2025 WRC, ERC (International) Rally thread.......

[Rewtle Litand]

21st January and no thread for International rallying.......Which probably says it all.

FiA ERC Calendar:

ROUND RALLY DATE

1 42nd Rally Sierra Morena - Córdoba Patrimonio de la Humanidad 4 - 6 April
2 V-Híd Rally Hungary 9 - 11 May
3 BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia (Sweden) 29 - 31 May
4 81st Rally Poland 13 - 15 June
5 Rally di Roma Capitale (Italy) 4 - 6 July
6 Barum Czech Rally Zlín 15 - 17 August
7 JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion (United Kingdom) 5 - 7 September
8 Croatia Rally 3 - 5 October


FiA WRC Calendar:

ROUND RALLY DATE


01 Rallye Monte-Carlo 23 – 26 January
02 Rally Sweden 13 – 16 February
03 Safari Rally Kenya 20 – 23 March
04 Rally Islas Canarias 24 – 27 April
05 Vodafone Rally de Portugal 15 – 18 May
06 Rally Italia Sardegna 05 – 08 June
07 EKO Acropolis Rally Greece 26 – 29 June
08 Delfi Rally Estonia 17 – 20 July
09 Secto Rally Finland 31 July – 03 August
10 Rally del Paraguay 28 – 31 August
11 Rally Chile Bio Bío 11 – 14 September
12 Central European Rally 16 – 19 October
13 FORUM8 Rally Japan 06 – 09 November
14 Rally Saudi Arabia 27 – 30 November

Some new additions, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, and Canarias which becomes the Spanish round. Safari reverts to its more traditional time of year, and Chile returns. No Mexico, Argentina, or Oceania round.......

[GravelBen]

Rewtle Litand said:

21st January and no thread for International rallying.......Which probably says it all.

Probably says the season hasn't started yet...

[Craikeybaby]

It seems that the daily WRC highlights show is missing from Red Bull TV (along with Dakar) - where is good to catch up? Or will I have to wait until Tuesday evening on ITV4?

[BunkMoreland]

Craikeybaby said:

It seems that the daily WRC highlights show is missing from Red Bull TV (along with Dakar) - where is good to catch up? Or will I have to wait until Tuesday evening on ITV4?

There's a little known video website out there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-nPMpmgFXE

TNT Sports are showing some stages live SS1 yesterday and Saturday morning as well. Plus the inevitable Power Stage

[Ardennes92]

BunkMoreland said:

Craikeybaby said:

It seems that the daily WRC highlights show is missing from Red Bull TV (along with Dakar) - where is good to catch up? Or will I have to wait until Tuesday evening on ITV4?

There's a little known video website out there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-nPMpmgFXE

TNT Sports are showing some stages live SS1 yesterday and Saturday morning as well. Plus the inevitable Power Stage

Dirtfish are also doing their bit on YT

[bergclimber34]

Evans is on Dirtfish, enough reason not to watch it

AM happy watching amateur stuff, more interesting less waffle

Actually quite impressed with Munster initially but clearly dropped it now.

[Ranger 6]

Craikeybaby said:

It seems that the daily WRC highlights show is missing from Red Bull TV (along with Dakar) - where is good to catch up? Or will I have to wait until Tuesday evening on ITV4?

I had a look last night and couldn’t see it.

Very disappointed as that was a key thing I used to keep up with events

[bergclimber34]

I would guess it was dropped due to lack of clicks, I did try and watch it a while back but was more presentation and chat than footage

[Craikeybaby]

Ranger 6 said:

I had a look last night and couldn’t see it.

Very disappointed as that was a key thing I used to keep up with events

Yeah, I thought the nightly 30 minute shows were a good way to keep up with it. The 4 minute highlights on YouTube aren't anywhere near as good.

[GravelBen]

Plenty of excitement at Monte, enjoyed a rainy weekend at home watching it.

[FactoryBacked]

The unique challenges of the Monte always makes for an entertaining rally. I've enjoyed following this year's installment when flicking through various social media channels.

Decent points haul for my fantasy rally team too.

I really hope Elfyn Evans can put together a decent title challenge this year.

[Craikeybaby]

Is Ogier doing a full season?

[egomeister]

No, he's only on a part season again.

[Ranger 6]

Craikeybaby said:

Ranger 6 said:

I had a look last night and couldn’t see it.

Very disappointed as that was a key thing I used to keep up with events

Yeah, I thought the nightly 30 minute shows were a good way to keep up with it. The 4 minute highlights on YouTube aren't anywhere near as good.

That's exactly my thoughts - I know the old 30 minute updates were then merged to form the 1 hour event summary that they sell to ITV4, but it was like the old RAC updates - each days action was on screen.

The 4 minute ones just don't have any substance or story.

[Rewtle Litand]

bergclimber34 said:

I would guess it was dropped due to lack of clicks, I did try and watch it a while back but was more presentation and chat than footage

Is probably right, unfortunately.......If more people watch, then they'd continue with it. The WRC is the weakest of the major motorsport series, and it didn't help that there was a bigger event on the same weekend over in the US.

[greeny12]

GravelBen said:

Plenty of excitement at Monte, enjoyed a rainy weekend at home watching it.

It was excellent. Most I've watched of a WRC event for ages.

[Ranger 6]

How?

I'm not a great social media person so need a bit of help finding the best - it's not there when I look at YT?

[bergclimber34]

You have to spend some time find the right channels to watch on YT, a lot of them are very popular for a few years then die.

Some good ones are Passats de Canto, these guys cover current events but also have a deal with the Spanish tv people to use footage pure sound from the Sainz era basically, so have uploaded some seriously high quality stuff.

McRallye does quality stuff form Germany and the like, Special Stage are good for UK stuff of all levels even targa.

From this the wormhole clearly opens and like me you end up subscribing to about 100 channels and start finding stuff you never existed.,

Swedish Rally is good, Toni Vuolainen (probably spelt wrong) in Finland is superb, Tore Andre Borreson in Norway too. All good high quailty footage

[GravelBen]

I fork out the $ for a RallyTV (previously called WRC+) subscription, its worth it to me but may not be to others.

Live or replayed coverage of every stage, and daily highlights if you don't want to watch every stage. Some of the commentators can get a bit irritating at times, but you can get that with any motorsport (or sport in general) broadcast and most of them are ok.

[Ranger 6]

Thanks - lots to look for.

I watched the ITV4 summary programme last night and was very disappointed. It now looks like a badly stitched together collection of short instagram clips.

Without John Desborough and his voice over there really wasn't a story of the event. We didn't know where the battles were, or where they were taking different tyre sets etc.

If the RallyTV summary is the same thing I certainly won't be stumping up for a subscription.