Hopkirk: Rally drivers better than F1 rivals.

by Rob Wilkins

Paddy Hopkirk has revealed that he finds it quite sad that rallying doesn't get more coverage.

Hopkirk, who has recently penned his book - 'The Paddy Hopkirk story - a dash of the Irish', which tells of his life, including his memorable win at the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally in a Mini Cooper, added that in his view rally drivers are much better all-rounders than the prima donnas in F1.

"The WRC is wonderful," he told Crash.net Radio.

"There is no doubt that the cars go a lot faster today, and stop a lot faster, and go around corners a lot faster [than we used to]. They are virtually, I suppose, Formula One cars with bodies on them to make them look like it's the car you buy in the showroom.

"Our cars were much nearer to what you could buy. They were beautifully prepared and hand built and every nut was checked, but they were much closer to what people could buy. But I think that is advancement and things have changed. I admire the guys of today very much.

"Rallying is a fantastic sport. I am just sad rally drivers don't get more recognition because I think, to drive on a loose road, it a bit like skiing. I remember in the old days, teaching Formula One drivers on loose roads - and they weren't very good. There were very few of them that were good all-rounders. People like Jim Clark could ride a motorbike, could drive on a loose road and could drive a Formula One car. He was marvellous, but there were others that aren't.

"I reckon, if you had a competition, a sort of marathon between rallying and racing and everything, I think the rally drivers might come out best. I don't think they get enough recognition, like the prima donnas of Formula One do really. But that's life."

As for today's three-day sprints compared to the marathon events of old Hopkirk added that rallying has in his view lost some of 'the mystique' but that doesn't mean it is not as good.

"People didn't go abroad in my day - to go further than Clacton was quite a unique thing to do. Now everybody travels the world, it has become a very small world," he continued.

"To go to Monte Carlo was a very glamorous place, even to go to, I started in Russia to go there, and that was quite a unique experience and a great adventure.

"It got a lot more publicity - it was front page news and it was a national thing. It was France versus the UK versus Sweden - all the different nationalities, etc. The rallies started from all over the place. We had, I think, nine starting places - Portugal, Lisbon, Athens and Greece, Stockholm, Russia, Paris, even Monte Carlo was a starting place - and sometimes they had other countries as well, even Glasgow. So all the press people from these different countries went to Monte Carlo to see how their boys were doing, so it was front page news. Nowadays, you have to probably look in the motorsport pages to find that.

"We probably enjoyed it a bit more too. But you can't get away with that nowadays. These guys are dedicated and they have to be with the high speeds and so on. They can't afford to make any mistakes. They have some awful accidents, but they seem always to come out unscathed. But the pure G-forces on their bodies must be a hell of a lot harder than what we had.

"Whether it has got better or worse though I will leave that for you to say."

'The Paddy Hopkirk story - a dash of the Irish' is available in all good book stores now, published by Haynes and priced ?18.99.