New Look British Rally Championship for 2006

25 August 2005

In the biggest, boldest move in recent years, the British Rally Championship has announced radical changes for next year’s competition. Britain’s premier rally championship is set for a major overhaul with a newly formed Company taking the helm to deliver a totally new approach to British Rallying aimed at nurturing talent and creating future champions. UK Rally Ltd has been formed by a group of business professionals who are determined to re-establish the British rallying series to its former glory.

“The time is right for a major overhaul,” said Director Mark Taylor, “UK Rally Ltd, the company charged with promoting the series has complete neutrality and a 5 year agreement with an option to extend for a further 5 years with the MSA in order to take the BRC through into a new era.”

“I believe our new proposals will have a positive and beneficial effect on the sport of rallying here in the UK,” continued Taylor, “In order to support the events over the past 3 years previous incumbents BRCL have tried to attract as many entries as possible. However, with such a broad brush approach the series attracted customers with differing needs which were never totally satisfied as their motivations were in direct conflict with each other. Going forward we intend to focus the BRC on just one of those groups, crews who want to develop, learn their skills and progress to become our future champions.”

With a fresh approach in 2006, the British Rally Championship will provide a competition for drivers, co-drivers and teams who want to be at the very top tier of the UK rally pyramid. As the pinnacle of the pyramid, the BRC will concentrate on adopting the following ‘sporting’ aims and objectives:

+ Provide a focused arena and training ground for future rally champions.
+ Provide opportunities for those who wish to learn their rally craft and develop their skills while maintaining a level of sustainable competition within achievable budget levels.
+ Provide a spotlight and focus for the MSA British Rally Elite scheme selection.
+ Work with event organisers to provide a compact but challenging weekend of motor sport comprising International status rallies with differing characteristics and surfaces.
+ Provide an ultra competitive environment based on seeking progression and competitor and team development.
+ Align International events with regional bodies and identity and nurture partnerships with local authorities, development agencies and tourist organisations.
+ Liaise with the relevant stakeholders, partnerships, landowners, insurance and trade suppliers to provide a financially stable platform and longer term sustainable strategy.
+ Provide high profile presence, promotional and media activities in order to provide justification and return for sponsors and partners.
+ Provide route reconnaissance in order to learn the skills of pace note making and calling.
+ Proactively provide opportunity for sportsmanship and camaraderie

UK Rally Ltd has worked with the sport’s governing body, rally teams and competitors to come up with this new set of proposals. The reason for this extensive consultation has been a desire to switch the premier level of UK rallying away from hugely expensive world rally cars, to more affordable ‘standard production’ based Group N machinery.

“There is still be a place for world rally cars in British rallying,” said Mark Taylor, “but the new-look British championship will have more emphasis on driver and co-driver talent development.”

THE 2006 BRITISH RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

The radical new-look British Rally Championship will have two primary aims. First to provide competitors with attractive and affordable events and secondly to establish an easily understood and identifiable structure for those wishing to enjoy their sport at the top level and provide a base from which to go on to greater success on the world stage.

The introduction of a Group N ‘production car’ series will effectively ‘cap’ the costs of competing at the top level. The switch to Group N cars based on manufacturer’s current road based models will enable the sport’s organisers to more effectively police the series.

Another factor in the choice of Group N machinery is their relative simplicity compared to World Rally Cars. A Group N rally car can be built by an individual with a home workshop or a private team with better facilities, whereas WRC machines need highly specialised knowledge and equipment.

At one fell swoop interest will switch from ‘chequebook competition’ to one based more on driver and co-driver talent.

A UNIQUE CHALLENGE

Next year’s British Rally Championship will be reduced to six events, but the BIG attraction will be the inclusion of Britain’s World Rally Championship counter, Wales Rally GB.

The inclusion of this major event will therefore provide the ideal platform, for displaying British talent to a world wide audience – including top team manufacturers and sponsors. It will also provide rising British talent with a unique opportunity to experience rallying at a world championship level.

The other five events in the new-look British series will also pave the way forward for future hopefuls by providing a variety of experiences from gravel rallies to asphalt events across the four home countries of the UK. Each event offers a unique and different challenge and will give aspiring young rally crews the ideal training for future success while providing established rally competitors with a series of affordable and compulsive rally experiences.

The new ‘super rally system’ (allowing competitors who may have struck trouble on the first Leg to re-start the 2nd or 3rd Legs but with a time penalty) will be employed on selected events and the overall championship results will be based on counting the best 5 scores from the six events.

The 2006 British Rally Championship series will comprise:

May 13/14 Pirelli International Rally
July 7/8 Jim Clark Memorial Rally
August 3/5 Manx International Rally
September 1/2 Ulster International Rally
October 7 International Rally of Yorkshire
November Wales Rally GB

HIGHLIGHTING AND DEVELOPING FUTURE CHAMPIONS

An integral part of the new look Championship will be the organisers’ intention to provide an arena where talent can be nurtured and developed, where drivers and co-drivers can learn their skills, augment their experience and increase their speed. A more level playing field will make it easier to progress and more affordable events will give young drivers coming in to the sport an easier ride.

The new British MSA Elite scheme will form part of this new process and many more initiatives will be developed and exploited as the new Championship evolves and moves into a higher gear over the coming years.

This new look championship represents a bold move on the part of UK Rally Ltd which is adopting new class designations in line with the 2007 FIA proposals. This will have the added advantage of presenting rally fans and spectators with a more easily recognisable rallying structure. All cars will have to be homologated by the FIA.

The New BRC Class designations are:

R1 Rally 1 - Group N1, two wheel drive up to and including 1400cc
R2 Rally 2 -Group N2 two wheel drive above 1400cc,
up to and including 1600cc
R3 Rally 3 -Group N3 two wheel drive above 1600cc, up to and
including 2000cc, plus selected Challenge cars, Fiat Stilo, Ford Fiesta
R4 Rally 4 - Group N4 cars over 2000cc
Super 1600 Super 1600 cars and FIA homologated 1600cc Kit variant A6 cars

ACTION PACKED WEEKEND OF MOTORSPORT

UK Rally will be supporting each event in building a full weekend of motorsport for the rally fans and marshals. Joining other featured rally championships will be the increasingly popular Stars of the Future and a brand new Series called, UK Rally Masters.

THE UK RALLY MASTERS

A news series with 7 events will be aimed at this competitors who want value for money, no hassle rallying, plenty of stage miles in one day, mix of asphalt and gravel, with no recconnaisance on gravel and no rallying on a Sunday.

Benefiting from the buzz and promotional hype over a BRC weekend, this series will be for non homologated two wheel drive and four wheel drive turbocharged cars running to MSA Blue Book regulations. Details will be announced in due course.

THE UK RALLY STARS OF THE FUTURE

Continuing on the success of 2005, the Stars of the Future series will again be profiled in 2006 for beginners and novices looking for great competition in the BRC environment.
The series next year will be aimed at 1400cc cars only. These cars do not have to be homologated, but will be restricted to drive down cost and to showcase genuine talent. The cars will run in their own rallies and ahead of the main field on selected gravel events. Again details are with the MSA and subject to approval will be announced in due course

THE 2006 BRC - IN SUMMARY

+ 6 International rallies, each event to be FIA Observed to drive up standards
+ FIA Sporting Code, MSA Judicial adopting FIA Yellow Book regulations for event prescriptions
+ Reconnaissance on all events
+ FIA Homologated vehicles only, based on Gp N and Super 1600 only adopting new FIA designations, classes R1, R2, R3 & R4 formulas, as proposed by Jacques Berger (Head of FIA Technical Dept)
+ Best 5 events from 6 rounds count towards overall Championship
+ British Teams Championship – based on performance in class
+ Class Championships awards, Juniors (under 25), Ladies and Nations Cup
+ Tiered entry fees
+ Super Rallies on selected events allow re-entry
+ High Profile starts where feasibly possible
+ Centralised Service Areas and Rally HQs
+ Refuel Zones on all events
+ Limited number of tyres and fuel types

The 2006 British Rally Championship represents a bold move forward, but the sport in this country needed a bold move to re-establish itself as a world wide leader and a respected national championship.

BRC

See 2005 series calendar for British Rally Championship

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