WRC

FOR MORE WRC STORIES SELECT IT FROM THE CATEGORY LIST!

GIVING THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT…

It was recently announced that WRC organisers are having to extend spectator zones for the upcoming Repco Rally as ticket sales have gone through the roof.  Rallying is returning to Australia for the first time since 2006 and it seems the fans just can’t get enough. With 3 day tickets costing just $99 it’s difficult to see why fans wouldn’t take the opportunity to go watch the likes of Loeb and Hirvonen battle it out.

Given the economic downturn it’s important for sports organisers to remember that pricing fans out of the equation is a big mistake and respond accordingly. Should other sports be following WRC lead? Would football or tennis benefit from selling cheaper tickets to pack in the crowds? How about other motorsports? Given the recent empty stands at Turkey and Spain should F1 be following the shining example set by WRC? Or are fans happy to follow the action via the TV screen? As always, let me know your thoughts!

RALLY GOOD SHOW!

It’s official, world rally is the best sport in the world…well the best sport’s website anyway. The championships parent website, wrc.com, has scooped an armful of awards at the inaugural SportBusiness Ultimate Sports Websites Awards. The event saw competitors from a host of disciplines including football, basketball and baseball competing for top honours in the digital world.

The site was particularly praised for its use of social networking tools, such as Facebook and the mighty Twitter to deliver up-to-the-minute news and a real sense of community for it s fans. WRC may be the best but they are by no means the only motorsport to utilise all the sites. Many of the major teams are now savvy enough to have branded everything from YouTube channels to MySpace and are giving fans more than they could have ever expected. Petrolheads can now get their fix 24/7 – 4 week break, what break?

So fans are getting what they want, teams are increasing their following and updates are available at the click of refresh button – everyone wins right? Well that depends, for every official site there are hundreds of fakes and, with competition for breaking news fierce, a story can have spread faster than swine flu before a PR team even realises it’s been said; leading to confusion, annoyance and a general lack of excitement when the official story is broken. They say no news is good news, but they clearly didn’t live in the digital age – where fans don’t just expect updates they want the inside story, they want the scoop their friends don’t have and they want it now!

Something else to consider – there are plenty of journalists that make their money from motorsport, but if news can be spread across the internet in less time than it takes Loeb to complete a stage could traditional journo’s find themselves outcast? Should journalists be embracing the new communication platforms or is there room for both to play nice?

As a blogger, a Twitterer, a Facebook addict and a general news junkie I certainly hope so…

DRIVING THE FUTURE…

Richard Hammond said it best. I was watching one of my many Top Gear DVD’s last night and heard the one of little height saying that their job was basically to thrash the car as much as possible to determine how the car would react under real-life conditions; in other words they take it to the edge and sit back to see what happens. It would be fair to say this is the reason most manufacturers get involved in motorsport; it’s the perfect testing ground for new products and innovations.

BMW may have barely ran it in F1 but the technology they used to develop their KERS system will soon be finding it’s way to a 4-door near you and now Ford are getting their thinking caps on with the development of the Ford Fiesta Super 2000 rally car. The car is set to make it’s debut in 2011 replacing the Focus RS WRC; with chief designer Christian Loriaux heading up the project the results are sure to be incredible and test tracks don’t come more demanding than World Rally circuits.

Do you agree that cars should be used as testing grounds for new technology or do you think cars should be taken back to basics and the drivers talent be the ‘driving force’ behind success’? Answers on a postcard (if you want, I’ll probably not get then, maybes better to leave a comment instead!)