Standalone prize for R5 cars in BTRDA
The BTRDA Series has launched a new R5 category for next season in the hope of attracting more cars of that specification into the category.
The past three seasons of the series have been largely dominated by World Rally Cars, with an average of just three R5s per event taking part in 2019.
However, R5s did come out on top at the final round of the year on the Trackrod with Ollie Mellors winning in his Proton Iriz R5 from
Mat Smith’s Ford Fiesta R5.
Series coordinator Ian
Arden believes that the new R5 Cup next season will encourage more crews to bring their cars to the championship to compete for class and overall honours.
“There are loads of R5s out there and this new category gives those people a chance to compete against similar machinery in their own class, and also fight for the overall victories as well,” Arden told Motorsport News.
“The BTRDA has always had the philosophy of ‘if you have a car, we have got a class for you’ and that’s served us very well over the years. Right now, if you’ve got an R5 car you’ve got two choices: either you go up against the WRC cars or you just do your own rally.
“If you’ve got an R5 class, then you’ve got the opportunity to compete against people in the same car, which is fantastic.”
A new class-based points system will also be adopted by the BTRDA next year as well as the reintroduction of one-litre cars for the
Rally First category.
Rally First struggled for consistent entries across its 1.4 and 2.0 litre classes in 2019, but Arden believes the proposed class system will boost numbers.
“Bringing the one-litre cars back into the class alongside the 1.4, 1.6 and 2.0 gives you a wide range of cars that can be cheaply made into a rally car within a championship,” he added.
“We’ve had as many as 30 entries in the past and we know the cars are out there. We’ve got to make it accessible for them and that is what we are hoping for next season.”
Arden also confirmed that the starter category will continue to offer discounted entry fees for competitors for the full BTRDA season with tyre supplier MRF offering a similar reduction.