UK rallying’s future
LAGGING BEHIND: HOW UK RALLYING CAN RECOVER Luke Barry looks at the troubles facing the return of rallying on a national basis
This weekend is a big one for British motorsport as action can officially recommence as of Saturday (July 4). But not for everyone. Rally drivers won’t be checking into the time control and gearing up for their first stage quite yet. Their layoff is far from over with no real certainty or clarity on when rallying as we know it will return in this country.
And that’s worrying. Sadly there have been too many occasions in recent times where we’ve been able to mutter that phrase about the affluence of UK rallying. But the looming post-coronavirus climate really does feel like a last-chance saloon to safeguard the future of the discipline. That’s a dark thought, but we’re dealing with a worst case scenario there. A fresh approach and a restructure of affairs could produce a much brighter picture.
Motorsport UK has followed the UK government in taking a precautionary rather than revolutionary approach to the coronavirus pandemic. Condemn this if you like, but in truth there is no easy pathway to getting motorsport and particularly rallying back up and running, chiefly because there’s a genuine debate about morality to be had.
On the one hand, failure to restart stage rallying in the next few months won’t just affect the 2020 season but could have severe ramifications for 2021 and beyond. There’s an entire industry that depends on rallying and without any income, several businesses could be forced to close their doors which, in turn, would mean a severe lack of experts around to look after cars in the future. This would have a wider human impact too as jobs would be lost for people with a very particular skillset. Protecting this industry is paramount, but not at absolutely any cost.
That’s because for the overwhelming majority, rallying is simply a hobby. Of course it’s a passion but it pales into relative insignificance in the grand scheme of things. That means rushing a return to the stages and unnecessarily using even the smallest percentage of the health service’s resources can be considered socially irresponsible. This is especially important as rallying is already externally viewed as an underground sport and needs to do all it can to boost its public perception.
For me, this is the crux of the situation. Of course, rallying – albeit in a watereddown format – will be returning next month in the form of rally time trials. Opinion within the community is split on the sense of these, but they will provide an interesting barometer as to how rallying will be in the short-term future.
However, these absolutely have to run without any major issues. With no co-drivers permitted in the car, the stage that will be used must be carefully selected and competitors afforded several chances to drive it at reduced speed to familiarise themselves with the lay of the land. If not, what’s meant to be a way of coaxing rallying back into life could instead dig it an early grave. To be cynical – and the mainstream media will be should an
accident happen – these events are basically glorified group tests and don’t benefit the economy in any way, so it’s difficult to imagine the authorities taking to any mishaps too kindly.
The co-driver situation, or rather the lack of them, is another interesting situation. Current guidance from Motorsport UK prohibits the sharing of vehicles and this is ultimately what’s delaying proper stage rallying’s comeback. And it’s where the UK is lagging behind the rest of Europe with rallies in Scandinavia, Hungary and the Czech Republic in particular all beginning to run. However, it’s worth remembering that Britain contracted Covid-19 a couple of weeks after the majority of the continent.
A major source of frustration for the rallying community is the absence of any sort of timeline. Nobody knows if or indeed when co-drivers will be allowed to jump back in and normal stage rallying can resume. It’s an awful lot easier to have something to aim for as opposed to sitting it out and hoping things become clearer.
There’s also an argument that rallying shouldn’t even be in this situation. Given a contact sport like football has now returned in England, there’s a justifiable case to be made that co-drivers shouldn’t be stuck on the sidelines for any period. Unlike football players, all rally competitors compete in race suits, fireproofs and helmets; so they’re effectively wearing a form of PPE. Full-face helmets and gloves for co-drivers could easily be mandated too to ensure extra safety.
But in the Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship camp at least, there’s optimism that social distancing rules will be relaxed to the extent that co-drivers will be able to join their drivers in November. Plans are fully in progression to start the 2020/21 season which kicks off at Oulton Park. Based on how the country is progressively relaxing its lockdown measures, that seems sensible.
Facilitating that championship’s return is easier than most though. Firstly because it uniquely begins in late autumn, but also because each round is based at a single venue. Rallying’s nomadic nature is usually a charm but it’s working against it at the moment. Compared to circuit racing which is held within a controlled, single environment, rallying takes crews and cars to various locations which means it could be taking the virus to various locations too.
But as it is, September or October looks to be when the first multi-venue rally since lockdown could run. However, the hospitality industry needs to be fully restored for any rally to run as you can’t host a rally without enough hotels or restaurants open.
The Trackrod Rally in Yorkshire in late September is currently the most realistic resumption point and is effectively what the rest of the 2020 rallying season hinges on. Rallies can still proceed without championship status of course, but if the Trackrod is cancelled the BTRDA will likely go too. And then we’d be left with no rally champions for 2020.
But truthfully, that’s no real drama. I genuinely believe no championships this year could benefit rallying in the long haul as we should actually be taking this opportunity to analyse and improve our sport. Rallying could survive as it is, but we should be striving for more than just survival.
Before the coronavirus, the largest issue rallying was battling with was rising costs, particularly for forest hire, and a consequent drop in entries. This has cast a rather grey cloud over the future prospects of some of the world’s most famous stages. Closed-road rallies are a more than worthy alternative with their own challenge and superior benefits for local tourism as the rally is in full view and not hidden away, but heritage and a sporting challenge of two different surfaces is always important.
But equally, the opinion that there are presently too many events in this country is well subscribed to: and hard to disagree with. Although it’s been a struggle for some, this pandemic has taught us that we don’t need to go rallying every week, therefore why don’t we address this and reduce the quantity of events and simultaneously boost their quality?
What I envisage is more cohesion between motor clubs to organise one larger event per area, not two smaller rival ones. For example, I reckon one two-day or 75-to-100-mile rally in Kielder is better than having two 45-mile events such as the Kielder Forest and Carlisle Stages rallies that currently exist. And as an added bonus, for forest events, the roads would be in better condition as they’d be rallied on less frequently. Win-win?
Not quite, because nothing is ever that simple. If it was it would have been done already. But I am struggling to see any major downsides to this idea. How the various championships all sit within this proposed ecosystem would have to be thought about more extensively, but in my opinion a 2021 calendar that’s say 75% of the size the 2020 one was supposed to be has real potential.
Events would be more exciting with larger entries, recapturing some of the buzz that has been lost over the years.
And ensuring there’s no more than one rally held across the nation on a single weekend would alleviate the growing problem of a lack of volunteer marshals too.
Of course, some organising teams may be short-changed and unwilling to compromise, but that attitude will get us nowhere. As rallying enthusiasts, we all have a common interest so let’s pull together, forget our egos and look after our discipline. The bottom line is it’s important we take a proactive rather than a reactive approach as, if we’re not careful, we could very easily get to a point where there is nothing left to react to.
I’ll leave it up to you to determine the validity of my proposal and how to knit it all together.
Get in touch with me at luke.barry@ kelsey.co.uk with your comments or if you have any alternative suggestions that would help rallying prosper. Let’s start a debate!