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McRae to fans: Give Rally GB a chance

Rally star Colin McRae has believes that the British spectators can safeguard the future of the Rally of Great Britain by accepting new crowd control measures being introduced into the event

Rally GB organisers have unveiled a raft of changes to improved spectators safety, following an accident on last year's event when Carlos Sainz ploughed into a crowd of fans, causing 13 people to be hospitalised.

The new system has been met with resistance from fans, but McRae believes that the changes are necessary. "I sympathise with the fans," said McRae. "If I went to a rally to watch I wouldn't take kindly to being herded into spectator enclosures. But people have to be sensible about it and know that their attitude could go a long way to making the system work. In any case, there should be a good atmosphere for the fans in those areas."

Andrew Cow, chief executive of IMS which organises Rally GB, is confident the changes will prove a success. "We believe this year's Rally GB will set the benchmark for all future WRC events. We have two key aims - to provide greater enjoyment for visitors to our event, and to avoid suffering the same fate as other events that have had stages cancelled. We've never had a stage cancelled for safety reasons and we want to continue that."


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