Rally in 1995 to secure the World Rally Championship, rallying wasn’ t confined to the specialist or even the sports pages; it was front-page news.
What followed became known as‘ McRae Mania’. Huge crowds came into the forests, television audiences followed the championship, and a generation of youngsters discovered rallying, subsequently reinforced by the enormous success of the Colin McRae Rally computer games. Richard Burns’ emergence and his own World Championship success in 2001 continued an extraordinary period when British drivers and teams were at the very centre of world rallying.
So I think there is a pleasing symmetry that, as we prepare to bring the World Rally Championship back to the UK, the BBC will once again be part of that story.
But this agreement is about much more than nostalgia. The media
landscape has changed beyond recognition since the days of Rally Report and today’ s audiences consume sport in very different ways. Having live stages from every WRC round, extensive coverage of Rally Scotland and digital content available across the BBC’ s platforms gives us an opportunity to put rallying in front of people who perhaps have never encountered the sport before.
That is hugely important. Bringing the WRC back to the UK was never simply about staging four days of world championship competition in Scotland. It is an opportunity to use the visibility of the world’ s best drivers and cars to shine a light on the whole of our sport, from the international stage right through to the hundreds of motor clubs and thousands of volunteers who make rallying happen every weekend across the country.
The WRC is making tracks to Scotland
04 Revolution Magazine