2023 Ravenol Welsh Rally Championship to be broadcast in seven part ‘Sideways to Victory’ series in major TV production overhaul
This year’s Motorsport UK Ravenol Welsh Rally Championship will break new ground with a seven-part ‘Sideways to Victory’ entitled series broadcast free to view online.
Brian Chase, Managing Director of Ravenol UK, has been instrumental in restructuring the online broadcast coverage, and thanks to his enthusiasm and commitment rally fans will be able to watch action from the Welsh Rally Championship in a new, innovative and exciting feature-style format.
Instead of just the usual car followed by car standard rally coverage, Ravenol has planned to release three videos from each event. On the Sunday evening following each round there will be a short action-packed teaser film highlighting the drama and spectacle of rallying to whet the appetite of knowledgeable and loyal rally fan and hopefully a new wider audience.
This will lead up to the main adrenalin filled movie ‘Sideways to Victory’ (named in memory of the late great Roger Clark) which will be broadcast on the Wednesday evening, with each round of the Ravenol Welsh Rally Championship featured in the seven-part series.
The third video from each round will be a montage of action clips featuring every registered competitor at least twice – providing they survive the challenge of some of the world’s best gravel forestry stages and pass the camera locations!
Special Stage TV will send four camera crews to each round of the 2023 Ravenol Welsh Rally Championship to capture action footage of all the registered competitors. There will also be interviews from the service parks and at strategic locations along rally routes, while Paul Woodford will be the dedicated series commentator.
Special Stage TV is well known for producing top quality rally coverage and has established an impressive following. Last year its videos recorded 44.1 million views (an average of around 3.7 million views per a month) and received 2 million engagements (comments, likes, etc.).
‘Sideways to Victory’ will be broadcast on the Ravenol UK, Welsh Rally Championship and Special Stage TV Facebook pages – the latter of which has 275,000 followers.
“We saw the need for rallying to reach out to a much wider public, thus attracting not only more people into the sport but also more sponsors,” says Brian Chase.
“The idea is to capture the unique atmosphere that only gravel rallying can bring and convert it into a story where viewers look forward to the next episode. I hope the teams will support us in this exciting venture.”
“It is exciting to be covering the Ravenol Welsh Rally Championship in 2023 and I am looking forward to working with Ravenol on its exciting vision of making some unique and engaging rally content that will be different than anything we have seen previously,” says Wayne Goldring, Special Stage Producer. “We have been given a creative brief that will allow us to bring a new style to the coverage that we produce.”
“I’m delighted to be back presenting the coverage for the Ravenol Welsh Rally Championship,” says Paul Woodford. “Some of the most iconic stages and rallies in the sport, combined with Ravenol’s refreshing enthusiasm for doing things differently, is a combination I just couldn’t resist.”
This year’s Ravenol Welsh Rally Championship will be run in association with Pirelli, which has supported the series since 2012.
“We’re delighted to continue our long-standing support of the Welsh Rally Championship, which is an incredibly popular series that showcases a wide variety of cars and competitors as well as some of the finest stages in the world,” says Jonathan Wells, Pirelli Motorsport Manager UK.
“Although gravel rallying is facing a number of challenges in the current economic climate, the Welsh series is in rude health, which is a tribute to the quality of the organisation and events. These form a great fit with our tyre range, which incorporates all the lessons learned from the FIA World Rally Championship and covers a huge family of all-weather Scorpion products, from the 13-inch GM for historic cars to the renowned 15-inch K and KM for more modern machinery.”
Paul Woodford 