Wales Rally GB 2016

[Jack4688`]

Yeah then bring Harewood House back for 2017, then move the stages to North York Moors for 2018, then shift up to Kielder for 2019, then by 2020 they'll be up in the Cairngorms

[driveace]

Next time I go watch the annual November Rally ,is when it comes back home as the "Rally of Great Brittain" ,and uses Yorkshire ,Keilder,the lower Highlands,and Cumbria ,As long as it's held in Wales I will stay at home

[Simmi]

Next time I go watch the annual November Rally ,is when it comes back home as the "Rally of Great Brittain" ,and uses Yorkshire ,Keilder,the lower Highlands,and Cumbria ,As long as it's held in Wales I will stay at home

Even if it moves out of Wales a WRC round will never cover that much ground again.

[Mintexmemory]

Even if it moves out of Wales a WRC round will never cover that much ground again.

Geographically Rally D'Italia in Sardina has covered such a spread as might include Kielder, Scots Borders and Yorkshire. Rally HQ would need to be Newcastle

[AndyRAC]

Let’s be honest – the event needs a much bigger geographical spread. The sport is miles off the radar – keeping it in Wales/ or one region is not the solution.

Compare to the Tour of Britain cycle race – the organisers tryto visit as many areas as possible; even over a few years – and still there arecomplaints. But they’re selling the sport to a huge number of followers. Is RallyGB doing this? The simple answer is no.

[Simmi]

Well reading the articles recently it does seem like WRC Promoter are applying pressure to move the rally into England to unlock a bigger population. If there are 13 other rounds vying for a place then that's the kind of thing that might force the MSA to look elsewhere. The biggest question is does any other region actually want to fund the rally?

I know Yorkshire were looking at international rallying with this mooted ERC round that never materialised. Ironically they ended up putting money behind cycling. Certainly the Tour of Britain covers a lot of ground but cycling as a sport is set up completely differently. It's the moving roadshow that the WRC used to be. And even the ToB has some criticism from teams for the long transfers from one stage to another.

The central WRC service park kills this ambition. Sardinia might have run a big route but they soon got told to get back in their box and will be out of the championship within a few years. We've seen WRC team bosses crying at the prospect of staying in more than one hotel room on a rally - so I think for the moment we're just dreaming if we want a sprawling Rally GB.

[Jack4688`]

Somewhere in the north-east for the rally hq allowing the stages to be split between North York Moors and Kielder might work. There's the potential to reach greater popolation centres plus more than one local area council can throw their weight behind it. If no one complains you could have one day of long road sections to get to The Lake District

[Simmi]

Any plan would need to take into account the FIA's 25 percent rule - which means a quarter of the total route has to be competitive mileage.

The liaisons in the current format are actually deemed too long by the governing body

[Jack4688`]

I was just thinking the distance between Deeside and Hafren/Sweetlamb must be pretty far

[Mintexmemory]

I was just thinking the distance between Deeside and Hafren/Sweetlamb must be pretty far

Hence the remote midday service. Alghero to Simanna is a pretty long drive (done it twice before so I can say it's less than Newcastle - Penrith)