Take action now

Surely it is time for rallying and the governing body, the Motor Sports Association, to make a more proactive approach towards the issues with Natural Resource Wales in order to reduce damage to the roads and secure the use of these roads at an economic rate for the future. There are measures we can take now to limit the damage to the roads and the costs of repair.

Running four-wheel-drive cars at the front of the field with aggressive tyre patterns, clever differentials and torque destroys the top road surface very early in the running of the rally. Every subsequent car then causes more damage.

If lower-powered cars ran first, the road surface would remain intact for far longer. Then it would only be when the four-wheel drives and high powered two-wheel drives that run later that the surface would become disturbed. The roads would stay in better condition longer this way.

Rallying should take a lead from cross country events. They run fourwheel-drive cars with more than 400bhp on Category A forest roads at a third of the cost of the fee for rallies.

Why? Because of a control tyre. It is a more eco-friendly tyre that does less damage to the road surface. These tyres are off-road tyres that are commonly found on four-wheel drive road vehicles.

Let’s talk to NRW, work with it and introduce reverse seeding now to limit immediately the damage to the roads. The other upside is that your licence holders may enjoy the Cross Country rate, only having to pay £200 per mile rather than the current £680 per mile for Category A roads.

Simon Wallis Via email