Barum Czech Rally Zlín 

The promoter will offer hours of live broadcasts from Barum rally!

24. 6. 2022 - Roman ORDELT

This year, the European Rally Championship (ERC) series was transferred to a new promoter by WRC Promoter GmbH, based in Munich, Germany. With the change of promoter has come very positive information for the fans, as the whole championship can be watched online on the paid WRC+ platform. This means that each special stage of the 51st Barum Czech Rally Zlín (August 26-28, 2022) will be broadcast live following the example of the World Championship events. In this media scope and coverage, the competition held in the Czech Republic will take place for the first time. A few years ago, not even the biggest dreamer would have thought of something like this.

A few weeks ago, representatives of the promoter appeared in Zlín to observe the routes of all special stages, including the city Super Special stage, placed in the centre of Zlín city. ERC manager Iain Campbell from Great Britain, his compatriot Sebastian Marshall and Tuomo Hakkarainen from Finland came to Baťa's town. Marshall is well acquainted with the Zlín track, as he has competed at the Barum rally three times as a co-driver of Harry Hunt, Molly Taylor and Kevin Abbring. "The gentlemen came to us immediately after the end of the Croatian WRC event in Zagreb. They inspected the centre of the rally and mainly dealt with the location of television cameras on the special stages. We have had a lot of debate to come up with a common best solution. We drove every kilometre of the route," said Jan Regner, Deputy Clerk of the Course Barum Czech Rally Zlín. Particular attention is paid to the final special stage, which will be run as a Power Stage and will be broadcast live on TV stations or through the new All Live (WRC+) system. The end of the rally is scheduled on Sunday with the start of the first car at 16:08 after repositioning of the front of the starting field. Unlike last year's ERC season, the crews will not receive bonus points for each stage, but this final stage will be evaluated separately. "The Power Stage will be run on the legendary Pindula stage with a total length of almost twenty kilometres. This classic section will perfectly test the starting field and will be the real peak of a three-day competition for European competition points," said Jan Regner.

The promoter will offer television stations around the world also selected special stages, similar to the WRC series. "On Friday, a television broadcast from the city's Super Speed stage on the streets of the regional city will be arranged. The entire circuit will be covered by six fixed cameras and spectators will see attractive passages of the competition cars," said Jan Regner. On Saturday, a demanding section in the Vsetín region was chosen as the television stage, and on Sunday, the already mentioned legendary SS Pindula. "In the Czech Republic, broadcasts will run on the commercial station O2 TV Sport, which will offer fans an attractive batch of television spectacle," said Jan Regner. At the end of the holidays, a large staff of the eighty promoter's staff members will arrive in Zlín to ensure live broadcasts. The Zlín organizers also adapted the time schedule for this year's 51st edition, as only six special stages will be held on three sections on Saturday. There must be approximately one hour between the starts of the particular stages so the transmissions do not overlap.

WRC+ is the official media service provider, which is distributed digitally on connected TVs, smartphones, tablets and its website. It is available globally and offers a streaming service based on a subscription with a live broadcast of each event from the World Rally Championship (WRC) series and from this year onwards also the European Rally Championship (ERC). It was created in 2014 and four years later (2018) with the introduction of WRC+ All Live it streams all special stages from each stage live. Barum rally will become the first competition in the Czech Republic to receive many hours of space in this project. In addition to the transmissions from the special stages, the broadcast is enriched with a number of interviews and analysis from the service zone, responses from the drivers after reaching the finish line, a summary of each stage and the entire rally, and other interesting facts. There is also a large archive of onboard videos of the leading crews from all special stages. All rally fans of the Zlín rally can become a subscribers to the project and then to enjoy the atmosphere of the largest Czech rally with these recordings several hours, weeks or even months after the rally away from the their homes.

More information can be found at www.czechrally.com and related Barum rally's social networks at official Facebook, Instagram and Twitter profiles.

In Zlín 24 June 2022

Roman ORDELT
Press relations officer
Barum Czech Rally Zlín