Aman Barfull: "We have experienced an exceptional rally, an event to become part of history"

03/11/2018

Final Assessment by Aman Barfull, Clerk of the Course of the 54 RallyRACC CATALUNYA-COSTA DAURADA 2018

Head of the organisation team of the RallyRACC, Aman Barfull, who is also the Director of the Sports Area of the Club, with an extensive international experience, gives us his final summary, from the perspective of his position of highest responsibility. In 2018, the 54 RallyRACC has experienced its 28th edition as scoring round towards the FIA World Rally Championship, the 14th staged at the Costa Daurada, with its nerve centre in Salou and PortAventura.

"You cannot make a global assessment of the 54 RallyRACC without mentioning the extraordinary sporting moment that the WRC is going through. The World Rally Championship arrived at the RallyRACC after a highly competitive season, during which the main drivers and crews have offered us an exceptional show, and have left with the fight for the title even more tighter than on their arrival.

The spectacular nature of the sport has been the main feature of our rally, and we have to be extremely happy for that. We have had exceptional participation figures; the four officially competing makes have given it all, and one of them even brought back a driver who marked a large part of the history of the RallyRACC: Sébastien Loeb. He said goodbye to the speciality back in 2012 with 8 victories at our rally; and six years later, during a mini-WRC programme of three races, he personally chose the RallyRACC in order to race in the country, in which he took several of his countless victories. The result has been that, after a true battle, he was able to clinch an extraordinary triumph, for which he had a merciless fight with Sébastien Ogier, another brilliant driver. They ended-up with a difference of only three seconds, after an incredible challenge along four days: stages on gravel, mixed stages, wet, dry or slippery asphalt, slow and fast bends, a large variety of situations that eventually generated an uncertainty, which we all hadn't experienced for a long time.

But in addition to these two colossi, we should not forget to highlight the performance of the other two fighters for the world championship title, i.e. Neuville with Hyundai and Tänak with Toyota, in addition to other drivers and crews that turned this 54th edition of the rally into a milestone of history. The world debut of the new Volkswagen Polo R5, driven by Petter Solberg, was another highlight, without forgetting the world-known North American driver Ken Block, who also chose our rally for a quick comeback into the WRC after several years of absence.

The large attendance of Spanish drivers, with Dani Sordo on top of the list, but also those participating in the parallel championships, some of them with great chances in their respective classes, and the difficulties that they had to face due to the changing weather conditions, gave us the chance to experience an event that will make history.

The machinery of the RACC, led by the team of its Sports Area, their huge efforts in all fields and the essential collaboration of a large number of volunteers, have taken us to a clear organising success, which has been widely praised.  Both urban stages, the unmatched Barcelona and the largely expected Salou, also contributed to turning this rally into a  compendium of variety that will hardly be matched by any other event in the championship calendar in recent years.

The unpredictability in the sporting fight is something that all organisers are looking for and we hit the nail on the head this year. The consequence was a huge spectator attendance, the highest that we can remember since the RallyRACC came to Costa Daurada. Whenever an event has very attractive sporting ingredients, and an itinerary, as well as an area, which can be followed comfortably, the response from the public is incredible, something that fits a rally with such a long history and prestige as ours.

The summary of the RallyRACC has always several points to compare with previous events, but this time it is not only the view of all of us making up the organisation team and the FIA, but also the results in terms of spectators, dissemination and the media coverage of our event, which have been clearly noticeable. Our rally has been following the path of a top class rally for a long time, proving for a clear example of how a World Championship event should look like.

I want to thank everyone, organisation, officials, sponsors, and obviously, volunteers. We are all RallyRACC, we all form part of our rally, one of the best of the World Championship, let's go for the next edition!"

Aman Barfull
Clerk of the Course 54 RallyRACC