The Rise & Fall of Rally GB

It has now been confirmed that there will not be a round of the 2023 World Rally Championship in the British Isles. Since there hasn’t been a WRC event in the UK since 2019, it looks as if the glory days of what started out as the RAC Rally of Great Britain are now finally over for good!

From the very first RAC Rally of 1932 until Wales Rally GB in 2019 the United Kingdom hosted what was one of the three most important rallies in the world every year, with the exception of 1957 (suez crisis) and 1967 (foot & mouth). A total of 75 years.

In the 1930’s and 40’s the RAC Rally results were produced after around 1000 miles of road motoring and just a few driving tests which decided the winners. No official winners were listed until 1951.

Then from 1951 until 1959 the RAC Rally became an International event and was known as ‘The Rally of the Tests’ as sprints, hillclimbs, time trials and driving tests were used throughout the six days of competition to determine the winner. Over 200 cars competed in 1951.

In the 1960’s major sponsors embraced the RAC event, first The Sun and Daily Mirror, then Lombard (1974-1992) Network Q (1993-2002) and finally the Welsh government. In later years the rally became a high-profile showcase for the world’s most exciting cars and drivers.

The RAC Rally started using gravel Special Stages in the 1960’s and then became a WRC qualifier 50 years ago in 1973. Normally held in November, the RAC was usually the final round of the World Championship. The late autumn stages were always wet, slippery, muddy and sometimes snow-covered, thus providing a tough challenge for the competitors.

Following victories for the Ford Escort Mk.1 from 1972-1974, the Escort Mk.2 dominated the rally from 1975 until 1980 when Henri Toivonen won in his Talbot Sunbeam Lotus. Huge entries became the norm from the 70’s on as national competitors realised that the RAC Rally was their only chance to compete against the best rally drivers in the world. In 1976 there were no less than 200 starters but only 71 cars finished the rally.

From 1981 until 2019 four-wheel-drive cars dominated Rally GB, they won the rally every year. First there were the fearsome Group B cars. Hannu Mikkola won in ‘81 & ‘82 in the Audi Quattro and Stig Blomqvist won in 1983 with his similar car. Ari Vatanen won for Peugeot in 1984 while Henri Toivonen had his second RAC victory in 1985 with the new Lancia Delta S4. Timo Salonen won the 1986 event in his Peugeot 205 T16 E2.

In 1987 Juha Kankkunen scored the first RAC win for a Group A car when he won in his Lancia Delta HF. Group B cars had now been banned from rallying following several tragic accidents including the deaths of Henri Toivonen & his co-driver Sergio Cresto on the Tour of Corsica in 1986. Markku Alen scored another Lancia Delta win in 1988 while Pentti Airikkala took the first of many Japanese manufacturer wins in 1989 with his Mitsubishi Galant VR-4. World Rally Cars arrived in 1997 and would be the car of choice right up until the final Wales Rally GB in 2019.

My first visit to the Lombard RAC Rally was as a marshal in 1990. Carlos Sainz was the winner that year in his Toyota Celica GT4. There were 176 starters of which 96 finished. That event had a total of 41 special stages spread over the four days from Sunday to Wednesday. The 1990 rally used pacenotes for the whole route for the first time. It started and finished in Harrogate. We marshalled at scrutineering in Harrogate on the Saturday then SS2 Harewood Hill, SS13/18 Dalby, SS23 Hamsterley, SS30 Falstone and SS36 Castle O’er. Sign-on was three hours before first car due time.

I continued to marshal on Rally GB for 16 years (every year except 2000) until 2006. After that I went over to spectate for a number of years (including the final event in 2019) when the event was known as Wales Rally GB. Lots of memories from both marshalling and spectating. The crowds were amazing. I remember walking for miles through the crammed car parks to see the world’s best drivers tackle famous stages throughout England, Scotland and Wales.

In 1998 the Network Q RAC Rally became the Network Q Rally of Great Britain and timing on every stage was to the tenth of a second. This produced a remarkable situation when the first Rally GB special stage saw a tie between drivers; the two Subaru team-mates Colin and Alister McRae. This was the first time two brothers had led the same World Rally!

From 2000-2019 Rally GB would be held entirely within the boundaries of the Welsh Principality. The 2000 Rally of Great Britain was an all-ticket affair for spectators, ending four decades of free spectating entertainment. There was to be no more freedom to roam in the forests. On that event there were 150 starters and 79 finishers. The following years saw entries fall and the smallest ever entry came in 2012 when there were only 31 starters and 29 finishers.

Since the World Rally Championship for drivers began in 1979 there have been 19 different World Champions. I have been lucky enough to have seen 17 of them in action on Rally GB over the years. In fact no less than 11 past, present and future World Champions competed on the 1991 Lombard RAC Rally. The only Champions that I haven’t seen on Rally GB stages were Bjorn Waldegard and Walter Rohrl, but I did see both of them competing here in Northern Ireland. Waldegard took part in a Historic Rally in 2007 while Rohrl won the 1984 Ulster Rally in his Audi Quattro Sport.

In 1994 I marshalled the last corner of the final stage of the Network Q Rally GB. There were 10,000 spectators at that corner alone in Clocaenog to see Colin McRae in his Subaru Impreza 555 become the first British driver to win Rally GB since Roger Clark in 1976.

The “Great British Rally” in the mid- 90’s was now witnessing it’s most exciting, crowd-pulling and naturally talented driver ever seen in action! That driver was Scotland’s own Mr. Colin McRae or “The Boy” as we had christened him!

One year later, on Rally GB 1995, we were privileged to watch from our marshals post deep in a dark and wet Hafren Forest in Mid-Wales as the same Colin McRae trounced his Subaru teammate and title rival Carlos Sainz. It was a move which would insure a second Rally GB victory for Colin “The Boy” McRae and as a result he became the 1995 World Rally Champion. Not only that, the Subaru Impreza 555 World Rally Team locked out the podium places. Carlos Sainz was second overall and Richard Burns third. That year 176 cars started the four-day event and 95 finished. There were 28 special stages.

Colin McRae would go on to take what would prove to be his third and final Network Q Rally GB win in 1997 with his Subaru Impreza WRC. Richard Burns then won the event three years in a row. In 1998 with Mitsubishi and 1999 and 2000 for Subaru.

The period from 1997 until 2002 was a special time for Rally GB. These were the last years when entry levels were guaranteed to run well into three figures. With the exception of two years (2006 and 2007) the event has never since fielded anything like so many competitors. Large crowds flooded the stages as the UK press built up the rivalry between McRae and Burns labelling it as “The Battle of Britain”. All of which would come to a head on the 2001 event.

Four drivers arrived at the final round in Wales with a chance of winning the 2001 World Rally Championship. Tommi Makinen, Carlos Sainz, Colin McRae and Richard Burns. Makinen retired his Lancer on the first forest stage then McRae, while leading, crashed his Ford Focus heavily and out of the rally just prior to our marshalling post in SS4 Rhondda. Sainz’s Focus was withdrawn after an accident involving spectators. All this left Richard Burns in the pound seats. He would go on to finish the rally in third place, enough for him to become the first Englishman to claim the world crown, but not before he spun his Subaru Impreza at our junction in Rhondda. The rally was now three days long and had a more compact route than ever with double-usage of stages. The outgoing world champion Marcus Gronholm won the 2001 Network Q Rally GB in his Peugeot 206 WRC and his teammate Harri Rovanpera was second.

In 2007 & 2009 there were two rounds of the WRC in the British Isles. Rally Ireland was a tarmac event using closed-road stages in both Northern and Southern Ireland while Wales Rally GB continued to be held on gravel stages. Unfortunately the money ran out and Rally Ireland hasn’t run since.

The last ever Wales Rally GB was the 12th of the 14-round 2019 WRC. Held in early October, Ott Tanak won the rally for the first time in his Toyota Yaris WRC. The Estonian would then go on to become the 2019 World Champion after the penultimate round in Spain later that month. There were 21 stages in Wales and 1 in England (SS1 Oulton Park) over four days with 53 starters and 47 finishers. In a separate event using fewer stages, a further 64 cars started a two-day National Rally. Wales Rally GB National had been an additional feature since 2010 and had a maximum of 85 competitors taking part in 2015.

The last time I saw WRC competitors in competitive action on Rally GB was on Saturday 5th October 2019. My son David and I spectated at the famous Sweet Lamb bowl on special stages 13 & 15. Hundreds (if not thousands) of fans always “flocked” to this remote sheep farm location in Mid-Wales where the rally cars could be seen for miles. We had hoped to see the Great Orme stage on Sunday but sadly this tarmac test near the rally base in Llandudno was cancelled at the last minute due to bad weather.

The planned 2020 Wales Rally GB was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Then the Welsh Government announced their complete withdrawal of sponsored support for the rally going forward. There was hope that a new road-closed Rally Northern Ireland would replace Wales Rally GB in 2021 & 2022, but that remote hope was dashed when the power-sharing Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont collapsed. As a direct result, no funding was forthcoming to support such a venture. Apparently around 3 million pounds would have been required to secure the event.

Money and a quest for a more global oriented championship are the main reasons for the WRC to be heading to pastures new and not to the UK. A shame as the fans are missing out on seeing their heroes. At least the Welsh fans saw their local hero Elfyn Evans win in his Ford Fiesta WRC in 2017.

The most successful winners of Rally GB were Sebastien Ogier (5 times) Petter Solberg (4 in-a-row) Hannu Mikkola (4 times) Colin McRae (3 times) Juha Kankkunen (3 times) Timo Makinen (3 times) Richard Burns (3 times) and Sebastien Loeb (3 times).

The only consolation in the fact that the United Kingdom has lost its place in the WRC calendar is that the series seems to have lost some of its popularity. Unlike F1 the majority of people in the UK probably do not realise that there is a World Rally Championship taking place! Although highlights of each round are available on ITV4 the following week. Of course the whole championship can be streamed live via. the WRC+ app. Selected stages can also be seen live on BT Sport channels if you can access them.

As I said earlier, 2022 was the 50th anniversary of the World Rally Championship. There were only 12 registered WRC1 Hybrid cars competing and just 3 manufacturers Toyota, Hyundai and M-Sport Ford. Beefing up the entry lists were competitors in WRC2 and WRC3 plus on selected events the Junior WRC. The maximum number of competitors starting any of the 13 WRC rounds was 90 at Rally Portugal in May and the lowest was just 28 on Rally New Zealand in late September.

The 13-round 2023 World Rally Championship starts with the Monte Carlo Rally running from 19-22 January.

Rally Diary

Sat. 3rd December.
MMP Reward Day @ Kirkistown

UNFORTUNATELY THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO A LACK OF RESPONSE.

Tues. 27th December.
It’s Not The Boxing Day Rally

Organised by the Ulster Automobile Club this annual festive event usually attracts a good entry list. Listed on the ANICC website as a Targa Rally. I have no further details, but last year the event became a single venue Production Autotest and took place at Kirkistown. If you are interested in marshalling, please contact the UAC @ ulsterautomobile.club for latest information regarding times, signing on etc.

Incidentally the Ulster Automobile Club have teamed up with Cookstown Motor Club to co-promote the 2023 Circuit of Ireland Easter Stages Rally. More details about this event will follow in due course.

Thur. 29th December.
Turkey Run Rally

McEVOYMOTORSPORT.COM are the sponsors for this annual festive event. Organised by Maiden City Motor Club. Based at the Shackleton Complex in Ballykelly. There are 5 sealed-surface Special Stages. We are assisting with rescue and possibly providing stage marshals. Sign-on via. rallyscore.net. A full entry list of 80 competitors headed by no less than 29 Rally2/R5 cars including those of Kenny McKinstry, Derek McGarrity, Desi Henry, Stephen Wright, Cathan McCourt and Jason Mitchell out for the first time in a VW Polo GTI. Bring warm clothing!