Hello, good evening and welcome to another round of Alliance Motorsport’s rally predictions! Yes we are back taking the mickey out of motorsport – which is rather odd considering Mickey is American and they have those funny NASCAR thingie’s and watered down horse wee that pretends it’s beer.
So, since the last Predicitions…. well…. nothing much of great importance has phappened except for the completely and utterly obvious in that Sebastian Loeb won the WRC again, Petter Solberg wrote the odd car off again, The Subaru’s still suck – again and Marcus Gronholm has been rumoured to want a seat in said Subaru. Which to me is about as stupid as the rest of the dribble I usually come up with so we’ll dismiss that outright.
This being the last year under the present 16 event calendar comes as some relief as I only have to come up with 12 loads of compete garbage next year. And we also get a round of the WRC. It’ll probably be the only rally well attended outside of the 165,456 entires AMSAG will get for their 16 day trek up and down the seaboard that will not be known as the Southern Cross, but that cant be helped anymore in the present economic enviroment. Frankly, none of us can wait until the adults take charge in the USA on January 20 and we may actually have some light at the end of the economic tunnel.
Now as to the news of the adults takign charge, President-Elect Obama has decided to call up Loeb as his new economic advisor. Speaking in front of a small crowd of 467 thousand, he told the world why.
“I have been told this man, whom I have no idea whom he is, is the best… errr…. rallydriver to have existed and has a pact with a Higher Power than the former Bush bunch of asscracks who are about as skilled with the economy as Subaru is at WRC. Thence, Mr Loeb shall now be asked to make our economy work as well as his… errr… what the hell is a C4?”
At which point a dozen burly men with wires coming out of their ears spirited the Black Dude in the white House away and took anyone with C4 to be waterboarded at Guatanamo Bay. Which as Loeb was rolling his recce EVO 9, was Danny Sordo, who thought it great that some one was finally paying him attention.
Not much else occurs, really. A lot of people in Wales will get wet and cold, Mikko will take a consolation win, Chris Atkinson will be wishing he was driving a Ford next year and we’ll all be hoping that Weet-bix wont become a luxury item. Altho really there’s nothing wrong with Weet-bix, I rather prefer it to say Cornflakes. It’s also awesome on a cold morning with warm milk.
Weet-Bix was invented by Bennison Osborne in NSW, Australia in the mid 1920s. Benn set out to make a product more palatable than “Granose.” He tried his new product on his little nieces and nephews until he had it perfected, and in 1928 he registered the tradename “Weetbix” and production started at 659 Parramatta Road, Leichhardt, NSW with the financial backing of Mr. Arthur Shannon. Benn’s friend Malcolm Ian “Mac” Macfarlane from N.Z. joined him and proved a brilliant marketer. The product was so successful that in October of 1928, Mr. Shannon sold the rights in the product to the Sanitarium Health Food Company, at which point Mac suggested that they take the product to N.Z. The product proved so successful in N.Z. that it quickly became apparent that it would be difficult to adequately supply the market from Australia. Again, with the financial assistance of Mr. Arthur Shannon, factories were established in both Auckland and Christchurch. The enterprise was such a great success that Mr. Shannon again sold out (in 1930) to the Sanitarium Health Food Company.
Benn and Mac then exported the product to South Africa where they obtained other financial backing and installed a factory in Cape Town, forming the “British & African Cereal Company Pty. Ltd.,” which was registered in London with Benn as the Managing Director. For the purpose of differentiating between the various countries, it was decided that the product, when introduced into England, should be known as “Weetabix.” In England, Benn and Mac became the Joint Managing Directors with Benn controlling production and Mac controlling marketing. Thirty-three potential sites for the factory were examined, with Burton Latimer eventually being chosen, due in part to the offer of a disused flour mill by a Mr. George who was allotted shares in the company. For records see the 1932 and 1933 papers (Kettering Leader & Guardian,” and “Northamptonshire Advisor” and also the 19 May 1933, “Town and Country News.”) When the business was firmly established, Mr. Shannon offered to finance an expansion of the business. However, cash flow was such that additional financing was not necessary. Mr. Shannon however, did suggest investigating the Canadian market.
At this point, Mac left the business to go overseas and Benn became the sole Managing Director with Mr. George as Chairman of Directors. A fleet of cars was purchased and salesmen employed throughout England. At the height of its success in 1936, Benn sold his share holding to the Directors and left the Company to go to the U.S.A. Weetabix was unsuccessful in the U.S.A. (Clinton, Mass.) and Benn eventually became the wartime supervisor of the Army Air Force Base in Zephyr Hills, Florida. After the war, in 1946, he took his wife and three daughters by freighter back to Australia, where he died in 1980. Around 1992, Weetabix successfully entered the U.S.A. market from Canada via Clinton, Mass., the site of the unsuccessful U.S. factory.
And yes, I really couldnt care less about Rally GB if I think Weetbix is more interesting. Bloody Loeb will win it again and Chris will once again get a dud of a car. How can you get enthused for something so predictable? Dunno why I bother really.
Hope to see you all out in the forest next year if we aint all eating gruel
[url]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=13JK5kChbRw&feature=PlayList&p=CDFEA6D52E5CC0EC&index=10[/url]
(Yes, Monty Python have a Youtube channel! See I am useful after all!)