What is rallying all about? It’s about driving through a stage as quickly as possible, right? There is no doubt that watching a car rip down a narrow dirt road is awesome, but I think there’s more to it than that. A lot more.
The problem we have right now is that not enough people know what that ‘more’ actually is.
One thing I did while thinking about what to include in this, my official introduction as DirtFish rallies editor, was to go back and read what Alasdair Lindsay had written when he returned to DirtFish at the beginning of this year.
I was curious about how our head of content had (re)introduced himself, and I am glad I took the time to check, as one particular line really resonated with me. It’s one that perfectly sums up just what drives me when it comes to this job: we need to make rallying cool for the masses again.
We need to shout from the rooftops about just why this branch of the sport is so frickin’ awesome.
Our new rallies editor loves a bit of François Delecour sideways in a whale-tailed Escort Cosworth
I’ve been lucky enough to try my hand at quite a few different things within the motorsport business. You see, while my plan as a teenager was to make a living writing about cars, there ended up being a few diversions along the way. These included a period as a motorsport engineer, and even some time working closely with a major car manufacturer.
Rallying has always been my first love though, especially the cars. The cars are the real star of the show for me, and I am rarely happier than when I am wrenching on one of my own projects.
In my view, no category of motorsport has spawned more iconic cars than rallying. Escort Cosworths and Subaru Imprezas feature particularly high up my list of all-time favorites, along with anything F2-related.
Of course it’s not just about the cars. Rallying features the best backdrops in the world, has the best drivers and some of the best competition. It sounds like all the pieces are there but, if it’s so good, shouldn’t people be falling over themselves to watch?
Forgive me if I go off-piste for just a moment, but I want to talk about drifting. I know this tire-smoking form of motorsport isn’t for everyone but, if we’re talking about motorsport that is cool for the masses, it simply has to be in the conversation.
Two-time World Rally Champion Kalle Rovanperä is an advocate of drifting
Drifting has its iconic cars and its iconic locations too. And there’s no doubt that the drivers are talented. They have also enjoyed one major advantage. Outside of Japan, drifting only started to get really popular in the early 2000s. It was born and has grown up in the social media world.
And, boy, can you tell. Drifting and social media are almost inextricably intertwined, and totally at ease with one another. The format of drift events is perfectly suited to social media, and those involved have used it to create an entire subculture around the cars, the locations and the drivers.
Rallying has not achieved anything like the same social media reach, and the challenge of covering rallies means it isn’t always as easy to take advantage of it. This is ultimately part of the reason why, as our head of content said in his own column, rallying just isn’t that cool anymore. It simply hasn’t achieved the same level of connection with its viewers.
That is something I have long wanted to change and, when I spoke to David Evans about joining the team full-time, I knew it was an opportunity that I simply could not turn down. DirtFish is the world’s go-to source for rallying news and analysis, and to be part of it is a dream come true for me.
The next stage of that dream is to be a part of rallying’s journey to better connect with people. Just like everyone else here at DirtFish, I want to use all of the incredible tools at our disposal to not just bring you better content than ever, but to help you feel more connected to the action, the crews, the cars and to the rallying community.
My head is absolutely bursting with ideas and I believe that DirtFish is the best place to put them into action. Most importantly of all, I believe we have the perfect opportunity to achieve what Alasdair suggested back in January, to make rallying cool again.
