Makinnen in huge shunt

[JTBK]

96: Makinnen in huge shunt after hitting a cow and dropping down ravine

00: McRae in serious accident, both Evo's crash out in spectacular style.

01:Tommi Makinen crashed out in Corsica, Co-Driver taken to hospital.

Is the Corsica rally safe? Has it ever been?

[SJ Spode]

And not forgetting the deaths of Attilio Bettega, Henri Toivonen and the Sergio Cresto on the event in 1986; accidents which contributed to the end of the Group B Rally Car era.

The other thing to think about is that then there were still night stages on the rally!!!!

Is the rally unsafe? I don't know. There seem to be stages on many of the Championship's rounds where any accident could be a biggy. That was shown last time on the San Remo, when Jesus Puras hit an outside wall on a corner on the first stage of Leg Two. His Citroen caught the end of the wall and turned back across the road. If he'd have gone a half metre to the left there was a gap and the car would have gone out into ?????

[gomick]

good for the championship both mcrae and makkinen not scoring - gives burns and sainz and rovanpera chance to close right up in points - will they take there chances and go for it

[Crash Test]

Holy Cow alright!

Not only was it a massive crash, it only just pulled up before diving down a 100m cliff....they had to secure the car having a jeep jull on it to make sure it didn't keep going over the cliff with the guys were still in it....

Scary scary stuff...

[RB5]

World Rallying can never be described as totally safe either for drivers or spectators but the sense of danger is one of the things that makes the sport so exciting.The drivers are paid vast amounts of money and as a whole accept the risk just as in other forms of motorsport.Nobody wants to see drivers hurt but how do you make the events safe when almost every round has fatal accidents a possibility?

[Liz]

Some of these events appear to be more dangerous than others, though I can't see how any rally driver's mother can sleep nights during the season! With two near-death crashes in two years, this Corsica rally looks to be more dangerous than the Portuguese one they just cancelled.

How is the co-driver? I heard he was to have surgery on his back, and that was all.

[SJ Spode]

The lastest on Risto from Autosport.com is that following a successful four-hour operation on Monday to stabilise a fractured vertebra, Mannisenmaki is described to be in a comfortable condition by Mitsubishi Ralliart's team doctor Paul Trafford, who said the operation went "very well". He is already moving his legs and should return home this Saturday. He will be transferred by air ambulance to Finland, where he will begin his recuperation.

He's thought to be back in the cars by the end of the year or early in 2002. Finland's Timo Hantunen will partner Tommi Makinen on Rally Australia while Risto recovers.

[Liz]

I have since heard that Tommi has a broken back as well. How can he race?

[SJ Spode]

If I remember rightly Tommi has/had a fractured vertibrae in his back. So not quite a broken back, but you wouldn't want to be in a rally car with that condition, particularly over the famous jumps on some of the Oz stages.

Once again it shows that the rally drivers really are the best in the world.

[Alan Jones]

I'd have to agree with the above though i do wonder a little just where you would draw the line? As to being the best, i think reaction times would have to be off the scale with these guys. To go flatout for X amount of kilometres over a stage you have driven at normal speed once seems an amazing feat in itself.They in my book would have to have the biggest balls of the lot, either that or all be raving lunatics or out of work moonshiners

As a armchair racer who's only experience is racing at a Kart track with a group of guys 3 to 4 times a year, my totally uninformed opinion would have to be the stars of rally have the harder job driving wise than our friends in F1 and the other forms of motorsport.
Its not like you only have to learn 5 to 6 kilometres of a track is it. More like 3 to 400

Maybe its nothing more than my extreme jealousy everytime i watch these guys perform. The incar cameras offer some incredible footage.

[Liz]

We went in a rally simulator ride with Colin McRae at Snetterton once (me and a few friends) and I reserve my admiration for the co-drivers (navigators). How they can sit there reading pace notes, with no control over what the car is doing, while they career around corners crammed with spectators leaning over the roadside, and over huge jumps and straight at the side of mountains ... well, that in my book takes real courage! The guys at the wheel are undoubtedly the best drivers in the world -- but for sheer nerve it's got to be those guys in the other seats.

[SJ Spode]

As I've probably mentioned before I had the privledge of being a passenger with Gwyndaf Evans in a SEAT WRC at a RallySprint event at Silverstone last year. It was absolutely awesome. We were in a competition so Gwyndaf was holding nothing back; the acceleration and the braking (when he finally did brake) were incredible, as was the car control. I'll never forget looking out the front window and seeing the armco straight ahead as we powered around the corner, at an angle of somewhere between 45 & 90 degrees.

But you're right Liz about the co-drivers. All I had to do was hang on and enjoy the ride (& not deafen Gwyndaf with any involuntary screams, as the intercom was hooked up). The thought of having to read pace notes (or anything !!!) at the time .... No thanks.

Luckily TV crews were there filming the event, so I've got a great reminder of a fantastic day.

[touringlegend]

If the TV deals make WRC as publicly known as F1, I think we could see some very big wages.