Many people following the rally reports from Rally Monte Carlo today have probably noticed and wondered about the fact that Ogier was so angry after going off the stage – and how the hell spectators can come to the idea to put snow on the road just to sabotage for the drivers (If you don’t know what I’m talking about – watch the video!). I can’t answer that question, but it’s certainly a big problem for the Rally Monte Carlo organisers that they need to solve. This has been going on for quite some years now, and I have a feeling they’ve already tried – but I’m not sure they have tried as hard as they should…
It doesn’t even need to be explained how dangerous it is to throw snow on the road when a car potentially going on slicks are approaching assuming conditions are like they were just a few hours before when the ice note crew went through. In road traffic you should have margins for such things – but not in rallying. That’s what rallying is about… Driving without that extra margins, using the skills and the interaction between driver and co-driver to get the car through the stage as fast as possible… The spectators doing those things have no interest in rallying, they are just losers. But in the end – if the spectators can’t handle it themselves, it’s the responsibility of the organiser to get it solved.
With that said, I love the Rally Monte Carlo and that has been even more clear to me in 2009 and 2010 with the beautiful live TV coverage. But I can actually say I’m happy the event is out of the WRC as long as this problem stays as big as it is (=more of standard than exception during the rally). Get guards out to the important twists, damn organisers. I know it’s quite many but what else can you do? If you can cover everything live on TV, you can probably find one guard per turn too. This makes the rally both dangerous and a farce for crews, spectators and marshals.
I really hope this gets better!
And as a note… Mikko Hirvonen leads the rally with 41.9 seconds over last years champion Kris Meeke and 1.04 before Juho Hänninen. The action continues tomorrow – and everything is broadcasted live. Just hope the morons have been sent home then, the rally is too good to be disturbed by such shit..!
