Drivers’ give night stages thumbs-up - but what do you think of them...
The WRC included night stages for the first time in a number of years in 2007, with the season opening Rallye Monte Carlo and the season ending Wales Rally GB both featuring ‘proper’ tests in the dark.
Feedback from a number of the drivers’ has been positive, with BP Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen and Subaru’s Chris Atkinson both convinced they have a place in the championship.
"It is definitely kind of a new thing in the WRC. I know in the old days they use to drive in the dark all the time and maybe it is not so good for spectators and for TV, but it makes things more interesting," said Mikko. "Definitely a lot more things happen all of the time and it is a new challenge for today’s drivers - it is quite nice."
"It adds to the spectacle - but it is all about what is good for the audiences and what the spectators want to see," Atkinson added. "I am not sure what the feedback was from them. For me though it is what rallying should be.
"Rallying should be a challenge, it should be a mix of things and that is just another challenge. I think it is pretty cool."
Stobart Ford’s Matthew Wilson meanwhile echoed those sentiments and so too did fellow Brit’s Guy Wilks and Mark Higgins.
"It is a good spectacle. There is just something special about driving in the dark - it is just another added extreme in there," said Wilson Jr. "There are a lot of pros and cons for it. Obviously it is harder for TV to get good pictures in the dark. But from the point of view of the drivers’ it spices it up a little bit.
"We saw the results of that on the final stage on the Friday night [of the Wales Rally GB in December]. The times were all over the place and it definitely shook the rally up."
"Personally I like night rallying," Wilks chipped in. "I think it adds a different dimension to rallying as well as a really good atmosphere.
"I wouldn’t imagine it was great fun standing in those conditions [in December in Wales], but the atmosphere you have with night rallying probably made it a little bit easier for spectators to be stood out there.
"Yes it was very difficult, but I enjoyed it myself, even though I did lose my light pod on one of the night stages! I really do like night rallying."
"Anything that is a challenge is good," Higgins continued. "We need challenges in rallying. It is no point having it all the same.
"The WRC has got very samey and when you look at it all the gravel rallies are very similar - they are mainly dry, dusty gravel events. So I think to get the night stages back in and to get the conditions changeable, it makes it more of a lottery, so things can happen because it has just got very, very predictable.
"Also if you have any problems you just haven’t got the time to get anything back, whereas if you look at those stages in the dark and when the weather is bad, if you do make a charge or something happens, you have actually got a chance. It makes the whole event more unpredictable."
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