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British & Irish Rally calendars 2022

H

HKSjbg

Active member
2022 Motorsport UK British Rally Championship Calendar

Round 1 – Corbeau Seats Rally Tendring & Clacton – Clacton – 23/24 April
Round 2 – Beatson’s Building Supplies Jim Clark Rally – Duns – 27/28 May
Round 3 – Nicky Grist Stages – Builth Wells – 9 July
Round 4 – Grampian Forest Stages – Banchory – 13 August
Round 5 – Get Connected Rali Bae Ceredigion – Aberystwyth – 3/4 September
Round 6 – Trackrod Rally Yorkshire – Filey – 23/24 September
Round 7 – Visit Conwy Cambrian Rally – Llandudno – 29 October
Reserve Round – Oulton Park Stages – Oulton Park – 5 November

https://www.britishrallychampionship.co.uk/news/british-rally-championship-reveals-2022-calendar/

2022 Motorsport UK Pirelli Welsh National Rally Championship calendar

26 March….Rally North Wales
9 April….Rallynuts Stages Rally
21 May….Plains Rally
12 June….Red Kite Stages
9 July….Nicky Grist Stages
3 September…. Eventsigns Woodpecker Stages Rally
15 October…. Winner Garage Škoda Wyedean Rally
29 October….Visit Conwy Cambrian Rally

https://wnrc.wamc.org.uk

2022 MRF Tyres BTRDA Rally Series

March 12th - Malcolm Wilson Rally - Cockermouth
April 9th - Rallynuts Stages - Royal Welsh Showground
May 14th - Border Counties Rally - Jedburgh
June 18th - Kielder Forest Rally - Hexham
July 9th - Nicky Grist Stages - Builth Wells
September 3rd - Woodpecker Stages - TBC
September 24th - Trackrod Forest Stages - Filey
October 29th - Cambrian Rally - Llandudno

https://www.btrdarally.com/everyone-welcome-for-some-more-serious-fun-in-2022/
 
http://www.irishtarmac.com/killarney-historic-rally-marks-return-of-irish-tarmac-championship/

Pretty much back to normal, though for the historics the championship actually starts this November! I find the point below about the Ulster curious - why would a new date need to be found if Rally UK in Northern Ireland doesn’t run??

2022 Irish Tarmac Rally Championship:

Killarney Historic Rally 27 November 2021
Galway International Rally 5-6 February 2022
West Cork International Rally 19-20 March
Circuit of Ireland Rally 15-16 April
Killarney International Rally of the Lakes 30 April – 1 May
Donegal International Rally 17-19 June
Ulster International Rally 19-20 August*
Cork 20 International Rally 24-25 September

N.B. The Ulster Rally’s 2022 date is dependent on the running of Northern Ireland’s proposed round of the World Rally Championship. Ulster Rally organisers have a contingency plan in place to run the event on a different date if required.
 
The Ulster should be the Rally GB replacement, if finances allow. Why organise another event from new? It's like the IRC Rally Scotland - a brand new event just for that series. And never ran again after the 3 years. Where is the legacy for these events?
 
http://www.scottishrallychampionship.co.uk/

5th Mar 2022 Snowman Rally Inverness
23rd Apr 2022 McDonald & Munro Speyside Stages Elgin
29th May 2022 Beatson's Building Supplies Jim Clark Reivers Rally Duns
25th Jun 2022 Dunoon Presents Argyll Rally Dunoon
23rd Jul 2022 RSAC Scottish Rally Moffat
13th Aug 2022 Grampian Forest Rally Banchory
10th Sep 2022 The Armstrong Galloway Hills Rally Castle Douglas
22nd Oct 2022 Carlisle Stages Rally Kielder
 
The ITRC returning is great news - they have really suffered over there for the past two years with no championship.

However the BRC could really struggle for R5 entries if as expected the Irish crews stick to the ITRC in 2022.

I hope something can be done to encourage the plentiful R5 owners in the BTRDA & MSN Circuit Rally Championships to do some events.
 
Fast Eddie WRC said:
I hope something can be done to encourage the plentiful R5 owners in the BTRDA & MSN Circuit Rally Championships to do some events.
Click to expand...

Isn't that the issue; they don't want to do the BRC. The short 45 mile events is all they wish to do. Doing longer costlier events doesn't interest them.
 
AndyRAC said:
The Ulster should be the Rally GB replacement, if finances allow. Why organise another event from new? It's like the IRC Rally Scotland - a brand new event just for that series. And never ran again after the 3 years. Where is the legacy for these events?
Click to expand...

I didn’t quite understand what you meant at first but reading the below it makes sense now... The Ulster is arranged for 19th-20th of August, but if Rally UK/Rally Northern Ireland goes ahead (18th-21st of August) then the Ulster will have to switch to a new date. I’d been under the impression that the Ulster would run alongside Rally UK which would make sense... As you say Andy, two completely separate events with one being totally new, what happens when Rally UK leaves Northern Ireland?

There’s no definitive calendar announcements in this story but I’ll put the whole thing in for reference

https://www.brmc.org.uk/calendar/16-news/northern-irish-region

LOOKING FORWARD
The 2022 Northern Ireland Rally Championship is scheduled to run with five tarmac events. Kirkistown in February, Bishopscourt in March, The Dogleap in May, Tyrone Stages in June and the Down Rally in July.

The 2022 ANICC Gravel Rally Challenge is due to consist of three events. Fivemiletown in February then the Lakeland Stages and Bushwhacker in September.

The UAC Circuit of Ireland Rally, a round of the Irish Tarmac Championship, is planned for the Easter weekend 15th-16th April 2022.

Although the Ulster Rally is pencilled in for 19th-20th August 2022, it is widely believed that this event will not take place. Instead we expect the World Rally Championship to visit these shores at that time.

A “To-Be-Announced” tarmac rally is presently listed for 18th-21st August on the 13-round 2022 WRC calendar. Reliable sources say that confirmation of Rally Northern Ireland taking place on that date will happen next month when the World Motor Sport Council meets on 15th December to ratify the 2022 calendar. I just hope that (fingers crossed) those sources are correct. It would appear that the required funding is now in place to allow a Belfast-based WRC event to happen.
 
Celtic Rally Trophy:

http://www.automobilsport.com/race-...---Celtic-Rally-Trophy-calendar-2022,news.htm

19-20 March Ireland West Cork Rally
15-16 April Great Britain Circuit of Ireland International Rally
13-14 May Great Britain Manx Rally
17-19 June Ireland Donegal International Rally
24-25 June Belgium Ypres Rally
30-31 July Ireland Cork 20 International Rally
19-20 August Great Britain Ulster Rally
03-04 September Great Britain Rali Bae Ceredigion

I can’t find any confirmation that the Cork 20 has indeed moved to July, but that may well be the case if the Ulster Rally organiser’s alternative date (if Rally UK goes ahead) is later in the year as otherwise the ITRC would be left with a big gap between Donegal and the next round.

ewrc-results still lists Cork 20 in its original date of 24-25 September, but as round #6. It’s good to see the Manx added to a decent enough championship(trophy) after falling off the UK asphalt championship.
 
Apparently the UK Asphalt Championship has gone nuclear and the organising committee have departed. Watch this space I guess for news/updates
 
UK Rallying never helps itself; I saw reports of stepping down due to abuse in social media....absolutely appalling.
 
Just because there wasnt going to be a round on the military ranges amongst other factors it would seem. We dont deserve success sometimes on this little rock..
 
Sal yet again said:
Just because there wasnt going to be a round on the military ranges amongst other factors it would seem. We dont deserve success sometimes on this little rock..
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I'd say it was more to do with the massive horlicks that was made of the class structure (and subsequent back-pedalling), the casually racist emojis in their social media post announcing the rounds (which the Irish in particular were not impressed with), and two of those rounds then pulling out as a result of conditions imposed by the championship, that did for them.

They had a rough time of it online, and I certainly don't condone a social media witch hunt. But it's 2022, and they seemed to be hell-bent on alienating just about all of the rallies and competitors that made the previous incarnation of that championship popular, backlash was inevitable.
 
Wasn't aware of the emoji issue which is non-excusable. The class structure was a debacle but thought that had been sorted out.

My thoughts were that at least they had tried to bring the series more into line with the lure of closed roads rather than its traditional haunt of military ranges which in the current climate are likely to become even more off limits than before. Hopefully it can be turned around and some semblance of a series put together. There is a glut of top level machinery that should be seen at least at National level which otherwise will be causing even more whinging at MSN/Single venue events otherwise.
 
I think the spirit was correct, perhaps it was a bit 'too much too soon' for some in terms of going away from the traditional UK tarmac rally venues, but it's a change that needed to be made.

It would only have worked, in terms of bringing existing competitors along with them away from the Epynt and Otterburn rallies, and attracting new ones, if there was stability and clarity in other areas. Unfortunately, it is apparent that there really was not, and the straw that broke the camel's back, seemingly, was losing the two of their rounds.

I'm sure they meant well, and that they had the best of intentions, but it's been an utter shambles from start to finish. Let's see if any lessons will be learned, though it seems more likely that the championship will have to grab together a couple of Epynts or Otterburns and struggle through 2022.
 
Trying to drag the sport kicking & screaming into the 21st century is proving to be a real problem. Those that try, end up giving up as it's too much hard work. And we wonder why we've lost our WRC round...
 
AndyRAC said:
Trying to drag the sport kicking & screaming into the 21st century is proving to be a real problem. Those that try, end up giving up as it's too much hard work. And we wonder why we've lost our WRC round...
Click to expand...

I'm not sure we can put this particular debacle down to some general 'resistance to change' in British rallying. Change can be made to happen fairly easily if it's packaged and delivered properly - for better or worse.

In this case, serving up a complete change of philosophy (rightly so) from mostly boring military range events that every competitor has done 1000 times, to an all-closed-road-event championship wasn't the issue. It wouldn't have taken much effort to get competitors to go along with that or even attract some new blood - indeed the consensus was that it was a good (if a little more expensive) calendar.

The way that so much of the negative "this will never work" rubbish that a minority were prophesising before the first closed road events ran in 2018/2019 was completely and utterly disproven, is proof enough that if things are done right, competitors are ready and willing to try something new.

No, what did for the team was the tone-deaf announcement, nonsensical car regulations, and difficult relations with event organisers. They started off not just on the back foot, but practically on their backside, and it only got worse.

Organising anything in motorsport is a thankless task, and I'm grateful there are people out there willing to have a go at it. The point of this post isn't to be rude about Darren Spann and his team. However, even a cursory glance at the class structure of a successful national championship (in the UK or abroad) would have given them a clue what theirs should look like - not the tone-deaf dogs dinner that was published then swiftly withdrawn. A gentler approach with organisers of new championship rounds might have borne more fruit. And the most pointless bit of aggro they received, over their entirely tactless championship launch on social media, might have been avoided by googling "do the Oirish mind being called 'potato'" before hitting Tweet.

It's regrettable, no doubt about it. Their intentions may have been good. But it doesn't seem fair to put it down to being 'too much hard work', more that the team ought to have worked smarter...
 
I see the other thread has disappeared so I guess we use this one...

I'm looking forward to start of the ITRC in Galway this weekend. A good Irish entry and the BRC Champion Matt Edwards there to take them on.

Hopefully a good battle and some live coverage from On The Pacenote FB page.
 
Fast Eddie WRC said:
I see the other thread has disappeared so I guess we use this one...

I'm looking forward to start of the ITRC in Galway this weekend. A good Irish entry and the BRC Champion Matt Edwards there to take them on.

Hopefully a good battle and some live coverage from On The Pacenote FB page.
Click to expand...

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10158743026145770&set=a.10150188156790770

Unfortunately looks like Matt Edwards won't be able to make it.

Great entry otherwise though and looking forward to spectating at my local event. Will be unusual for me not to be competing but very glad to see proper rallying back in this country!
 
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