The Sense of Place in Rallying

Abstract

The second promotional arena of the WRC is place. While teams come and go, many places have a long history of drama and action that makes them eligible for an elevated position in the sport’s collective memory. By recapitulating Rally Monte Carlo’s history in the context of the development leading up to the establishment of a world rally championship in 1973, I will look at how place identity is understood in times of sporting transformation. Human geographer, Edward Relph notes in Place and Placelessness that ‘identity of place is comprised of three interrelated components, each irreducible to the other — physical features or appearance, observable activities and functions, and meaning or symbols’ (Relph, 1976, p. 61). On one hand, an entangled view of place like Relph’s is well recognised as a cultural asset in the WRC community. David Richards, one of the main architects behind the new promotional strategies that emerged around 2000 (see Chapter 2), put it this way:

I believe it is possible for the WRC as a global brand to sit alongside individual events that have their own national identity. In fact, I believe it is important that national events retain their own identity, as this is one of the key attributes of the WRC as opposed to many other sports which take place in a consistent environment.¹