What Should Happen Next

[egor]

What should happen to rallying/WRC in my opinion.

Having read thet variuos threads like "Is Rallying in Trouble" etc, rallying could be in trouble very soon, but I don't think so. There is allways some one out there with enough money to have a better car than the next person and have the money to compete.

I remember competing in a single venue event at TY CROES and some guy turned up in a full blown WRC Subaru, my little Astra was not much competition for him:confused:, so as you would think I let him beat me on that occasion.

But if you want to cut costs, reduce speeds, hopefully have a knock effect on the safety of events and maybe keep people on a level playing field at all levels, National, International, WRC what ever the event, here's my ideas.

1) Ban all gravel crews (including asphalt rallies).
2) Ban pre event rece's.
3) Ban pacenotes, only use maps.
4) Ban any form of gearbox except the standard "H" pattern box.
5) Only allow a certain number of service vehicles, none of them bigger than a small van, to limit the amount of spares.


Some of my ideas, I'm sure some people will not like them but this is what I think could reduce costs drasticaly, and reduce speeds without having to alter the current WRC cars a great deal.

The first four items would reduce speeds. But I hear you say it may increase the risk of an accident - I doubt it but if someone did crash they would be going slower, so less risk of injury and an increase in the odds of being able to carry on in the event. The "H" pattern gearbox is in my opinion a key part in reducing speeds as drivers would have to go back to driving with one hand as Marcus did on the Network Q this year, and he had a sequential gearbox but still found it strange to go back to using the gearstick again.

Well thats my four peneth worth. Egor.......

[ss_collins]

aye aye.

[gazzarallie]

and how booring rallying would become, this is what we dont want, goin back in time. If you wanted rallying to be a future sport you wouldnt be saying all this

[egor]

Why do you say that, at this moment in time it is going more towards a single venue format, with using the same stages time and time again.
A central service area more like an F1 paddock than that of a rally, cars which only last three events, then as far as the team is concerned have had it for competition use by them.

I do agree it would be a step backward but, if as someone said on another thread that if we start to have accident's like we did in the Group B days the FIA will do something drastict again as they did then by banning them from international competition. You know as well as I do that 16 years after banning Group B, you can still see 6R4's winning rallies against WRC based cars and the safety of these cars has not changed that much in 16 years(group B cars).

Then but more now events are becoming much easier for the driver/team, thus making the events a lot faster and thus more dangerous for all those involved, with the d***head spectators standing in places you would not think of standing in a million years.

These are only my opinions what do you think?

Oh and on the point of gravel cars, on the recent Network Q I was stood on one stage when they came through, one behind each other looking like a bunch of kids having a lot of fun with their big toys that a rich uncle had given them.
To me if I was paying for these cars I would have to ask do we need to put three cars one behind each other(I mean within 50 foot of each other) through a stage to tell each driver the same info, if at all.

[Asp]

I don't like the pacenotes idea. I say that pace notes can and should be used - but from the map, not any recce runs.

I'm going to agree and saw that I do have safety concerns - the first 3 ideas all remove and ideas of how the course is. I'd agree in theory to any one, maybe even 2 - but not all.

[egor]

Pacenotes do help with safety, but the effect they have is that a driver will know exactly what is ahead of him/her and can then push that little bit more.
Why I say ban them is to go back to the map format, which would you approach faster?

1) 100 meduim left cut to 90 right opens (pacenote)
OR
2) 100 medium left maybe to 90 right (from the map not so much info)

If you ban pacenotes you would not need three days recce prior to an event, which would cut down on costs aswell.

[Lee Janotta]

Ban pacenotes in favor of maps? Possibly...

I feel like I'm beating a dead horse, but I want to see the WRC class scrapped more than anything else... We need to go back to Group A, or perhaps even Group N. Lightly modified production vehicles.

WRC is big enough now that manufacturers _want_ to be involved, and it's more likely now than ever that Mitsubishi, Subaru, Audi, Ford, and perhaps even Honda and Opel to compete with all-wheel drive, turbocharged high-performance editions of their small compacts or sports coupes.

We also need _more_ multi-surface rallies, not fewer! Rally Deutschland was the best of the year! And we do need restrictions on service and support for the competitors, it's a big cost, and is one of the main reasons that only manufacturers can really compete.

And, if we bring down the per-car cost, we could see more entries, which is great for everyone!

And what's most important in the long term, I believe, is to sever control of rallying from the World Motorsport Council, which is _far_ too focused on Formula 1 and safety at all costs!

[egor]

And what's most important in the long term, I believe, is to sever control of rallying from the World Motorsport Council, which is _far_ too focused on Formula 1 and safety at all costs!

I agree with this statement entirely, they do not have the best interest of the sport and the fan as the highest priority. They want to make it very elitist with only the top people involved, which is very good if you have a bottomless pit of money, but these days people are having trouble finding such pits.

We also need _more_ multi-surface rallies, not fewer! Rally Deutschland was the best of the year! And we do need restrictions on service and support for the competitors, it's a big cost, and is one of the main reasons that only manufacturers can really compete.

Yes we need better rallies, Germany was a good rally this year and thier national championship has some good rounds.
The Network Q or as it was called the Lombard Rac had a good cross section of surfaces, although the sunday stately home stages were called Mickey Mouse stages, atleast they offered something different and they were very popular with the fans. This also kept people away from the forest stages so the traffic congestion was no where near as bad as it is now, and I don't recall a stage being cancelled due to spectator problems.

I believe that running a stage twice increases the chance of a stage being cancelled, due to the number of people trying to get into one stage instead of two.

[Speeddemon555]

The FIA should put a date for the U.S. rally and the points system is a plus.

[Lee Janotta]

Honestly, I don't think a US rally's in the cards anymore... Our domestic series, the SCCA ProRally series, frankly, is falling apart, and I don't think they even have any events currently up to international grade... There are no provisions in the current class regs for WRC or Super 1600 cars... And with Hyundai's pullout, Subaru is really the _only_ manufacturer supporting the series.

There was a plan in the early 1990s to move US rallying to the IMSA sanction, rather than the SCCA, which is our national FIA-recognized sanction (they barely won a war with USAC for that right back in the '60s... And were victorious because of the snobbish wine & cheese-set members, and mostly European cars in competition, as opposed to the thriving but oval-based USAC scene). Perhaps that idea should be revived, as the SCCA leadership, frankly, can't do a damn thing right (too busy building their shiny new corporate headquarters in Kansas City).

[racer69]

I'd vote for leaving the pacenotes in there.

As for the cars, give them a Group A level of modification, and ban the 4WD. 4WD models can compete, just make them convert to RWD.