![]() 11/15/2015 at 15:19 • Filed to: WRC, Photodump | ![]() | ![]() |
I think the official hashtag of #DirtyWeekend was pretty spot on. With a large storm passing over the UK during the WRC weekend it was always going to be an interesting couple of days. Amazingly Friday stayed dry, however Saturday did its best to make up for this by raining relentlessly from 6am till about 9.30pm.
Friday Photos (Hafren)
I was expecting this year to be slightly less spectacular than last year, as the speed of the cars wasn’t a surprise. Boy was I wrong. Seeing Ogier coming round a fast sweeper on this angle at a ridiculous speed just blew me away. The top boys are just on another level.
Oh and they absolutely destroy the track. After 3 cars had come through they had already cut through the top surface on the fast right hander I was at.
Well I think the Citroen is 4 wheel drive, but clearly 3 wheel drive is more than enough.
Polish was by far the most prevalent language after English, with lots of fans out going mad when Kubica came past.
Mark this day in history, the sun was out in Wales!
Serious speed on the straight, and braking far too late for any sane person. I could watch these WRC boys all day.
Mad welsh fans hiding up in the hills. You had to work on your climbing skills to get to some of the best spots.
The last of the WRC runners is this chap, a privateer from Italy. Cool to see someone out there living the dream without the big manufacturer budgets.
Local lad Elvyn Evans was out representing the Brits, along with Kris Meeke. Not sure where he ended up in the standings but he seemed to be bouyed by the home crowd in the build up to the event, and looking forward to getting out into the woods.
These rally boys would make some good drifters.
Craig Breen in the Peugeot 208 R5. In Peugeot works colours, YAY!
Somewhere under the mud is a tribute to his late Co-Driver Gareth Roberts who was sadly killed back in 2012, and Craig still clearly carries this with him.
Ex works S2000 Mini sounded awesome, and always great to have some variety amongst the dozens of Fiestas and DS3s that make up the lower running of the international field.
Blue Scooby! There were a lot of people waiting for Higgins to come through that I spoke to. Clearly that livery on a Subaru really got through to people.
Skoda were also out playing with their new R5 spec Fabia. In matt black is certainly looked the part.
And the old Fabia S2000 was running very quickly in its class.
More three wheeling Polos.
This Fiesta is driven by the motoring editor of the Sun newspaper over here in the UK. Clearly journalism is a lucrative career.....
Henning Solberg, brother of Petter was out for a play, having done a select few rounds this year.
Edit 1: not Henning as pointed out by Hoccy, but Martin Prokop.
One of the junior cars, the DS3. I think I saw more DS3s this weekend on the stage than I have on the roads.
MOAR SUBBBARUUUUU!
Not sure if he has enough lights there.... Should just about suffice as a second sun though should he have to run in the dark as they did Saturday evening.
This Japanese team was running, fairly slowly mind, in this little Yaris.
National Entries
Along with 2 runs of each stage for the international cars, a field of around 90 cars came out in the national rally which supports the WRC.
Whilst the majority of the early runners are the 4WD Subarus, Evos, and a couple of ex WRC cars, there were some oddities in there.
This ex works Ford Focus WRC from 2003 was out on the stages just like it was 12 years ago.
The picture of the Focus and this picture were taken 1 minute apart. Thats hail for reference.
and about another 5 minutes later, lovely and clear again. Welsh weather...
BRAKE!!! Yeah he came in slightly too hot to this tight left hander.
More blue Subaru action.
One of the many oddities is this Vauxhall Firenza V8, run by Jimmy McRae (yep, that McRae family)
And because its a national rally in the UK, of course there were Escorts.
Both mark 1 and mark 2 were popular cars on the entry.
And then there was this little VW Lupo. Sadly the Nationals got cancelled after around 20 cars, because of a roll early in the stage. So all the cars had to cut through the stage through a random forest track which I was handily enough right next too, otherwise I wouldn’t have had a clue what was going on. Shame that they couldn’t run but the next run for the internationals was fast approaching and they have to run on time.
One of the casualties of the runs. Not sure what had happened but this Subaru was facing oncoming traffic and not going anywhere.
Side note about this group of Polish fans, who were drinking Coffee and Jagermeister at 9.30am and generally having a blast throughout the first runs. Such passion for Kubica, was great to see.
Saturday (the day of biblical rain) - Dyfi
Saturday was the day that Abigail, a pretty hefty storm hit this part of Wales. So heavy rain, high winds and cold temperatures made for a perfect day to stand outside for 12 hours...
This is the Welsh Rally equivalent of a packed Spanish hillside for their WRC. The first few cars did come through in only spitting rain before it really started to come down.
Latvala and Neuville both had crashes on the Friday so came through before the main field under Super-rally, or whatever that rule is called now.
Then Ogier arrived, cutting the corner to throw debris on the line for the following drivers. Now that is skill!
Rains arrived properly now.
Kris Meeke might be out of a drive in 2016 which is a crying shame as he’s the only driver to beat the VWs this year. He was giving it his all in Wales to try and save his seat, hopefully it was enough.
A bit too much of a cut of Evans there, whoops.
Martin Prokop is another of the privateers. M-Sport who make the Fords do offer support for the cars, but I’m surprised neither VW, Citroen or Hyundai will sell cars. Seems like VW especially would be very popular.
Kubica made it through day 1 without crashing. Actually thats not fair, this year he seems to have gotten a handle on making it to the end of stages.
Because of the rain I took slightly less pictures on Saturday, electing to stay drier and hide under my umbrella.
On the second run of Dyfi I moved down to the inside of a fast right hander with a view over the valley to the scene below.
The valley provided and amazing view, and watching the cars, even from this distance showed the speed these boys can carry. When I walked this bit after the WRC boys had been through I was really surprised by how narrow the road was, and how steep the drop off was. Yep these boys are seriously brave
Kris Meeke made it to second on the podium, beating 2 of the VWs. Admittedly Latvala did throw it off the road, but Mikkelson is no slouch and in what is without doubt the best car.
Evans sadly crashed out of forth this morning (Sunday) otherwise he was on for a great result in his home run.
Edit 2: Evans actually finished 6th, Tanak crashed out of forth, thanks to Hoccy & Dusty Ventures (not for the crash, for pointing it out).
There was a warning sign in the bottom right of this picture. Thats just mud now.
Thats a pretty big rock to be launching. I think a spectator was hit on Friday by a rock, and had to be ambulanced out according to one of the officials I spoke to. Sounded pretty nasty.
And to finish, more SUBARUUUUU action.
Really glad I went this year, as I nearly passed on it. Even with the awful weather (did I mention it rained?) it was still a brilliant weekend and well worth the long drive, early starts and general cold and wet. Roll on 2o16.
As always all photos are on my Flickr too, for easier downloading. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
![]() 11/15/2015 at 15:45 |
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Henning Solberg, brother of Petter was out for a play, having done a select few rounds this year.
Sadly Henning didn’t drive this year, even if he was on the initial entry list. You’ve got a photo of Martin Prokop there. Also it was Tanak who crashed out of fourth, Evans finished sixth after a fight with Paddon.
Other than that, lots of great photos here! I hope I get to experience this rally in the future.
![]() 11/15/2015 at 15:56 |
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Ah whoopsies. That’ll teach me for not fact checking ha. On both counts for that matter.
Its well worth the effort. Last year I stayed in a hotel in Shrewsbury and went to Hafren and Dyfnant, which was great but quite expensive. Managed to borrow the parents Camper this year which made life a lot easier. Plenty of people just hire a normal van and camp out on the stages too.
![]() 11/15/2015 at 16:05 |
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WANT
![]() 11/15/2015 at 16:10 |
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Right! I love that you can just buy an ex-works WRC car and go and play. Can’t do that with F1 (well, kinda with Ferrari but still).
![]() 11/15/2015 at 16:10 |
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Tanak crashed out, Evans finished sixth
![]() 11/15/2015 at 16:11 |
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You are correct sir. As two people have pointed it out I will edit with a correction pointing out my stupidity :)
![]() 11/15/2015 at 16:18 |
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Martin Prokop is another of the privateers. M-Sport who make the Fords do offer support for the cars, but I’m surprised neither VW, Citroen or Hyundai will sell cars. Seems like VW especially would be very popular.
M-Sport sells and rents their cars because now that they’ve lost factory backing that’s the only way they can afford to operate their team. Citroen has rented and sold(?) a few cars along the way as well, Yuriy Protasov and Bryan Bouffier have both run Citroens as privateers. I’ve heard rumors Hyundai might offer a rental program at some point as well.
VW, meanwhile, has no intention of renting their cars, and with the best developed car in the sport and a budget that eclipses all the other teams they really don’t need the money from renting or selling the cars. That said, there are two main schools of thought on why they refuse to rent/sell. 1) is that they simply don’t want to risk being beat with their own equipment. 2) is that either they’ve got some trickery in there that might not be 100% legal, or they’ve got some trickery in there that they don’t want the other manufacturers to hear about and copy. Either way, they don’t want to put the cars in the hands of people who might discover/reveal unwanted details about their cars.
![]() 11/15/2015 at 16:21 |
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There’s something about the first gen Focus WRC specifically that speaks to me. I feel like if I stripped it of the livery, the roof scoop, and possibly the wing, and parked it in a standard carpark it would go completely overlooked by 99% of the people that would pass it. They would just see an old, box standard Focus. It’s like my dream sleeper.
![]() 11/15/2015 at 16:22 |
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It’s not stupidity. Rally fans actually attending the rally are usually among the last to find out how the event actually went. No results screens or scoring pylons out on the stages ;)
![]() 11/15/2015 at 16:47 |
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Pull up to the traffic lights, engage the anti lag, floor throttle, disappear. Yep that would be a pretty epic sleeper.
![]() 11/15/2015 at 16:56 |
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I will destroy every terrible ricey Honda in the state
![]() 11/16/2015 at 06:49 |
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Great work! Thanks for sharing!
![]() 11/16/2015 at 12:16 |
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Sick photos!
![]() 11/16/2015 at 23:11 |
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Great photos, I just followed you on Flicker too. Your photos convey a lot of speed and drama. You and I have a similar style, because I love showing motion in my motorsports images. I cannot stand seeing cars frozen in time like they are parked on rally stages or race tracks.
![]() 11/17/2015 at 03:21 |
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Thanks very much.
Yeah I couldnt agree more, I dont like those static shots, they just look really dull. There is a time and a place for good sharp shots but not all the time if you ask me.
![]() 11/17/2015 at 08:40 |
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Amazing photos! Have me a few ideas of how I want to shoot the Rally of the Tall Pines later this month, provided I’m not exhausted by the time I finish the drive and that it’s not snowing too badly. Because winter, and Canada.
Just curious, what did you do to your equipment to combat the weather?
![]() 11/17/2015 at 10:08 |
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Please, Hyundai, make a hot i20 hatch. Please? We’ll totes buy it.
![]() 11/17/2015 at 10:09 |
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SPonsored by: mud, mud, some more mud, even more mud, and a fuck-ton more mud.
![]() 11/17/2015 at 10:12 |
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Soon.
![]() 11/17/2015 at 10:13 |
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Ouch, Yeah I was feeling cold and it was about 5 degrees (c)with wind chill so snow rallying might be abit too far for me ha.
Well the camera is a 7D mk ii so is weather sealed which helps reduce my stress levels. I use a Lenscoat and I will be changing it this winter. It keeps the worst of the weather out of the lens but once its rained for more than about 20 minutes the lens gets pretty wet. My 100-400 is going back to Canon to be serviced next week because it got so wet even inside the lenscoat. So id personally not recommend them if you want to keep shooting in the rain. Going to look for some new wet weather gear over winter.
![]() 11/17/2015 at 10:16 |
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Dammit I wanted to go run a Polo after some time.
How long till the homologation expires for the ‘15-spec works cars?
![]() 11/17/2015 at 10:28 |
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Haha here it’s 5C now without windchill, and it’s only getting colder from here. Going to need to invest in some winter gear soon, though gloves might be an issue.
Interesting, I’ll have to check out Lenscoat in the future. What’s the service fee like sending it back to Canon? I’m shooting with Sony gear atm but looking to replace the A6000 with a A7R next year.
![]() 11/17/2015 at 10:50 |
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See i’m feeling cold just reading that ha. Yeah I need to replace my gloves badly, I use them for cycling so they have gotten fairly well ruined this year.
Id see what else is out there and what the pros use. I thinking of heading to my local camera shop to see what they have there, and holding the material in my hand before buying another pointless cover.
![]() 11/17/2015 at 10:50 |
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Going to be so good once Toyota join, more manufacturers = better WRC.
![]() 11/17/2015 at 10:51 |
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Right?! How good would that be, and a Polo R whilst your at it please. Such a shame none of the Rally reps have come to the road, like the old Focus, Impreza, Evo days...
![]() 11/17/2015 at 11:16 |
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There’s a new set of rules going into effect for 2017 that will make the current cars obsolete. Whether VW will sell the outdated cars like most manufacturers or bury them like a retired Area 51 jet is yet to be seen.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 05:15 |
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Oh thank god, I thought I’d have to use my bloody horrible phone pictures for wallpapers...
Also, perfect weather for rallying eh?
![]() 11/18/2015 at 06:15 |
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Ha thanks very much, I’ve already swapped my PC wallpapers to these.
Oh yes, rain, hail, wind, just seems like the ideal time to be outside for 12hrs
![]() 11/18/2015 at 06:22 |
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This is as close as I could get to a decent photo (excuse the HDR) on the Saturday. The Sunday was just impossible in the end...
As usual Wales knows how to put on a decent bit of weather for the rally.
I seem to remember (almost) being able to lean against the wind on Sunday to take the weigh off my legs. Definitely not complaining though, absolutely brilliant to watch as usual!
![]() 11/18/2015 at 07:22 |
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Please sell Skoda in the U.S., it would be an instant success.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 07:25 |
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I vote Area 51 jet. The technology is too powerful!!!!!!
![]() 11/18/2015 at 07:25 |
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That would be awkward if VW had a cheating device in the Polo WRC... TDI
![]() 11/18/2015 at 07:56 |
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I thought BOSS still existed?
![]() 11/18/2015 at 07:58 |
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That’s one thing that really impressed me about Rally Sweden; they actually have big screens in the middle of a snowy forest in places and enough phone signal to keep track of things. And they still manage to make tickets cost half of what they do for Rally GB.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 08:03 |
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a bit out of season but sometimes I understand Scots’ fandom of the Appalachias,
the Offroad Trail Of The Lonesome Pine is a bit slower paced.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 08:04 |
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Ooo forgot completely about that. Yeah you’re right there are some modernish F1 cars running in that still, a Jaguar and a late Benneton. Good knowledge sir!
![]() 11/18/2015 at 08:06 |
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Amen to that, the speed of the quickest WRC boys is mad.
Was that taken up at Chirk Caslte? How was that stage?
Did you read about how close sunday came to being closed? The skeleton, high winds and general awful weather made it a pretty damn close thing in the end ha
![]() 11/18/2015 at 08:12 |
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What a waste of data storage.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 08:24 |
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It was at Chirk yes. Bit disappointed in the stage to be honest. Super short tarmac only stage and banners blocking decent views on the action points. Plus the only hairpin on the whole stage seemed to be only viewable if you were part of the corporate hospitality lot. I was hoping for something like Sutton Park but was left feeling a bit shortchanged.
I did hear rumours about the closures, though I kinda thought to myself “but its a Rally!? Surely it’s about the challenge!”. That said, the walk to the Brenig stage really made it clear that perhaps it wouldn’t have been entirely beyond the realms of possibility...
Still, very glad I went on Sunday and with enough layers on I was actually pretty cosy whilst stood out there. Might try and get to some European rounds next year, I’ve heard Germany is brilliant.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 08:36 |
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So many photos to fave on Flickr, so I’ll just star this post!
![]() 11/18/2015 at 08:39 |
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Oh that does seem like a bit of a shame to have it as tarmac, part of the fun is seeing the cars sideways on the mud.
I think the closures were more due to the spectators than the cars/drivers. Autosport or motorsport, cant remember which, had an article explaining why.
I added extra layers on Saturday compared to Friday and was glad I had. I did have to swap coats after Dyfi, as it was soaked through, so took my spare out on Dyfnant, that also got soaked through ha. Good old welsh weather.
Yeah I would love to see them on tarmac properly, just because I imagine the speeds they carry on the narrow roads must be pretty epic.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 08:43 |
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While I love Fuckmatie WRT, and they technically classify as a privateer team, I wouldn’t personally call them so. The driver’s dad has a net worth of around 19 billion, because he is Miuccia Prada. Yes, that Prada.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 09:05 |
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Higgins and Drew FTW!
![]() 11/18/2015 at 09:30 |
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IT’S BIGFOOT!
![]() 11/18/2015 at 09:42 |
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Amazing Photos. They would look great poster size in a garage.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 10:03 |
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These are great photos, but I wish you made a video so I could hear the cars.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 10:09 |
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Crikey!
Here we see the rare Rally i20 in it’s natural habitat, feeling spry on a cool morning!
![]() 11/18/2015 at 10:10 |
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Que es eso?
![]() 11/18/2015 at 10:28 |
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FYI:Robert Kubica is also a privateer. His whole team was 6-7 people. He managed to win dozen of stages this season both on gravel and tarmac. It is quite amazing achievement with such a small team/budget.
Some good read here: http://www.worldrallyblog.com/2015/11/01/wrc…
I hope we will see him back in WRC next year.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 10:30 |
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I did have a crack at taking a couple of videos to see how they came out but they weren’t really up to much sadly. Handheld DSLR and no external mic does not make for good quality videos sadly.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 10:49 |
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This past year I kept up with WRC through WRC+ and I am happy I did. I hope WRC becomes more popular in the US. Surprised that no stations air any coverage about it. Surprised there is not a WRC event in the US. Is because of safety and insurance reasons? I know lawyers are a big issue and would the WRC cars be able to legally drive on US roads between stages since they are not federalized for the US market.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 10:52 |
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Less is more, I think you went slightly overkill with the number of shots.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 11:00 |
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I do actually agree with you there. I did however go for this many shots on the off chance someone was a fan of one specific driver/car and would be super annoyed if there was a shot of some of the others and not that 1 car. But yeah i do agree there’s a fair few that are very samey.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 11:04 |
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I have to say I really dont follow the WRC that closely, I know its on and see the headlines but wouldn’t class myself as a dedicated fan. WRC+ does seem like a really good idea to make the sport more accessible so got to give them credit there.
I thought TV coverage of most motorsports in the US was slightly patchy? I see lots about the WEC being hard to find in the US on the Facebook. But as you can imagine I wouldn’t really know being as i’m here in the UK, and can barely keep track of our tv schedule let alone stateside ha.
I guess its partly down to where the manufacturers want to go too, hence in 2016 they are off to China. But yeah be cool to see the WRC head over and do Rally America or something like that, really help its global reach.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 11:15 |
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Ok that’s understandable. So I’ll just make the rally car noises and bov sounds while looking at the pictures.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 11:33 |
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Great post! It is great to see some photos from the rally showcased on Jalopnik :)
On another note, I am pretty sure I was around the corner from you on Dyfi!
![]() 11/18/2015 at 12:01 |
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Yeah that looks very familiar. Very early in the stage, having walked uphill from the spectator area yes? I got there as it was still pretty dark and could see some shapes on that big hill in the background, wasnt until it brightened up abit I could see how many people had climbed up the huge hill.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 12:51 |
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There is something like BossGP for old F1 cars!
![]() 11/18/2015 at 12:53 |
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I20N?
![]() 11/18/2015 at 13:22 |
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That’s the one! Some awesome shots from that area, the forest looked stunning in the early morning mist too... Got soaked twice that day!
The hill was a nightmare but luckily I was able to get up the stage further between the first and second running of the stage.
Well worth the trip, they are incredible flat out, specially after watching the onboards from Dyfi.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 13:53 |
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Correct. Kubica, Prokop, and Bertelli are the three “full season” Ford privateers. Unfortunately Kubica sounds like he won't be back for more than a rally or two next year unless he's with a factory team. Personally I think Toyota should pick him up for their 2017 return
![]() 11/18/2015 at 13:58 |
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Skeleton?
![]() 11/18/2015 at 14:04 |
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In the US Fox Sports 1 owns the rights to WEC but they completely botched the coverage of 24 Hours of Le Mans. I spent 10 Euros to watch a stream on the WEC’s official website and I know they have all the races on there streaming for a subscription fee. I find WRC easier to keep up since WRC+ has a 25 minute recap of each day of a Rally. I do not have hours to watch through long races. I think the future for motorsport is online subscription streaming since cable sport networks do a poor job at coverage.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 14:08 |
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Onboards from Dyfi you say? Well off to youtube I go.
Yeah Saturday was pretty interesting with the weather. I stayed on Dyfi for the nationals, but went further the other way for those. I gave up when I could see the rain coming and it made the hills disappear. However the rain brought lots more wind so no umbrella meant the 20 or so minute walk back to the car soaked me through ha.
Did you head to the night stages in the evening? or just Dyfi for Sat?
![]() 11/18/2015 at 14:09 |
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http://www.autosport.com/news/report.ph…
“While the hurricane-force winds and incessant rainfall had been a concern all week, the biggest threat to the World Rally Championship’s last day of 2015 came when a spectator erecting a tent next to the Brenig stage on Saturday night found a skeleton.” taken directly from the article.
No news since then, but holy crap imagine finding that.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 14:11 |
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Amen to that. I paid for the WEC season pass to, but skipped Le Mans as I was going so no need to pay for the coverage. Clearly going to Le Mans was the financially right choice there...
Once WEC realises that people cant listen/watch the whole race live and allows for On Demand they will be onto a winner.
Yeah Online is definitely the platform, I love that most weekends I can find something motorsport based to watch, and pretty much always legally too which is brilliant. ELMS, TUSCC/IMSA, Blancpain, all free to air.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 14:43 |
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After a WEC race they had a hour long recap that would be great like what WRC+ does that after a Rally event.
![]() 11/18/2015 at 15:25 |
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Privateer just means privately funded, not factory funded. His family could have the same net value as Europe's GDP and still qualify as a privateer
![]() 11/18/2015 at 15:48 |
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Best pic!
![]() 11/18/2015 at 17:55 |
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Try WRC+ for all the full onboards etc of the stages, you may even see you in it!
Stayed for most of the nationals on the second run and went up further into the forest closer to the start.. walk took forever to get back.
Headed to Dyfnant in the evening, that was certainly insane, we ended up on a corner with a whole bunch of Irish supporters...fireworks and chanting all eveing!
![]() 11/18/2015 at 19:30 |
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Cousin
![]() 11/19/2015 at 12:21 |
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That’s a good point regarding people being fans of specific cars, it’s tricky dilemma especially when you cover things like Le Mans or Blancpain where the grids are usually 40-60 cars and Le Mans looking to increase numbers to 70-90
![]() 11/19/2015 at 12:58 |
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It certainly poses a dilemma. Same goes for local events too, you really have to get something of every car pretty much, because you can guarantee that the one car you miss will be the one that asks for a photo. Thats happened to me a couple of times now, and its super annoying when that happens.
![]() 11/19/2015 at 14:58 |
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When I first started this used to me my biggest problem, I used to always go by who the favourites where and got caught out when there was an underdog winner, which has happens quite often in Blancpain and the P2 + GTAm categories of WEC.
![]() 11/20/2015 at 12:34 |
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Also... are we going to see you in a WEC media centre next year? ;-)
![]() 11/20/2015 at 12:42 |
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Is that an invitation ;)
I really hope so. Nothing confirmed yet but fingers crossed. Done a handful of events as accredited media this year, and hoping to increase that number in 2016 definitely.
![]() 11/20/2015 at 13:40 |
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![]() 11/20/2015 at 15:47 |
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![]() 11/20/2015 at 16:26 |
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Invitation/Motivation/Target ;) lol