After an fan-tastic opening ceremony and super special on Thursday evening. The action kicked off in the Norwegian stages of Rally Sweden as the drivers cross the border into the snow filled forest roads. Neuville took the lead, Latvala 28.1 seconds behind with Tanak in 3rd.
This gallery contains 17 photos.
Photo:D.Darrall
In my experience, rally fans are a rare breed of the kindest most friendly people, who travel the world and work hard so that we can all come together and share amazing experiences and the incredible passion that we have for Rallying. The thing I love most about Rallying, isn’t just the racing. It’s the amazing people and any event feels like the adventure of a life time.
But in today’s health & safety strangled world, there isn’t much allowance for danger. And rightfully so. If at sporting events spectators are injured or seen in dangerous places, especially on live TV shown to the world. It set’s a very bad example and is not how any sport should be showcased. So it’s up to us to ensure these things don’t happen.
Rally Marshals and organisers do a truly great job. But they can not cover every inch of the stages. They are however, all fellow rally fans. They are one of us. They are our leaders out on the stages and behind the scenes, who make these events happen. And as we are all respectful fans of our sport, we should also help them by, doing what they ask, and by warning other fellow fans of the dangers if we see that they are unaware of them and stand in ‘dangerous’ or ‘No Go’ areas. Respect what the marshalls, police or organisers tell us.
If you want to watch a darts match, you don’t stand in front of the dart board or stand in the boxing ring to watch two heavy weights going at it. You do it from a safe distance! So why stand in front of the racing line or on the road that the cars are racing on. What are you expecting to happen if the brakes fail or the driver, who is already racing hard on and over the limit, makes a mistake. It’s just common sense. You don’t stand there!
But some fans, maybe they are new to the sport and don’t understand these things, or they’re just a bit thick and need to be respectfully educated and told.
– Standing on the outside of a corner is a big NO, no.
– Don’t stand in an escape road. An escape road is the equivalent to a ‘run-off’ area on a race track. And should be clear at all times.
– Stand in spectator areas only. Behind the tape. Our rally friends, the Marshall’s are trained and briefed to be able to tell us where to go and not to go. Listen to them, talk to them, ask them questions if your are unsure. And MOST importantly, have a great and safe time.
Image: FIA Image:D.Darrall
This is all of our responsibility. To watch safely and tell fellow friends & fans to do the same. We don’t want anyone to be found in a difficult situation. We’re here to have fun. Much like a boxing match, you watch from the side lines. Not from inside the ring.
Image:WRC.com
Image: D.Darrall
There has never been so much excitement. And finally we kicked off the long anticipated new generation WRC season in Monaco. it’s the perfect setting. Huge crowds of Journo’s and photog’s gather in Casino square. Stunned at the aggressive new look cars. Nearly 400bhp with wings, fin’s and aero trickery on every body panel you can and can’t see.
Now to add to this exciting new dawn for WRC, Volkswagen – Who were always going to…. Well there’s no other way to put this, kick everyone’s back butt-side. Made the shock decision to pull out at the end of 2016. As much as we have to thank VW for putting so much into the sport and made it reach the levels of professionalism it has today. Now they are gone, it’s made 2017 even more exciting. Levelled out the field. With the worlds current best, Super Seb O in what is basically a private team M-Sport, and Jari Matti Latvala in the Toyota. It’s anyones guess who will be at the front.
Well, almost. As once again Super Seb Ogier won in Monte. However, it wasn’t all that easy. Neuville was well in control in his super slick new Hyundai and led most of the way until he broke it on a lump of concrete on the road side. But showing that Hyundai have a very strong driver & car set-up this year, and that thing sounds incredible! Tanak (even with a very sick car and missing a few cylinders) made an impressive, super sideways finish to 3rd, showing how strong that Fiesta is. With an M-Sport 1 & 3 finish, it gained much interest from the Ford manufacturers. Could Mr. Wilson’s hard work finally be paying off? Could we see Ford back fully in the Championship once again?
The most impressive though, was Toyota in what is supposed to be a ‘development year’. But recently employed Latvala took the rather impressive looking Toyota – Have you seen that ass!? And took the beast to a well deserved 2nd place. Latvala it seems has finally found his Sisu & his Mojo that he clearly misplaced in the later years at VW.
The disappointment from round one was Citroen. As amazing as their all new C3 WRC looked in anger, and was most people’s favourite at the start. The best result they managed was, erm…. Well, it was actually last years little old beauty. The still much-loved DS3 (Awkward). In the hands of Craig Breen who continued to show off his incredible talents to finish in 5th place. As for Meeke & Lefebvre – Well, they learnt that the new C3 is very good at crashing. Better luck next time please boys. But overall, the latest spec of the new generation WRC was spectacular!
Photo:D.Darrall
So, next up is the WRC’s winter wonderland, Rally Sweden. Thankfully this year, it seems there’s plenty of snow and below freezing temps to give us some proper Rally conditions, which are unique to any motor sport championship. Although we do get snow and ice in some parts of the tarmac mountain roads on the Monte. Rally Sweden is the only full Snow rally of the year.
And I will be Stage side. Freezing my toes off, just so that I can tell you all about it when I come back home. Hopefully with stunning winter images and no frost bite.
Inside Rally 