Bringing the WRC to the people: the Citroen Road Show

The Citroen Total World Rally Team have wowed the crowds in a pre-Rally Argentina roadshow, good on them I say.

Seb and Dani headed over to Argentina early to drive the specially-created 300m stage and wrc.com reports that over 50,000 people flocked to the streets of Buenos Aires to watch the so-called Citroen Road Show.

After watching that video all I can say is WOW!

A bit of crazy driving from the King of Cool there, I’ve never seen Seb do that before!

Now, if he can put that much excitement into his regular stage driving the WRC will certainly liven up a notch or two…somehow I think that’s unlikely though as far as old Seb’s concerned.

The real reason behind Seb’s success

In the past month or so our World Champion has finished second twice.

Ok, they may not have been rallying events – one a quad biking event in Monaco organised by Daniel Elena, the other a time trial against Motocross ‘legend’ Stephan Everts.

Irrespective of whether it is rallying or not he still finished in the first place of the losers position and it got me thinking….

When Seb has been on his own in little events such as these he has always failed to make the mark and Daniel Elena says it himself…“When I am not next to him, Sebastian does not win!”

He might be right with that one.

I’ve always liked Daniel, he provides the comic value to Loeb’s slightly tedious nature, although the poor bloke does get some stick from his driver from time to time.

I can’t remember what rally it was but Sebastien’s time on a stage was down on what it had been the previous year. When asked why this was Seb replied “Well Daniel is fatter than last year so he’s slowing us down!”

Seriously though, I don’t think the guy gets the credit he deserves – he’s a record breaker too and Seb wouldn’t have got to where he is without him.

The big 5-0 for Loeb

Not literally, he’s old but not that old.

I predicted it would happen. It wasn’t that difficult a prediction to make, no Derek Acorah-esqe psychic talent needed with Loeb around.

With 50 WRC wins to his name Seb is now a staggering 20 wins clear of previous record holder Marcus Gronholm and to be honest there’s no one out there who’s going to catch him any time soon.

Well done Seb!

Sebastien second???!!!!

Yes believe it or not Sebastien Loeb actually finished second in something! I know, it’s very difficult to get your head around isn’t it?!

Unfortunately it wasn’t a round of the WRC, it was a ‘celebrity’ quad race in Monaco organised by Daniel Elena.

The competition was based on a kind of Super Special dirt track built between the Piscine and Rascasse corners of the F1 circuit.

I bet it’s the most excitement that circuit has seen in years!

Elena wasn’t surprised that his partner had took the ‘first place of the losers’ position on the podium and said: “When I am not next to him, Sebastian does not win!”

Pictures to follow when I can get my hands on some.

One for the girls

Wales Rally GB 2007

He may have seemed miserable on the stages but this 2007 Wales Rally GB pic shows a lot of laughs went on behind the scenes.

I’m not sure what’s actually going on, maybe he’s just been locked out of his room or maybe he likes wandering about in his boxers – I know my mum would prefer the latter to be the truth.

I don’t see the attraction myself, he looks a bit to Michelin man-like for me. It’s the fine chiseled cheekbones of Petter Solberg that do it for me, but whatever floats your boat.

Please note this picture is courtesy of a brilliant website found here, and it most definitely NOT part of my personal collection.

What does a Citroen C4 World Rally Car sound like?

No, I’m not looking for an answer to a bad joke.

Regarding the post below Sebastien does seem to have grasped the concept of smiling these days but his grasp of the English language is another story as highlighted by Irish TV channel RTE 2.

At least his driving is better than his English!

I said no statistics but…….

………. this is different!

Ok, numbers are involved but it’s more of a rally trivia thing and a pretty immense piece of rally trivia at that.

Sebastien Loeb’s win in Norway at the weekend saw him take his 20th different WRC win, yes that’s right, he has now won 49 rallies in a staggering 20 different events, namely-

Norway, Wales Rally GB, Corsica, Spain, New Zealand, Germany, Finland, Greece, Sardinia, Portugal, Argentina, Mexico, Monte Carlo, Ireland, Cyprus, Japan, Turkey, Sweden, Australia and San Remo.

Now, I’m certainly not Seb’s biggest fan but I felt this was too great an acheivement to pass by.

We all know he is the best driver the sport has ever seen but I think that because we now accept his dominace as the norm, his achievements are not given the total credit they deserve.

He has now won 43% of the WRC rallies he has entered and it’s only when you take time to think about all these numbers and all the records he has broken that you sit back and actually think ‘wow, this guy’s pretty special.’

It got me thinking, would it be possible for Sebastien to win all the events this season??? Rally Norway was really the only rally he could have lost and without doubt he certainly has the expertise to take all the remaining rallies of the season. This however is the WRC we are talking about, all it takes is a bit of bad luck and a rock in the wrong place and he’s off…saying that though, Seb does seem to be best friends with Lady Luck so we’ll just have to see how it all pans out.

Even if he does manage to take all the wins would it be a good thing for the sport and could Sebastien really feel he had achieved greatness??? Surely there has to be competition for winning to mean something and competition is one thing this sport is lacking in.

The WRC is supposed to be highly competitive and many people out there, myself included, have blasted Citroen for ‘destroying’ rallying on the world stage, making it boring, uncompetitive and extremely predictable. Turn this argument around however and think about it this way, perhaps the WRC has been ‘destroyed’ not by the successes of one team but by the failures of other teams to produce a car/driver combination good enough to challenge the best in the world.

Get over the fact that the other teams just aren’t good enough and give Seb credit where it’s definitely due.