NEW FORMAT HAS BOOSTED WALES RALLY GB NATIONAL

A revamp has helped the National event, Rovanpera makes WRC debut. By Jack Benyon

Less is more is a cliche of blandest order, but that has been the case with the WRGB National Rally and its format for 2017.

The event became irrelevant in its old three-day format almost overnight when, thanks to an FIA rule change, cars that are not homologated were allowed to enter the full International rally.

That meant Joe Bloggs from South Wales can enter his Ford Escort Mk2 from 1981 into the full International event using the same stages, doing the same recce as Sebastien Ogier.

That rendered a three-day National rally useless, so it was back to the drawing board.

What the organisers have come up with is a 60-mile rally, down from 100, which just takes in Saturday and Sunday. It is a boiled-down version of last year’s event,which ran one loop of the roads on all three days.

The change has produced a number of benefits.

“We’ve come across issues with timing which means we’ve had to cut the itinerary short for the Nationals in order to preserve the start time for the Internationals,” says Ben Taylor, Rally GB managing director. “That’s not fair.”

Friday was the problem child in terms of scheduling and, with that struck from the National Rally, the event has more room to breathe. “I think the chance of losing stage miles is slim compared to previous years,” adds competitor Brynmor Pierce. “The event seemed to be losing Hafren/sweet Lamb almost every year.”

There are less stage miles, but those that are planned are more likely to be completed.

The big gain (or saving in this case) is cost. Although the entry fee is only £250 cheaper than the 100-mile event last year, the running costs, and more importantly, time away from work for the competitors is significantly reduced.

“It means more people take less time off work and the cost is massively reduced,” continues Pierce, who is local to the event. “I think it’s positive and that’s been reflected in the entries.”

The entries are up by nine from last year to 88. And, according to Taylor, it’s because the event provides value thanks to the lower mileage, but the continuation of competing on some of the world’s best stages, without a strong likelihood of stages being cancelled.

The one criticism is the Sunday, when only 15 of the 100plus total miles are competitive.

That’s bizarre, but the event has to take into consideration TV timings for its international event, and there isn’t an obvious alternative to this.

Joe Evett, 1400 competitor, sums up the mood when it comes to this perfectly.

“The Sunday is only 15 miles or so,” he says. “It seems stupid in terms of how many road miles to competition miles there are. But it will be a laugh and good fun either way.”

So, it’s not a game-changing issue for the National. They’re still going to have fun and competitors do their talking through their feet (with entries) just as much as they do with their mouths. And the entries are record-breaking.

The organisers could run on the Friday and Saturday instead of the Saturday and Sunday, but that would risk the aforementioned problems with scheduling on the Friday, and it could take away from the fact that on the Sunday, all competitors celebrate the end of the event in Llandudno together.

Back to the International event, take-up on nonhomologated cars has been slim. Only 12 cars have taken on the International, which justifies the change the National entry has made. It’s not like 79 competitors from last year’s National rally have switched to do the three-day International.

There’s now a genuine choice for the clubmen.

They could either do the National and experience the stages on a budget, or go whole hog as an end-of-season blowout and share the stages with the stars.

Starting with that awful cliche, we’ll finish with another. Variety is the spice of life, and that’s what’s on offer to the clubmen competitor at Wales Rally GB in 2017.