[Doug Woods]

In a now locked thread, FMF stated that the World Rally Championship started in 1978.

Over the past two years, there have been many erroneous posts on SpecialStage concerning the start date for the WRC (it was 1973). For further information, full WRC statistics are available at:

http://gamma.nic.fi/~globe/rally/paradise/

Doug Woods

 

[FMF]

Doug, you sound pretty confident for citing such a questionable web site. I got my information from the Speedvision documentary Chariots in the Sun chronicling the 1981 Acropolis Rally. ?When the world rally championship was launched in 1978, the Acropolis rally was an obvious qualifying round.? Allen De Cadenate. Granted Allen is hardly an authority on WRC and on top of that was Probably reading a TelePrompTer, writers, ext. However, it still holds quite a bit of water. I looked on http://www.rallycars.com (also a good place for car info.) and http://sportsfacts.net neither of them are official FIA sits but the quality is getting better. It is possible that we are both partially correct it seams that the Manufacturers World Championship began in 1973 and the drivers World Championship began in 1979 the key word is launched. I would be interested to see if anyone else has any more info. on this topic.

 

[Andy M]

The World Rally Championship for Manufacturers began in 1973, and the FIA Cup for Drivers started in 1977. This according to the book Rally by Reinhard Klein. Prior to that it was the European Championship and then the International Makes' Championship for three years.

 

[Doug Woods]

>Doug, you sound pretty confident for citing such a
>questionable web site.

Forest:

I sent you to that site since it has some of the best statistics on the WRC.

The WRC for Manufacturers began in 1973. The WRC for Drivers began in 1979. Driver (and co-driver) wins in the WRC events from 1973 through 1978 are counted in the overall WRC driver (and co-driver) win statistics.

Here in North America during the 1970s, the 1973 and 1974 POR, the 1974 Rideau Lakes and the 1977, 1978 and 1979 Criterium du Quebec were all WRC events.

The 1972 POR was part of the International Rally Championship for Makes, which was the championship prior to the WRC. That is why Lancia sent a works Lancia Fulvia to the 1972 POR.

Doug Woods

 

[Topi]

- I was one of those who didn't know WRC for makes started in 1973. Those days, in Europe, they always advertised national and European rally wins rather than winning the WRC.
- Markku Alen would be 3-4 time WRC if they started drivers championship earlier!
- Allan de Cadette also claimed: "Tommi Makinen is Timo Makines's son". If so, Tommi's mother has something to hide,,,and how in hell Allan knows it? Was he in the barn, too?
- Doug Woods knows this stuff better than most; He was the winner in 1973 WRC and part of historic 1st ever Toyota's win in the WRC !! He made history books worldwide. We should be honored to buy him a beer or two...

 

[robin]

>
>The WRC for Manufacturers began in 1973.

That'd be the same year Doug and his driver won the POR, a WRC event

Robin


EDIT: damn - Topi beat me to it - that'll learn me for proof reading before posting...

 

[Eric_Anderson]

>>
>>The WRC for Manufacturers began in 1973.
>
>That'd be the same year Doug and his driver won the
>POR, a WRC event
>
>Robin
>
>


And lets not forget that Doug was also the clerk of course for the 1974 Rideau Lakes, a WRC event.

Here's a shot of Walter & Doug on their way to the 1973 POR win.

http://www.rallyalmanac.com/item.asp?recordid=boyce2&pagestyle=default

 

[Ray]

In 1978 is when the FIA started running the rallies the way we know them today. Pace notes and such were introduced.

Whiplash RallyeSport

 

[jandreini]

Actually, I & others used very detailed pace notes at the '74 POR & other rallies. In those days, we got 30 days to recce! I also have a set of Doug's notes from '73 POR. They are quite basic, but they did the job.

 

[John Vanlandingham]

Memory seems to recall reading about people in the mid 60s reporting "we went down 3 weeks ahead of time and practiced every stage 8 times making notes".

I wasn't into rally way back then when the World Championship, but on the other hand, I wasn't completely unaware, I had club mates and neighbors who did SM (Svenska Mästerskap) and magazines and even the TV who sometimes have some news. It is clear that the series was put together sorta after the fact as there were some rallies out there which simply had extra status and a decent result in those was specially good and prestige filled.

As for "as we know it", "it" is continually changing and only very recently has the pressure for moronic identical format, cookie cutter events with different back-drops ramped up from and succeeded. And the drive there is to make it simplified and control-able is so that it is easily commodified and sold for making money off the PACKAGING of it and it's the ego-maniac Dave Richard who is a major force in this drive for simplicity and uniformity.

One _previously_ interesting and attractive element of rally vs all those other stupidly boring wanky car racing crap on circuits was the variety and unique flavor of many rallies and their various formats and challenges. Jeeeeze louise imagine driving from Spa to Sophia to Liege with a 8 hour rest in Sophia! First the Alps, the the length of Yugoslavia and into Bulgaria, then back.
And imagine later in the same year, an event like RAC which by 1962 was in the format of stage-transit we know today (even if they did have twice the stage miles!!)

I knew an awful lot more people who were in Moto-cross in the early 60s when motor-cross went to World Championship status and an interesting similarity is that even guys capable of winning individual rounds still seemed to concentrate on INDIVIDUAL rounds, as it went without saying that the doing of the whole series was simply proving a big travel budget.

Who said "the desire for uniformity is the sign of a small mind"?



John Vanlandingham
Seattle, WA. 98168

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

 

[Doug Woods]

>In 1978 is when the FIA started running the rallies the way
>we know them today. Pace notes and such were introduced.

Ray:

Pace notes, essentially the same as used today, were introduced by the British works teams around the mid 1960s.

Doug Woods

 

[Doug Woods]

>Actually, I & others used very detailed pace notes at the
>'74 POR & other rallies. In those days, we got 30 days to
>recce! I also have a set of Doug's notes from '73 POR. They
>are quite basic, but they did the job.

Joe:

When I made those pace notes for the 1973 POR, I decided to keep them basic for three reasons. First, I was making the notes with Randy Black who had no experience making notes. Second, my driver Walter Boyce was not available for the recce and also had no experience using notes. Third, Randy and I wanted to sell as many sets of notes as possible to pay for the recce and, in general, our potential customers also had no experience with notes. As I recall, we sold some 30 sets of notes. I know you bought some, Kent Gardham also. Anyone else here on SpecialStage?

Doug Woods