Why Britain's continued WRC absence is a wake-up call

This year should mark the 89th anniversary of Rally GB, Britain's round of the World Rally Championship, since its inception. Only ever in times of world war or national disaster has it been missed, including the 2020 running of the event. We of course remain in the midst of a global pandemic, which does tend to put matters in perspective to a degree, but its absence for a second year in a row - with the news that the 2021 event will be replaced by Belgium's Rally Ypres - is not one of COVID-19's making. It is one of politics.

Would we be in this position if the FA Cup or even Crufts were in a similar pickle to that of the UK's national rally? It's hard to imagine prime minister Boris Johnson not lolloping to the rescue of any great British institution, beaming back at a grateful nation to announce that their pastime is 'coming home'.

Motorsport UK, which presides over the event and is working on its return for 2022, is of course making suitable noises about the economic backdrop left by the pandemic. But while it is understandable that the governing body doesn't want to play the blame game, the government is currently throwing tens of millions at places of leisure and entertainment to tide them over. The process is at best like pinning the tail on a donkey.

I know a chap who last year received a five-figure sum out of the blue from the Treasury, simply because his second home is listed on Airbnb. Last week, the government announced plans to repeat these payments, which means that plenty of people will be looking forward to a free holiday or a down payment towards their next Range Rover.

Meanwhile, one of Britain's best-attended sporting events (together with all the direct and indirect income that is derived from it in the local area), potentially hurtles toward the u-bend for the sake of approximately £2million.

Even the most ardent WRC supporter would have to admit that the event lacks a little of the lustre that it enjoyed when William Woollard bestrode the airwaves to bring us nightly progress reports on the BBC. We have neither an entry list heaving with half a dozen works teams nor the endearing stories of postmen and shopkeepers who have spent all year preparing to take their place among the classes.

But while the WRC is no longer a staple of mainstream broadcasting, it remains the second most-watched motorsport series worldwide to F1, showcasing the best of its hosts' rural landscape in hundreds of millions of living rooms each year. What's more, we have an intense battle for supremacy between two of the most popular manufacturers, in terms of new car sales worldwide, in Toyota and Hyundai. Plus for British fans there is a feisty independent team with title-winning success and the might of Ford behind it, a Welsh vice-champion raring to win the event for a second time and that's before we get to the spectacle on offer from WRC2 and WRC3.

Rally GB still draws a huge following - 92,000 ticket holders when they were last counted, in 2016. Their presence brought enormous cheer from the businesses of Colwyn Bay when the event moved there from Deeside in 2019.

"Hotels and B&B bookings are filling up fast and the influx of visitors will bring thousands of pounds of extra business so it's a positive," said Colwyn Business Improvement District manager Cheryl Williams at the time. "This is a huge platform for us to build on and an opportunity to capitalise on a major increase in footfall and interest around one of the biggest sporting events of the year."

Railways are being built and grants offered to restore your bicycle, even though internal combustion remains the only economically and practically viable basis for most people - particularly in rural areas like North Wales

That event in 2019 was also the first of a three-year commercial agreement between the Welsh government and Motorsport UK. We must assume, then, that suitable opt-out clauses were stitched into the documents. And that these have been activated even if the event's backers saved a good proportion of their budget in 2020.

The problem is that motorsport tends to give politicos the heebie-jeebies and has done ever since Bernie Ecclestone's famous 'bung' put the first tarnish on Tony Blair's premiership back in the 90s. The Welsh assembly was successfully sued by Motorsport UK (then called the MSA) when it attempted to renege on its contract to host Rally GB in 2009. It then got itself in an even bigger knot by pledging to build a MotoGP venue in Ebbw Vale.

These are big enough hurdles, but since that time Britain has become culturally and politically anti-car. Railways are being built and grants offered to restore your bicycle, even though internal combustion remains the only economically and practically viable basis for most people - particularly in rural areas like North Wales.

This does not sit easily in the corridors of power, where they like to chunter about carbon neutrality and renewables. Tellingly, last October, the Welsh Government Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs Minister, Lesley Griffiths, said: "As we seek to increase woodland creation to tackle the climate emergency and work towards a green recovery from COVID-19, a strategic approach to forestry research is more important than ever."

In this light, it could only be assumed that the strategic approach of sending a load of rally cars through said important ecosystem, (together with those of the attendant officials and fans), might prove an easy target to draw fire in the Senedd.

When the Welsh first wobbled last year, following the abandonment of the 2020 Rally GB, it was nevertheless taken as an incentive by Rally Northern Ireland promoter and all-round good guy Bobby Willis to try and fill the void.

In partnership with supportive local politicians, Willis has tried to bring the fixture across the Irish Sea, with an 'oven ready' solution to the WRC's desire to maintain its second-oldest event after Monte Carlo. Throughout the will-they, won't-they process, Willis has kept his head down and done all that was humanly possible to bring his dream to fruition, but on Friday last week he was forced to defer any plans for 2021.

"Tourism Northern Ireland recognises that hosting Rally Northern Ireland in 2021 represented a positive opportunity to profile the region globally and would serve to celebrate Northern Ireland's motorsport heritage," he said in a statement. "However, it feels COVID-19 could diminish the substantial economic benefits WRC historically bestows upon its host regions, and therefore investment would not represent best value for public money at this time."

It is clear that the future of any motorsport event cannot be entrusted to the whim of governments, be they local or central. All that we can do as a community is rally behind those who have the gumption to try, and work together to ensure that the 90th anniversary of the event is met with a ringing success.