BRITISH RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP SET FOR EMPHATIC RETURN
After a 15-month layoff, the 2021 British Rally Championship is looking more open than ever.
Last season’s British Rally Championship line-up was not lacking in quality but was a little light on numbers. There can be no such concerns for 2021 however, as that quality has been backed up by quantity.
Fourteen drivers will start round one in the top class, and more are expected throughout the season.
The list of contenders reads like a who’s who of British and Irish rallying. With the discipline still at a standstill in Ireland, several big names from the Emerald Isle have thrown their hats into the ring; namely both Sam and Josh Moffett, Desi Henry, Joe McGonigle and James Wilson. All five are capable of upsetting the applecart, but of the quintet it’s the Moffett brothers who will be striking the most fear into the BRC establishment.
That establishment is headed by double and reigning champion Matt Edwards – the somewhat forgotten man after he announced his plans earlier than most – who will be vying for a recordbreaking third consecutive title in 2021. There has been movement in the Edwards camp though as he switches from the Ford Fiesta Rally2 to a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5. Will 2021 be the hardest BRC title quest he’s faced yet?
“It’s hard to say if it’s going to be the hardest because you only need one person to make it difficult,” Edwards replies. “If you’re losing it doesn’t matter if it’s one or 15 [people ahead of you], so it’s 100% [push] regardless. It only takes one to get in the way. I wouldn’t say it’s any more or less difficult than it has been, the difficulty for me is getting back into it after so long with no prep basically. That’s my biggest concern at the minute.”
The opening round on Monday is something unique as it will be held entirely within the confines of a racetrack: Oulton Park.
From there things become more traditional with trips to the Nicky Grist Stages, Grampian Forest Stages, Trackrod Rally, Mull
Rally, Cambrian Rally and finally the Ulster Rally in November.
Edwards is one of a few drivers who has experience of the Oulton Park stages, but he doesn’t see that as an ace card to play. “I’d rather have done three rallies [in his new car] and never have been to Oulton Park than to have done Oulton Park and never driven the car,” he says.
Potentially then the Neil Howard Stages represents the old adage of you can’t win the championship, but you can certainly lose it. Edwards adds: “[A] podium is my hope so that we don’t give away too much needlessly to start with. Damage limitation, it shouldn’t be how we’re starting but the way things have panned out that’s the situation I’m. It’s not a very positive outlook is it but it’s a realistic stance based on what’s in front of me!”
Edwards therefore appears more vulnerable than usual, and there’s no shortage of predators eager to hunt him down. The two Ford Fiesta Rally2s seeded behind him on the entry list seem to be the two danger men: Rhys Yates and Frank Bird. Yates’s rallying pedigree is well-known, Bird’s less so, but the GT racer has proved incredibly adept at rallying and of course regularly competes on circuit events.
“It’ll only be my second rally in the car so I won’t be having too many expectations,” Bird cautions, “but we’d obviously like to be challenging at the front. I did Oulton Park not last year but the year before and I broke down actually so only did half the day. A few of the guys have got a little bit of experience there but it’ll be a great day with all the competition so I’m really looking forward to it.”
Yates is yet to win a round of the BRC but many are tipping him to put that right this weekend, including the man himself. “The plan is the championship at the end of the day but for me I can’t see any reason why we won’t be going to that event, like any other event, to win it. It’s as simple as that,” he tells MN. “In the right environment I can be really competitive so it’s just trying to get myself in that mindset really. My confidence is quite high in the car at the minute, I do feel good in the car so it’s lining up to have a lot of pressure on my shoulders because I’ve got no excuse whatsoever to not go and win.”
Looking to take the challenge to him will be Osian Pryce, who finally gets his hands on a Volkswagen Polo R5 for the BRC after agreeing a deal to use on last year’s West Cork Rally – the first in a long line of events to end up cancelled by coronavirus.
Pryce tells Motorsport News: “I know there’s some lads that have done the Circuit Championship like Rhys so they might have a bit of an advantage on the first one.
The first one’s going to suit some people and completely not suit other people so you’ll have a mixed bag.
“I think you can either go at it and win it and try and get as many points as you can, or you can make sure you get some good points and put the hammer down later in the year. If Rhys is going to go strong on the first one, we know on the gravel, going off what we did on the Cambrian we should be strong.”
Ollie Mellors is another one of last year’s frontrunners to reinstate his intent this time around and could be a real dark horse in the Proton.
And then there’s Seb Perez, the son of former BRC competitor Steve who’s giving rallying a proper go in an M-Sport-run Fiesta. Everywhere you look there’s a contender for victory. And how great does it feel to say that in the present tense, and not the past?
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