Wales Rally GB boss backs the virtual chicane initiative

Wales Rally GB clerk of the course Iain Campbell has backed the use of virtual chicanes in the World Rally Championship.

MN raised the potential for deployment of this technology after Andreas Mikkelsen was forced to overtake a tractor driving on a stage after relocating a chicane at Rally Australia earlier this month.

Rallysafe, the timing and tracking supplier to the WRC, is already running the virtual chicane system in some parts of the world and Campbell is keen to see it at the sport’s highest level – despite criticism that cars slowing down for no apparent reason would be difficult to explain on television.

“I was surprised at some of the resistance to this,” said Campbell. “It would be very simple to implement, with a set of boards at the side of the road counting the crews down into the reduced-speed zone. They then drive below a pre-agreed speed and speed up when they exit the zone.

“This would alleviate the need for chicanes bought and built with two-tonne straw bales. For us, it would help with the work on the roads – chicanes create a lot of damage to the stages with the cars braking and accelerating in the same place.”

Campbell admitted the new technology wouldn’t work everywhere, adding: “Somewhere like the street stage in Llandudno, where the cars come off the Orme, you need that movement from the car around the chicane – that’s part of the spectacle. But somewhere like the bottom of the very steep hill in Aberhirnant, the new system would work perfectly just to knock a bit of speed off coming into the finish.

“It would be great to have the opportunity to trial this technology [in the WRC].”