British & Irish Rally calendars 2023

[J4MIE]

I did Clacton the first two times it ran, plus a few other new closed road events. By the time I get to the third loop of stages I just find it fairly boring, but Clacton needs it to keep the mileage up, and they’ve pretty much exhausted the roads they can choose to use in the small area the event covers, I guess they could extend it further out but then has a high risk of losing the vital local support.

Plus my car got stolen the night before 2nd attempt. Not overly keen to go back.

[HKSjbg]

I hope it’s just a stop gap until something more appropriate comes along in late spring/early summer but as it last ran in the BRC for 3 seasons… probably not.

That being said it’s not far off being what I’d pick for an ideal calendar; I’d swap the Jim Clark for Ypres’s date; swap Ypres for the Manx in May (would probably need help from IoM tourist board to make that happen); swap MW and the Cambrian; combine the Cambrian with Rally North Wales in the last weekend of March for the best stages Wales has to offer all in one rally; and maybe have a bigger spread between Ulster, Ceredigion and Yorkshire.

The eleven week gap between rounds 1 and 2 would be sorted and they’d pretty much be going to all the best rally stages in the British Isles, save for a never-gonna-happen trip to the Tay Forest Park stages near Perth. The Lake District in autumn would also give the season finale a very RAC feel to it.

[AndyRAC]

I hope it’s just a stop gap until something more appropriate comes along in late spring/early summer but as it last ran in the BRC for 3 seasons… probably not.

.....combine the Cambrian with Rally North Wales in the last weekend of March for the best stages Wales has to offer all in one rally; and maybe have a bigger spread between Ulster, Ceredigion and Yorkshire.

That is something that makes sense, so is unlikely to happen. However, Rally North Wales (formerly the Bulldog/Audi Sport) used to be run in October, about 2 weeks before the Cambrian - and personally it seems better in the autumn.

[TomRix]

Thinking of going to the Ypres event. What is the event like for spectators?

[Sal yet again]

Thinking of going to the Ypres event. What is the event like for spectators?

Been a few years since I've been however buying an event pass is usually a must. If you can pick the brains of a local or someone on one of the other forums here it can help regards where to watch as some of the main spectator locations can be a bit sterile with more red and white tape than on a British rally! Should be quieter this year as no WRC/ERC but always a great atmosphere and having a beer and frites & mayo in the main square has to experienced. Enjoy

[prpr]

As far as I'm aware, the organisation/promotion of the BRC was brought 'in-house' by MUSK/IMS a few years ago, following overwhelming recommendations by competitors to do so. (Wasn't there a survey during 2015, the year it didn't run?)

[Sal yet again]

As far as I'm aware, the organisation/promotion of the BRC was brought 'in-house' by MUSK/IMS a few years ago, following overwhelming recommendations by competitors to do so. (Wasn't there a survey during 2015, the year it didn't run?)

Looks like I missed that! Really makes it seem worse on the surface then in that case.

[AndyRAC]

Interesting - yet it works elsewhere - for example ToCA for the BTCC, SRO for British GT, etc

Can't help but think it's another example of rallying being out of step with the rest of motorsport.....

[the sniper]

I'm not sure why they're seemingly so keen to have 7 rounds, other than MSUK presumably getting seven lots of fees from events? It'd seem at least one too many, particularly when they've thrown in two non-mainland rounds..

I wasn't around for the glory years, but I don't think I'll ever be convinced that anything other than a 5 or 6 round, Yorkshire, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Ireland and Manx event calendar is the optimum model. The question is only whether you can manage to organise 5 150 to 200km events or have to make do with existing events stepping up a little, as is pretty much currently done.

[AndyRAC]

I suspect in an ideal world, they'd like 150-200km events; but can't afford to run events of that length. Thinking back to when the BRC was last in a golden era, the F2 years, these were the events:

March; Vauxhall Rally of Wales - Mid/North Wales. No longer runs
April; Pirelli International Rally - Kielder Forest. Now run as the Kielder Forest Rally, BTRDA, but outside the BRC. 1 day/ 45 miles.
June; RSAC Scottish Rally - Southern Scottish stages. No longer a BRC event, still counts as a SRC round. 1 day/ 45 miles.
July; Seat Jim Clark Rally - Duns. BRC, and SRC.
July; Stena Line Ulster Rally - Antrim. Returns to the BRC next year.
Sept; Manx International Rally - Isle of Man. Not run since 2017.

The Trackrod was in the BRC from 2002, and has been in, then out, and returned as a BRC round.

I think 6-7 properly promoted events is the optimum number you'd want to see. And I don't think we should have a round in Europe, despite it being a great event.