British & Irish Rally calendars 2023

https://www.englishrally.co.uk/the-full-english/

English Rally Championship finally confirmed, including the Border Counties Rally - so the Scottish Champs has a round in England (though in recent years the Carlisle has pushed further into Scotland) and the English has a round in Scotland. Both events using broadly similar stages (Riccarton, Hyndlee etc.)

Why the Border Counties isn’t just a round of the Scottish and Carlisle drops off again I don’t know… Carlisle was only meant to be a reserve round for 2020 and actually put to use as such in 2021 due to covid.

Border Counties isn’t a round of the Scottish Championship, just BTRDA, so does align with the English championship. There has been quite a few Border Counties in the past in the SRC that have fully run in England.

Interesting: no less than six drivers in a Citroën C3 Rally2 for the first round of the Irish tarmac championship next week ;)

http://www.ewrc-results.com/entries/...al-rally-2023/

Irish Tarmac C'ship @IrishTarmacTROA

Exciting news !

HM Productions will provide live streaming for each Irish Tarmac Rally Championship round in 2023.


https://twitter.com/HMProductions23/...fJmMLdeQKbVdjg

Galway can't come quick enough !

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC

@SteveBoyd
But those guys weren't 3x BRC Champions and desperate to get (funding for a drive) back at that level...

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The point is that if you're interested in the sport you'll find a way of getting involved. Can't get a deal to run a car, then form a preparation business, co-drive for somebody with a budget, do some driver coaching &c.
Oh - and the BRC these days is little more than a clubman's championship in comparison to those days. Look at the events Chris Sclater won & who he beat when he won his championship and look at Culcheth's results in lower class cars BRC Gp1 champion, 16th O/A on the 1000 Lakes in a 1300 Marina (the best result by any British driver before Colin McRae) &c &c.

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/breen...-championship/

I think BRC bosses should view Craig Breen doing the Portuguese championship as a missed opportunity, or at least an example of what they should be aiming for; here’s a world class driver with a deal to drive a Rally1 in the WRC this year and has time to do a domestic championship alongside it. He’s from the British Isles, he’ll be known to the more casual rally fans in this country who follow not much more than Rally GB and he’s got previous history in the BRC way back in 2010 in the S2000 Fiesta.

They should be asking themselves what is it that the Portuguese championship has that we don’t? Why are there well funded teams like ‘ Hyundai Team Portugal’? What attracts a world championship driver to do their national championship? What is the promotion/broadcasting like in the PRC?

After they got lucky last year with Oliver Solberg entering the Cambrian, WRC2/part-time WRC drivers are exactly who they should have been working hard to attract to the BRC. I know M-Sport entered Adrien Fourmaux in the 2020 Malcolm Wilson Rally and one would hope they might take advantage of the extended format national rally this year and enter Fourmaux and Munster - but then M-Sport aren’t known for chucking their budget around willy nilly.

One of the issues is that if you have a world star coming to the Uk, then it puts off other people who may be wanting to win it.

It doesn’t seem worth it to me - either these guys are happy to compete in the same arena as drivers like Breen, Solberg, Mikkelsen, Paddon et al and benefit from the increased exposure the championship has or some of those guys are tempted to make one-off appearances like Solberg did for some seat time.

Does Breen’s Portuguese campaign out off all the long time PRC regulars? Probably not. They probably see it as a bit of positive publicity.

There are ways around it but if the championship only caters for the clubmen it will only ever be as good as a mixed-surface clubman’s championship (OK a bit higher level than truly clubman, but you know what I mean).

It's great for the Portuguese championship - they seem to 'get' the sport of rallying - and have both a WRC & ERC round. The contrast to the UK couldn't be more stark.

I did see a comment that the BRC Tarmac rounds are of no use to teams in the WRC as they're far too bumpy, and it's easier to do a gravel rally on the mainland.......

It would be nice to see an M-Sport entry on the odd event, but I'm not expecting it in all honesty.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Steve Boyd

The point is that if you're interested in the sport you'll find a way of getting involved. Can't get a deal to run a car, then form a preparation business, co-drive for somebody with a budget, do some driver coaching &c.
Oh - and the BRC these days is little more than a clubman's championship in comparison to those days. Look at the events Chris Sclater won & who he beat when he won his championship and look at Culcheth's results in lower class cars BRC Gp1 champion, 16th O/A on the 1000 Lakes in a 1300 Marina (the best result by any British driver before Colin McRae) &c &c.

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Far off days and the current case of Matt Edwards is very different and a damning indictment of the state rallying in the UK. The 3x BRC Champion cant get enough sponsorship for even a single event in a top car, never mind the full championship.

He is now chasing money to do the ITRC as even Ireland has a better rally scene than here. But even there its proving tough and hes having to just help guys with their tyre selection, working with with Pirelli. A sad state of affairs.