Moz

After initial misgivings about the ticket only system employed this year I was well happy with the results, I experienced no traffic problems at all.Did anyone else? My only complaint would be of the marshalls on ss10,ss12 Rheola who allowed hoards of kids on MTX bikes into the stage, Juha Kankunen would remember the two ********* who sat on their bikes in the ruts made by earlier cars on the inside of a tight left hander, he very nearly went off avoiding them. The weather was excellent.

DIGGY

Totally agree, was expecting long traffic jams and usual mayhem but no very well run other than the MTX bikes, Felt the same about the Landrovers on site, couldn't work out if they worked on the stage as marshels??or just showing off, much fun seemed to be had "skiing" down the bank overlooking the hairpin, i was even on BBC 2 last night as they covered this corner......ha haa fame at last, and no i wasn't one off the muppets on the middle of the bend with the advertising hoardings!!!!

mark

DavieR

Was it just the TV camera positions, but all the stages look deserted. They were still trying to sell tickets right up to the rally.

Dave Ish

Good Rally - well done Burns! Shame about Solberg - he was flying whenever we saw him and his car seemed to have only minor damage when we walked past it leaving Trawscoed. Bit unlucky there - he'll be another Subaru success in the future I think.

Found it a bit busy getting into Halfway, but generally much better traffic than last year. Managed Rheola and Resolfen next day, Trawscoed on Sunday with no hassles.
Only down-side was marshalling which is getting worse every year. Top "idiot marshal" of the event goes to the Sector Official on Halfway who was so busy setting up his camera shot he missed the oblivious fools walking up the stage as the car came around the corner....

Snake

Got to see 7 stages in total. Rally was brilliant and I totally agree with Moz regarding the marshals.

We walked for about 1 mile up the Brechfa stage to Car Park A without seeing a single marshal (A nasty person could have easily put obstructions in the road after Burnsie went past to take out Marcus) We then reached a nice 'S' bend and there were 5 Marshals sitting under a tree! These let us carry on to the Car Park without telling us of any dangers, where we were confronted by about thirty marshals watching at the Car Park.

Whist watching the Resolven stage, there were twenty people standing at the bottom of a hill on the run up to a right/left combination on the opposite side to the marshals.
The marshals saw the people go there but did not stop them....and worse still they were all standing in front of a 'No Spectators' sign.

Rant over.

Snake.

Darren Thompson

Traffic problems did none of you go to Sweet Lamb?? The traffic was mad getting in and out to the stage and back to Builth wells. As for the rally yes it was ok but it was far more fun and a better event when it used the stages around the country. The super special was a joke, just think the drivers had just come from Langley Park super special to a mud patch at Cardiff docks !!!

Darren.

JDS

This was my first ever rally as a "forest" spectator watching from in the trees (or "yn y coedwig" as Snake would say). I thought it was absolutely brilliant, but don't have the experience to compare it to other years.

We didn't experience any traffic problems and everything went pretty smoothly. The only thing I didn't expect was the length of some of the walks from the car parks to the stages. We parked at Car Park E for Rhondda 2 and Resolfen, but IMHO the car park should have stated it was approx. a 5 mile walk uphill to get to Rhondda 2. Fortunately, it was pitch black and so we didn't get demoralised by being able to see where we were going.

Oh and the cars were quite loud too. In the car on the way back from Halfway, I was on the phone to Scoobysport for a de-cat centre section

Marshals were $hit though!

James

[This message has been edited by JDS (edited 28 November 2000).]

CharlieWhiskey

Marshals on Rheolla were virtually non existent around car park H which is probably bigger than Sweet Lamb! However Trawscoed was marshalled excellently - I suppose it depends which clubs do which stage.

Dave Ish: Marshalls should be marshalling not taking pictures! Report him to the MSA!

Anyone who didn't see any trafic must have avoided the A470 - especially Rhyader
Shame I didn't follow my own advice!

Found some nice pubs though

Chris

dewi

I agree that the organisation was excellent this year. We went to Trawscoed and Margam and didn't have any problems at all with traffic. More importantly, the spectators' cars were routed well away from the competitors. I don't think they could have got it much more wrong last year or much better this year.

I have to agree with the declining standards of marshalling on the Rally of Great Britain, too. At Trawscoed, there were people walking down the stage after the competitors had started coming through; the marshals seemed to take more interest in their cameras than in crowd control. Perhaps the marshalling should be renamed 'the Privileged Parking Scheme for Motor Sport Club Members', or better still, they should involve the BARC marshals, who seem altogether more professional.

CharlieWhiskey

Dewi; Where were you parked on Trawscoed?

The 'Marshals' moved us after we had parked up, quite legitimately, near to the advance tape! (didn't seem to know where they should be parked and there was no attendant on the right leg of Car Park C)

Some guys turned up half an hour before the stage start in two white transits with home made 'Gravel Crew 00' stickers in the window and parked up between the Marshals and the Stage! What on earth would a gravel crew be doing in a Transit???

Chris

dewi

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR><B>Dewi; Where were you parked on Trawscoed?
[/quote]

I don't have the maps with me at the moment, but we were parked on the left hand leg off the southern entrance (i.e. not by the farm or on the mountain). There was a fine view from where we parked across the valley and up to Llanybydder mountain. We'd planned to stand by the hairpin, but the conditions were too slippery for spectators to be allowed down there (it's where Petter Solberg came off). We ended up standing by an uphill straight soon after the hairpin. I feared the weather was going to turn out wet and windy like the day before, otherwise we'd have gone for Plan A, which was to go up Llanybydder Mountain.

We also went to Margam, where we enjoyed watching the finish.


[This message has been edited by dewi (edited 29 November 2000).]

Pete Croney

I strongly agree about the marshalling.

There was either none... as on the extremely fast bend near the finish of Resolven (McRae had to make a violent correction to miss 30 people on his exit line - this soon cleared the whole area though), or they were just there for their own pictures/video. Had to request a Sector Official do something about the crowd of marshals that stood in front of us at St Gwynno. They just appeared, blocked our vision and started video'ing... ignoring our requests that they split up/move.

God knows what they would have done in an accident scenario. As they were video'ing, they would probably have been hit.

Otherwise, the best rally I've been to. Traffic minimal, crowds minimal and well behaved, but best bit... I took the RA. Not only was it huge fun but every car I followed thought it was a competitor car and waved me through. Excellent progress between stages

As for Sweet Lamb... anyone who drives the main road from A470/Rhyader and ignores the Elan Valley (the singular best Scooby road in the whole of Wales) deserves to sit in a traffic jam

Oh and the Ball was good too.

After thoughts...

RB/RR... top stuff guys, a deserved win. RB Sorry for hitting that girl with our pee shooters so many times, damned inaccurate things, or was it the wine?

CM/NG... Felt for you guys. You sure did entertain when it was running. A new definition of "the limit".

Francois Delacour... I'm surprised they didn't do it straight away in San Remo.

Richard Stoodley... You are the main man and I take my hat off to you.

Chunky

Overall the rally was a good one,although I was a bit surprised that you could buy tickets into every stage on the day, I was lead to beleive that this year the rally was an all ticket affair.The ss at the docks was a big dissapointment, and needs looking at for next year. Another thing that needs sorting is the fireworks in Sweet Lamb bowl,sure they create a really good atmosphere,but when some dick keeps sending them towards the opposite banking it gets a tad dangerous.One came over horizontally and hit a car or just under a car then proceeded to go off amongst a big group of spectators, one bloke ran off trying to put his Subaru rally jacket out,funny movements but not funny. Marshalls seemed to be stood in groups of 5 or 6 on most stages,producing a chorous of whistles when cars were coming,surely they should be spread out individually,to give better warning of cars coming.Especially as the blo8dy t.v helicopter drowns out the sound of cars so much. Overall though a good 4 days