We may not be in the great McRae/Burns era like we were in the late 1990's and early 2000's, but British rallying is growing and growing and has a great future ahead of it. Despite the largely disastrous British Rally Championship season in 2014 in which spectators were killed at the Jim Clark Rally causing a change in format for the 2015 event, promising young talent Timothy Cathcart was killed and the series was cancelled for 2015. However, rallying in the UK is set to improve with the return of the BRC in 2016, which welcomes back 4WD cars. R5 specification cars are set to be the top class, meaning the British Championship could become a serious championship for up and coming young drivers or could be used alongside a WRC2 campaign for local stars. It is something I am really excited about! As for British rally drivers, we have a whole roster of talent both in the top tier of rally and emerging from lower tiers.
The WRC now has 2 British drivers, Kris Meeke and Elfyn Evans, which is considerably more than the last few years. Matthew Wilson was the only real hope for Britain and he somewhat faded away. Now we have young Elfyn Evans who is becoming better with experience and Kris Meeke who looks to be one of the only men capable of stealing a win off of the mighty Volkswagens. Chris Ingram is competing in the ERC Junior series in a Peugeot UK 208 R2, and is a hot prospect for the future. At just 20 years of age Chris most definitely has time on his side. Other promising British stars include Welshmen Tom Cave and Osian Pryce, both of whom have been successful in the British championship. Across the sea in Ireland, Craig Breen and Daniel McKenna appear to be the most promising. Although they aren't really British, they are the next best thing and Craig in particular is very close to breaking into the WRC. So although we don't have 2 British world champions fighting it out like we did in 2002, we do have 2 competitive drivers in the WRC and plenty of younger drivers hoping to make it there. British rallying then is on the rise.
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BRITISH RALLYINGArticles covering rally in Britain, looking at the MSA BRC Archives
September 2017
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