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Rally of Great Britain 20th-23rd November 1999 |
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Training Committee News
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Rally of Great Britain 20th-23rd November 1999 |
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Training Committee News
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Thank you to everybody who officiated on the 1998 Rally of Great Britain and contributed to making it such a successful event.
"The best of all World Championship Rallies we have competed on."
Welcome to the first issue of Rally GB News for 1999. The Crews on the 1998 Rally were generally very complimentary about the Event in their responses to the competitors' questionnaire. The majority of the comments were about individual problems which the crew had encountered. There were, however some general comments which give us a clue to the competitors feelings about the rally . Three of these were, the enigmatic, "Millbrook was a classic!"; the complimentary, "The girl who signed me on was exceptionally courteous." and the enthusiastic "Best of all World Championhip Rallies we have competed on."
It is eight months before this year's event and already the organisation
is in full swing. There have been meetings of the Event Organising Committee
and the specialist working parties connected with the Event. The Draft
Events Programme has been published and details are included in this News.
The Regional organisation of the Rally is now well under way.
Up to date details of the route and staffing requirements will be in
the next issue of NQ News in May.
1998 Television Statistics
One of the most regular comments we receive on the Rally is advice and questions about the route.
It was not many years ago that this event visited virtually every part of the country, in fact the first event I was involved in started in Bath and was followed by overnight halts in Harrogate, Edinburgh and Liverpool before finisging in Bath four days later. In fact is was quite a good event as road mileage for competitors was not excessive, but it was a very arduous event for the organising team, running four days different HQ's in four days!
In those days the World Rally Championship was a title in name only. Participation of the manufacturers teams in events was spasmodic and probbaly only Lancia supported most events, although they quite often gave our round a miss if they had the championship won by November.
In the early nineties the FIA and the manufacturers involved in the WRC got together with a view to producing a more cohesive Championship involving more participating manufacturers with those manufacturers doing every round of a championship with more rounds. The result of their deliberations is the World Rally Championship of today with 7 manufacturers, doing all 14 events and much stricter control on the format of events through the Championship Regulations. Is it these controls that have led to this event, and all the others in the Championship being quite different to their format and duration of previous years.
Timed servicing, mandatory three day format, controlled reconnaissance, controlled driving hours, minimum and maximum overall special stage distances have given us as organisers a completely different approach to the planning of the rally route. Nowadays, we find the service areas first and the special stages become seconday!
As you are aware, the event if the past two years have received criticism on certain aspects of the route - "the Sunday Stages". The problem is that we have to cram 250 miles of stages into three days and this has meant that to achieve this we have had to increase the competitive distance on Leg 1. On last years event we ran 27 stages, 13 of them on Sunday, thus too great a competitive concentration was on a day when, with the best will in the world, the stages can hardly be described as "classics". Therefore in the planning of this years' event we have taken this into account, without losing the "Sunday" and its' unique atmosphere.
Sunday is much shorter, nine and a half hours compared to twelve and
a half hours, 22 stage miles compared to 44 stage miles and the road mileage
reduced by 140 miles. To compensate for the loss of stage mileage we have
hd to increase the forest stage distances in Legs 2 and 3. Day 2 will be
much the same duration as last year but with more stage mileage. Day 3
has become longe, but with 120 stage miles it will be the most arduous
days rallying in thie years world championship.
This format seems to have met with controlled enthusiasm by the WRC teams.
Clerk of the Course, Fred Gallagher is contesting all the World
Championship round (except the Network Q) as a team mate to Colin McRae.
Communications Team member Alex Davers is not able to be involved
in the Event this year and Chris Stacey is taking over.
The stage start lights continue to be developed and are being trialled on British Championship.
Reconnaissance is between Tuesday 16th November and Friday 19th November.
Scrutineering for all the World Championship Registered teams will be at the Rally Show at Cheltenham Racecourse between 14.00hrs and 17.30hrs on Saturday 20th November.
All other crews will be scrutineered at RAF Innsworth between 08.00hrs and 14.00hrs on Saturday 20th November.
Leg 1 of The Rally will start at 08.30hrs and finish at 18.00hrs on Sunday 21st at Cheltenham Racecourse.
Leg 2of The Rally will start at 05.15hrs and finish at 23.00hrs on Monday 22nd at Cheltenham Racecourse.
Leg 3 of The Rally will start at 05.30hrs and finish at 19.40hrs on Tuesday 23rd at Cheltenham Racecourse.
Prize Giving will be at The Rally finish podium at Cheltenham Racecourse at 19.40hrs on Tuesday.
On special stages the exhuast system cen be altered to bypass the silencer. (This is optional to events and is defined in event regulations.)
There is now no penaly for pushing a car out of parc ferme.
Electronic countdown procedues are permitted at stage starts.
The Observer's report form requires much more detail.
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Friday,
14th May 1999