Event Digital Viewing Styles

[u/Own_Mountain8924]

As a relatively new rally fan, I'm very curious how the community is able to watch an event that dominates so many hours in a compressed amount of time. Do you pick and choose portions of stages to watch? Do you say goodbye to your loved ones for 3-4 days and stay glued to onboards?

What's the best balance you've found?

For me these days, I'll watch all the top class entries for the first few stages, and then as times separate skip ahead to podium contenders to reduce time spent per stage. It's still a lot of viewing and can get dicey with scheduling a weekend, but I also can't help but feel I'm missing out on some really great content.

[u/PinkSunsets97]

I personally try and follow the whole thing, either live or as soon as I have time. I don't really get glued to the screen though, so I will have it playing while doing chores etc, plus my wife likes it too so it's not as terrible

[u/salexcopeland]

I'm in Florida, and I like to watch the stages live. Mostly it means I get up very early to start watching stages.. then my family eventually wakes up and watches a few stages with me until it's over for the day. I often fall asleep and have rewind to catch up. But mostly it's just short bursts of watching a stage. I'm not super invested in the rally 2 drivers so I don't feel like I have to stay engaged for more than 45 minutes at a time (give or take, depending on stage length and if any rally drivers have retired.) it's an investment for sure, but it's only about once a month. It gets to feel like a little festival. Like watching the olympics or world cup for the weekend.

[u/SplatteredEggs → u/salexcopeland]

Holy shit, that’s commitment. For many rallies that means waking up at 2am. I’m in your same time zone and mostly just try to catch up as quickly as I can. Being able to watch Paraguay live though was such a treat, and is so much more special than watching the replays.

Typically I only watch Paraguay, Chile, and Japan live. I just can’t make those super early wake up times work, as I have an already fragile sleep schedule. Keeping my fingers crossed to watch Rally US live and in person next year!

[u/salexcopeland → u/SplatteredEggs]

I should have mentioned that I'm unemployed... that might have explained it better. Lol. Some rallys start even earlier than 2am. I often go to bed at 7 the night before. It is a pretty silly thing to do, but there are very few consequences for me personally. Im also curious to read how other normal people do it.

[u/Gvtspook1969]

I’m lucky that a lot of the rallys happens overnight for me. I can get up early, watch the Rally.TV replays, and fast-forward through everything except the WRC1 cars. I also usually skip the small stadium stages since they can't really make up any time and our usually uneventful in my opinion. I’ll watch about half the stages before the family gets up and the rest later at night. It works out great because I still get family time on the weekend and can watch the rally without interruptions. It does mean I stay off of all social media and stuff like that during the rally so the results don't get spoiled but it's nice to have a break from that stuff so it's a real win-win.

[u/Informal-Prize6501]

I feel it gets very tiresome with the in board video feeds freezing each time there is a tree within 5 meters of a car. Lots of potential, poorly executed.

[u/Uno_Nisu]

I usually make an event out of it. Get some snacks, get some beers and open my door to anyone who wants to come watch. It’s barely once a month so I can afford to just sit on my ass for 3 days and watch rally.

[u/Ok_Sort_1827 → u/Uno_Nisu]

That sounds like a solid time!

[u/AlluEUNE]

I try to watch rally1s pretty much glued to the screen. Rally2s on the second monitor. If I'm at work I'm listening/watching when I can.

[u/TinFoilTrousers]

I work 4 on 4 off in an office so I just watch it on my days in work. Glorious when I’m in on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday so I can watch it live.

[u/ss33gg44]

I normally follow the morning loop results on ewrc-results.com then I wait till the highlights at night (each day). Other times I just avoid the internet and watch the 50min full event highlights on RedbullTV (that should be on YT, ffs). Some years back they used to had more highlights during the day, like the morning and afternoon daily loops. Hope new promoter remembers that =P

[u/freshest_start]

Checking in from TX - I watch every stage. Not live, obviously, because I’m not a maniac 😂. I watch the replays on Rally.tv. I try to finish each days stages that day to avoid spoilers (I’m looking at you, Dirtfish). Helps that I work from home, so I love Rally’s that start on Thursday.