Rally - by royal appointment

A history lesson, by royal appointment …. Motor sport, and particularly rallying has missed out badly over the years. The rising popularity of other sports and increasing media exposure has offered people a bewildering array of choice, and unless a sport can get access to that increased media exposure it will remain of niche interest.

Although the various track based speed disciplines have managed to stabilise their future, rallying is still facing uncertain times. Understandable, as it is much easier to organise and control an event within a secure perimeter whereas rallying with its nomadic nature roaming over tens or hundreds of miles requires much more effort and manpower.

The sport’s governing body can’t be blamed for that but motoring and motor sport has evolved at a phenomenal rate over the past 100 years. Way back then there were professionally held views that travelling at speeds in excess of 20 mph would be fatal. Technology proved otherwise and when people discovered the huge joy of driving cars fast and the potential for competition, pedestrians lived in fear of their lives, something had to be done.

The Automobile Club of Great Britain (and later Ireland) was founded in 1897 and shortly afterwards appointed itself as the governing body of motoring and motorsport. Ten years later, the AGBI was appointed the Royal Automobile Club by His Majesty King Edward VII. In other words this self perpetuating oligarchy was created over a hundred years ago without any public consultation, selection or election.

Individual car clubs were mostly responsible for their own sporting regulations but shortly after the second world war the RAC produced its first attempt at a national set of Rules & Regulations, and the first ‘Blue Book’ was born. However, the ‘gentleman’s club’ still regarded itself as a governor and regulator rather than an event organiser or sports promoter with clubs lacking guidance and advice. This ‘unrest’ led to a change in 1977 when the RAC devolved its motor sporting governance to a new ‘independent’ body, the RAC Motor Sports Association.

With all forms of motor sport growing in popularity and automotive technology improving even more quickly, keeping up, never mind making progress, was slow and led to wider dis-satisfaction amongst club members, officials and competitors 

At this point a leading British rally driver, a London based PR consultant for a major oil company and a Scottish motor sports journalist made a formal approach to the Automobile Association – at that time the RAC’s fiercest rival. A meeting was held at the AA’s regional HQ in Erskine in Scotland with the object of creating a rival British motor sport authority to the RAC’s dominance. The AA were intrigued and didn’t say no and an approach was made to the government Minister for Sport.

No-one knows quite how much lobbying was carried out behind the scenes but after consultation with the RAC MSA, the Minister was assured that changes would be made and there would be no need for another motor sporting authority. The AA withdrew, but it was a close run thing.

Those promised changes took a while but in 1998, the RAC Motor Sports Association became an entirely independent organisation, the Motor Sports Association Ltd, which has more recently culminated in the creation of Motor Sport UK Ltd.

In that respect MS UK is little different from the majority of national sporting authorities. In theory it should be better for any individual sport to have only one governing body but times are changing.  The national government is now talking about granting more ‘local democracy’ hence the introduction of Mayors in the major cities around the country. In theory this should allow central government to concentrate on national/international affairs and the rule of law while the Mayors concentrate on local regional matters.

In the same way, many sports are having to manage big changes within their own disciplines. For instance, cycling has road and track racing plus mountain biking and BMX, and then there are the ‘mixed’ sports, like triathlons with swimming, cycling and running. Who rules there?

Long ago, ball sports recognised that there was a big difference between football and rugby, but even rugby is becoming more diverse with Rugby League and Rugby Union and now seven a side rugby is becoming more popular. And then there’s boxing, how many governing bodies does it have? Similarly, UK Athletics has grown to such an extent that it now has four member organisations - England Athletics, Scottish Athletics, Welsh Athletics, and Athletics Northern Ireland.

Motor sport, the governing body for ‘four wheeled motor sport’, is no different and the complexity is growing, to the extent that MS UK is now ‘adopting’ Esports! Having said that, the British Stock Car Association (BriSCA) has retained its own control.

Perhaps the biggest problem facing all sports these days is the new government requirement for ‘sport for all’. That means not just creating equal opportunities for all abilities, ages, sexes and ethnicity but ensuring protection for children, spectators, officials and of course, participants. And then there’s Health & Safety. With all that borne in mind, there’s little room for common sense.

That is a daunting task, so perhaps we should have some sympathy for those who commit to taking it on. In this case MS UK, but that doesn’t mean they get a free ride. We still need a plan for special stage rallying.