Škoda UK

A lot has been made in the press recently about Škoda UK’s driver announcement and having read/heard all the negative comments I wanted to add my voice to the mix.

I personally rate Andreas Mikkelsen highly as a driver. I like his attitude and as Carlton Kirby said, ‘he’s a PR’s dream.’

Yes, he may have used ‘Daddy’s money’ to get him to the World stage and where he is now but so what? Look at the Cyprus Golden Stage Rally – he blew everyone out of the water.
Alright, many will argue that the competition just wasn’t there (the likes of Hanninen, Meeke etc.) but how do you explain Wales Rally GB? I was stage side watching and for me he was the most exciting driver out there.

When Guy Wilks announced he was leaving Škoda UK for Peugeot there was always a question as to who was going to replace him. Everybody guessed a Brit would rise up to the plate – maybe someone from the BRC? So when the shout came many fans were left reeling and full of questions.

In the UK we have a brilliant array of drivers however what we are lacking is the support system and structure to nurture and develop them. Other countries in Europe are prepared to put time, money and effort into their young driver programmes – we don’t have this sorted to perfection yet.

When we do suss it out, we will have every right to complain if a British driver is snubbed by a ‘British’ team. For the time being if a driver wants a seat and is prepared to pay (therefore putting money into a sport largely ignored by the masses) then let them and wait the popularity and choice to come around again.

*Preparing for the backlash*

Rally d`Italia Sardegna

Wow. I can’t find any other words to sum up that round of the IRC. Just wow!

It didn’t seem to get much of a build up on the Internet considering it is the first rally since the Monte to have live stages broadcast on Eurosport, however if you missed it you missed an incredibly action-packed rally.

Rally d`Italia Sardegna took its first prisoners on the opening stage of Saturday. Ogier, coming off the back of that incredible first WRC win, ran wide while sweeping the road which resulted in a puncture. After a quick change and restart, mechanical problems hit him next. Pulled up on the side of the road the rally was over for him.

He wasn’t the only one to suffer though, everybody was complaining about how slippery the stage was. P G Andersson had a puncture and Magalhaes had brake problems. Although, they made it through relatively unscathed in comparison to Guy Wilks who, after a steady season so far, crashed mid stage resulting in a hospital visit for the Brit. He had mentioned immediately after the crash he had a pain in his lower back and x-rays showed two fractured vertebrae.

My Nan at the moment is suffering with the exact same back break however she didn’t get checked out straight away so she’s having a tough time healing. So knowing how bad this injury can get if it’s not sorted straight away, Guy was lucky in that sense that he went straight to hospital. Wishing him a speedy recovery – it’s never nice to see sporting stars injured.

Guy wasn’t the only to crash in the opening stage, Mikkelsen also rolled his Fiesta and apparently the M-Sport crew were looking for a chain saw to retrieve the car! Luckily for them them it didn’t seem too damaged as it was back out again today under SupeRally regs.

Many a car continued to cross the first stages’ finish line with punctures and/or damage to the car.

The rest of the day continued in a similar fashion – lots of broken cars! Cetinkaya stopped on stage (only to return today like Mikkelsen) and Wittmann rolled his car. Just on a personal note here, I love Franz Wittmann. How nice is it to have someone that happy in a car? All he says in interviews is how much fun he’s having and it kind of reminds me of Ken Block in the WRC. Shame that Wittmann can’t seem to keep his car on the road! Gutted for him.

Moving onto day two and with a relatively sedated ss8/9 it was ss10, which took its toll on Kris Meeke. Caught live on the Eurosport coverage Meeke ran wide and fell down a small embankment landing on the Peugeots right side. Both driver and co-driver were thankfully OK (we wouldn’t want another Brit to go down!) the car however wasn’t. Meeke’s rotten luck this year continues.

All the while Hänninen had been making great progress and was keeping Italian driver Andreucci behind him, the local driver having a brilliant rally in his own right.
The other Skoda of Kopecký was also having a steady rally and was closing in fast on Andreucci.

As the final stage got underway Hänninen had to make sure he kept the car on the road if he wanted the overall win, which was what he did brilliantly. Andreucci took the stage win meaning Kopecký had no chance of moving to the second step of the podium although he gave it his best shot and finished only 2.6 seconds behind the Italian.

However the deserving winner was Hänninen who kept his cool all weekend and kept the car on stage when others couldn’t. He finished 35.6 seconds in front.

One thing about this weekend struck me though, the live coverage was brilliant – OK Charlton Kirby says ‘yes’ too often, but it was amazing to watch some stages live all the same. And from the amount of people on twitter who also commented that they enjoyed watching it live makes you wonder… how long until the WRC follows suit?

Live coverage and the WRC

I touched upon it in my previous blog and the more I’ve thought about it the more I believe the WRC needs it – live televised coverage.

Rally Monte Carlo, an IRC event, received a record 14hours of live coverage last month. While this weekends’ GP2 Asia race from Abu Dhabi was also broadcast live (well, from lap two at least) and even the Race of Champions from Beijing was shown live on Eurosport.

So why not the WRC?

WRC fans are among the most passionate in sport. These are people who will spend 3 days in all kinds of weather to see their favourite drivers and teams. Many of them will camp in forests huddled around makeshift fires forsaking simple luxuries for the chance to see a world rally car hurtling at terrifying speeds right under their noses.

Unfortunately though it’s no secret that the WRC has suffered in recent years. Manufacturers have pulled out left, right and centre and without a ‘star’ Brit a lot of the viewing public in this country have lost interest.

If you were walk up to Joe public in the street and ask who they consider to be the great drivers of our time their answers would be Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and, most probably, The Stig (!). Mention Sebastien Loeb, Mikko Hirvonen or Petter Solberg to them and they’d look at you like you were an idiot. Most wouldn’t even be able to pick the 6-time world championship winner Loeb out of a police line-up. Yet he is pretty much the Schumacher of rallying (albeit without the cheating and ramming his competitors off the road).

When Eurosport showed Rally Monte Carlo figures indicated that 12million people tuned in and it makes you wonder whether if they offered the same media attention to the WRC would it get an equal amount or maybe even more viewers?

To me this seems like a viable option. I understand that it would be a huge undertaking for a broadcast team and cost a lot of money but if they were to show three live stages a day I believe viewing figures would soar and maybe more teams and sponsors would see this as the series to be involved in.

Until then, those of us living in Britain will have to spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights watching daily edited highlights at 10.20pm on Motors TV.
I suppose we should be grateful that it’s being shown at all in some capacity.