World Rallycross Championship 2020

[tbtstt]

Yes, the current season is yet to finish, but an (almost) full calendar announcement today, so seemed about the right time for a new thread.

World Rallycross 2020:

[BertMk2]

I'm assuming that the July round is going to be Silverstone? The SpeedMachine website says 2020 ticket info 'coming soon' and it still has WRX branding on there so 2+2 = July Silverstone?

[geordiecriag101]

It cant be the July date as that is the confirmed F1 date for Silverstone. I Pray to god that it has died at Silverstone, a pure money grabbing exercises at at track no one likes.

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

I'm assuming that the July round is going to be Silverstone? The SpeedMachine website says 2020 ticket info 'coming soon' and it still has WRX branding on there so 2+2 = July Silverstone?

That date in July is the F1 weekend at Silverstone and I can't imagine World RX being there the same weekend?

More likely to be the September "TBC" date? But then I wonder if September is Riga, with the financial issue causing that to be a TBC?

Originally Posted by geordiecriag101

It cant be the July date as that is the confirmed F1 date for Silverstone. I Pray to god that it has died at Silverstone, a pure money grabbing exercises at at track no one likes.

Silverstone was far from a great circuit, but it gave us a UK round and, for that reason alone, it is a shame if it's gone...

...part of me hopes that one of the "TBC" is Lydden, though I think that is highly unlikely.

[tbtstt]

Forgive the double post, but the latest article on the Autosport site...

https://www.autosport.com/wrx/news/1...trois-rivieres

...suggests that World RX definitely won't be in the UK this year and confirms that the new circuit at the Nurburgring will be based in the Mullenbachsleife area.*

[hoffman66]

I doubt it is going to be in the UK.

It might be Silverstone, but I doubt Speedmachine or whatever it was has made much money, wasn't the whole thing funded and generated by WRX and their commercial people? I would guess even the track might have been part funded by them?

It was built to fail in my eyes, too dusty, too small.

I just doubt Lydden, even that place is a shadow of its former self and is nearly all hard surface now.

[geordiecriag101]

Yea it is a shame there will be no UK round, Lydden was great but when you consider that I live 30 miles from Silverstone, it was cheaper for me to get the train then bus to Brands Hatch for the FIA Masters Historic and back again for same price as on the gate ticket price to Speedmachine! That's why i never went. Hopefully either World or Euro are back soon. On the plus side, at least Hell & Holjes have survived for now.

[crossfades]

Originally Posted by geordiecriag101

Yea it is a shame there will be no UK round, Lydden was great but when you consider that I live 30 miles from Silverstone, it was cheaper for me to get the train then bus to Brands Hatch for the FIA Masters Historic and back again for same price as on the gate ticket price to Speedmachine! That's why i never went. Hopefully either World or Euro are back soon. On the plus side, at least Hell & Holjes have survived for now.

Both Höljes and Hell got four years left on their respective contracts, although Hell have been struggling financially. Recently the head of the organisation and other key people went to Oslo seeking 5 million NOK in state funds, or ca 488 000€ in current value.

[kurski]

Originally Posted by tbtstt

More likely to be the September "TBC" date? But then I wonder if September is Riga, with the financial issue causing that to be a TBC?

Some rumor was that WorldRX could head to Russia (Igora Drive?), choice could also Kymi Ring.

[BertMk2]

Ah - hadn't checked the F1 calendar

Looks like no UK round then - I guess the speedmachine website will just die and it'll never be mentioned again......

[S griffin]

Well that’s a shame if there us no UK round. Hopefully the Nurburgring course will be good

[1975DCS]

So basically the greatest Rallycross countries get original Rallycross tracks and others, ehh, a few ...

[crossfades]

Originally Posted by 1975DCS

So basically the greatest Rallycross countries get original Rallycross tracks and others, ehh, a few ...

There are only four though. Höljes got great attendance and is pretty much allowed to stay because of it, Loheac was basically just brought back due to its attendance and Hell is the only place in Norway they can compete. Montalegre I dont know about but they also got decent attendance.

[tbtstt]

Bakkerud and Doran answer some questions...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGOn4aLUmPw

...nothing confirmed for 2020, but seems like they want to come back.

[tbtstt]

Forgive the double post but, in a interview during the South Africa qualifying four coverage, they stated that the two TBA rounds for 2020 are one old venue and one new venue: Russia and Latvia?

[CS1]

So what’s the rumours and predictions for next year?

[tbtstt]

It seemed highly unlikely, but latest article on Motorsport.com confirms that there definitely won't be a UK World RX round in 2020:

https://www.motorsport.com/world-rx/...T4vskfueOye9L4

Disappointing, but at least a return to the UK isn't ruled out.

[hoffman66]

The utter stupidity of a man like Bellamy beggars belief.

It was never economically viable because you scared so many people off with the prices you quoted, and you can see from this reply that he was not interested in fans, he wanted festival type people, no-one is going to go unless you give them exactly what you want, it was priced as a festival, not a race event, was a stupid idea from the start really. They need transport links, camping decently priced and better bands, they got a few of these things but not all, hence no-one one bothered.

I wonder why that might be eh Paul.

Fair play to Silverstone, they saw through it and made IMG hire the whole venue, they made their money, let them build in a place that would never affect the day to day running and lost nothing really.

Also, isn't losing Canada and COTA make this is a non world championship now?

[SnoodyMcFlude]

Originally Posted by hoffman66

Also, isn't losing Canada and COTA make this is a non world championship now?

Abu Dhabi, Europe, South Africa. 3 continents make a championship AUI.

It's a slap in the face to say that you need to get people through the gates to make an event like Speedmachine to work. Lydden got people through the gates* and was working, without all the sideshow. It seems that the bloke doesn't understand that rallycross is a great spectacle in itself, concentrate on that and the people will come.


*getting them back out through the gate is a bit more of an issue

[SnoodyMcFlude]

Originally Posted by tbtstt

Forgive the double post but, in a interview during the South Africa qualifying four coverage, they stated that the two TBA rounds for 2020 are one old venue and one new venue: Russia and Latvia?

Given the September date, Latvia would be my guess for the 'old' venue. New one? Well we know it won't be Spa, Barcelona, Silverstone, Nurburgring, COTA or Abu Dhabi. So that leaves:
Albert Park
Bahrain
Shanghai
Monaco
Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve
Paul Ricard
A1 Ring
Hungaroring
Monza
Singapore
Sochi
Suzuka
Mexico City
Sao Paolo

Think we can discount the flyaway races given what Bellamy said about Canada, and probably Monaco and any country with an existing round, so that leaves the F1 tracks of: Austria, Hungary, Russia, Italy.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by hoffman66

The utter stupidity of a man like Bellamy beggars belief.

It was never economically viable because you scared so many people off with the prices you quoted, and you can see from this reply that he was not interested in fans, he wanted festival type people, no-one is going to go unless you give them exactly what you want, it was priced as a festival, not a race event, was a stupid idea from the start really. They need transport links, camping decently priced and better bands, they got a few of these things but not all, hence no-one one bothered.

I wonder why that might be eh Paul.

Originally Posted by SnoodyMcFlude

It's a slap in the face to say that you need to get people through the gates to make an event like Speedmachine to work. Lydden got people through the gates and was working, without all the sideshow. It seems that the bloke doesn't understand that rallycross is a great spectacle in itself, concentrate on that and the people will come.

So to summarise - Paul Bellamy is surprised that Rallycross fans don't want to pay inflated prices for an event that includes lots of crap they're not interested in and music fans (or at least fans of the acts they booked) don't want to go to a one night event with a large motorsport element attached that's in the middle of nowhere.

A fairly basic lesson in "knowing your market" would have sorted that out pretty quickly. Unfortunately IMG aren't interested in existing rallycross fans - they want to push it to the yoof market (hence all the added crap to appeal to the young 'uns). The problem is they've alienated existing fans and haven't attracted enough new fans - so they've basically buggered the whole thing up.

[S griffin]

Shame no British round, but there’ll be plenty of other things to keep us interested

[hoffman66]

I think if you read between the lines of the statement.

Bellamy was not at all interested in racing fans, he wanted car fans/families, and they also tried to appeal to the festival market, but also it seemed they had to hire the venue for the weekend, that must have cost tens of thousands, so that meant they could not get decent bands in, meaning it was unlikely to appeal to the festival types.

It does explain the high ticket prices initially, and the desperate prices later on.

As you say bert, a totally unresearched and very poorly thought out idea.

You would think a company with decades of experience in events would know that...

[mivec]

As the 2 TBC races are for super1600 also, they should be in Europe.
Could the september date be a stand alone event in Germany

[SnoodyMcFlude]

Originally Posted by hoffman66

I think if you read between the lines of the statement.

Bellamy was not at all interested in racing fans, he wanted car fans/families, and they also tried to appeal to the festival market, but also it seemed they had to hire the venue for the weekend, that must have cost tens of thousands, so that meant they could not get decent bands in, meaning it was unlikely to appeal to the festival types.

It does explain the high ticket prices initially, and the desperate prices later on.

As you say bert, a totally unresearched and very poorly thought out idea.

You would think a company with decades of experience in events would know that...

Indeed. He may not have wanted racing fans but he needs them. To entice families etc the sport needs to build, he can't turn it into a sensation over night.

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