Those Crazy Rally Spectators
During the 1970s we only had three TV channels in the UK, so motorsport on our screens was like gold dust, as a young boy of 7 or 8 years old I picked up on a sport called rallying, it was becoming a major spectator sport in many countries, as rallying made its way into the 1980s, it started to become almost out of control in certain parts of the world.
Here follows a photographic tribute to rally spectators around the world, I guess this could become one of my seemingly endless threads, hopefully it will capture the spirit and magic that only rallying can offer to motorsport fans.
Back in 1960, the RAC Rally became a closed road / special stage event, prior to this it had been a series of time trials around Britain.
The winner of that 1960 RAC Rally was Swedish driver Erik Carlsson in a SAAB, looking at this photo, it is hard to believe it, but this was the start of something big! Note the lack of spectators, but word was spreading...
...Fast forward 25 years, some might say this was the monster that had been created, Ari Vatanen drives flat out through a sea of spectators on the 1985 Rally of Portugal
Miki Biasion - 1986 Sanremo Rally, last appearance of the Group B cars in front of the Italian fans
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Originally Posted by autohabit
Zanini was an eight time Spanish Rally Champion, he also won the European Rally Championship in 1980
