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World Rallycross 2015


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#1 OvDrone

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Posted 26 April 2015 - 13:25

Round #1 is live now, y'all:

 

http://www.fiaworldr....com/livestream

 

No nigerian, just free and clean. Any takers?



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#2 Sheepmachine

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Posted 26 April 2015 - 14:07

Oh I'd forgotten about this thanks Ovodrone :)

#3 Fatgadget

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Posted 26 April 2015 - 14:31

Allow me to have a little rant about the way rallycross has morphed over the years...I HATE it!....there Ive said it in a word.Used to love it during the 80s.. Lydenn hill my favourite circuit Bruce Rushton.Trevor Reeves.Piet Dam.Jan-de-Rooy .....Ahh.Im all misty eyed now!...Okay carry on boys and talk about a looong lost once very close relative of mine....sob sob sob.....

Edited by Fatgadget, 26 April 2015 - 15:20.


#4 PayasYouRace

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Posted 26 April 2015 - 14:48

Just in time to catch that final. Cool stuff  :up:



#5 chunder27

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Posted 26 April 2015 - 14:59

I have beens a rallycross fan since the 80's and still have a lot of time for the sport.

 

But I am very concerned about where the current sport is going. WRX and their parents IMG seem to utterly obsessed with making money and marketing, and not interested in much else.

 

I do understand a big sponsors reasons for wanting to go to places like Barcelona, Berlin etc. But doing that is hiding what they are really doing. And that is charging a huge fee for existing tracks meaning they would lose money if they tried to host an event, and the only ones that can run events are bankrolled by someone rich or by a big sponsor.

 

So, this means they go to places like Turkey, Argentina, where there is a clear desire from their motorsports federations to hold events, but absolutely no interest from fans. there is  ery little continuity with drivers away from a few teams, and the support classes are a joke where in the past they were a big part of the overall day. Now they are a total sideshow and treated as such.

 

This is a new sport and not rallycross as we know, IMG are trying to push the team side of it, wheich is a non event, trying to push the role spotters play, which is largely non existent other than when to take a joker lap. 

 

I fear for the future after this all washes through. I doi hope the regional sports can withstand this, and that a new European series can rise up.

 

You cannt run before yu can walk, and while it is great now for a few, it is bad for everyone, it is based on greed, power and marketing. And that is no way to run any championship. The sad part is that the people doing it are from the early days, and know ehere they came from.

 

And they seem to have totally forgotten that.

 

21 cars in Portugal, a place that nevers gets many, yet in th UK youa re stopping cars there and having less support races?  Why on earth would you do that? TV, thats why/ What a sad state of affirs.



#6 BRG

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Posted 26 April 2015 - 18:42

Oh I'd forgotten about this thanks Ovodrone :)

So had I, but sadly now you've reminded me..... :(



#7 chunder27

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Posted 26 April 2015 - 19:33

Bless you BRG

 

Always a pleasure.



#8 Myrvold

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Posted 26 April 2015 - 22:28

While I totally agree with the frustration of the direction WRX is heading. Away from real RX-tracks and over to show-tracks. Moving a bit too fast from classical tracks with a big following and to new tracks, in countries were RX is very small.
 

But how is it possible to be so negative about... almost everything...

 

Didn't have the chance to watch the first round, I was working this weekend. But I'm looking forward to much of the season ahead :) Good to see that it might not be a Nordic Championship in the top class :)



#9 chunder27

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Posted 27 April 2015 - 09:55

Did you see the marshalling inthe RX Lites race?

 

Hardly a good advert for anything really!



#10 OvDrone

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Posted 27 April 2015 - 11:33

Are you referring to the final when that car tipped over and Holowczyk beached himself in the gravel?

 

I'll be honest, I know next to nothing about Rallycross as a sport. I'm kind of a newbie. But I am glad there's a FIA world level championship now.

 

And it ain't remotely close to the artificial wanna be Supercross that GRC is.



#11 chunder27

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Posted 27 April 2015 - 12:05

In brief:

 

In the RX LItes final a car took the joker lap early, it was raining. He spun into the gravel and rolled over.

 

Next lap no yellow flag, raining, car still in gravel on its side, car overtakes another into joker lap, so two go into JL, one goes into gravel where there is a marshal and an overturned car. He didnt know as there was no flag.

 

Next lap, another car spins into the joker lap again, as no yellow flag!

 

Not WRX's fault, but you have to question the thought process behind going to places where even basic marshalling is a problem.

 

Rallycross itself is a great sport, it has become popular again mainly because WRC has suffered a little in recent years through domination of certain teams and drivers, and high budgets. Most of the teams in WRX are not really manufacturer backed except for Peugeot and VW, the rest are importer backed like VW Sweden, or Audi Sweden for example.

 

The GRC was a bit of a template, it was run in the US where rallycross had no history, and was run initially on ovals with blocks and fals corners made from course markers and water sprayed for sliding!, some of which contained no gravel sections. And they tried to introduce jumps and crossovers. There were a lot of incidents, the famous ones being Heikkeken into the jump and really hurting himself and Gronholm hitting a concrete block and hurting himself.

 

They have since refined it a little, either coz it was a disaster and places like Charlotte didn't want them or coz they realised they were being laughed at!  WRX is a sort of European version, GRC has "teams" like Subaru, Ford and Hyundai, same as WRX but the team element is largely irrelevant to fans. One obvious example is Doran and Solberg together this year, Petter cant stand him but they share a sponsor Monster, so theya re put into a team, but their cars are built differnetly and run separately.

 

Tracks have evolved into having jumps rather than flyovers and crossovers which is better, but the joker lap remains. WRX is promoted by IMG a company who did a lot of work with various big series, and you cannot argue with their promotional work.

 

As a long term fan my worry is for the future, while it is great now, the support classes are being gradually moved away to be replaced by RX Lites, and this is because Andreas Eriksson makes them and he is heavily involved in GRC and WRX. The existing clases, especially S1600 have dropped in numbers massively becaise they just are not pushing them.

 

You will hopefully see in time two tiers. Crazy really for such a small sport but rallycross has form with this. But you will have WRX for pro teams, and hopefully a ERC series like there was before for everyone else.  That is what I would like.

WRX going to X games type venues and places where there is no rallycross tradition, but big catchment area, and ERC going to the places where rallycross is already popular, tracks do not have to pay tens of thousands to host a round they can never hope to recoup the outlay with ticket prices on, and clubman can still compete in a big championship. That has always been the way of rallycross and WRX is pushing it away from everyone but rich men and teams.

 

 

Right now, the only way of hosting a round is paying a ton of money up front and then either cutting a loss or charng a bunch for tickets. Fans are not stupid, so a lot of tracks only do one year!



#12 Sheepmachine

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Posted 03 May 2015 - 18:41

Recovery of the year!
https://m.youtube.co...h?v=b5l-0h1OxXA

#13 OvDrone

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Posted 03 May 2015 - 18:55

It was weirdly cool to see a rallycross race through the last sector in Hockenheim.



#14 Myrvold

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Posted 03 May 2015 - 19:03

Haven't been able to watch this much either, only youtube highlights. But it looked to me, like it was a bit to much tarmac on the track..



#15 OvDrone

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Posted 09 August 2015 - 17:45

Just here to remind everyone one that Trois Rivieres happened and it was awesome:

 



#16 chunder27

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Posted 09 August 2015 - 18:50

Was it awesome?  Was it?  If I wanted to watch WWF I would go pay per view. Have seen better racing in bangers to be honest.

 

On at 11pm in the UK, gonna get a lot of viewers that one isnt it lol!

 

Genius listening to the commentator, they seem to not know Rustad was winning rallycross events before these guys speaking even knoew what rallycross was.


Edited by chunder27, 09 August 2015 - 19:03.


#17 OvDrone

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Posted 09 August 2015 - 19:01

Was it awesome?  Was it?  If I wanted to watch WWF I would go pay per view. Have seen better racing in bangers to be honest.

 

On at 11pm in the UK, gonna get a lot of viewers that one isnt it lol!

 

It ain't that bad dude.



#18 Sheepmachine

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Posted 09 August 2015 - 19:13

Was it awesome? Was it? If I wanted to watch WWF I would go pay per view. Have seen better racing in bangers to be honest.

On at 11pm in the UK, gonna get a lot of viewers that one isnt it lol!

Genius listening to the commentator, they seem to not know Rustad was winning rallycross events before these guys speaking even knoew what rallycross was.

Give it a rest, if you don't like it don't watch it.

#19 chunder27

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Posted 09 August 2015 - 20:16

If you dont like the comments dont read them, simple as. Works both ways.



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#20 JHSingo

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Posted 09 August 2015 - 22:12

Was it awesome?  Was it?  If I wanted to watch WWF I would go pay per view. Have seen better racing in bangers to be honest.

 

On at 11pm in the UK, gonna get a lot of viewers that one isnt it lol!

 

What exactly is wrong with it? I don't know what there is to complain about rallycross at the moment. The cars are spectacular, interest is growing, and there's some really talented drivers involved.

 

Also, it was on at 11pm because it was in Canada and there's such a thing as time difference. :p

 

First time I've really been able to catch much of the action. Every other weekend I've been busy or forgotten about it. But I enjoyed it, a pity some of the quick guys never got to the final. Not sure what Solberg was doing in the first semi-final there. Can't really see there's anyone else to blame except him for that.


Edited by JHSingo, 09 August 2015 - 22:14.


#21 Myrvold

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Posted 09 August 2015 - 22:13

Though you really seem to like to complain about 99.42% of every racing series there is, and it's getting extremely tiresome and bloody boring.

With that being said, Rustad was the youngest winner of a championship round in the top class for 20 seasons as far as I can remember, and while even I find it hard to think of, he had multiple podiums back in the Group B days!

It is quite frustrating that they seemingly don't acknowledge much history, besides Kenneth Hansen (as he is still very much involved).

 

I must say, that with the exception of the slighty to big (and thus hard landings) jumps on the track, it is one of the better - if not the best new RX track on the calendar. It is quite sad to see all the classic RX tracks just being pushed away for "RX" tracks.

 

Now, it's time to go to Hell! Sadly, I will not have time to go there :(


Edited by Myrvold, 09 August 2015 - 22:16.


#22 chunder27

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Posted 09 August 2015 - 22:56

Well read the post not the poster, you are agreeing with most of what I have said for Gods sake.

 

The cars are not that spectacular unless you are there, the banging and crashing is OK for the Monster crowd, and has always been a part of rallycross, but it does get a little OTT at times,a nd with the extra money now it gets worse.

 

It is hard to understand unless you have been a fan of rallycross for years, you could see the commentators trying to push the Hansen/Ekstrom thing after Sweden, but there is nothing there.

 

Just stick to rallycross, stick to the drivers, they are the stars, not teams.

 

Long term, get them on cut slicks, make them louder, and get a bit more serious about contact penalties if you want to get some controversy instead of trying to make some that doesn't exist.



#23 JHSingo

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Posted 10 August 2015 - 13:12

Well read the post not the poster, you are agreeing with most of what I have said for Gods sake.

 

The cars are not that spectacular unless you are there, the banging and crashing is OK for the Monster crowd, and has always been a part of rallycross, but it does get a little OTT at times,a nd with the extra money now it gets worse.

 

It is hard to understand unless you have been a fan of rallycross for years, you could see the commentators trying to push the Hansen/Ekstrom thing after Sweden, but there is nothing there.

 

Just stick to rallycross, stick to the drivers, they are the stars, not teams.

 

Long term, get them on cut slicks, make them louder, and get a bit more serious about contact penalties if you want to get some controversy instead of trying to make some that doesn't exist.

 

The cars are not spectacular unless you are there - isn't this an argument that is made about basically every form of racing there is? Stand at the right corner at the right track, and F1 cars, LMPs, or whatever else, will always come across as more spectacular than they do when you're watching on TV. Besides, I'd say the cars are plenty spectacular enough. Quicker accelerating off the line than F1 cars, plenty of sideways action, and something like 600bhp? I think they're got just about the perfect recipe there.

 

Driving standards - well, as you say yourself, I guess that's always been a part of it. I doubt it is really any worse these days than in the 'glory days' of rallycross though. Also, didn't they reverse the order after Hansen crashed Ekstrom out the way at the final turn of a previous round? Again, I think they have a right balance. One of the most frustrating things in F1 is there's always 'investigations' and penalties handed out in a rather slapdash fashion. Sure, we want to see good driving standards, but equally we want to see racing, and drivers trying hard without fear of a penalty.

It's hard to understand - I wouldn't say it is any harder to understand than any other form of racing. So, not really. I'm not exactly steeped in rallycross folklore, but I can follow it easily just fine, as I suspect many others can too.

 

Also, how much louder do you want them? :lol:

 

I agree with you that I don't like false rivalries. In particular, the #IndyRivals thing in IndyCar has been a bit overdone this season. While human interest is good, the racing in both IndyCar and rallycross is often good enough that it doesn't need any of that rubbish. But otherwise, I think rallycross is doing a lot of things right. The increasing number of different cars in the series can only be a positive thing, and judging by crowd sizes at most rounds it really seems to be capturing people's attention. IMG seem to be doing a very good job of promoting it and without them it may not have become an FIA World Championship, and in particular I love that you can watch the action online, for free. That's how it should be.



#24 chunder27

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Posted 10 August 2015 - 14:24

You can only watch it for freee if you are outside Europe.

 

Eurosport protect their tv rights, and quite rightly, so you can only watch a few rounds, well to be honest, that was the case last year, not so sure this year, but I think it still applies if you wanted to watch say Belgium or Britain on Livestream.

 

The cars are getting there noise wise, they used to be very quiet, but ALS is making them louder!  But when you compare with WRC cars that have very distinctive sounds WRX cars a little lacking

 

There are not really an increasing number of cars to be honest, not much new has come in full time, its still Citroen, Peugeot, Ford and VW/Audi who are pretty much teh same, Ekstrom debuted last year so that is about the only new thing.

 

We used to have Renault, Skoda, Mitisubishi, Saab, Subaru all represented at various times, but not works teams, and that is the point, these arew sport of works teamsm I say sort of because the manufacturer lends financial help and parts assistance, they are cars built in France, Germany or the like. But sadly they are stretching budgets to enormous levels. And that is a worry long term.



#25 Sheepmachine

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Posted 18 October 2015 - 11:59

The penultimate round is happening in a few minutes from Italy with WRC's very own Gigi Gali involved.
Livestream here: http://www.fiaworldr....com/livestream
Enjoy. :D

#26 Sheepmachine

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Posted 30 November 2015 - 12:12

And the champion is........
Petter Solberg!

15358271056_1cc1408145_o-640x430.jpg

Congratulations Petter!

#27 THEWALL

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Posted 30 November 2015 - 18:47

Bring on Loeb!



#28 BRG

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Posted 30 November 2015 - 18:56

I doubt if Loeb would want to get involved in club level motorsport.



#29 Myrvold

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Posted 30 November 2015 - 19:03

I doubt if Loeb would want to get involved in club level motorsport.


So club level he wasn't even able to win when he jumped in for a race

#30 chunder27

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Posted 30 November 2015 - 19:15

Much as I hate to admit it BRG is right.

 

I championed rallycross on here initially, but the series has turned into something pretty awful in my opinion. It is not about teams or spotters towers or getting the holeshot. It is about world banger racing. That pretty much sums it up to most. It is NOT a world series, it should not have been allowed to be so fast.

 

the existing venues have been dumped in favour of venues that supposedly either are near a big city or on a GP circuit or are in places that offer the most money to make it a world series, something it just scrapes into being. Argentina for Gods sake!   They love rallying, but rallycross?  I doubt it.

 

As for Seb, he won first time out actually in America in a Citroen, and Marcus did pretty well too.  He did not fare so well in France a few years back.

 

And let's face it he has been racing in a club series the past two years called WTCC!



#31 Myrvold

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Posted 30 November 2015 - 21:36

I agree with you on the tracks, they are moving to dangerous territory with the new places, but at the same time, you can't get people in Argentina to be passionate about RX, if they don't have the chance to see it either.

 

I don't like the new format either, semi-finals etc. I really dislike it, with that being said, the teams are more professional now than before, there are factory backing for the first time since the late 80's early 90's, it is heading in the right direction with that in mind.

 

Loeb won first time out in the US, Grönholm did well in the US as well, but the level of competition in the US, isn't very high, and when Grönholm went to the European RX races, where he didn't have lot's of testing on the track before the race, he wasn't even in the A-finals.

 

RX is far from perfect as it is now, and there are more professional championships around, it's changing, I mean, no one complained about Petter Solberg World Rally Team was unprofessional when he ran his own WRC team, it is basically the same guys working there now, just in RX...


Edited by Myrvold, 30 November 2015 - 21:36.