Great to hear Mini is there. I always wondered with Prodrive struggles in WRC, why don't they forget about WRC and go profile themselves in IRC? They can do IRC for far less money, with far more TV on more classic events! That would be showing fingers towards München! With Patrick Snijers and Vaclav Pech also planing to start at least one IRC round each in a Mini, what we need now is Mini to register as manufacturer. And Lotus next!
rv65 wrote:It is a shame that the WRC cannot have an event like this.
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http://irc.rallye-info.com/article.asp? ... stid=10042=
Let me just talk you through some specialities.
There are two stages shown. 5 stages, meaning 2 different ones. Note the event starts on Thursday. Then one TV live stage is used 2x on Friday and the other 3x on Saturday. The last TV live stage is also the last stage of the event. And since the organisers realised this is not WRC kindergarden, the last stage is not a power stage but a proper 30km showdown!
That's not enough. Can you picture Corsica on a map? You might remember, that Ajaccio is the capital (2A, with Bastia being the second capital 2B) located to the centre west coast with Corte being somewhere central and Bastia to the north-eastern corner. You may also remember, that around Bastia is a big semi island, like tongue to the north, characteristical like G.W.Bush kept naming Italy "the L-shaped country".
When I was in Corsica myself (too many years ago), I remember that heading to the north coast Isle Rousse, Calvi, from Bastia, took a turn towards Corte/central, because the rocks on that half island were massive. And massive on Corsica means something. Normally the island is around 100km wide and 200km long, but don't you think you can go from coast to coast in less than 3hrs, yes for 100km! Heading from Corte back North, I remember there was a main road. Main road meant a curve every 50 metres. Boring, so we turned left onto a side road with a kurve every 10 metres! But it would have never crossed my mind to try a side road to the right, into those rocks, I may be adventurous, but I do want to reach my destination eventually and in one piece! I found it stunning in there should have been a stage of the rally in the 80s!
So what should be a proper event ending TV stage? Well, take that region where I couldn't believe there was a stage in the 80s! I don't know for sure when they last used this stage, but it was used in the groupB days and probably stopped after the dramas.
The Marinca stage, as it is called, actuially starts in a village called Canari (nearby, it would be hard to find Marinca on a map) and it follows the D80 to Pino (it might actually use side roads to the D80 for some parts), then the D180 & D332 to Cagnano, just north of Bastia.
For us rally fans this reads as follows. 30km stage you can split in 3/3rds. First 10km is the start at the west coast of that half island and following the coast road, flat and fast for Corsica (fast for Corsica means around 80km/h average). Next 10km the stage turns right/east up the mountain and last 10km goes down the mountain again towards the finish near the east coast!
If you think that is exciting, than make sure you watch it! Because it is already clear that this stage will not be used next year!
Why, what happened?
Well, what happened is that this is no longer a WRC round with meeting in Ajaccio every 2 stages! Next year the event is heading to Bonifacio in the South! Last year it went from Calvi via Corte to Ajaccio, this year from Ajaccio to Bastia. While in WRC we have office hours clover leaf single service and a rule that at least 80% of the stages have to be identical to last year, the Tour de Corse is now in IRC and therefore a proper rally. Every year a different route, next it is Bonifacio, and if you like the Bastia region and the Marinca stage, well it will be used again in 2015 or 2016!
That is what rallying should be! I don't even know off my head which is the next WRC round, but I know at the end of the Tour de Corse I will be already looking forward to the Tour de Corse 2016!