for example - 60,000 brits catch a ferry to France to watch the race and the result won't even make the 10 o'clock news when a Brit wins like in 2008. BBC3 and BBC4 would kill for a national audience of 60k for a programme

Well you cannot blame the BBC to mush, the WRC has been a complete joke for the past 5 years now, and Dave TV are doing a great job of killing it of completely.

[Mazda Baiter]

AndrewW-G said:

Mazda Baiter said:

Sensible stuff

Can you really see the ecolentleists and green sympathisers in Westminster going for something that would promote industry, sport and tourism in the UK?



Besides, it would have to be entirely run around London if they were involved, as we all know nothing worthwhile exists north or west from Watford Gap

Thanks.

Therein lies the problem. Political bullst. We wouldn't want to create/sustain jobs in remote areas whilst introducing millions of pounds of tourism money which would be recurring year on year.

See the fox hunting ban and 2012 Olympics for ironic examples. Killing the local economy, and spunking Billions up the wall for 1 month of "entertainment" (including the Paralympics) respectively.

UK politics are a joke.

[Ranger 6]

Parabola said:

Mr E said:

multiple manufacturers

I really think this is key to getting more people interested again.

this is the key. Mazda baiter made a point about rally reps, but that's like saying we should bring back the Mk2 for WRC. The world has moved on and rally reps are now only relevant for production based competition. With the move to S2000 based WRC regs the new cars are the Fabia, Fiesta, 207, Punto, etc etc, so there we have a few more mfrs in and you'll see the tie-in with graphics and special editions, not 4wd specials.

Back to the point of media coverage - I think there's always been a gulf between F1 and the rest of motorsport. Think back to when the RAC was britains biggest single spectator event - hundreds of thousands out on the stages, but not much more than three nights of William Woolard and a back page mention in the Telegraph. What we do need is a 'hero' the likes of Mcrae or Burns, someone who can fight at the very top level and has the character to match.

I've slated Block, but his youtube profile may just be the sort of draw that will bring in the figures to raise the media profile of the sport.

[zac510]

Funny that they had to delay stages this year because of too many spectators.

The only place that the unpopularity of WRC exists seems to be amongst keyboard warriors pining for the old Group B days.

[Mazda Baiter]

Ranger 6 said:

Parabola said:

Mr E said:

multiple manufacturers

I really think this is key to getting more people interested again.

this is the key. Mazda baiter made a point about rally reps, but that's like saying we should bring back the Mk2 for WRC. The world has moved on and rally reps are now only relevant for production based competition. With the move to S2000 based WRC regs the new cars are the Fabia, Fiesta, 207, Punto, etc etc, so there we have a few more mfrs in and you'll see the tie-in with graphics and special editions, not 4wd specials.

You may have misinterpereted my point there. It is not akin to putting a MK2 in the WRC. I meant along the lines of the Subaru and Mitsubishi toys of the '90s being as close as you could get to the Rally cars. Would Subaru have sold half as many Imprezas if they hadn't been rallying. The Homologation specials that I was talking about would still provide a foot in the door for privateers to knock on the door of the WRC.

Ranger6 said:

Back to the point of media coverage - I think there's always been a gulf between F1 and the rest of motorsport. Think back to when the RAC was britains biggest single spectator event - hundreds of thousands out on the stages, but not much more than three nights of William Woolard and a back page mention in the Telegraph. What we do need is a 'hero' the likes of Mcrae or Burns, someone who can fight at the very top level and has the character to match.



I've slated Block, but his youtube profile may just be the sort of draw that will bring in the figures to raise the media profile of the sport.

Good point well made. Maybe televising rallycross and other grassroots sport (bbc3, bbc4, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 et al) would catch peoples interest.

[Ahonen]

zac510 said:

Funny that they had to delay stages this year because of too many spectators.

The only place that the unpopularity of WRC exists seems to be amongst keyboard warriors pining for the old Group B days.

Sweden's always popular, as are all Nordic events. Plus this year the Raikkonen factor had drawn a lot of extra Finns over.

Rallying is nothing like as popular as it used to be, regardless of what you think about us older types. Events are concentrated into much smaller areas these days.

I remember Turini in the '80s: it was completely and utterly mental. You couldn't believe so many people would stand around in the freezing cold for that long, just to watch some cars go by.

I'm not a 'keyboard warrior', just someone who thinks WRC events need more than 55 cars and 2.5 days of stages.

[zac510]

Yes I agree those numbers are inadequate but I just don't seem to see it being as bad as it is portrayed by forum posters.
I vaguely they had some big crowd numbers in South America too recently.