Standing outside Aberdeen’s P&J Live, David Richards smiled at the memory of his first visit to Scotland’s north-east. Much has changed since he finished fourth with Tony Pond aboard a Triumph Dolomite Sprint on the 1976 Granite City Rally.
But on a blustery, early Spring Monday, just off the A96, it was hard to imagine a change bigger than the one DR had just pulled off.
As the architect of era-defining success for Subaru, the mentor of rallying’s most recognizable name in Colin McRae, the innovator who delivered a digital WRC and, of course, as a world champion himself, losing his home round of the World Rally Championship was a significant fail.
When the manufacturers packed up and departed the North Wales coast on Sunday October 6, 2019, there was a question mark over Britain’s WRC future. But nobody would have foreseen the eight-year gap which followed. For all its heritage, for all the stories of Colonel Loughborough’s victory on the original 1932 event; for all its history as a founding round of the World Rally Championship and the titles Britain’s forest roads had directed and dictated, it was cast out for almost a decade.
Nobody could have imagined GB would be absent from the calendar for so long after 2019
There was talk, more than talk – thanks to the likes of determined protagonists like Bobby Willis – of an asphalt-based Northern Irish event. Discussions were held with various bodies through the north of England. Nothing came of either, but Scotland remained and Scotland has delivered.
Richards is quick to deflect praise in the direction of those around him at Britain’s governing body, but the sigh of relief around Aberdeen on Monday was audible.
“Britain is back,” Richards told DirtFish. “I think for many years, you look at all other forms of motorsport, we’ve been a very strong participant. You look at the number of Formula 1 drivers we’ve got today, five British drivers on the grid. All in all, we are a powerhouse of motorsport and it’s only reasonable that we should have a round of the World Rally Championship – provided we can put on and make sure it’s equal of anywhere else in the world. And I’m sure it will be here in Aberdeen.
“Everybody here at Motorsport UK has done an amazing job to finally pull it off. And not that easy, I have to say, in this environment.
“We’ve had some disappointments en route, some abortive starts. But the reception we’ve had here has been overwhelmingly positive. The local council and the Aberdeenshire District Council and the Scottish Government themselves have all got behind it now and see the benefits of it. And it has, I agree, taken a long time to get back here, but let’s celebrate us being here now.”
Those celebrations will begin in the fall, 2027, and continue for a minimum of three years.
Richards’ role has evolved. Few understand the sport from as many different angles as he does, but as chairman of Motorsport UK, he has a responsibility which goes beyond the headlines and the handshakes.
More than ever, he understands the wide-ranging benefits a WRC round will bring.
“I firmly believe, while our focus as a governing body needs to be on the grassroots of motorsport and getting more people participating and enjoying motorsport, halo events like this are critical to that effort,” he explained. “We have Formula 1, this, we’re bringing back the World Endurance Championship next year to UK and Formula E. We’ve got all the great events coming to the UK now and they do form a definite sort of ambition for people and that gets people in at the lower levels.”
On different level, having the likes of Elfyn Evans and Oliver Solberg back on Britain’s forest roads could be vital in helping secure the future of the loose-surface sport in the UK. Finding agreement with Forestry and Land Scotland (an agency formerly known as the Forestry Commission) is a key to continuing the story of what a UK WRC round is all about.
“We’ve had our challenges [with rallying in the forests] and it’s understandable as well, given the environment we live in now. We’re addressing those issues. And I think we’ve got to show how we can be responsible users of the forests here in Scotland as well as in England and Wales and, you know, doing that properly will help secure a long, forward-history of future in the forests. I don’t think it’ll stop here.”
Part of the process towards WRC Rally Scotland 2027 is a candidate event later this season and delivering a world championship volunteer force once more.
“We’re in the middle of those discussions at the moment,” said Richards. “Obviously there’s detail to follow on that [event]. With the facilities we’ve got here, with the organization team that we’ve had in the past, I’m hoping that that will be a relatively straightforward process.
“In terms of the vital marshals and volunteers, we’ve continued training throughout this period. I believe, today, we’ve got a far more structured training program within the UK than we’ve ever had in the past. We will have to, sort of, bring everyone up to speed again on the world championship, but I’ve absolutely no doubt whatsoever that we’ve got the volunteers and the enthusiasm for it.”
Richards was fundamental in the evolution of rallying. When he took over as rights holder and promoter of the WRC at the top of the millennium, he had a vision to bring rallying to the masses and the manufacturers. His so-called cloverleaf format with a central service park delivered on that. In recent years, Richards has been mildly critical of the absence of further evolution since then.
Some details of next year's WRC Rally Scotland are still to be confirmed
Is now the time for him to start another revolution?
He offered: “I haven’t got involved in that level of detail, but we’re discussing it with the WRC Promoter and we’d be positive towards anything that works for spectators and works for the event. As you know, we’re always up for innovation.”
Flanked by FIA deputy president Malcolm Wilson, rallying’s rising star Max McRae and one of the heroes of last week’s Safari Rally Jon Armstrong, it was impossible not to get the feeling of a rally reborn.
He added: “Everybody remembered those roads in Wales, but you will find in the next couple of years people will be talking about these stages in Aberdeenshire with the same familiarity as they remember the likes of Hafren, Dyfi and Dyfnant.
“I remember competing up here on the Granite City [Rally]. They were great roads then and they’re great roads now.”
Close your eyes and you can almost smell the mud on the exhaust.
