Whatever happened to the two million spectators? The grand city centre starts in beautiful cities such as York and Bath?
Oi, remember Chester as well
Yes, Deeside industrial estate is the arse end of North Wales, however we are never going to go back to the 70 and 80's type event. As much as we all want that, hell as a youngster, my primary school allowed us to have the morning off to go with parents to Harewood Hill climb to see the special stage there. The 3 pubs and 2 garages in my home village of Collingham used to turn into a service centre for all the teams, Lancia, GM, Audi, Ford all used to have big set up even if it was just a splash and dash. The village shops used to do a roaring trade with the teams, chase car crews and spectators alike. I even remember when the start used to be in Harrogate and all the shops in the town centre used to deck their windows with rally displays just as the shops in Le Mans do to this day.
The move to North Wales brings the rally closer to the population centres of Liverpool, Manchester and North Midlands, that may in turn bring out the spectators whether those are die hard rally fans or just the one time spectator. If enough come out then it may make the organisers think again with venues and formats.
As for me, the service park is 15 mins away and the stages less than an hour so I will go along and watch, if the promise of night stages is true then I will take my son to watch his first WRC event after school.
