BRC - Two wheel drive is back!

The 2012 MSA British Rally Championship held its media day at Curborough Sprint Circuit in Staffordshire on Thursday (2nd February), where some of the registered drivers and teams taking part turned out in the dry, bright and freezing conditions to celebrate the start of a new era for the UK’s premier rally championship.

The day began with interviews with the TV, radio and press, followed by a photo-call and then a chance for media and guests to take a ride around the venue’s one-mile asphalt circuit to experience a brief taste of what it’s like inside a rally car at near-competitive speeds.

The day marked the introduction of a revised format BRC, as 2012 sees the championship adopt a two-wheel-drive only format and excludes four-wheel-drive cars. Although prevalent in the championship for over a decade, organisers have decided the future of the series should be two-wheel-drive cars in order to create an environment which is attractive to manufacturers, stop the upward spiral of costs and make a more competitive and exciting formula, as Championship Manager Mark Taylor explained during an interview on the day:

“Four-wheel-drive cars were becoming expensive and therefore, we ran the risk of cheque-books dictating the results. Whilst there’s a difficult economic climate out there, the two-wheel-drive format will bring the costs back down and, at the same time, appeal to manufacturers who have rally cars that are akin to the models being sold in the showroom. We aim to engage with manufacturers as stakeholders in the BRC, which still carries a high profile worldwide.  As testament to that, Renault UK signed up this week for the British Manufacturers Rally Championship, which is fantastic news for us and great news for rallying in the UK as a whole.”