World Rallycross R12 - Franciacorta, Italy

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by crossfades

Hopefully Solberg won't be driving with Monster as sponsor next year

I'd have thought if anything Solberg would get more Monster money - surely they'll drop Liam? I assume that Solberg will have new cars (current cars for sale) and he'll run 2 cars - so the Solberg/Doran entry will be no more.

[crossfades]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

I'd have thought if anything Solberg would get more Monster money - surely they'll drop Liam? I assume that Solberg will have new cars (current cars for sale) and he'll run 2 cars - so the Solberg/Doran entry will be no more.

Very good point actually, did not think of that. I don't know if he got sponsored by Monster this season for partnering with Doran or for having a very good previous season. With a manufacture backing I hope that he will drop Monster, or be dropped by them. If he were to drive a Volkswagen he surely cannot be sponsored by Monster, although that opens up for Red Bull ...

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by crossfades

Hopefully Solberg won't be driving with Monster as sponsor next year

Why not?

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

I'd have thought if anything Solberg would get more Monster money - surely they'll drop Liam? I assume that Solberg will have new cars (current cars for sale) and he'll run 2 cars - so the Solberg/Doran entry will be no more.

How long is the Monster deal with Doran? It started in 2011 so this year is it's 5th year. Can't believe they will re-sign with him.

Solberg is a much more interesting person for Monster.

IMO Doran should shutdown his team and join an existing team. The current structure isn't working. Is he on good terms with Andy Scott? Would that not be a good team for him?

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by FIRE

How long is the Monster deal with Doran? It started in 2011 so this year is it's 5th year. Can't believe they will re-sign with him.

Solberg is a much more interesting person for Monster.

IMO Doran should shutdown his team and join an existing team. The current structure isn't working. Is he on good terms with Andy Scott? Would that not be a good team for him?

Solberg is much more interesting for them and less likely to end up with negative publicity. He's just so much more marketable then Doran.

The trouble with Doran joining another team is his attitude - would you want him in your team? The hissy fits he's thrown over the years render him pretty much unemployable.

[tbtstt]

If what I have heard during the year is true then I would expect Solberg to retain Monster backing in 2016.

I can't see Monster backing affecting a potential VW deal either: Foust is backed by Rockstar and they had no qualms about picking him up.

[chunder]

I never really understood the reason Doran got that deal in the first place to be honest. His best year was the first year with Hansen, that year he knuckled down, learned a lot, was able to be tidy, quick and also taught Kenny a few things.

Too much too soon in my eyes. I think there was more to the deal than meets the eye really with them sponsoring WRX and Pat being pivotal in the whole decision maing process. I think the US market was a big part of it, and sicne then its clear they ahve lost interest and lost real branding with him, they sponsor the series, so why would they need to sponsor him anymore, especially as he is probably the worst big team results driver.

As for rallycross in general, let's not pull punches, the vast majority of motorsport is run as a tax dodge for very rich people in a lot of cases from the stock car racing circuit right the way through to the types like Isachsen who called himself an entrepreneur for a while!

Fag money was never that common in rallycross compared to other sports, you didn't have numerous Camel or Marlboro sponsored cars like in junior circuit or bike racing formulas and it wasn't really a fag sellers market, nor did they fund the top echelsons as they did in bikes and cars. I think North State was fags, and Lucky Strike with Martin, but that was dovetailing his Le Mans stuff too. Dropped as soon as he stopped LM.

So rallycross is no different to any motorsport, a huge percentage of people are in to to spend money they don't want to give to the taxman. Tax avoidance, if Starbucks and Amazon can get away with it then these guys will happily.

[crossfades]

Originally Posted by FIRE

Why not?

Not a big fan of energy drinks sponsoring as much as they do in motorsport, especially now in rallycross. Monster World RX just feels wrong and even more wrong with a Monster team. I don't oppose energy drinks sponsoring but it is getting to much

[Hickey]

Christ Chunder now I have heard it all. A tax dodge? Are you implying that they funnel millions into a sport in order to reduce their overall tax bill by those millions? Look Mr taxman, we lost 2 million pounds this year in sporting expenduture. Only problem with that is that you have to actually spend that money. Retaining it and paying tax on it still leaves you better off.

In any event, I thought the event in Italy was good and well supported. Sadly the joker corner cut up terribly and wrecked cars in the final. Needs work next year as would have been a good track . First corner needs revising too.

[rallycrossnl]

He's not talking about millions.
Anyway, the discussion was why now an upheaval of the ethics in sugary drinks-money under the apparently 'morally superior' , when there always have been dodgy penny's in motorsports, which to our knowledge nobody cared about.

[Hickey]

It is millions though. Solberg spent millions last year and I heard that Doran was given 2 million by Monster but not sure how long that was spread over

Personally, I think that there are many more morally dubious companies out there than energy drinks. And they sponsor a lot of motor sport and extreme sports and I am a big fan of that. I'd rather they put their (corporate social responsibility/tax reducing feel good money) money into that than something dull like property, Red Bull Towers or something dull like that.

[crossfades]

Would be nice to see a Swedish Volvo team sponsored by IKEA just to mix things up

[FIRE]

WRX doesn't need more Swedish and Norwegian drivers.

[crossfades]

Originally Posted by FIRE

WRX doesn't need more Swedish and Norwegian drivers.

Did not mention Swedish drivers, just a Swedish team

[cg7aa]

Originally Posted by chunder

...The coverage now is solely really about the two semi finals and final, so mainly dealing with the biggest teams...

I was thinking exactly the same thing last night; I had an hour before bedtime and I wanted to catch up on Italy and also get in a few laps of sim race practice before bed. Then I saw the length of the TV recording (Eurosport) and I thought there was no chance of doing anything else once I finish watching.

The recording was an hour and 15mins long; the first 5 mins is just me recording early so skipped that and the other 10mins at the end is just in case there is an overrun so skipped that too when I got there. That left an hour to watch but to my surprise I was done in a little over 30mins.

Of the actual coverage, I skipped all the stuff at the start as I find it superfluous, I skip the filler shots just after a race and I certainly skip the interviews in the tower and Eurosport's ads. So, we have two Supercar semifinal races, a quick glimpse of the Euros and a final race and then a little bit of podium interviews and I'm done! It dawned on me just how little of the real racing there actually is when everything is stripped bare like that.

[chunder]

As usual Hick, you completely missed the point I was making, but perhaps that was my fault for not explaining it in black and white.

I am not talking about big companies sponsoring motorsport, I am talking about individuals spending an awful lot of money on it. Let's leave it at that eh. Know what I mean....

A company can hardly write money off as a tax fiddle/avoidance if it is sponsoring a series can it? That is called sponsorship and marketing.

I know tens of drivers who appear in all kinds of motorsport after spending hundreds of thousands on a car, do a year or two and then disappear again after selling the car.

Know what I mean, do I have to spell it out? Jeez.

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by crossfades

Did not mention Swedish drivers, just a Swedish team

No but I think 1 + 1 = 2

[FIRE]

And spending millions Assumed it was more like €600k ~ €800k for full WRX season.

[bigdick1977]

I heard somewhere that Solberg's budget last year was around 4million Euros!

[crossfades]

Originally Posted by bigdick1977

I heard somewhere that Solberg's budget last year was around 4million Euros!

Budgets has risen a lot since IMG took over. Some teams and drivers even think it has risen too much and that it is getting too expensive

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by bigdick1977

I heard somewhere that Solberg's budget last year was around 4million Euros!

4 million for less than 30 minutes of racing at each event. MADNESS!!!

I really didn't know this.

[CS1]

Originally Posted by chunder

As usual Hick, you completely missed the point I was making, but perhaps that was my fault for not explaining it in black and white.

I am not talking about big companies sponsoring motorsport, I am talking about individuals spending an awful lot of money on it. Let's leave it at that eh. Know what I mean....

A company can hardly write money off as a tax fiddle/avoidance if it is sponsoring a series can it? That is called sponsorship and marketing.

I know tens of drivers who appear in all kinds of motorsport after spending hundreds of thousands on a car, do a year or two and then disappear again after selling the car.

Know what I mean, do I have to spell it out? Jeez.

I think tax dodge is a bit of a clumsy description but you are right chunder, many business owners will disguise the cost of racing within their business and either reduce their corporation tax bill or in some cases as you allude to increase the amount they owe creditors when they've gone bust

[pimmy]

Originally Posted by cg7aa

I was thinking exactly the same thing last night; I had an hour before bedtime and I wanted to catch up on Italy and also get in a few laps of sim race practice before bed. Then I saw the length of the TV recording (Eurosport) and I thought there was no chance of doing anything else once I finish watching.

The recording was an hour and 15mins long; the first 5 mins is just me recording early so skipped that and the other 10mins at the end is just in case there is an overrun so skipped that too when I got there. That left an hour to watch but to my surprise I was done in a little over 30mins.

Of the actual coverage, I skipped all the stuff at the start as I find it superfluous, I skip the filler shots just after a race and I certainly skip the interviews in the tower and Eurosport's ads. So, we have two Supercar semifinal races, a quick glimpse of the Euros and a final race and then a little bit of podium interviews and I'm done! It dawned on me just how little of the real racing there actually is when everything is stripped bare like that.

Yep, the TV coverage is abysmal. I posted this on another forum after the Turkish round:

Really poor coverage of the last two rounds. In Spain there was no coverage of the heats (which was just dumb, since 90% of a rallycross event consists of heats) and no track preview, which you'd expect with it being a new track. In Turkey there was very brief coverage of the heats, basically, "Hey guys, some races happened". They also rather randomly showed a recap of the RX Lites semi-finals but not the final itself. And does Andrew Coley really have to say everything twice?

I'm so fed up of things being sub-standard. No effort goes into anything anymore.

It's really rather silly to have this sort of coverage, especially when the commentators make references to things that we haven't seen. Some quite high-profile entries have been ignored as well (Timo Scheider in Spain, Andrew Jordan & Gigi Galli in Italy).

The funny thing is, I thought the coverage of the Canadian round was excellent. Two hours long with a thorough recap of the heats and support classes.

But this is what you get with Eurosport.

[chunder]

If you click on livestream now they have a much longer programme.

And they seem to have got rid of the ban on anyone in Europe watching the repeats on there too. So you can watch rounds that last year were blocked.

Plus its free and no adverts

[tbtstt]

Yeah, I believe the Eurosport show is an edit of the livestream, hence why there are references to events that you don't see on the show.

I noted that the review DVD last year seemed to use the TV edit as well, so there were a couple of moments in that where the commentary referred to something not included on the disc.

As said the Livestream feeds seem to have been region free this year and can be watched again at any time.