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

[AndyRAC]

Or any at all... He seemed to be well aware of what we all know but people in positions of power/authority usually seem to scared to admit has caused a problem - i.e. the cloverleaf format ruined the RAC, nobody outside the hardcore in this country is interested in rallying anymore, its full of mainly gentleman drivers these days - but I have no confidence that awareness will lead to the shake up UK rallying needs

...not that I have any solutions. But then I’m not the CEO of Motorsport UK

And that is possibly the biggest issue that has caused our problems in UK rallying. Yet, you still get lots of people adamant that it had to change. It probably needed tweaking slightly, but not the massive changes we saw. I recall at the time many people not convinced it was the way to go. It didn't take long for the interest and media attention to fall away, and by the early/ mid noughties most of it had gone. Yet, they know best......

As I've said many times, most of the issues are self inflicted.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Some good news at last:

https://dirtfish.com/rally/brc/engli...-forest-future

[HKSjbg]

Hoping I can make a visit to the Woodpecker this year then, now my local rally!

[AndyRAC]

Haye Park/ High Vinnals is a nice stage, and draws in a good crowd; with commentary at the main spectator point.

[Sal the 2nd]

Going to focus on the positive that we have some commitment for this year at least however how many events that is likley to affect only the easing of Covid measures will tell.

Regards the medium to long term outlook its going to be trickier. More expense for sure and I guess something like the Rallying4Wales arrangements re maintenance and more potential clashes with other groups such as the ramblers and mountain bikers are a possibility Its time for all interested parties on "our side" to do their bit to prolong the stay of execution.

[AndyRAC]

We have to change - it's quite simple, or we won't have the use of forests for our sport. However, reading a similar thread on the British Rally forum is depressing; possible solutions are shot down and 'can't be done' 'won't work'. Is it any wonder why the sport is struggling. Now is the time for action.

[HKSjbg]

I wouldn’t have a clue how but I’d say the issues in need of addressing are: cheaper entry into the world of rallying for amateurs; enticing people to marshal; and some kind of solution to the sorry state of Britain’s so-called premier rallying series.

Again I don’t know the intricacies of it but esports seems to be on the up and could get youngsters into rallying. The obvious thing these days is: win this online competition and win a test drive in the real car or win a paid-for season in such and such. If one of those competitions ran but geared a bit more towards ‘marshal at your local rally and get free entry to our competition’ it might help one solution solve another issue. Only trouble is, someone needs to pay for it

As for the BRC the biggest issue I see with it in its current state is there is very little differentiating it from the de-facto national championship, the BTRDA. OK the BRC is mixed-surface but still for the forest events, the BRC is running single-day events almost akin to a clubmans rally. If it was to be truly worthy of bring the same championship that used to see the likes of Hannu Mikkola, Ari Vatanen, Henri Toivonen, the McRaes, Prodrive, Michelin Pilot Sport, the works F2 teams all competing then it needs to get away from that - like someone said earlier in the thread national or regional events like ‘Rally of Yorkshire’, ‘Rally of Wales’, ‘Rally of Scotland’, two days long, not a morning and then pack up and go home.

Again the question of who will pay for it comes into it, but I think it’s a slightly cyclical thing: why would big teams, sponsors and manufacturers come to the UK to do 45 minutes of rallying? Who would put on a 2 day rally when there are no big teams bringing their newest cars along?

Andrea Adamo said in a recent interview that he held British rallying in high regard because of its history. Surely, for the short term MSUK should be aiming to entice Hyundai and Toyota et al to bring their junior development drivers to the BRC (if we had proper rallies on the schedule) and try to make it as successful as the BTCC has been in the long term. The manufacturers might even stay longer-term if the BRC allowed newer technologies to compete in the Rally2 class; like slowly permitting the use of ‘mild-hybrid’ tech, electrically assisted turbochargers for example until we’re a point where the most up to date tech is rally ready (the dreaded ‘e’ word).

Otherwise I fear contemporary rallying - whatever it becomes in the next 10 years - will die out in the UK and all we’ll be left with is historics. Nothing against historics, but that’s not what it should be all about.

[AndyRAC]

Otherwise I fear contemporary rallying - whatever it becomes in the next 10 years - will die out in the UK and all we’ll be left with is historics. Nothing against historics, but that’s not what it should be all about.

We might not even have historics; if the FE are to allow us to use their forests, they'll likely want 'green' cars, not noisy, petrol fuelled ones. It maybe only circuit events that see historic cars.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

The real issue with UK rallying is now relevance. Do Manu's see it as a way to market their cars like they used to ?

Selling cars based on performance, handling and sportiness ? I think not. The Fiesta ST is about the only relevant car here and its doing quite nicely already. And most cars are now sold on having more space and tech, not being sporty.

Promoting their greener cars ? Nope. Just the opposite.

Or just as a way of raising the brand to the public ? Certainly not in the UK with next to no BRC coverage.

So there's no chance of Manu's coming in as teams, so that just leaves privateers with some cash - and they are reducing year by year.

We need a miracle boys.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Some good news at last:

https://dirtfish.com/rally/brc/engli...-forest-future

Nice to hear Luke Barry on the AR Podcast that all our individual emails made a big impact on this decision.

Fans stood up this time and may have really saved the future of rallying in the forests. Well done everyone who sent in their support.