Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
A special kind of silly season regarding the 2011 WRC calendar is going on right now. After Autosport revelaved the 2011 calendar proposed (according to Autosports sources) by rights-owner North One Sport to FIA, the speculations from the media and the moves from various organizers are virtually flooding us. Rally Ireland came first saying that they didn’t get an event but would continue to work closely to the FIA for any other, future, opportunities. Probably they had really strong underhand indications that they wasn’t even close – since they gave up without fight before the formal decision has even been made…
Now, even Rally NZ seems to have understood the truth. Chris Carr, chairman of the rally, says that “it’s always fire behind the smoke you see”. Interesting enough, Neil Allport, former NZ Rally Champion, says that lack of money is behind the decision and that the government should put the adequate money in. Strange, since NZ from what I know always have been backed by nothing else than a loooot of government money… However, I can understand they’re disappointed – and I am too. NZ is a traditional rally with wonderful views and an exotic kind of environment… The thing is probably that their market is too small.
The big fail in this discussion may be Rally Norway. They’ve made two good rallies – but they’ve also done mistakes. They have overestimated themselves big time (and that’s their biggest mistake if you ask me). I remember their plans for 2007 that I once got presented – and it was utopia. They had got quite a lot of government money, but they also calculated huge incomes from spectators, sponsoring, etc.The figures was almost 10 times the corresponding numbers of Rally Sweden. Norway did all kinds of extravagancies that year, and of course they blew it totally from a financial point of view – no matter any government money. From what I know, they lowered their calculations drastically for their next event, but obviously not enough. There was less delight of the news from the public in Norway in 2009, and the reports I got from competitors in the rally was that there was really few spectators.
No matter the economics, you can’t take from the Norweigans that they have arranged two really good events – with the media coverage in the 2007 event being my favourite point. Their problem now is unstable economy, the fact that they’re not a traditional event and the fact that they’re running on snow. But maybe even management!? They have always been so overconfident. Now it seems like their managers expected Norway to be first reserve for 2011 – but according to the latest news Poland (that has been completely silent so far!) is the first reserve. Erik Veiby, chairman of the Rally Norway board, says this is just speculations and of course it is, but honestly… I agree that nothing is decided and that things can for sure change – but it’s obvious to everyone that Rally Norway is now in deep shit. I bet that (no matter what Erik Veiby says!) they are now working hard with lobbying on all kind of levels and trying to get to know why they’re out of the calendar and how they can change it.
The approach from organisers struggling to find the grip needed to stay in the calendar is starting to look like an interesting game. The silly thing is that all this started a few years ago with the FIA letting people “buy” candidate events to the left and right by just paying a big fee to them (read more in my post on the rotation system from last year). After the organisers have paid those fees, they of course expected to get an event for it! So, FIA made this stupid rotating calendar and everyone got their events. Now, they have realized the obvious – that it doesn’t work. And many of the payers (and some others) stand there without their events again like they never had one… It’s stupid multiplied by a thousand.
No matter what, I’m looking forward to see how this game continues – and I hope (but doubt – Abu Dhabi on special built roads, come on!?!) it ends up with the best events!
Tags: 2011, autosport, calendar, chris carr, erik veiby, events, fia, neil allport, north one sport, rally, rally ireland, rally new zealand, rally norway, rally poland, rotation, WRC
Posted in General, Rally promotion and media coverage, Silly season, WRC | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
There has been recce going on today for Rally Sweden, and the impressions from the drivers seems to be varied. Home driver Patrik Sandell concluded the first day with the quote “a lot of snow but no ice = perfect for me!” while Norweigan driver Anders Gröndal has written on his blog that the rally will be “many of the stages will be more of a gravel rally than a winter rally”.
Gröndal’s reaction is interesting. Some drivers seems to be complaining about the conditions – and I understand if they have problems driving on snow. It’s complicated – for sure – and it should be! I’m sure I would be quite concerned if I were to drive a rally on it. However, Gröndal’s quote must be some other kind of problem, possibly some kind of overheating in his brain?! 
He has been driving a full day in the forests with around half a meter of snow all around him – and he can still claim that it’s not a winter rally? Come on, no matter if you reach the gravel – it’s still very much winter and wintry conditions, dear Gröndal. I’ll explain why…
So, here comes a short tutorial about the difference between snow, ice and water – dedicated to Anders Gröndal:
- Snow is a type of precipation consisting of crystalline water ice (Full definition is on Wikipedia). In it’s fully frozen state snow feels really dry.
- When snow melts, it results in fluid water. Quite logically, since it’s small ice crystals. This means, that when it rains on snow or when temperatures raise above zero – the snow on the road (since we’re talking rally here) gets softer and melts to water from the top.
- If the temperature goes down below zero again, the partially melted snow layer will freeze again. The parts of the snow that is fully or partially melted will form a layer of solid ice on the road. This is the ice Gröndal is talking about – and missing.
- If you’ve read all those three points, I guess you don’t find it very difficult. It’s like the very, very basics of winter weather and surfaces. And therefore it’s hard to understand that Gröndal doesn’t understand it. However, to call the current conditions (that for sure will include gravel after the loose snow is swept away) something else than proper winter conditions is just pure bullshit – and now you know why: The ice layer Gröndal is talking about is nice, for sure. But it doesn’t come from winter conditions – it comes from the _lack_ of winter conditions sometimes earlier in time…
So, for everyone of you coming to Sweden. Be cool. Gröndal will have to struggle if he isn’t good enough to drive on proper winter conditions (!) – but you will have a wonderful time with a lot of loose, cold snow out in the forests. It has just never melted since the winter started in early December – but to me that’s more a good sign than a bad!?!
Enjoy!
By the way, to Anders Gröndal: You don’t need to thank me for this guide. Be my guest! And if you still don’t understand – go to some local gas station here in Sweden and buy yourself a “glass” (icecream). Bring it into your cottage or hotel room and see what happens after a while. When it’s half frozen… Go out again and see what happens. Tada! It’s like magic!
Tags: 2010, anders gröndal, conditions, gravel, ice, melt, rally sweden, snow, weather
Posted in General, WRC | No Comments »
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
The Svully Rally Dahbi in Norway this weekend will be one of the main events for many drivers in their testing for Rally Sweden. With extremely short transport distances compared to the amount of SS the event will be cheap and effective – and with the key people from Rally Norway’s organisation in the lead, such a rally is almost a given success. Among the entries are Petter Solberg, Henning Solberg, Marcus Grönholm, Patrik Sandell and Andreas Mikkelsen.
A strange thing though is that PG Andersson has been named as an entrant in many places, including on http://www.svullyrallydahbi.no, that seems like the rally’s official website. However, PG has told Swedish media that he will be a zero car driver in Swedish Bergslagsrallyt the very same day, that he will not start in Norway and that he has never entered the event (and don’t know why he has been named as an entrant). Strange?!?!
It will be nice to see how the event will be when it’s run. And while we’re waiting for that to happen, I’ll keep on wondering about the owners of the rally. Dahbi makes me think of Abu Dhabi, a name that has been appearing often in the World Rally Championship since a few years. And through a few questions on Google, you can find out that there is a British company registered in London called “Svully Rally Dahbi Limited”. And, if I don’t get it totally wrong (which I may do…) – this British company owns 100% of the stocks in a Norweigan company, led by Even Wiger (m.d. of Rally Norway), with the very same name. It’s not a big thing, but I just wonder why there is a company registered in the UK at all, if the owners would be just Norweigans?! Since I love to speculate, I now guess that some other guys are involved in this as owners, potentially some rich men from Abu Dhabi… However, if so – one question remains. Why can’t they spell Dahbi correct? That seems quite embarassing…
End of speculation. Over and out!
Tags: abu dhabi, andreas mikkelsen, bergslagsrallyt, british, henning solberg, ltd, marcus grönholm, patrik sandell, petter solberg, pg andersson, svully rally dahbi, svully rally dahbi limited, svully rally dhabi, uk, united kingdom
Posted in General, General rallying, National Rallying, Rally testing, WRC | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
French magazine AutoHebdo publishes images that they claim are the new Citroen DS3 1.6T – the new car that will lead Citroen’s WRC challenge from 2011 and on. As you probably know, the WRC will have a new main class from next year – setting aside the old WRC cars replacing then with the 1.6T class derived from Super2000.
I must say the car looks really nice, and since Citroen don’t use to make bad cars – I guess it may be a real blast next year. Now, let’s hope the rest of the manufacturers are up to the challenge!
Go to the AutoHebdo article (three spreads forward)
Tags: 1.6t, citroen ds3, ds3 1.6t, ds3 wrc, image, images, photo, photos, super2000
Posted in General, General rallying, WRC | 2 Comments »
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
Since many people seem to have missed the fame of Ken Block and his Gymkhana stunt videos, I decided to post the Gymkhana II here. It’s not really rallying – and of course he has done a lot of tries, but at least it’s a rally car and it’s still quite impressive. Also, it’s a sign of how to do successful marketing with rallying – this video was ranked number four in the Viral Video Chart 2009 by well-known Advertising Age. Here we go:
Tags: 2010, dc shoes, ford, ford focus wrc, gymkhana 2, gymkhana II, gymkhana two, ken block, marketing, monster world rally team, rally, Video, viral, WRC
Posted in General, Rally promotion and media coverage, Video, WRC | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
The confirmation of Ken Block for the World Rally Championship is interesting – and it’s really good news. One thing is for sure, Ken will have a difficult time in the beginning, as the World Rally Championship is on a completely different level compared to national American rallying. However, talent pays off and if Ken has it in him, he can be as good as anyone else. There are quite a few drivers in the championship that has started off with very little experience – and by running the WRC and the Rally America Block will gain a lot of experience during this year. I think the star duel of Block vs. Räikkönen will be an interesting thing to follow this year as they come from different backgrounds but both lacks the larger experience of rallying on a World Rally Championship level. Maybe Block will have a small advantage, but I’m not sure…
No matter the results, the addition of Ken Block and the Monster WRT is a huge boost for the championship. Ken is a superstar in America, which is a very important market for car manufacturers as well as for most global brands. Rallying has always been seen as a European sport over there (Block also says that himself to USA Today), and with a boosted interest there – doors may open up for wider US TV-coverage, new investors in the sport and a better reputation of the championship world-wide. Also, if Block stays in the championship and if maybe even Pastrana joins, I would be surprised if we didn’t get a US round of the championship within five years.
Besides that, I’m quite sure that the Monster WRT will uppen the level of the marketing and PR connected to the World Rally Championship. I’m not a big fan of many US motorsports, with Nascar as a good example, but the skills in PR and marketing is better in the US than anywhere else. Already today with the launch you can notice that everything is prepared; presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube (with a launch clip!), branded clothes and connections to all important sponsors. To underline the difference, just read the main goal of the Monster WRT:
“To become the most visible team in the sport, both through our efforts in racing and creative marketing”
Some people may consider this goal bad as it puts the sports performance a little bit to the side, but hey? Anyone that has been involved in rallying on a higher level knows that the money in the sport (which is necessary for the championship to exist) comes from sponsors that aren’t in the sport just for fun – they wanna make business out of it. So in fact nothing has changed, it’s just a more straightforward way of seeing it.
As a conclusion, I’m really excited to see Block and Räikkönen in the World Rally Championship. Core rally drivers like Sebastien Loeb, Marcus Grönholm and the other guys must exist and will always exist – but to broaden the view and get superstars from other disciplines and championships into the sport will just improve the championship and also create better potential for the core guys to become big stars. With a huge boost in star quality and a new formula (WRC1.6T) coming up for 2011, I can’t wait to see the future of the World Rally Championship seen over a few years. If you as me, I think it’s brighter than ever!
Tags: 2010, 2011, facebook, ken block, kimi räikkönen, monster world rally team, monster wrt, nascar, pr, twitter, us, wrc1.6t, youtube
Posted in General, General rallying, Rally promotion and media coverage, WRC | No Comments »
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
I want to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Soon, Maximum Attack has existed for one year, and even since the last half of the year hasn’t been very active until recently – it’s been a good one. Now, let’s hope for an even better 2010. IRC are full of interesting competitors, and the WRC Cup/S-WRC along with Kimi Räikkönen’s comeback makes up for some interesting stuff in the WRC too.
Until Rally Sweden starts – better than ever – in the beginning of February, why not stick with this video of Henning Solberg? I was standing in exactly that turn, really close to the camera that took this pictures – and even though accidents are never fun – it was a fabulous example of the thrill you can get to see in a WRC event.
By the way… Here is my own (still) footage of the event:
Tags: 2006, accident, henning solberg, merry christmas, rally sweden, team expert, uddeholm swedish rally
Posted in General, Video, WRC | No Comments »
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
Since a few days, the french site PlaneteMarcus has published Google Earth map files for the IRC Rallye Monte Carlo 2010. What a nice christmas present, isn’t it? Maps are also available for use on the iPhone – which is even better. However, the iPhone version – created by StageTimes – cost’s a little.
Check the maps out here: http://planetemarcus.free.fr/googleearthmap.htm (link to iPhone app to the left on the page)
Tags: google earth, iphone, IRC, maps, rally, WRC
Posted in General, IRC, Rally promotion and media coverage, WRC | 1 Comment »
Monday, December 14th, 2009
Last year I made a calendar on Google of all WRC events, allowing you to include it in your own Google Calendar, import it to your phone, Outlook, iCal on Mac etc. This year I’ve made the same – but it’s even more complete, since I’ve included IRC events too. The calendar includes the following information per rally: Championship (WRC/IRC), dates, location, surface and for WRC rallies support classes (JWRC, PWRC, SWRC).
You can reach the calendar in the following formats:
World Rally 2010 – XML format
World Rally 2010 – iCal format
World Rally 2010 – HTML format
If you don’t know how to use the formats listed above, don’t worry. Your calendar software help can probably help you, or if you use Google Calendar, try this link: Subscribe to public calendars – Google Calendar Help.
Tags: 2010, calendar, fia, google calendar, html, ical, intercontinental rally challenge, IRC, world rally championship, WRC, xml
Posted in General, IRC, WRC | 1 Comment »
