British and Irish Rallying 2021. Will there be a season as such?

[HKSjbg]

Ha, no problem. I've always maintained that it's fine in theory, but would it work in the real world? Events shrinking hasn't worked for our UK event, even though it's worked in most other events. My only caveat to that would be, if they'd rotated it around after the first 3 years in Wales. So, Yorkshire, then Kielder/Scotland, etc
Our event went from going all over the place to based in South Wales in a short matter of time - for a minority sport, that's not a good idea. People decide they can't be bothered, and don't go/ stop following the sport.

As for the UK, I think a BRC event like a Rally of Wales from, say 1994-2000 should be possible. If it isn't then, we may as well just have the 45 mile BTRDA as our main series.

Couldn’t agree more. South Wales was OK for me growing up in the South-East, I managed to go once in the mid-2000s, but then a whole load of people from the north of England and in Scotland had no chance at all.

When BRC events went down to 45 miles I started to think; so what’s the point of doing the BRC as opposed to BTRDA/Welsh Championship/Scottish Championship? There’s very little prestige left in being known as the British Rally Champion nowadays and most competitors seem to be of the ‘gentleman-driver’ type anyway, either dad has a wealthy plant hire business to sponsor son’s rallying career or they have their own wealth to pay for it. I can’t see the likes of Securicor, Sony, Mobil1, Eddie Stobart, Shell, Elonex or any other fairly mainstream company seeing the value in sponsoring a rally team or individual competitor like the old days.

I’ve often thought it would be great if the BRC could have events sort of like a combination of: Cambrian and North Wales; Malcolm Wilson and Border Counties or Kielder; Rallynuts and Nicky Grist; Ceredigion and Epynt; even Trackrod/Malton with Riponian. Whether enough marshals could be found on one weekend for such events is another dilemma

[the sniper]

I’ve often thought it would be great if the BRC could have events sort of like a combination of: Cambrian and North Wales; Malcolm Wilson and Border Counties or Kielder; Rallynuts and Nicky Grist; Ceredigion and Epynt; even Trackrod/Malton with Riponian. Whether enough marshals could be found on one weekend for such events is another dilemma

This is the key thing for me. People don't view it as possible, but if you were to combine Trackrod/Malton with Riponian, Rallynuts with Nicky Grist, you've already got Rally of Yorkshire and Rally of Wales... Event identities that might actually mean something to those other than the ever diminishing hardcore of British rallying faithful.

2016 was the prime example. Instead of two separate events over four days in Wales, for two rallies most people outside the small bubble of rallying would have never heard of, which have little to no kudos/marketing value, would it not have been much better (cost and publicity wise) to merge the elements of the two into one 'Rally of Wales'? I appreciate some are very protective of the motor clubs, nobody wants to step on anybody's toes/forest allocation, but at what point do we recognise that the BRC has essentially committed to a suicide pact with the clubs? The current model has been failing for 30 years and the BRC has suffered most for it.

I think there's also been too much pruning to make an expensive sport a relatively, slightly less, expensive sport, while completely throwing the concept of value out the window. Nobody's doing the Roger Albert Clark because it's cheap... While the financial risk is on the clubs though and there's no driving force to 'make rallying great again' or make any structural changes to the way the sport is organised, I don't see how the BRC can change course.

[AndyRAC]

In the future the BRC can/should no longer have Motor Clubs organising/ promoting/running it's events. There has to be a reorganisation and combining of resources. A paid BRC team, who sort everything, etc However, that is probably far too radical for our sport - and we'll continue failing to deliver.

As already said, events like Cambrian, Bulldog/North Wales, Plains are all held in a similar area - there's a two day event right there. You could even run a Friday night stage in any host town/ or short blast around Brenig/Alwen.

[Sal the 2nd]

Just read my first post again and the title and now realize I have started 2 threads in one! Lol

Having read the direction its going I think the future of the sport on these shores rather than what the "season" in 2021 may or may not look like is the more worthy topic!

Bit shocked and saddened that its taken the highly predictable loss of the 21 "UK" WRC round to stir DR to put pen to paper however it has to be time to do a proper belt and braces review and I dont mean just looking at the BRC and our WRC event but every aspect from how new blood comes into the sport including competitors, organisers, marshals even fans and the media to what the sport will look like once they are there. This will have to focus on cost, sustainability and how the sport is perceived both by its stakeholders and the public at large who once used to flock in their millions to watch the RAC.

Think its right though that the focus shouldnt be on the "glory days" and trying to recreate them but to find something new. If that means an E Sports tie-in or a presence of rally cars in Fortnite then so be it. Kids arent growing up as much in car culture and are torn with racing cars in games but then being eco warriors at the same time which is a real contradiction. Car ownership and following motorsports unless there's a political connection as with Lewis isnt really a thing it would appear unless its tuning and posing on Instagram.

What I really cant get my head around is how it's all gone so wrong here. I look at the various threads on this forum from Italy, France Spain etc and see Rally 2 cars in abundance with 150 car entries. Manufacturer backed one make championships with big prizes and even a 14 year old testing his new Fabia R5/R2 car in East Europe. Whilst in the UK, Brexit apart which means it will be more expensive for UK crews to compete in Europe our, "premier" championship is staggering along and we run the risk of losing the real estate where at least 75% of our rallies take place. Yes the Circuit championship seems to sell out in minutes but elsewhere its not quite as rosy.

I'm going to be an optimistic and say that with a rally man at the helm, regardless of what direction the WRC went under his companies stewardship, that at least the blazer element will be less prevalent however hope it doesnt turn into an autopsy!

[AndyRAC]

Bit shocked and saddened that its taken the highly predictable loss of the 21 "UK" WRC round to stir DR to put pen to paper however it has to be time to do a proper belt and braces review and I dont mean just looking at the BRC and our WRC event but every aspect from how new blood comes into the sport including competitors, organisers, marshals even fans and the media to what the sport will look like once they are there. This will have to focus on cost, sustainability and how the sport is perceived both by its stakeholders and the public at large who once used to flock in their millions to watch the RAC.

Isn't it damning that it's taken the loss of our WRC round for this to happen? It's almost as if that's all they care about. If Wales/N Ireland had found the money it would only be papering over the cracks. I suspect that RallyGB is still their main priority, even if they don't admit it.

With RallyGB they need to start afresh; how the event is run, organised & financed. Maybe, look at Ypres; a successful event, popular, great atmosphere, etc and has never been in the WRC. Proof you can run a successful event without being in the WRC. That is how our event needs to be like. An event that national & clubmen want to do, whether in the WRC or not. To be honest, I don't think it would be a bad thing if the event was out of the WRC for a number of years; it sounds like heresy, but it may need that for them to focus the mind.

[Steve Boyd]

In the future the BRC can/should no longer have Motor Clubs organising/ promoting/running it's events. There has to be a reorganisation and combining of resources. A paid BRC team, who sort everything, etc However, that is probably far too radical for our sport - and we'll continue failing to deliver.

I think that would be far too expensive. Look at the thousands of man-hours club members put in for free to organise the events. The BRC already has professional promoters and as a result costs far more than other events. We might be better off all round if we went back to volunteers doing everything.

[Sal the 2nd]

Without getting too political, business and government in the this country are obsessed with contracting out to make their balance sheets look better however whoever gets the gig(s) then has to cover their costs, salaries and profits before any services can be provided. Just look at all the fuss re free school meal packs at the minute!

Whilst I'm not going to deny that there are skilled promoters out there that could take championships like the BRC forwards ultimately any monies from entry fees, media rights (if thats still a thing these days) etc have to pay them first and the sport second.

I've heard it said that getting the organisers of UK rallies together is like herding cats on acid as each of them has their own agenda however perhaps some sort of none for profit set up is required to co-ordinate things.

[Steve Boyd]

I've heard it said that getting the organisers of UK rallies together is like herding cats on acid as each of them has their own agenda however perhaps some sort of none for profit set up is required to co-ordinate things.

That's the way BTRDA works and the BHRC is run by the club behind the biennial RAC and they're probably the most successful championships so that might be a good model to start with.

[HKSjbg]

Another SRC round, the Speyside, is cancelled:

https://www.grampianonline.co.uk/spo...celled-224578/

The Jim Clark in May is now the 1st round and already they've drafted in Carlisle Stages in October after the Snowman Rally was cancelled. Things are already looking precarious.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

One thing DR was right about is UK rallying needing new blood. If the youngsters dont get into watching and then wanting to help organise events then the sport is doomed.

The hardcore fan base is just so old now and they dont seem to have passed on their passion to the next generation. At best they watch on TV and maybe went to WRGB, but that's it.

Joining a Motor Club is just not seen as cool for the teenagers and so the grass roots are dying.