Most of us saw Jenson Button take the F1 drivers championship in style recently with some good driving and some nail biting moments over the season. However, on Sunday there was another closely fought championship being battled out in the last event of the season between two drivers just 1 point apart. I am of course talking about the WRC. (World Rally Championships). What’s more, this event was here in Great Britain. Now how many people watched or even knew about it? Not many I guess. Why? Because the TV and media coverage is terrible. You get one hour of highlights on Dave, who own the rights to the WRC coverage on terrestrial TV. But quite frankly, anyone who has seen the highlights will know that by the time the presenter has stopped arsing about and interviewing people who not only have nothing to do with rallying, but have no idea about it, the highlights of the action probably total about 10 minutes. A WRC event is competed over 3 days and numerous stages covering hundreds of miles. How much of this do we see? Sod all.
Rally Cars spend a lot of time being airborne!
For me, Rally driving is the ultimate test of driver skill and ability. Now I’m not criticising other forms of racing at all though. But whilst most drivers will go round a circuit for lap after lap, a rally driver will go from point to point and therefore has no real idea of what is ahead or around the next bend. Yet they still drive flat out. All this on a multitude of surfaces and conditions, from loose gravel mountain tracks in Argentina to wet muddy Welsh forest byways, the hot Australian outback to the snow and ice of Norway. All whilst trying to be the fastest. Getting the car sideways, performing handbrake turns, hitting jumps at speeds in excess of 100mph and splashing through streams, fords and rivers are all part and parcel of rallying. It is truly a major spectacle and one we really need to see! Hitting a 100mph on a motorway is pretty fast, but try doing this down a narrow gravel track with trees, obstacles and spectators just a few feet either side of you takes balls of steel and immense concentration. One minor mistake and game over. There are no tyre walls or gravel traps. Its trees, walls, cliffs and buildings you are going to hit. The margin between success and failure is minute. But consider this also. The cars they drive have to take this battering and get to the end of the rally. The mechanics have literally minutes after every few stages to repair damaged steering, broken suspension and smashed radiators. No mean feat. (If only the local garage could fix your car as quick as these guys!) So as you can see, the ultimate driving challenge!
Six times World Champion Sebastien Loeb
As for the weekends event, the championship battle was between the flying Finn Mikko Hirvonen and the French Star Sebastien Loeb. Hirvonen was 1 point ahead going into the final event and needed to finish ahead of the Frenchman to claim his first title. No mean feat though as Loeb has won the previous 5 titles and was after a record breaking 6th. Both were flying but Loeb had the upper hand with a 30 second lead entering the third and final day. Hirvonen had nothing to loose and started to cut into the lead after the first 2 stages of the final day. However, whilst pushing on the penultimate stage Hirvonen hit a jump at speed and landed with such force the bonnet came open and eventually started to block his view, meaning he had to stop for his co-driver to get out and pull the bonnet off completely before continuing. This lost him a lot of time and effectively handed Leob his 6th WRC title finishing over a minute ahead of Hirvonen and by one solitary point. An unbelievable end to the most challenging driving events in the world.
Mikko Hirvonen fought hard in Wales
What annoyed me even more than the rubbish highlights was the lack of media coverage. It was as if the event didn’t exist. Nothing on the news and just a few paragraphs in the national papers. Why? People should realise what a truly awesome sport rallying is. If only they could see it!
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