Thoughts on the rally
04/12/2015
"...the first night is over, so far it's gone well ... No penalty points ... but there's another night to come ... will we get through it? ... my eyes are already hurting ... darn it - one of the windshield wipers no longer works ... will we keep the average? ... not an easy thing, nothing but bends, uphill, downhill, an abyss on the right, rocks on the left ... You have to know every meter ... it's a thousand kilometers now, only halfway ... will there be coffee at the next checkpoint? ..."
Swiss racing driver Arthur Blank is said to have thought something like this during a rally ... at least according to an advertisement for the petrol company "BP" that appeared in Automobil Revue in 1964.
Of course BP wanted to advertise its fuel, but in various advertising subjects it tried to convey more understanding for the racing drivers of the time, their worries and their challenges.
The fact that the Ford Cortina also appeared effectively in the picture was only a side effect. Today, such marketing exercises would probably be unthinkable because, firstly, a racing driver would hardly want to reveal anything, secondly, the companies involved in racing would not be willing to participate and, thirdly, fuel manufacturers today would obviously rather build energy-saving cars than deal with racing ...
