RALLY 2WD SOLVES THE RALLY SEEDING ISSUES

WHERE: IN FORESTS WHEN: JANUARY TO JUNE Three men from Shropshire. It may sound like the start of a bad joke, but in actual fact they helped to kickstart a revolution in British rallying this year.

Since 2015, the running order on gravel rallies was seeded on performance, meaning powerful four-wheel-drive cars ran at the front, creating damaged and rutted roads for lower powered and less durable cars at the back. The main groups affected by this were 1400cc front-wheel drives and older historic cars.

However, MN historics editor Paul Lawrence, Simon Wallis and Alan Walker devised a scheme whereby cars were separated into two different groups effectively creating two different rallies on the same roads. While it wasn’t a perfect format, it allowed many of the affected cars back onto the gravel stages of Britain and renewed the debate for reversing the performancefirst seeding. In June, new Motorsport UK chairman David Richards helped force through a change to allow events to seed in two groups or by class, alleviating the need for the Rally2wd format anymore. But while it was needed it renewed participation and sparked debate. It was also proof that with a loud enough voice, the powers at be will have to listen and adapt – and what a brilliant sign for the future.