Rallying shouldn't be a fair weather sport

Too much snow? It's not possible is it? I thought not. But now I'm thinking again. Now, you see, our elongated winter - which I see as a good thing - has cost me the chance to watch rally cars in Wales this weekend. And that's a bad thing.

Rally North Wales is one of my favourite events of the season and always has been and I really felt for the Wolverhampton and South Staffs Car Club when it made the decision it had to make earlier this week and postponed what should have been the 2013 British Rally Championship opener.

After the immediate sympathy for all those involved who had put months of work into the event, I began to think about what might have been when the Swedish Rally almost came to mid-Wales. Now that would have been the perfect event...

The disappointment didn't just stop with me in our house either; the children had been well up for making another den on the top of Dyfi.

"But daddy," my daughter said, "I thought the rally men would like to drive in the snow..."

This is what Welsh rally stages are supposed to look like in April © LAT

Mentally, I began to assemble the health and safety argument in terms acceptable for a six-year-old. Then I gave up and agreed with her.

The rally could have run and it could have been a stunning start to this year's BRC, with the best drivers in Britain battling against truly tough conditions. Down the years some of the finest competition has come out of adverse weather conditions and rallying used to be a sport that prided itself on the ability to conquer such climatic concoctions. But the days of bolting on the bike tyres and digging in have gone.

And our sport is the weaker for its inability to face these challenges and crown a true champion of all conditions. Instead, this year we will crown a fair weather champion who has shown he can drive quickly when the snow's gone and the road ahead is clean and clear.

A few years ago I was at Max Mosley's house in Knightsbridge (not a sentence I write every week...). The conversation came around to the decision to cancel the opening stages of the 2008 Rally GB due to the wintry conditions. The then FIA president was outraged - an outrage I delighted in.

"The only time," Mosley said, " a stage should be cancelled, to my mind, is when the car simply can't make it up a hill. You know, in the way cars can't make it up that final hill into the ski resort..."

I agreed with him completely and utterly.

And deep down, I'm sure Rally North Wales event manager Kevin Whitton does too. Rally folk pride themselves on turning up and turning out in any condition.

In his explanation why there would be no sport this weekend, Whitton said the decision had been taken on behalf of the competitors as well as marshals and rescue and recovery crews.

Snow rallying offers an excellent spectacle in Sweden © LAT

I understand that sentiment when it comes to avoiding volunteers using their family car to try and marshal a corner comprehensively covered in snow and ice. Such a risk is unacceptable for our unpaid heroes.

But, such a risk is - in Petter Solberg's words - part of the game for the competitors. If they don't like the look of the road ahead, then they have the option of pulling over and parking up.

And, for those who do push on, their right foot remains the ultimate arbiter of their speed and associated safety through the stages; if they feel they're skidding too much, they can always slow down.

I'm sure Whitton and his fantastic team are tired of hearing such well trodden and trotted arguments. And, in the cold (very cold at the moment) light of day, common sense has to prevail. The 'what if' that surrounds the prospect of a competitor going off the road and the crew perishing because rescue couldn't be scrambled across the snow in time is one nobody wants to see and the sport doesn't need. Not now, not ever.

The short-term pain of postponement will, ultimately, be the gain for the 140 crews who will still have a Rally North Wales to tackle later in the season.

The alternative could have been to equip all involved with Hyundais. More specifically, Hyundai Santa Fes of the four-wheel drive flavour.

Hyundai will be back in the WRC with the i20

With the South Koreans coming rapidly over our horizon into the World Rally Championship, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at the kind of kit they would be making that journey in. So I borrowed a Santa Fe.

And was very, very impressed. Which is far more than you could have said when Hyundai was last engaged in the WRC. Back then, the team's PR master Steve Kitson would regularly offer a roadgoing Accent. And, by way of avoiding shyster hire car companies, the Accent was acceptable.

As a way of getting from a to b, however, it was questionable.

Not so the Santa Fe. A decade on, Hyundai has transformed itself.

And the Santa Fe is at the centre of that transformation. Diff locked, it laughed in the face of the semi-snow-blocked lane through our village, allowing us to waft our way through the weather from the warmth and comfort of a car, which appears to have become a Chelsea Tractor for the masses.

The only downside to the Sante Fe was the lack of a constant clock in the display. Our version had done just over 1200 miles, leading me to believe I was late for a meeting when I glanced at clock-like digits that read 1242. It was only when it got to 1267 that I realised, chronologically, something had gone amiss.

And anyway, how hard is it to look at your watch?

So, if that's what Hyundai can do with its road cars right now, the future of the i20 WRC is looking pretty bright too.