Taken from www.bbc.co.uk

Angry Martin wants rally overhaul

Markko Martin is disillusioned with World Rally
Markko Martin, whose co-driver Michael Park died when their car hit a tree in Wales last year, says the World Rally Championship has lost its appeal.
The Estonian, who is without a drive in 2006, urged the International Automobile Federation to take action.

"It is just not the same championship that it used to be, so I can't push myself to make a huge effort to get in there and make it happen," said Martin.

"I don't see much future for myself in the championship."

Martin threatened to quit World Rally following Park's tragic death.

And Ford and Subaru are the only full works teams left involved after the withdrawal of Peugeot.

"You need the manufacturers in it to make it exciting because they will do everything, and if that doesn't happen then I don't know what the future is," he said.

"I think the FIA should get their act together and do something quickly, otherwise it is not the bottom where we are at the moment."

The season starts in Monte Carlo next week.

He's right, isn't he?

The WRC has been on the verge of being great televisual entertainment for a couple of years.

The French/Skoda withdrawal is a massive blow. Ford and Subaru will capitalise and gain increased press coverage, but the Championship needs at least 5 manufacturers to keep public interest.

Okay, you could say that the top drivers like Markko have done very well financially, but only for three or four seasons. The risks that they take are all too evident.

Is Dave Richards is still in control of the marketing? Better terrestrial TV coverage, more manufacturer involvement with reduced costs and perhaps a reduced number of events.

DR has as usual done sweet FA for WRC Tv coverage, it is now worse than 20 years ago. The whole media thing seams to be run by amateurs !!!!.

Yep, agree with him. It's nothing like it used to be :(

For the first time in 15 years I missed WRGB last year because of the way things are organised generally.

Reduced from 5 days to 3, most stages are run twice in a small area of wales :rolleyes: it's damn expensive to watch, manufacturers are pulling out every year... etc etc

Reduced from 5 days to 3, most stages are run twice in a small area of wales :rolleyes: it's damn expensive to watch, manufacturers are pulling out every year... etc etc

That's the FIA, not Dave Richards. That's how Mosley wants a WRC event to look like. The problem for manufacturers is cost, and too many rounds in places that don't buy their cars (Cyprus? Turkey? WTF?)

I'm a relative newcomer so don't remember 1st hand the days of 5 day rallies accross the country, but I struggle to believe that more people attended those than the current events? They may have been more hardcore, but the major events are more about broad appeal than niche market.

Also, IMHO the TV coverage is way ahead of what it was before - ie non-existant. Even back then the RAC had about 5 mins coverage on Grandstand.

Steve

Also, IMHO the TV coverage is way ahead of what it was before - ie non-existant. Even back then the RAC had about 5 mins coverage on Grandstand.

Steve

To be fair the ITV coverage last year was ****e. Half the time I didn't even know it was on and I ended up missing half the season!!

It was much better a couple of years ago when it was on channel 4

To be fair the ITV coverage last year was ****e. Half the time I didn't even know it was on and I ended up missing half the season!!


It was published in the listing mags, on their web site and on the Sky guide, so how come you missed it:wonder: I'm an old fart but I managed to watch/record every round:)

DG

I'm a relative newcomer so don't remember 1st hand the days of 5 day rallies accross the country, but I struggle to believe that more people attended those than the current events?

They sure did, it was held over 5 days and over a much bigger part of the country. It gave the public a much better chance to view it at a location nearer to them, making it much more appealing to hardcore rally fans.

Having the choice of which part of the country to watch the rally was awesome. Not only that, you were able (with some good navigation skills) to watch the first 10 through (when there was 10 worth watching) then move on to the next stage and watch them again.

ho hum, like most things of the past, it has all changed, mainly for the worse :(

It was fantastic spectating all over the country a real test for the spectators too, oh happy day's. I always liked the lake ditrict stages and then on to Kilder forest before back down to Hamsterly forest, then on to the Dalby forest complex, before final stage at British steel conset, just over the humber bride then back home to sunny Bournemouth. The worst bit of it was the welsh stages and that's because it was a nightmare to get in and out of Wales, now we are stuck there for three day's. LOL

John

Does anyone remember the Mobile 1 Challenge that the BBC ran about 18 yrs ago? The coverage - camera angles, in-car and presentation were excellent.
Much better that the WRC footage we have received from Cnl4/ITV.

If Dave Richards allowed a decent production company like BHP run the coverage, the show would be massively improved.

It's Dave Richards' job to "make the show". Failure to obtain decent TV coverage results in lack of manufacturer interest and a downward spiral for the WRC.

Trouble for David Richards is that the WRC television rights were a project from 3 years ago, he has now got bored with it. He has now moved on to bigger and better things ie setting up his own F1 team, so WRC can take a back seat till the next entrapreneur turns up to buy it off him.

John

Does anyone remember the Mobile 1 Challenge that the BBC ran about 18 yrs ago? The coverage - camera angles, in-car and presentation were excellent.
Much better that the WRC footage we have received from Cnl4/ITV.

If Dave Richards allowed a decent production company like BHP run the coverage, the show would be massively improved.

It's Dave Richards' job to "make the show". Failure to obtain decent TV coverage results in lack of manufacturer interest and a downward spiral for the WRC.

I remember watching this - and if I remember Nova GTE/Toyota Celica and a few other different cars were used.

And I am sure they used some of the stages from the Manx Rally. :norty:

I have this on video somewhere at home - great theme music (Karla) was performed by the The Hooters (I think), anyway great driving track.

You're right, they did use Manx stages and the following year they used Welsh
stages. Great concept - top drivers, all competing using the same car against the clock. I can remember them using the Sierra Cos, Nova & the Intergale Gp A. Drivers included; Mark Lovell (RIP) Dai Lewellyn, Jimmy MaCrae (poss) Russell Brooks (poss)
Would be interested to know if the programmes are available on DVD - maybe Duke will know.

I thnk your right - I've got world rally championship videos (eek !) from '87 and '88 and they are fabulous viewing even today.........

They've got it right before why not now ??

Its twice the fun of F1 to watch....

I agree with Markko, the WRC is rapidly becoming a minority side-show. Just two factory teams, that's poor. Clearly something is wrong for there to be such little enthusiasm by the manufacturers to enter teams.

Maybe it is too expensive. Maybe there should be less WRC events or they should restrict the numbers of personnel/lorries the factory teams should send to events but they could use mechanics from that countries dealerships to supplement the factory teams.

For the record the old RAC was watched by far more people than watch the current round of the Wales Rally GB. They used to get 1,000,000+ spectators watching the old RAC because it went round a large part of the UK and they didn't run a stage more than once. Whilst it was more hardcore for diehard fans who followed the rally across the country and aimed to watch several stages each day, for the vast majority of spectators they just went to watch one stage and it was probably the only motorsport they spectated at all year.

It's the FIA which insisted on reducing the number of days, reducing the number of stages and having just a single service area, the idea being it would reduce costs. Wherever it is held in the UK, it would still be very restricted where they could hold stages and lots of people would complain that they have to travel a long way to get there.

I hope they get their act together soon or they will kill the WRC.

I also agree with Marko.
I think that a big part of the appeal of the 'old style' rallies, certainly in the UK, was that this big challenging event covered a fair spread of the country which :
a) Emphasised the challenge : Drivers doing stages in the English Midlands, stages in Wales, stages in N. England, stages in Scotland, doing stages at night etc
b) Brought the event relatively close to the punters which would mean that lots of people would be looking forward to these exciting cars competing with reasonable-ish distance from your home town.

I doubt that as many people now look forward for weeks on end to driving hundreds of miles to see cars (looking boringly close to the showroom cars available from your local dealer) driving on a far more limited range of stages, repeatedly.
Stages that are planned so that the spectator is discouraged from moving from his place and they feel that they will have to just sit on their tartan rug, possibly behind a barrier, to see a couple of runs of cars.
A bit too similar to F1 on gravel for my own liking.
FIA / DR / whoever are killing off the excitement of big-time rallying.

I thnk your right - I've got world rally championship videos (eek !) from '87 and '88 and they are fabulous viewing even today.........

They've got it right before why not now ??

Its twice the fun of F1 to watch....
87 and 88 were not good years if I remember correctly as it was just Lancia that had a car capable of doing anything and even they looked slow by comparison to the GrpB cars that they replaced

Chip