Rally drivers banned

[Size Nine Elm]

Bring back the Not The Nine O'Clock News.

Failed in Wales...

Time to move the GB rally to somewhere that appreciates it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3257523.stm

[anonymous-user]

the police have blatantly tried to catch them, in my opinion, this is out of order. this is absolutely terrible behaviour from the over zealous police who get a kick from this sort of "crime-stopping" the stretch of road open to the public was two miles, one car did 54mph in a 30mph zone what do they expect, they were using the road as a shakedown, yes a law is a law and applicable to all but for sake?! havent they got anything better to do than catch drivers who are easily capable of controlling a car at 54mph on tarmac? this isnt a rant at the police, just a rant at their nasty tactics and pointless prosecutions.

couldnt they just close the road? did they really HAVE to put a camera in THAT location?

somewhere there will be a bunch of coppers getting some perverse pleasure from their convictions, what a bunch of everyone complains that this country doesnt get the sporting events it deserves, and when it does there is always someone out there ready to shit on the party.

i'm surprised it was on television at all, well, you never know, some four year old could have seen it and will now think that speeding along a forest track is to be encouraged.

[luca brazzi]

Just read it.....

extract from the article...

"Magistrates chairman Cliff Jones said: "The area were these offences happened is particularly dangerous for people to exceed the speed limit under any circumtances."

The roadside cameras picked up a total of 2,312 speeding offences - also including fans driving between different stages of the rally."

Real value added.

[anonymous-user]

just to re-emphasise a point, i'm not angry at police in general, on the whole they do a good job in tough circumstances but on this occasion, one small branch have purposely targeted the drivers and that is out of order. one chief constable gets a feather in his cap, the british motorsport industry suffers. Kris Meeke, one of the brightest futures in british rallying has this to contend with.

[d_drinks]

This is from last years WRC round in GB. They set the court dates to after this years round, bit suspicious that, make sure you can ban them after the event and that the ban doesn't mean that they can't race next year, but still get your monies worth out of them. It stinks of a cover up.

[dazren]

Time for the organisers to ditch Wales. Although with all the other UK Scamera partnerships operating perhaps we should just say Bye Bye Rally Of Great Britain altogether. My own unscientific calculation indicates this would save 54,000 lives over the next twenty seven years.

DAZ

[flat in fifth]

dazren said:

Time for the organisers to ditch Wales. DAZ

Absolutely correct.

Been having a quick perusal of the maps.

If the event has to have the current local format, there are plenty of places where the event could be based.

Eg what about the North East

then we could use Kielder, Wauchope, Kershope, Otterburn, Hamsterley, not forgetting all the North Yorkshire forests which are easily within the sort of striking distance as seen on liason sections on other WRC rounds.

I think we should lobby the powers that be and tell the Welsh what we think of them.



>> Edited by flat in fifth on Monday 10th November 15:17

[traction]

Trouble is there's a poxy WRC rule that says the route of the rally can't be changed by more than a certain percentage/distance each year (someone could probably look this up to verify the exact details).

Hence at most a couple of stages are dropped/added each year.

And because of the other "utopian" aim for Dave Richards & co, which is to centralise the rally (1 service area etc.) the amount of road miles has fallen and there's not even stages in mid wales (sweet lamb etc.) anymore.

SO moving it now will take a big u-turn from Richards.

Mind you they need to make a few u-turns sharpishly given the amount of manufacturers pulling out of next years championship because of unknown costs.

Ta.

[Flat_Steve]

flat in fifth said:

dazren said: Time for the organisers to ditch Wales. DAZ I think we should lobby the powers that be and tell the Welsh what we think of them.

Please don't turn this into a Welsh-bashing thread... We are just as disgusted by the SCP's actions as everyone else. Although as already mentioned, you'd have the same over-zealous speed entrapment no matter where in the UK it was held.

[oyster]

Is this behaviour not construed as entrapment then? I would have thought it was, because the police plainly went there expecting a crime to take place and not making any effort to prevent a crime but only to witness, record and charge an offender with a crime.

[sb-1]

Speeding is not a crime its a motoring offence!

[flat in fifth]

Flat_Steve said:

flat in fifth said: dazren said: Time for the organisers to ditch Wales. DAZ I think we should lobby the powers that be and tell the Welsh what we think of them. Please don't turn this into a Welsh-bashing thread... We are just as disgusted by the SCP's actions as everyone else. Although as already mentioned, you'd have the same over-zealous speed entrapment no matter where in the UK it was held.

Sorry Flat_Steve it genuinely wasn't meant like that ie a general Welsh bashing comment, but I can see how it could be so interpreted. ooops!

[phlap]

Dont get me going on this
As a long-term rally fan, myself and my 6 fellow sufferers called it a day last year.
It seemed that every effort was being made to either delay, rip-off or criminalise us for trying to enjoy our hobby.

Reading what happened to the WRC drivers made me embarrassed to be British
We dont deserve to hold a round of the championship if this is how we treat competitors.

Try the Grizedale Stages Rally in December instead. Much more like it should be

[kkk]

sorry being a bit late to respond - but i always thought the role of the co driver was to drive the legal roads just in case the did get nicked for anything ?

[Nicksey]

FIA Debate Wales Rally GB Future

www.wrc.com/en_GB/News/2003/016/2003_R_GB_FIATODEBATEFUTURE.htm

I am at a loss!!!!

Being proud to be Welsh, a major rally fan and a complete petrolhead I am now even more dismayed at the state of affairs in the UK.

There has been a lot of criticism of the GB Rally being confined to South Wales, the rally this year has been funded by Tax Payers (the Welsh Development Agency sponsorship now NetworkQ arrangement finished) and the complete and utter small-minded pettiness of certain authorities has led to this...

I'm at a loss for words - I read that the GB Rally or Wales Rally GB (whatever it's called) nets South Wales somewhere in the region of £15m each year - and the complete stupidity of this whole Speeding issue defies belief - what possible outcome did they hope to achieve by this? Did they think that by publicly prosecuting some high profile world class racing drivers that the general public will lie down and obey their draconian money generating rip-off 'Road Safety' campaign to persecute nearly every person on the island 17 years and older?

... or maybe the drivers, teams and FIA governing body would look at the Rally GB and decide its not worth the effort...

... then the UK misses out on £15m each year, and in my opinion, the most spectacular and involving motor sport going.

THEY ARE MAKING THIS COUNTRY A POORER PLACE (literally in this case) BY THEIR SHORTSIGHTEDNESS AND GREED

[Nicksey]

It took me so long to write this post offline without swearing that they have pulled the plug on this article on the official WRC website. Its now been replaced by this dumbed down version:-

www.wrc.com/en_GB/News/2003/016/2003_R_GB_FIAwalescheck.htm

I wish that I'd made a copy of the page now - although maybe it wouldn't be fair on Ted to post it if its been censored.

Basically (without putting in too much detail) the FIA were kicking off about the whole situation and threatening to remove its championship status - so if it ran at all it wouldn't count towards the points - thats of course when you see the manufacturers' teams pull out becuase its no longer big business.

Nice one!

[sb-1]

nice one....nicksey.
Lets hope common sense prevails.....shan't hold my breath though.
Steve