In my haste I didn’t actually read the press release while I was at work today
It says they'll be "Longer, more challenging rallies" which sounds great... but how many entrants actually want that ?
Rallynuts: “…the Builth Wells-based event has been re-named for its 50th anniversary and will offer a dynamic twist on its traditional format next year, offering up a longer and more challenging route which uses some of the best forest stages in the world.”
I’m intrigued to hear where the extra mileage will be - there is far more stage km available in Hafren and Myherin that can’t always be squeezed into a 70km event - and also how much more than the interclub event it will be.
Jim Clark: “…The legendary closed-road event will offer increased mileage for 2024, including a longer opening leg on Friday night…”
Again, intrigued to find out where the extra mileage will be - hopefully some stages not used for a while like Bothwell would be nice.
“… the perfect opportunity for a BRC
duel.”
You would hope the BRC had set their sights a bit higher than just
two entrants fighting it out next year
Grampian: “… the Grampian is based just outside of Aberdeen and will shift to a longer, two-day format with some exciting plans from rally organisers due to be revealed in the coming months.”
More of the same, I take back my knee-jerk criticism from this morning, lets just see what actually transpires next year.
Costs: “…the championship will also introduce a raft of new measures to assist in competitive costs, including the reduction of championship registration fees. Costs will be reduced by up to 66% to enter the British Rally Championship, with the National categories being slashed by a staggering 86%.”
I wonder if this good enough to tempt drivers like Meirion Evans to the BRC as he was quite vocal about registrations at Rali Ceredigion. And maybe some returning names like Matt Edwards, Tom Cave etc.
Media: “A revised media package will also be put into place in 2024…”
Just hope they don’t mess with the Youtube coverage from this year, it was a massive improvement over 2022. Mark James on commentary please!
And here’s the problem: “…At the same time of course, we have been rigorously looking at budgets to ensure the BRC is attainable for all…”
I don’t see why it has to be attainable for
all. F1 isn’t, British GT isn’t, BSB isn’t, ERC isn’t and they’re not worse because of it. Trying to make it ‘for all’ just dilutes what it could be and as we’ve seen in recent years ‘all’ ends up being four, five, six, maybe seven if you’re lucky. Clubmen who could just do the BTRDA, ARC or BHRC instead aren’t interested, international drivers aren’t interested and there’s very few left outside of that…
