The World Rally Championship is one of the world’s greatest sporting contests.
Heroic drivers piloting their hybrid-boosted rocket ships through the narrowest and most treacherous of roads, all at breathtaking speeds across a multitude of surfaces while trying to process the never-ending stream of words and numbers that their co-drivers are shouting at them.
There are certainly far easier day jobs, but watching these superhumans battle it out each year is a spectacle that is unequaled by any other sport on the planet.
But zoom out from the blur that is a Rally1 car attacking corner after corner, and you’ll notice something else that sets rallying apart from any other sport you may watch.
The rallyscapes.
What am I talking about? Let me show you the equation: rallying + landscape = rallyscape.
Quite simply, some of the world’s most visually stunning locations are often frequented by rally cars on the global tour that is the WRC, giving us totally unique images as beautiful landscapes form the backdrop with Rally1 cars kicking up the dust and dirt in the foreground.
To me, there’s no more perfect an image than a classic rallyscape, and there would be one hanging from every wall in my house if I trusted myself with a hammer and some nails.
Still confused? Well, they say a picture is worth a thousand words…
So, now you’re all on-board, join me on a whistle-stop tour of the world to ponder and pick-out the greatest rallyscape of the 2023 WRC.
First up is, of course, Monte Carlo.
And what a way to begin, with the snow-capped Alps in the background and roads draped over the mountain-side like spaghetti, a Rally1 car snaking its way through the endless switchbacks just feels, and looks, exactly right.
But if it’s snow that takes your fancy, then Rally Sweden has the proper snow, and heaps of the stuff since the event’s move north to Umeå. A rally car at night, spot lamps ablaze lighting up the pure white snow banks in contrast to the black night behind is a rallyscape which gives you the chills in more ways than one.
For warmer vibes, pop across the Atlantic to Rally México, where the panoramas of the desert-like terrain and towering rock formations look far more spectacular than those in any western movie, and the only dialogue that comes to mind is that of a popping and chirping 1.6-liter turbocharged engine.
Croatia and Portugal are up next, and introduce us to new colors in our rallyscape tour – the greens of the rugged hills set against the black and brown of the asphalt and gravel road surfaces. There’s nothing like a Rally1 car blasting its way through Croatia’s April showers or the lush Portuguese countryside to tell rally fans that spring is in the air.
But as always, spring soon gives way to summer, and where would you rather be in summer than the island of Sardinia? There’s something mesmerizing about visuals of rally cars on stages with the sea in the background. The impossibly fast car, there for just a split second, set against impossibly vast and deep blue waters – so stunning that the winning driver even takes a dip in them.
Although can the view from the island really compare to going on Safari? There’s nowhere else in the world where you’ll get images of Rally1 cars at full speed, racing past giraffes and zebras, and with the East African Rift Valley as a backdrop. Kenya’s Safari Rally is one of a kind, and provides not just any rallyscape, but surely the rallyscape of the 2023 WRC?
Well, then again, a flying car might top that. Those are pictures that never leave you, and that’s what we get when we make our summertime visits to Estonia and Finland. A car taking-off from it’s steep gravel launch pad, looking as though it’ll soon clear the treeline behind as it heads into orbit provides one hell of an image.
So does a Rally1 car parked infront of the world’s most famous ancient temple, however. Greece’s Acropolis Rally gives us that particular visual, with the cars crossing the start ramp below the wondrous monument from which the event takes it’s name. Perhaps this is the most thought provoking rallyscape then, as the ancient meets the modern in this incredible juxtaposition of worlds.
Rally Chile also provides a spectacle, as cars weave their way through the vast pine forests only to emerge into wide open plains of rugged and bare landscape, where the mist rolls in from the mountains and gives the illusion that the cars are up above the clouds. For added South American flavor in your rallyscape, add in a few men on horseback in the background.
We trade the shadow of the Andes for the foothills of the Alps for the penultimate stop of our tour at Central European Rally. Here, the bright greens of the Czech, German and Austrian hills are intensified by the low fall sun. This scene of perfect tranquility is made somehow even more perfect by the sight of a Rally1 car cutting across the valley floor.
And finally, we have Japan. Land of pagodas, rice paddies and patient fans who line the sides of every road section, waiting to cheer on their heroes as they make their way out to the stages. A distinctly Japanese and totally unique rallyscape.
So, after all that powerful imagery, which landscape + rally car combo of 2023 is the best? Well now that it comes down to it, I really don’t want to choose. In fact, yes, I’m going to declare them all equal!
But the point is, no other sport can conjure up so much wonder, drama and emotion from the images it produces. No other sport gives you a geography lesson every few weeks as well as a world-class sporting contest. No other sport gives you rallyscapes.
