Gus Greensmith noticed something in the wake of the announcement that he would be stepping back from Rally1 into Rally2 machinery, and therefore WRC2, for the 2023 World Rally Championship season.
“I was actually really surprised by when I’ve been looking through social media today was the amount of comments that are saying that people are far more interested in WRC2 next year because of the amount of competition and the level of it than they are in WRC,” he told DirtFish.
“Certainly I got a sense that people are really enjoying the amount of competition in WRC2 and I think WRC Promoter would be wise to make sure they broadcast as much of it as they can because for sure I think there’s going to be a lot of good battles.”
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With Rally1 numbers depleting and Rally2 entries growing – both in terms of aspiring talent and established drivers like Greensmith, Oliver Solberg and Adrien Fourmuax et al dropping in – does the WRC now have a problem on its hands?
Is the support act now threatening to upstage the main event?
That’s the topic at the heart of the first traditional panel-style SPIN, The Rally Pod of the new year. Lisa O’Sullivan is joined by David Evans, Colin Clark and Luke Barry as the team examine WRC2, discuss the resumption of pre-event testing and Colin gives us an update from the bivouac on the Dakar Rally.