Tom wrote:
I think it will be the 3rd time Rossi has rallied, he did a couple of italian events beating McRae to 2nd in one of them. The Scot however suggested that he was unlikely to win as he was in a Skoda and on what was virtually a race circuit as opposed to a rally event. Incidentally the guy in 1st was a also a circuit racer.
You are talking about the Monza Rally Show, the race that traditionally ends the season of races of the Monza circuit in November. The “rally” is composed by different stages on the F1 track modified with the addition of some slow corners (made with tyre barriers) here and there, total length of the race is in the order of 170-180 km. At the end of the rally there’s an event, the “Master Show”, a 1 vs 1 “tournament” limited to the best drivers of each category on a short course designed on the main straight line with some very tight corners and using also the pit lane.
Rossi participated to at least 5 editions of the Monza Rally since 1997 (that means almost all since it wasn’t organized for a few years due to the work on pits buildings and paddock area); first time with a Megane Kit, a couple of times with a Toyota Corolla and a couple of times with the Impreza. Last year in particular he used the official Solberg car with Prodrive support and Pirelli official support.
He arrived second on the main event, beaten by Dindo Capello who was driving a 2004 Skoda identical to the one used by McRae (3rd). Then Rossi won the Master Show beating McRae in the final.
The three :
[IMG:114:165]http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/6624 ... kk3.th.jpg[/img]
The story of Rossi, 4 wheels and media is a strange one. Every time he sits behind a steering wheel media give the impression that he did sort of miracle because he never drove one before hence whatever he does is fantastic.
The truth is quite the opposite, he has lot of experience on WRC cars, he drives one pretty much every time he wants since 1997 (when he was 18 or so), often he participates to “races” like the Monza Rally or the Memorial Bettega at the Bologna Motor Show in December, he also did the RAC in 2002 with a Michelin sponsored 206 WRC; the race lasted only few km but he did lot of preparation.
I know guys who race in the Italian Rally championship and are very talented but can just dream about having on a WRC half of the experience Rossi has.
Also his alleged speed is quite questionable. I saw him many times and even when he had a car vastly superior to the ones used by opponents his driving was definitively far from impressive, too much under the car potential. Last year results are entirely down to the impressive power and traction of the Impreza, that car was a rocket compared with everything else present that day, just consider that, excluding the Impreza car and the two Skoda (official but 1 year old) the other WRC were 206 or focus at least 2-3 years old.
Every time he was following other cars he was much slower in corners but then, at corner exit, he had just to floor the throttle to leave everybody else way behind.
I saw many other riders and also drivers from F1 or other series competing at the Monza Rally and most of them were, at the first experience with a WRC, lot more impressive than Rossi is now after 8 years driving them.
BTW, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Rossi as bike rider, as far as I’m concerned nobody could even be close to him while having to deal with 2 wheels, I’m amazed by what he does. But if you add 2 further wheels the story is very very different and to pretend he’s competitive on a car against professional drivers is just delusional.
