JACK BENYON
“Evans’ win is the spark grassroots rallying needed”
You won’t catch me writing about World Championship events too often, it just isn’t in my realm. But for Wales Rally GB it’s a different story and one that could impact national rallying in the UK more than any of us can estimate or know at this time.
One thing is for certain, Britain and Ireland has been struggling in recent years for enough heroes at the top of the sport.
It’s been great to chart the progress of the likes of Kris Meeke and Craig Breen, but going back a few years before they established themselves in the WRC, there weren’t a lot of British and Irish drivers competing at the highest levels in Europe or indeed the world. Last month’s Wales Rally GB could change all that.
There’s no doubt Elfyn Evans and M-sport’s performance boosted spectator numbers, of which my colleague didn’t exaggerate in MN last week. It was astounding. Even with a media pass I did a fair bit of walking to see the best the National event had to offer. The queues were enormous. And that’s the spark national rallying needs. Two of the biggest problems national rallying is facing right now is the lack of enough volunteers to organise the discipline, and a current slump in entries.
While GB isn’t going to solve the problem that rallying is expensive, it will help open it up to more motorsport fans. Evans was on Radio 2 after all. National rallying really needs more figureheads at the top to drum up excitement in the UK. GB has certainly done that.
If you really can’t afford to get into motorsport, and you want to get up close and personal to it, what better way than to organise it yourself.
The guys and gals out marshaling on the event didn’t have to queue for miles to get in. Nor did they miss any action. In return they provide a service and still get the views the spectators do. National rallying dearly needs a boost in the number of volunteers out on the stages but also in the offices. It was good to see young clerk of the course David Town entrusted with the national section of the event and rallies need more like him putting themselves forward.
Away from GB, I had the pleasure of competing in the Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship opener, the Neil Howard Stages Rally, at Oulton Park last weekend. I can not overestimate how nice the marshals, organisers and other crews were in giving advice and making sure the event ran smoothly. It was unbelievable to see a single-venue event attract over £1 million worth of machinery. The event certainly gave them a challenge and persuaded two roundy-roundy touring car fellas that rallying is the way forward.