Rallying Or Formula 1?

QUESTION: If I were to ask you which of these two motor sporting disciplines is the more interesting from a spectators stand point ..........OK, OK, it was a silly question and we all know the answer. F1 at the moment is more akin to watching paint drying and I don't honestly think that this season will be any different from last year.

QUESTION: Which of these two disciplines would produce the namby-pamby driver? Easy! I hear you say. The answer is not as clear cut as you would think Jimmy. (Do you get the feeliong I am about to stir up a hornet's nest?). Why ask such a question indeed? It was prompted by two separate events over the past few weeks., where drivers in both events were complaining about the conditions..

Firstly, one guy, who shall remain nameless-only because I've forgotten his name, was complaining that his event in Scotland was more like a skiing event than a rally. I don't know about you, but entering a motor rally, in Scotland, in the middle of winter is bound to conjure up vivid images of cold inclement weather. The fact that he entered The Snowman Rally gave him no excuses whatsoever.

The other weekend, round 3 of the World Rally Championship-The Safari Rally, culminated in a well deserved victory for Subaru's Richard Burns. Many of the drivers on that event were complaining about .........wait for it.......animals on the road!!!

For !!!!!!! Sake-what did they expect? This event is run in Kenya. It's where people go to see wild animals! In all fairness, it is something the drivers do expect to see and their cars are prepared accordingly. The drivers were complaining about the domesticated/farm animals being in the road. Ask Juha Kankunnen what it's like to be flat in fifth on a dusty track-with no room to manouver-and suddenly being confronted by a herd of cattle! His in-car camera caught the sequence in impressive detail. Most of the cows retreated safely to the verge-except one-and at that speed the cow would have been killed instantly. The sight of the cow being killed wasn't impressive, it was Juha himself, who kept his right foot bolted firmly to the floor all the time. He did not lift off for a split second, nor did he attempt to deviate from his chosen line. Even the pace notes kept flowing, with not so much as a "I bet that made his eyes water" from Repo!

Later on in the same event, the in-car video footage from one of the Peugeots showed what world rallying has come to expect. Out of sight of the driver, who wasn't hanging about, was a herd of Zebra grazing at the side of the road. They had however been noticed by the spotter helicopter which was shadowing the car's every move. In the bat of an eye, the chopper had swooped down and buzzed the grazing herd-enough to startle them into a stampede..... Away from the track. A split second later and the Peugeot passed safely on its way.

I appreciate that the Safari Rally is unique from all other events, but intervention of spotter aircraft and the fact that the third leg of the route was a repeat of the first, is a sad testament to what World-class rallying has become today! Even our own event (It will always be called the RAC!) in this championship is only a shadow of its former self.

When I first competed on the RAC back in 1988, it was a 5 day marathon. None of the special stages were repeated, unlike now and the luxury of having a service area in the same place for two visits was almost unheard of.

I fully appreciate that costs need to be reduced, but back in '88 we didn't have reconnaissance. We didn't have recce cars travelling through the stages 2 hours ahead before hand and as for the Bell Jet Ranger, ours was commonly referred to as the Transit van!!

Whilst you can argue a case for using pace-notes, competitors using them on a stage can travel far faster-but it can also mean that you have a far bigger accident. Centralising service points is only necessary for the bigger teams and hoards of tyre lorries. Gone are the days of lil' old 4 ton box-wagons, they are all multi-wheeled artics' now.

Big sponsorship money has also introduced something formerly only seen in F1 paddocks-the motor home. I'm not talking about a Winnebago either. These are full sized, coach sized beasts. Impressive and expensive, but are they really necessary-at the expense of a properly thought out route, where spectators are not crammed into a small area.. Don't get me wrong, Hafren forest is not a small area by anyone's standards, but shoe-horn half a million speccies in there and their cars, and the narrow welsh lanes soon become grid locked.

Ban recce-crews-Ban double usage of stage-mileage (even if it is more economical) and keep the rally moving.