Does Rally Poland have a future in the WRC?

Seven years ago, the World Rally Championship flew out of Warsaw for what most thought would be the final time. No way, Rally Poland would – or could – be back at the sport’s highest level.

But there we were, back in business last week.

And by mid-morning Saturday, heads were in hands. Seemingly nothing had changed: shakedown interrupted then four from the first nine stages either stopped completely or stopped while spectator issues were sorted. At that point, things were starting to get silly. This couldn’t go on.

Fortunately, the situation improved for the remainder of the event and, while the competition proceeded on egg shells, it did at least proceed. Talking to Jaroslaw Noworol, the chairman of the Rally Poland organizing committee on Friday night, it was impossible not to feel sympathy for him and his team.

As he laid out in his discussion with DirtFish, he feels he did all he could to plan for the influx of spectators. Ultimately, the loss of stages in the first half of the rally would indicate the event infrastructure came up short.

They’d laid on bigger spectator areas, more expertise, more marshals, more of everything – but it still wasn’t enough. As fan and DirtFish friend Mateusz Zaremba told us from the side of the stage, he’d never seen as many fans in his native Poland.

“I have watched this rally for every year and I have to say the number of fans is double what we see from the European Rally Championship rounds,” he said. “In ERC years, it’s really only the home fans who are coming here, but for WRC we see so many more Polish people and then all the spectators are coming from Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic – everybody wants to see these Rally1 cars!”

So, who was to blame for what went on? There are plenty ready to point a finger or two in the direction of WRC Promoter and certainly, it was a WRCP decision which granted Poland a first world championship return after a troubled past. And, of course, WRC Promoter did so for commercial benefit – it’s in the business of rallying.

WRC Promoter event director Simon Larkin offered the following on Saturday morning: “I think everybody is disappointed. Any of us who are watching the TV will see that there are a lot of fans out there, and 99% of them are having a great time. Unfortunately, there is this really small 1% who seem to want to risk their lives and those of other people a bit too much and they are not following the police’s directions.

“It’s unusual. The safety efforts in WRC have moved on so much since we were last here in 2017, but there is still that one per cent and it’s extremely frustrating for everyone, but I don’t want it to overwhelm the elements of success that we’re back here in Poland because around the service park and on the stages, the atmosphere is fantastic.

“We’re just struggling with that one per cent and it’s disappointing.”

Of course Larkin didn’t want it to overwhelm other aspects of the event.

This isn’t about throwing the promoter under the bus. Larkin and his colleagues have demonstrated a greater desire – and ability – to deliver positive change to the WRC than for a very long time. And, ultimately, the promoter’s plans still have to be signed off by the FIA. If the governing body of world motorsport had held up its hand and said no, then Poland would have remained a round of the ERC and no more.

Instead, having seen the safety plan, the event was given the green-light and hundreds of marshals poured into the stages to do all they could to keep people standing in the safest places.

And what a job they had to do, there’s absolutely no doubting Poland was one of the best supported events of the season so far. Thousands and thousands of spectators descended on the Masurian Lakes from across Europe and the vast majority of them were brilliantly behaved. How big the problem element was depends on who you asked. As we’ve just heard, Larkin felt it was 1%. M-Sport team principal Richard Millener thought it around five, while Noworol said 10% of the fans might have been part of the problem.

And what was the problem?

Now, I can offer genuine insight here. In 2017, I went spectating on the first morning. Deliberately, I went to one of the bigger spectator venues and was directed by a farmer on a tractor towards the top of a field. On foot, all fans were directed through a gate towards a wide open section with plenty of safe viewing on offer. Granted we weren’t, by any means, right at the side of the road, but this wider, global view was good for thousands of us. To the right, there was a small section of woodland. The trees were taped off with a handful of marshals keeping people out.

As soon as the zero cars had gone by, a small group of fans headed out of the field towards the trees. Ridiculously, I wondered if they’d just come to see Polish rallying royalty Krzysztof Holowczyc driving a course car. Not a bit of it. They were heading for the woods.

The marshals tried to redirect them, but there wasn’t a hope. They were ignored, the tape broken and the ‘fans’ did their own thing. The land owner tried to park his tractor to stop them, but to no avail and more followed.

Some watching on saw what was happening and tried to intervene. That, I have to say, was when the atmosphere around the place changed. Abuse and general unpleasantness was hurled from between the trees in the general direction of anybody outlining what might happen. I asked the marshals if they could get on the radio to a stage commander. They didn’t have a radio. They didn’t know where the next radio point was.

I watched a couple of cars come through, sympathized with the volunteers, then left. I relayed my tale in Rally HQ and was left in no doubt that I wasn’t alone.

So, what’s the answer? Leave Poland again? Never come back, again?

Right now, to the best of my knowledge, there’s no plan for another Polish WRC round. It’s back to the ERC for next season. Is that fair? Absolutely not.

I don’t know many Polish rally fans, but the ones I know are exactly the same as Zaremba – they live for this great sport of ours and they’re desperate to get rid of the one, five or 10% who spoiled it for everybody last week.

They absolutely deserve a round of the championship and, let’s face it, those roads… they really are something else. Seeing cars tipped into ridiculous angles on the absolute limit of what they’ve got to give simply never gets old. It’s a special place with some very special people.

Will we go back? I just don’t know. I’m sure Noworol has learned even more valuable lessons from last week – but where do we stand if we do go back and the worst happens? It’s a big call for somebody to make.

So, to those selfish, brainless idiots who ignored the volunteers and decided they would stand where they wanted to stand last week, congrats. The damage you’ve done could yet prove irreparable.

To those who worked themselves to a standstill to make round seven happen, thank you. Much of last week was the great event you hoped it would be and knew it could be. Focus on the positives, on Kalle Rovanperä’s big, beaming smile when he stepped from his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 on Sunday afternoon.

You helped make that happen.