World Rally Championship: An Introduction
What exactly is the World Rally Championship? Many may recognize the name in connection with the “rally-bred’ street cars the Subaru Impreza WRX STI and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, but those cars are only the toned down road going versions of their far more impressive rally prepared counterparts. The World Rally Championship is in brief, a time based point to point race between production based 4WD 2.0 liter turbocharged four cylinder cars. It gains its fame from having races all across the globe in a variety of climates and on a number of surfaces.
The World Rally Championship may seem odd to many traditional racing fans because of its unorthodox structure and organization. Like F1 or NASCAR racing there are teams of cars backed by either privateers or “works†teams, which are teams backed by their car’s manufacturer. While the cars are based on production models, they have been completely race prepared with roll cages, stripped interiors, and completely tuned engine setups.
Unlike circuit racing, rally races are done in stages. These stages are point A to point B stages where the goal is to complete them in the least amount of time possible. Also unlike circuit racing, the cars do not race against each other on the track together. While multiple cars are likely to be on the stage at one time, they are never racing next to or near each other unless an accident has severely slowed one of the competitors. This means that the drivers and their navigators (who warn them of upcoming road conditions) are not racing against the other drivers directly, but against their times.
There are three days of action in any given WRC event. These events are split into morning and afternoon stages with a midday service for car repairs. The driver with the lowest cumulative time at the end of the event is the winner. As the current season stands there are five major teams battling not only for the driver’s championship, but for the manufacturer’s championship (the more cars a team has finishing in the top 12 the more points they accumulate for the manufacturers championship). The five teams are; Kronos Total Citroen, BP Ford, Subaru WRT, OMV Peugeot Norway, Red Bull Skoda, and Stobart VK Ford.
The World Rally Championship is such an exciting motor sport because the teams race on real roads in constantly changing conditions. The stages are often treacherous and the speeds are high. The status of a rally can change in a single stage with a crash and retirement or a collision with an obstacle which may damage a part of their car.
Next week look for a brief run down on each of the first five rallies and then as the season continues a report of each day of action.
More Information: www.WRC.com
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