WHATNEXT FORWALES RALLY GB?
Rally GB route has caused concern in the corridors of power.
Know much about sea serpents? Me neither. They don’t sound good though. They sound like the sort of thing that could come back and bite you. Now, what was it the Vikings – or some such Old Norse-speaking folk – called Llandudno’s Great Orme? That’s right: sea serpent.
What’s going on with this year’s Wales Rally GB? We’d heard and talked about changes to the route: Friday becoming Saturday and vice-versa; longer stages in North Wales; a teams-pleasing return to Deeside for a lunchtime service, and even a consideration of starting in Liverpool.
On top of that there was February’s news that suspending the road traffic act for road racing would no longer need an act of parliament in Wales. At the time, Motor Sports Association chief executive Rob Jones told us: “This development will literally change the landscape of Welsh motorsport.”
All good then. And, don’t forget, this year’s event runs on the first weekend in October. And the first weekend in October is almost in September. And September is almost still the summer. So, it might not rain. Happy days! And now we’re running crisis covers in Motorsport News about Britain’s round of the World Rally Championship being in jeopardy.
As you might have gathered from last week’s MN, the primary issue is centred on the use of the Great Orme – or the four-mile Marine Drive which circumnavigates the headland – as the Rally GB powerstage. The FIA’S not keen and points out that it falls foul of a regulation which dictates a WRC round’s final, points-paying test should be representative of the rally. What does that mean? “Representative.” Being pedantic, you could say that stretch of road is entirely representative of Wales, a country with 870 miles of coastline. Hindsight has revealed regulation 13.3.1 open to subjective interpretation.
I spoke to Yves Matton about the potential for closing this year’s Rally GB with a run around the Orme in Corsica earlier this month. He was interested to know about the promotion, how many fans might be around? I pointed him in the direction of last year’s packed streets of delighted locals celebrating Elfyn Evans’ victory. He didn’t seem unduly perturbed about the plan.
Then Yves went home and things started to get complicated. I suspect more than the odd driver got in touch with the Citroen team principal turned FIA rally director and let them know they didn’t think the GB powerstage plan was a very good one.
Understandably, Matton can’t be overly keen on his first high-profile decision being one which will polarise opinion and potentially make him unpopular with the crews.
What I find confusing and concerning is talk of the Great Orme and Llandudno stage being questioned on safety grounds. Now, I’ll be clear, the FIA hasn’t communicated anything to me on the record about such fears, but sources in the governing body have talked about this as a genuine area of concern.
And rightly so. Road safety remains paramount at the FIA and taking rally cars onto the streets of north Wales at full speed is a considerable undertaking. But could you really imagine Rally GB taking it lightly?
Let’s remind ourselves who runs the safety side of Rally GB… meet Sue Sanders, somebody from the very fabric of the FIA and undoubtedly one of the finest safety delegates in the world. Sanders and Michele Mouton are founding members of the FIA’S Women in Motorsport Commission; the pair of them live and breathe this sport and safety in this championship. If the FIA was worried about the safety of the Great Orme, such concerns could have placated in an instant.
Undoubtedly, in performance terms, running the Orme on boots worn away by two forest stages hanging on the bottom of long-travel, jacked-up gravel suspension is sub-optimal. So drive accordingly.
I’ve spent a week listening to drivers ranting about this stage being a ridiculous idea and I simply can’t agree. It makes complete sense to me to bring the cars off what is an iconic stage – and one which has significant and distinguished provenance in RAC Rally and Rally GB history – and take the cars through the streets of Llandudno in front of 30,000 fans.
What the last week has brought me to question is the value of that road as a powerstage. One driver who didn’t want to be named was as articulate as he was forceful on this matter.
“Rally GB has some of the best gravel stages in the world,” he says. “I don’t understand why they would forget all of those incredible forest roads for the Great Orme. There’s nothing wrong with that stage, but Rally GB is about the forests – why aren’t the organisers proud of those stages, playing to their strengths and showing off what’s the best of British rallying?”
Hard to argue with such sentiment. Although an understanding of the commercial side of the debate makes it easier to swallow. The powerstage is beamed around the world live, available to gazillions of folk in planet Earth’s four furthest-flung corners. And what better for Wales than for those watching on to see stunning heli-cam footage of rally cars coming around the headland and into a town packed with fans? If the weather’s right, let’s face it, it will be sensational. And it will sell Wales.
Hence the concern if it doesn’t happen. This is year three of the current three-year deal with the Welsh Government and, having discussed the delivery of the dream (in marketing terms), it might be tricky to talk them down and back behind the trees.
What’s frustrating is the way the last week has taken the focus away from the other aspects of an innovative and imaginative route for October’s Rally GB: the lengthening of Penmachno, the mixing of Brenig and Alwen and delivering mid Wales in one day for the first time in 21 years. Let’s get over this hurdle and then we’ll get to the good bits.
Before that, will the sea serpent be slain? Watch this space. ■