World Rallycross Championship 2020

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by crossfades

Apparently they will run one at a time in the legends category.

Given that a lot of the Legends are borrowing cars, I wonder if they are running solo for qualifying, then running together for the final? (on Sunday)

Originally Posted by SnoodyMcFlude

Love that they've got a drone cam for replays of the starts too, chance for some very cool shots.

Yeah. Something that I have seen used heavily in drift, but never in rallycross. Very cool!

[crossfades]

Originally Posted by tbtstt

Given that a lot of the Legends are borrowing cars, I wonder if they are running solo for qualifying, then running together for the final? (on Sunday)

I don't know actually, only five drivers after all.

[SnoodyMcFlude]

Yeah that would be my only real complaint, but does seem we at least get SF and finals for crosscart. Frustrating to have the guys having to fill when we could be watching racing, but saying that I'm quite enjoying hearing Petter and Per have a bit of banter.

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[crossfades]

Great to watch the stream during the racing, otherwise lots of boring banter.

The crosscart final had tons of action and the supercar final was alright. I expected more from Grönholm, although Larsson seems to have improved while Kristoffersson did very well in the old Polo. Kristoffersson should get a chance of something higher up in the world of motorsport, amazing driver.

Cringe Lites is still so boring

[SnoodyMcFlude]

Crosscar and Supercar finals both very good, the latter surprised me with how close the field were.
Also surprised by how close they get to the barrier on the way down the hill, that camera was a really good angle.

I think we all expected Gronholm to be a little more dominant, especially as JK is in an old car, but Larsson has always been quick and we know that Audi is capable of winning races, he could be a bit of a dark horse when he gets used to it.

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[Hickey]

I thought the live stream worked well. If it helps circuits and sponsors to have people pay 10 euros or something for an WRX round then I would be happy to pay that provided that, as has been said before, they show all the races and don't overwrite support races with interviews. Of you get to see all the support races it feels like you are there.

[crossfades]

Just running one by one in the legends category but still fun to watch actually I think.

But my god, the talking in between is so boring. I just mute it whenever they aren't driving.

[crossfades]

Nevermind, they do drive heats, although split up in two heats.

My goodness, Grönholm went faster than any heat yesterday. And Andreas Eriksson went faster than his son too.

[Silhuette]

Just finished the Nordic rx livestream and I thought it was pretty good. If the FIA made an expanded version of this coverage I would easily pay for it.

With such a limited starting field the racing was perhaps a little repetitive, but apart from the crushing performance by Kristofferson in the "old" Polo fighting latest spec Hyundai and Audi, I thought Larsson looked well dialed in this round.

Most impressed by Oliver Solberg though. His racecraft was excellent, he seems to have grown immensely since he won Nordic RX two years ago. Fast when he needed to push, clean when racing close and barely seemed to be bothered by some pretty firm love taps from behind in the Thursday qualis. This guy is going places. I don't know how much the actually updated the old the DS3, but he ran the 2016 spec in Nordic rx and seemed pretty darn fast for a five year old car.

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by Silhuette

I don't know how much the actually updated the old the DS3, but he ran the 2016 spec in Nordic rx and seemed pretty darn fast for a five year old car.

Sure Petter or Oliver said in one of the interviews that the engine is the same as 2016? (and is actually long overdue a refresh)

I love that DS3 though, so good to see it back: and to see Oliver using it properly. Real shame that Petter didn't get out on track, that is probably my biggest disappointment of the weekend.

I thought the livestream was really well presented, would like to have seen all the crosskart races covered as well but, despite that, I still felt like I got what I paid for. Great to see the drone idea lifted from drift, I doubt it will be possible to do that again but it was brilliant to see it done so well with rallycross.

In terms of the racing I was surprised not to see Niclas blitz everyone from the outset. Clearly some more tweaking required with those new dampers. Impressive performance from Larsson, I didn't think he would be competitive this year if he drove the latter S1 in his usual style, but he seems to have adjusted accordingly and I thought the results spoke for themselves.

Incredible performance from Johan yesterday. The car was clearly inferior to the i20 and S1, but that drive in the final was near perfect in those conditions. Definitely a warning to the rest of the field there, if the VW Motorsport Polo is still competitive then Johan is going to be right at the sharp end.

Favourite bit of the weekend? As cool as it was to see Per Eklund out on track again, the Marcus/Niclas moments after the first legend race wins for me. Rare to see any emotion from a Gronholm, but Niclas face was a picture and there was genuine laughter from the other three drivers in the studio. Plus Marcus did a fantastic Fonz impression when told the news. Superb.

[Silhuette]

You make some good points there. Compare Larsson to the other two S1s - he has more speed and then the racecraft to exploit it. Going to be interesting to see how it translates into a full WRX field.

The rainy weather seemed to even the field somewhat with regards to car specs and outright performance. Johan was excellent, but at the same time he is so good you almost take it for granted. He's doing things, like bailing from the joker in the finals, that none of the others even considered trying. If the Polo is anywhere near reliable and on pace, he's going to be right there.

But for me, seeing Oliver's speed and calm driving in the DS3 was the highlight of the weekend. He also comes off so much better on camera now than just a short while back - I could have sworn he must have been doing WRX this for years and years already.

The Subaru STI has been homologated for WRX in 2021 season. I think they should give Oliver one. Fingers crossed. Solbergs have done well in blue and gold before!

[SnoodyMcFlude]

Larsson really impressed me with how quick he was and how he improved as he got used to the car, I now think he's a real contender thus season.

Shame that Oliver prefers rallying over RX, he's a talent and we all like to see that driving style. Love the way that DS3 handles and is set up so soft, and remarkable that he can be there or thereabouts with a car which has seen so much, as he said the engine is wayyyy over it's mileage.

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[crossfades]

I'd say it's a good thing going for rallying instead, at least there you can make a living out of it and drive a lot more than in rallycross. Rallying is way bigger anyway. Oliver is too skilled of a driver for rallycross I think. Kristoffersson too honestly.

Some great racing indeed, though I wonder how it would've been with Grönholm in the final or Larsson not being stuck behind McConnell. Larsson and Kristoffersson had the exact same best lap time in the final for example. Kristoffersson was quite dominating though.

[SnoodyMcFlude]

Originally Posted by crossfades

I'd say it's a good thing going for rallying instead, at least there you can make a living out of it and drive a lot more than in rallycross. Rallying is way bigger anyway. Oliver is too skilled of a driver for rallycross I think. Kristoffersson too honestly.

Rallying will cope fine without him, RX would benefit more from his involvement...and from a personal pov I'd rather see him hustling a supercar than poncing about in an R5.

[crossfades]

Originally Posted by SnoodyMcFlude

Rallying will cope fine without him, RX would benefit more from his involvement...and from a personal pov I'd rather see him hustling a supercar than poncing about in an R5.

My point was rather what he could gain by rallying as a career, not what the respective sports could gain from him.

[Silhuette]

I agree rally is the only viable choice for Oliver with the manufacturers gone from RX. However he is so fun to watch that I still hope he'll change his mind

Petter seemed unconcerned about the future of the sport and pretty much said he's working on his dream of running a factory team. How it's all about peckaging and marketing. He said it in a way that made me think of electric rx.

[SnoodyMcFlude]

I got the impression from the way Petter was saying "if Tommi can do it..." that he was referring to running a 'factory' WRC team rather than anything RX.

Agree that Oliver is better off in rallying, I just think that it's a shame because his RX driving is so entertaining.

[crossfades]

Tierp is gone from the Nordic calendar. It has also been put up for sale and apparently there are many interested, although I doubt the facility will ever be profitable beyond dragracing.

[S griffin]

That's not good. Hope something can be done to save that venue. As you say, it's hard to make a profit there. If only they could get more drag racing

[hoffman66]

The only way you make money out of drag racing is running public days every weekend and the like, and having it in a good location for big events that are even maybe not linked to drag racing.

Santa Pod used to make stacks of money out of things like Bug Jam and bike events and the racing was in in way the main attraction there.

A track ina sparesely populated country like Sweden is a dumb idea at best.

[SnoodyMcFlude]

Yeah Santa Pod work really hard to have something most weekends to get people in the gate, in particular the car show stuff where people happily pay to sit in a field and a handful will pay a bit more to go on track.
But Santa Pod is reasonably placed near fairly large population centres, there are probably more people within a two hour drive than there are in the whole of Sweden.

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[crossfades]

You guys do realise Höljes is further away from anything? The main selling point of Tierp when they started their rallycross project was to out conquer Höljes as it is fairly close to Arlanda airport and Stockholm, or civilisation at all for that matter. They claimed they could host 50,000 and just where it is situated is a big plus over Höljes.

[Hickey]

Originally Posted by crossfades

You guys do realise Höljes is further away from anything? The main selling point of Tierp when they started their rallycross project was to out conquer Höljes as it is fairly close to Arlanda airport and Stockholm, or civilisation at all for that matter. They claimed they could host 50,000 and just where it is situated is a big plus over Höljes.

Just a shame the rallycross circuit at Tierp was horrendous. It looked so makeshift and the concrete barriers were awful.

[MissClarrpz]

Originally Posted by Hickey

Just a shame the rallycross circuit at Tierp was horrendous. It looked so makeshift and the concrete barriers were awful.

It reminded me of Mettet because there were so many chicanes so you never go side my side action except into turn 1

[Hickey]

Very true. I think chicanes are put in by designers to look pretty without a single clue as to the impact they have on racing. Same for kinks on a dirt section, just means you cannot go on the outside as all the dirt is swept there so can't overtake. Spa got the balance right and hey presto, we got lots of overtaking and different lines on the dirt section.