On February 4, Yaniv Bar, 44 years old from Haifa, will compete in the European Rally Championship to be held in Finland. Bar competes in the Ford Rally4 team and will be the only Israeli representative to participate in the race. “I will be there too,” he says, “a representative of a small country in the Middle East with the Israeli flag on the car. I want to be an inspiration to young people so that they dream big.”
Published on: 24.1.23 14:38
Yaniv Bar, 44 years old from Haifa, will compete in the European Rally Championship. Bar competes in the Ford Rally4 group in the SM3 category and will be the only Israeli representative to participate in the race. The quality of the race will be evidenced by the list of manufacturers that will take part in it, including Toyota, Ford, Hyundai and Subaru.
These days Bar is preparing for the race that will be held on February 4, and he does not hide his excitement. “In a week and a half I will compete in the championship in Finland,” he says, “Finland is a childhood dream, it is the holy land of rally racing. Last season I competed in the British championship and came in third place, which is very respectable compared to an Israeli who migrated here, and it opened the appetite and the desire to compete on the best stage in the world.”
Barr has been involved in racing for years, and two years ago he took this love one step further and moved with his wife and their three children to London. For him, the achievement in the British Championship was proof that the pursuit of his childhood dream, despite all the surrounding difficulties, paid off.
“I’ve been involved in motor sports since I can remember,” he says, “Thanks to racing, I went on adventures in Finland, France and England, but mostly as a hobby. Two years ago I received a very big offer to be a driver for the Ford Group in England. I approached sponsors I know, and we started promoting That. Along the way I surprised myself with a good result together with my Welsh navigator Ossian Owen, and we started to make progress. But it’s not just the success – there is also a story of moving to another country with children and with a lot of headaches, a story of good days and slightly less good days “.
Bar confesses that the move to London was a big sacrifice on his part and, of course, on the part of his family: “I haven’t worked in Israel for 12 years. I work for Porsche in Germany as the leader of the company’s luxury tours, so the move to England allows me to be close to work, but mainly to promote the field of motor sports that I Love so much.”
Car racing is considered worldwide a leading sport, but in Israel the exposure to it is very low. The specialists in the field know how to differentiate between the types of races, which to the average viewer look more or less the same. can be considered as though “A rally race is a competition that takes place with a vehicle that is very similar from the outside to a normal private car, but is completely different inside and with an engine. The races take place in unusual conditions such as dirt tracks, snow tracks and closed asphalt roads. Most of the drivers receive a lot of funding and extensive sponsorships, and some of them also compete in the world championship (WRC). I’ll be there too – a representative of a small country in the Middle East with the Israeli flag on the car. I think, actually I’m sure, that I’m the only one in history to do that.”
Yaniv Bar
With his extensive experience in the field, Barr already knows that motorsport is not as glamorous as many think. In order to continue and become a professional in it, he had to experience quite a few difficulties and bumps, literally: “As a Haifa player, I had two pictures on the wall. One is a picture of Maccabi Haifa, where I played from the age of 9 and reached almost until the senior year, then I got injured; and the other is a picture of a racing car. I told myself that when I fulfilled myself as a soccer player I would get the funding to become a racing driver. The dream of being a racing driver burned in me from a young age. Unfortunately, today, and not only today but also then, I did not have the opportunity to succeed in soccer, and I had to wander to all kinds of stages – in Cyprus, In Greece and France – to learn and experience. The topic of funding always stood in my way, and many times I had to chase reporters for exposure. They didn’t know how to eat it because it’s an unknown field in Israel. I’m doing my best. Listen, I came from a small country, and win and reach To come third in the British Championship against drivers whose experience in reverse is far greater than I have in forward driving is a nice achievement that has made me pretentious. I want to compete on the biggest stages to showcase my abilities.”
On February 4, with a car that will fly the Israeli flag, Bar will compete in a Ford Fiesta Rally-4 car and try to repeat, at the very least, the achievement he reached in the British Championship. The competition will include eight stages for a total distance of about 100 km. This competition is considered prestigious in the industry, and success in it may catapult Bar to the places he aspires to reach.
“In this competition, drivers from the WRC compete – very well-known drivers who come with the biggest manufacturers, so that it will have a very large exposure,” says Barr, “It is a very big stage to present my skills, it receives extensive coverage, and drivers are tracked in it On behalf of the manufacturers and sponsors. Beyond that, many journalists are curious to know who the Israeli is who comes to the big arena to compete. Some of them are already sending me messages if they can interview me, which is great fun.”
Bar’s dream – that a rally race will also be held in Haifa – never ceases to excite him. But he also knows that despite the optimism, there is still a long way to go: “In Israel there are many things that are developing now. But it will take a long time for this sport to enter the consciousness. This sport is saturated with politics – who organizes, how, etc. – and unfortunately Israel is still young in the industry This. We are not Europe, where this field is covered in every possible medium. In the end, sports are fed by sponsorships, and if there are no sponsorships, then there are no races. It is like a chicken and an egg. Unfortunately, in Israel I am chasing reporters to try and explain that I am an ambassador of the State of Israel, Not only my own. I am a person who comes with not so much equity, and I would like to be an inspiration to young people and tell them to dream big because it is possible. Many people believe that the Messiah will come, and I say that if the Messiah comes then a race like this in Haifa can also happen.”