The use of anti-cut devices – already a talking point before the start of the Central European Rally – became a source of significant frustration among the world’s fastest rally drivers on Friday.
Having completed their pre-event recce, the feeling among the crews was that the organizer of the tri-nation event had introduced too many of the plastic structures. It was even worse when some of them were moved ahead of the first competitive pass on Friday morning.
“It’s quite sketchy, to be honest,” said Ott Tänak, winner of last year’s CER.
“There are some missing and [in some] places some extras put in. If you do something like this at these speeds in the forest, sometimes the surprises you have are quite on the limit. As they are, somebody has put them there, probably somebody moves them away with the tractor and somebody puts them back, so yeah, it’s quite a messy topic.”
Messy topic is about right according to Toyota’s Japanese star Takamoto Katsuta.
He said: “It’s very difficult to know which corner is coming with more gravel because they put the anti-cut, but this anti-cut has been not exactly [in the] same place as the recce.
“I don’t know why and how it’s removed, but then you can cut a little bit more – maybe like one tire. But only one tire can bring so much dirt and gravel, more than expected because of the block moving, so I was a bit surprised that there is more pollution than [expected].
“Basically, you don’t know which block is moved or not, because some anti-cut was completely missing. It was quite scary because [in a] blind corner, you come [with] fifth gear, fourth gear, then you’re expecting no cuts because a block was there. Then there’s nothing, yeah… it’s quite scary.”
Katsuta’s Toyota team-mate Kalle Rovanperä agreed: “Sometimes they are where they should, sometimes they are not there at all, sometimes there are more on the road. It’s definitely quite tricky with always a few surprises.”
The anti-cut devices are introduced to the route in an effort to contain the level of damage done to the verges – damage which has to be paid for by the event organisers. Some spectators on the Passau-based event registered their disquiet by painting graffiti on the road labelling the anti-cut devices as “anti-rallying”.
In response to a request for comment on the situation, a CER spokesperson told DirtFish: “The anti-cut devices were definitely not removed by the organizer after the recce. The safety cars will pay extra attention to this when driving the stage again. However, we at Rally Control are currently not aware of any such incidents.”
