Rally - The finish line approaches

The news from the 2024 Galloway Hills Rally didn’t come as shock, just a surprise. The event is a long established forest stage rally in the south west of Scotland and run by a canny bunch of amateur car club enthusiasts. The key word here is ‘amateur’ but that doesn’t mean they lack competence, professionalism or experience in what they do, just that they don’t get paid for doing it!

And it’s the same right across Scotland and the wider UK. The organisation of the vast majority of competitive car rallies across the country is reliant on the goodwill, enthusiasm, willingness, fortitude, stubborn-ness, camaraderie and a deep seated love of the sport by a willing band of masochists who ignore the midges, glaur, sunburn, sodden feet and frostbite just to put on some challenging automotive entertainment for others. Not just the car club stalwarts, but also the volunteer officials and marshals who support their efforts.

But it looks like they are fighting a losing battle. Whilst many clubs enjoy the support of foresters and managers at local level, the high heid yins who sit in their air-conditioned offices surrounded by paperwork, computers and good intentions have a much narrower view of the ‘sport for all’ approach. They seem to prefer the much more gentle pursuits of picnickers, ramblers, dog-walkers, anglers, twitchers, botanists, naturalists, lepidopterists, entomologists and arborists with the only ‘motorised’ access being offered to mountain bikers.

It would also appear that four wheeled pursuits are facing a restricted and diminishing choice of suitable forest venues and roads while having to bear prohibitive escalating costs. Of course the counter-claim will be made that the public forests are open and available to all, but as far as rallies go, it is on their terms and at a cost which they determine.

The sport’s governing body must share some of the blame too. They may claim to be working with the various forest and land authorities in the four home nations but we see little evidence of that at ground level. It would be most welcome if they were a bit more open about their discussions and negotiations to ensure that the folk they represent are kept informed.

Admittedly their actions are limited by the ever increasing requirement for additional safety regulations and the constantly rising crippling insurance charges.

Faced with that rally organisers are up against it, and then there are the costs. To stage a 45 mile forest rally these days can cost in the region of £45,000 in forest road charges alone. The main trouble here is that, according to some of the ‘old guard’ in the forestry business, gravel roads are not being constructed to the same standard of quality as they were 50 years ago, despite all the advances in road building and grading machinery. That means they damage more easily and the resultant damage is worse. Admittedly that isn’t helped by modern four wheel drive rally cars and advancing tyre technology! The end result is the ‘hire’ charges go up.

Getting accurate figures and costings is as easy as extracting the teeth from wild haggis, but some independent contractors are extremely puzzled by how these ‘official’ figures and costings are calculated.

Then there are the other ‘hidden’ costs for arrows, stakes, tape, chicanes, printing both decals and paperwork, venues for scrutineering and Rally HQ, radio equipment, the creation of spectator areas plus fuel expenses for those who recce the route, the set-up crews and the Course Cars although it’s worth pointing out that many individuals are still out of pocket refusing to claim all their costs.

It's often a thankless under appreciated task and perhaps another reason why so many youngsters avoid being ‘called up’ to help out. Which is another problem facing the sport, the ageing generation of organisers, officials, marshals and helpers. There does appear to be a reluctance amongst youngsters to take on the commitment to organise and provide person-power.

Closed public roads are not the answer, if anything, such are the safety restrictions required by local Councils and the Police that these are becoming almost prohibitively more expensive too. The idea of participating in or attending outdoor events ‘at your own risk’ has long been banished from official documents as certain sections of society appear to live in a personal blame-free existence claiming ‘it’s someone else’s fault’ when things go wrong.

Perhaps the new British government could introduce a Bill to allow ‘Comon Sense’ to become law, rather than have this challenged and undermined by the unscrupulous types who frequent our courts of law. It could be argued that ‘compensation culture’ will kill off rallying quicker than those who manage our public forest estates.

Best enjoy it while we can, for as Private Frazer once said: “We’re all doomed!”