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Rally car racing is one of the most exciting motorsports in the world. It is different from the other standard versions of car racing because of the techniques and styles of the drivers in racing on different tracks. The premier organization for rally car racing is the World Rally Championship (WRC), which presents 13 three-day race events held at various locations in Mexico, Europe, South America, Australia, and many more every year.
Rally car racing has some of the best race car drivers in the world, and they have exceptional skills in driving in extreme race track conditions. This makes betting on rally car racing more exciting and entertaining. There are many opportunities for bettors with rally car racing events to win with the proper knowledge and strategies about the sport. Here are some tips on how to bet on rally car racing.
How Rally Car Racing Started
Car racing is one of the most exciting events in the motorsports industry, and it attracts huge crowds that spectate and place their bets on whom they think would win. It started with the first invention of a successful gasoline-powered vehicle, but only a few people know about this new sport.
The first car racing happened in France on April 28, 1887, on a two-kilometer track and participated by only one racer. It was George Bouton who won that race. On July 23, 1894, the French organized another race with 102 participants registered, competing on a 127-kilometer track from Paris to Rouen. The organizers only chose 25 participants to compete in the main event.
Count Jules Felix Philippe Albert de Dion was the winner of that racing event, who lasted the distance in 6 hours and 48 minutes with an average speed of only 19 kilometers per hour. The second placer was George Lemaitre, who fell short with only 3 minutes and 30 seconds behind Count Jules Felix Philippe. He raced with a Peugeot car and was later declared the grand winner because of Count Jules Felix Philippe’s disqualification for using a self-made vehicle that did not meet the race requirements.
Many people do not know how to rally car racing started. It has been around the racing industry, and it did not always involve cars. In the 1930s, people were using horses for racing and betting on who would win the race. Long-distance road rallies began in the 1950s, and the RAC (Royal Automobile Club) rallies became more popular in 1951 despite the limited use of British roads. Thierry Sabine organized the first “rally-raid” in 1979 in Paris, followed by Dakar, Senegal, which is now popularly known as the Dakar Rally.
Rally car racing became a huge commercial sector that caters to cars, trucks, and motorcycles and created similar events. In 2008, the event transferred to South America, where modern-day rallies increased its popularity for fans and bettors. It became a prestigious event for countries like Belgium and Scandinavia.
Betting on Rally Car Racing
Rally car racing attracts many car enthusiasts and gamblers. It is a fun sport to watch, and there are also great betting opportunities for gamblers. If you want to gamble on this event, you need to know some important details before placing your bet. There are usually two types of bets that you can use: the each-way bet and the straight-up bet. Some online sportsbooks may also have match bets to offer for their customers.
Outright Winner Bets
Outright winner bets are bets that you can place on a particular rally racer that will come out as the winner of the racing event. Bettors will pick their favorite rally car driver and team, which they think would win the race with the lower odds, or they can choose to bet on the underdog to gain bettor odds once they win. It would also be better to place bets on racers who specialize in a particular race. Rally car drivers who have a 6:1 odds will have a high possibility of winning. If an underdog driver has a 100:1 odds, the bettor will receive $100 for every $1 they put down.
Outright winner bets are the most popular bet for rally car racing enthusiasts where you can place your bet on the best racer. A rally car racing winner is not just a racer that completes all the racing stages of an event in the fastest and shortest time.
Instead, the rally car racing winner involves the driver, co-driver, car, and the whole team that will have the best time record for all the stages. This means that a driver could theoretically be triumphant in a rally car racing even without actually finishing first in any of the race stages.
Each Way Bet
Each way bets are wagers that have separate two-part bets. It contains a place bet, where drivers must finish on the podium, and a winning bet, where a racer must win the main event.
Championship Winner
Another type of betting that you can do for rally car racing is determining who will be the overall WRC champion. This type of bet focuses mainly on the drivers, and bettors should watch out for the shift of odds that happen erratically throughout the racing season.
Bettors who would like to place a pre-season bet on WRC will benefit from this type of market, and the odds are always available. You need to have good knowledge about the WRC before placing your bets.
Bettors should also know how tricky it is to bet on the WRC championship. The first decades of the series were dominated by teams from Ford, Volkswagen, and Citroen that produced great drivers. But some formidable challengers also performed well during the season.
Betting odds will help bettors with the idea of who will most likely win the season.
Rally Car Racing Major Events
Rally car racing has many different major events that are held in various locations around the world, ranging from professional levels to illegal underground events.
Legal rally car racing events are mostly divided into several races by region or country, such as:
- Corona Rally Mexico
- Rally of Turkey
- Rally Sweden
- Jordan Rally
- Vodafone Rally de Portugal
- Rally New Zealand
- Nestle Oil Rally Finland
- Rally Bulgaria
- Rally Japan
- ADAC Rally Deutschland
- Rally Great Britain
- RACC Rally de Espana
- Rallye de France
How Rally Car Racing Works
Rally driving is a variety of motorsport that tackles the most challenging terrains in different locations around the world to test a driver’s abilities to the fullest. Rally car racing uses cars worth millions of dollars because of its racing modifications and upgrades such as four-wheel drive, gearbox modifications, and turbochargers to perform its best at any rally track.
The drivers will compete against each other for the fastest to complete a track or a number of laps of a track. Rally car races are usually on dirt tracks or on a tarmac with different conditions such as ice and snow. Organizers would set up main events in cities, forests, deserts, tundras, and mountain regions to determine the fastest car to complete the allotted laps. Rally car drivers usually have a co-driver who assists them on the turns that they need to tackle on a track. This means that it is a team effort in driving a rally car to win races.
World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship is the most famous rally competition, and it has been around the motorsport industry for more than 45 years already. WRC seasons would usually have 14 three-day race events every year, which start in January until November in various locations around the world. The WRC season would deal with extreme weather conditions and harsh road conditions.
The WRC categorizes the track surfaces for proper car upgrades and conditioning. Monte Carlo is a tarmac race, which can also have ice and snow. Gravel races happen in Rally de Portugal, and snow races in Rally Sweden.
WRC races are usually on weekends, while organizers conduct meetings five days before the actual race. The racing teams would compete in a number of stages during the race and deal with various length levels. Rally Turkey has 17 stages, and races in Finland have 23 stages.
The WRC rally champion would be the team that accumulates the most points from the driver and the co-driver. They will earn points and add them to the Driver’s Championship, the Co-Driver’s Championship, and the Constructors’ Championship, determining the ten best cars that made the most points.
There is also a power stage wherein drivers can compete for more points for their team and themselves.
Rally cars are made to be strong to handle the races' extreme environment and road conditions. Participating car manufacturers like Toyota, Subaru, and Ford would allocate millions of dollars to create their machines ready for rally racing.
Final Thoughts
Rally car racing is an exciting motorsports event that many car enthusiasts and bettors anticipate every year. People should take advantage of participating in some betting opportunities for this sport and have a thrilling experience watching and waiting for the winner of the special events. Be sure to watch out for flying cars if you want to watch the race up close.
