May 10th, 2004

Im interested. How do you first get into an actual WRC car? I mean do a good amount of kart racing and it would be interesting to see how one person got into the "big show". I mean, it had to have been harder than just going to a training session...
 
Thanks for the postive vibes guys! Viper, no worries, of course you believed it - that was what the director and writer wanted you to think, after all! :)

From my point of view, knowing what they shot, it just goes to show how much power the director and the editor has to make something like this say what they want it to, no matter what the reality.

You're right, it did kinda look like the room was a shrine to George Lucas, but if you go back and look at the video it's only, like two very brief shots, one of the ESB poster and another of a box of video tapes, so there's a big subliminal message thing going on there. If, say, they'd panned the camera all the way along my "poster wall", or along my DVD collection instead, it would have created a totally different mental image in the minds of the viewers. It's frightening to think how such a simple editorial decision has so much effect on what people think! :shock:

MPower - obviously there was a bit more to it than came out in the TV interview, but not very much! That's part of the reason why shows like this seem to be interested in me; it's not like I spent years karting or in club rallying before "making it big", it was video games one month, real rallies the next, and Rally Great Britain nine months later.

I'd had no prior "real" motorsport experience prior to visiting the school for the first time. I figured when I booked the session that I'd probably scare myself sh*tless, realise that gaming was so much easier than reality, and that would be it, but the opposite happened. The car control came really naturally, and the instructor refused to believe I'd never driven a rallycar before. Spent another day there, and then after a lot of looking around for a cheap deal, and saving up some cash, rented a production category car for my first rally.

From there, managed to get a bit of local sponsorship, and the season sort of built up momentum by itself without me ever really meaning it to go the way it did. The Rally GB is based here in Cardiff, and I'd always dreamed about entering it, so I did. The budget we had that year was tiny - probably less than the big teams spend on sandwiches, and we had a few technical problems with the car (primarily because we couldn't afford to buy new bits for it), but we kept it tidy and finished, when, as said on the programme, a lot of the big names didn't. Being able to say you've beaten Gronholm, Burns, Francois Delecour and Valentino Rossi is a cool thing to put on your CV no matter what the circumstances! ;)

Why the WRC car? Well, a few reasons. First of all, because I quickly came to realise that sponsors and spectators don't care what a "Group N" car is, they want to see the cars that McRae and Burns drive, and the sponsors would much rather be involved with a car that can win, and get them on TV, rather than a car that comes 12th (or whatever) and doesn't get them any media coverage at all.

Secondly, because I was getting really ticked off with the relative fragility of the production car, and I could see that the extra strength of the WRC's would be a huge advantage, and would let me drive far more aggressively. I was also conscious that the "from video games to reality" story was already developing around me, and that going to a car like that so quickly would make the story even bigger (that Fifth Gear piece wouldn't have happened if I drove a Nissan Micra, for example!).

I'd also learned that, when it came to raising sponsorship, it takes about the same amount of work to raise a grand from a large company as it does to raise ?100 from a small one, so I started thinking bigger there, and the budget to run an older WRC car didn't look like it would be impossible to achieve, and so I started talking to potential sponsors about it.

It isn't easy of course, but that's part of the point. There's a lot of heartache and banging your head against a wall for everything good that happens. The whole thing here is that I'm a perfectly normal guy who got a break in a sport he's always loved, and believes he can compete with the best. It's a hell of a long way from where I started to where the top guys are, and I'm doing everything I can to close that gap - and getting things like the Fifth Gear gig are a big part of that. I hope there'll be plenty of people - whether it's computer gaming nuts, Star Wars fans, rally fans, or whoever (! :D) who'll be interested in seeing how it turns out!
 
Richh said:
probably less than the big teams spend on sandwiches
ROFL :lol:
 
Richh said:
The car control came really naturally, and the instructor refused to believe I'd never driven a rallycar before.
IIRC, that's similar to how Richard Burns got started isn't it?

I'm curious, what's your pitch to a company that you want sponsership from?

BTW, who are your sponsors?
 
Not too sure how Richard started to be honest, but I think there was a certain accidental nature to it, yep. Then he went into the Peugeot scheme and soon after that got the support of David Williams, the owner of Elonex Computers. After that the story's pretty well known.

The pitch we make varies hugely according to who we're speaking to, but the most important thing is to offer them a powerful method of promotion that they won't be able to get anywhere else (or if they can, it'll cost them a lot more money).

We can provide brand exposure in the media, corporate entertainment opportunities, product showcasing and a range of other benefits, so it's a case of doing a lot of research on any company we're considering approaching so we know in advance exactly how they do business, who their customers are, how they reach them and so-on. In many cases we'll decide that we can't make a pervasive proposal at that point in time, so we'll move on. In other cases though, for example, we can provide a really cost-effective alternative (or compliment to) to a TV or press advertising campaign, or for a company who does a lot of its business via corporate entertainment, we can give them a really dynamic alternative to games of golf, trips to the horse races and so-on.

You've only got to look how far this TV feature has gone to see how much more power and longevity it has than a thirty second advert. Most people nowadays fast forward or change channels past advertising, yet here we are talking about a feature on British television, that someone has put on the internet, from where it's being downloaded by folks from all over the world!

As you can see from the pics above, there's Playstation 2 branding on the car, and given the story it's pretty obvious what they have to gain from being part of it. Same with Kuoni Travel, who are the official travel partners for the Rally GB. We've also just done a deal with a new internet based insurance company here in the UK, who'll be on the car soon. In each case the proposal was completely different - unfortunately it's not as easy as printing off a form letter and sending it to 500 companies!
 
Lol, tell ya what, come over here to the Rally GB, book your trip with Kuoni, and I'll see if we can squeeze a few extra guests into our pre-rally test day! :D
 
SiR_dude said:
Uh, can I take your car for a spin?? :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
:lol: Me first! :D
 
Richh, fair play to you, I like to think I could do something like that, the difference between me and you is I dream about it, you've gone and done it, I wish you all the best, it would be great to see a videogamer jump in there and score some huge sucesses, I'll be cheering you on mate :cool:
 
Wannabe a rally driver said:
Richard you are so full of shit! You were laughing stock at RallyGB last year :roll:
You do realize it records your IP when you post, right Auralis?

[image removed]
 
Wannabe a rally driver said:
But who posted out of a shared internet connection of 6 students sharing a house?

uh...huh?? :?
 
Anyway what kind of credibility did he have to lose with only 2 posts on his other account (assuming it's his) :roll:
 
sounds like someone tryin to create drama.

viper dont like drama.

:shock:
 
Wannabe a rally driver said:
But who posted out of a shared internet connection of 6 students sharing a house?
Okay, so all the retards live together. What's your point?
 
:lol: :lol:
 
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