British & Irish Championships 2024

[HKSjbg]

Here's a throw back to 1999:

Calendar

Round	Event	Date
1	Vauxhall Rally of Wales	13-14 March
2	Pirelli International Rally	24-25 April
3	Scottish Rally	11-12 June
4	Jim Clark Memorial Rally	2-4 July
5	Stena Line Ulster Rally	30-31 July
6	Manx International Rally	9-12 September

We could almost replicate some of that this year - Rally North Wales will run on the weekend of 16/03 next year and Down Rally runs on the penultimate weekend in July

Just thinking that with Ceredigion being a double header its just possible that a top runner from the BTRDA Tarmac championship could also win the BRC without putting a tyre on the loose.

They’d have to be bothered to register for BRC points though, and none of the ARC drivers were interested in doing so at this year’s Jim Clark or Ceredigion

[Destra quattro]

Plenty for the mechanics to do with tarmac/gravel/tarmac/gravel all year long ..

[AndyRAC]

Here's a throw back to 1999:

Calendar

Round	Event	Date
1	Vauxhall Rally of Wales	13-14 March
2	Pirelli International Rally	24-25 April
3	Scottish Rally	11-12 June
4	Jim Clark Memorial Rally	2-4 July
5	Stena Line Ulster Rally	30-31 July
6	Manx International Rally	9-12 September

I should have said that four of those events have either disappeared, or changed from what they were.

Vauxhall Rally of Wales no longer exists.
The Pirelli is now the Kielder Forest Rally run in June.
The Scottish is a one day SRC round.
The Manx International is now Rally Isle of Man, but hasn't been run since 2017.

[HKSjbg]

In my haste I didn’t actually read the press release while I was at work today

It says they'll be "Longer, more challenging rallies" which sounds great... but how many entrants actually want that ?

Rallynuts: “…the Builth Wells-based event has been re-named for its 50th anniversary and will offer a dynamic twist on its traditional format next year, offering up a longer and more challenging route which uses some of the best forest stages in the world.”

I’m intrigued to hear where the extra mileage will be - there is far more stage km available in Hafren and Myherin that can’t always be squeezed into a 70km event - and also how much more than the interclub event it will be.

Jim Clark: “…The legendary closed-road event will offer increased mileage for 2024, including a longer opening leg on Friday night…”

Again, intrigued to find out where the extra mileage will be - hopefully some stages not used for a while like Bothwell would be nice.

“… the perfect opportunity for a BRC duel.”

You would hope the BRC had set their sights a bit higher than just two entrants fighting it out next year

Grampian: “… the Grampian is based just outside of Aberdeen and will shift to a longer, two-day format with some exciting plans from rally organisers due to be revealed in the coming months.”

More of the same, I take back my knee-jerk criticism from this morning, lets just see what actually transpires next year.

Costs: “…the championship will also introduce a raft of new measures to assist in competitive costs, including the reduction of championship registration fees. Costs will be reduced by up to 66% to enter the British Rally Championship, with the National categories being slashed by a staggering 86%.”

I wonder if this good enough to tempt drivers like Meirion Evans to the BRC as he was quite vocal about registrations at Rali Ceredigion. And maybe some returning names like Matt Edwards, Tom Cave etc.

Media: “A revised media package will also be put into place in 2024…”

Just hope they don’t mess with the Youtube coverage from this year, it was a massive improvement over 2022. Mark James on commentary please!

And here’s the problem: “…At the same time of course, we have been rigorously looking at budgets to ensure the BRC is attainable for all…”

I don’t see why it has to be attainable for all. F1 isn’t, British GT isn’t, BSB isn’t, ERC isn’t and they’re not worse because of it. Trying to make it ‘for all’ just dilutes what it could be and as we’ve seen in recent years ‘all’ ends up being four, five, six, maybe seven if you’re lucky. Clubmen who could just do the BTRDA, ARC or BHRC instead aren’t interested, international drivers aren’t interested and there’s very few left outside of that…

[HKSjbg]

Plenty for the mechanics to do with tarmac/gravel/tarmac/gravel all year long ..

Isn’t that the case anyway with cars being rented out to various drivers doing all manner of rallies all year long?

[archie106]

Just thinking that with Ceredigion being a double header its just possible that a top runner from the BTRDA Tarmac championship could also win the BRC without putting a tyre on the loose.

I suspect that this won't happen, as the Asphalt Championship frontrunners are all running R5+ or Rally2+ cars, therefore are illegible for the BRC. From the points standings on the Asphalt Championship website, only 3 drivers registered for points used R5/Rally2 homologated cars, and only one did more than two rounds.

Ideally Rally2+ would be banned, but that isn't happening anytime soon.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

“… the perfect opportunity for a BRC duel.”

You would hope the BRC had set their sights a bit higher than just two entrants fighting it out next year

Most rallies rarely have more than two drivers fighting for the win after a few stages.

And a duel for the Championship would actually be an improvement on this season...

[Steve Boyd]

Here's a throw back to 1999:

Calendar

Round	Event	Date
1	Vauxhall Rally of Wales	13-14 March
2	Pirelli International Rally	24-25 April
3	Scottish Rally	11-12 June
4	Jim Clark Memorial Rally	2-4 July
5	Stena Line Ulster Rally	30-31 July
6	Manx International Rally	9-12 September

I was in the results team on all of them apart from Ulster!

[Steve Boyd]

Go back another 20 years to 1979:

Calendar

Round	Event	Date	Winning Time
1	Mintex International	23-25 February	2:33:54
2	Circuit of Ireland	13-17 April	8:29:29
3	Welsh	10-12 May	3:25:53
4	Scottish	9-12 June	4:44:30
5	Manx	14-15 September	3:38:40
6	Ulster	19-20 October	3:27:05
7	RAC	18-21 November	8:03:38

I watched a few of those - they were before my results days!

[Fast Eddie WRC]

So the RAC was part of the BRC in the past. I didnt know that.

As theres no more Rally GB, imagine if the BRC used the Roger Albert Clark Rally...