Rally of Great Britain 14th-17th November 2002

To start at the beginning, the Motor Sports Association (MSA) is the governing body of motor sport in the UK, which means that we are the UK member club of the international governing body, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).

Our main purpose in life is to licence UK competitors for higher-status events (around half of UK motor sport events  take place with no requirement for licences, so thosecompetitors receive our services at no cost). We also issue permits for about 5,000 events each year; without a permit, an event would carry no insurance for officials, participants or third parties. We are also the body chosen by HM Government to authorise events on the public highway.

Those, then, are our core activities. In order to provide our services at the lowest possible cost, we benefit from two  'outside' income streams: interest on money in the bank and revenue from organising events and championships.

None of the events organised by the MSA has a god-given right to exist. If the event does not make money (or at least offer the promise of making money at some future date), we cannot continue to run that event. After all, our customers - the competition licence holders and the affiliated motor clubs - would not take kindly to the idea of subsidising the British Grand Prix, the Touring Car Championship or the Network Q
Rally of Great Britain!

Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of our income from the Network Q Rally comes not from over-charging the spectators or even from ripping off the competitors, but from our sponsors.

Those sponsors are not involved in the Rally for charitable purposes. Overwhelmingly, what they seek is coverage on TV and in the national media. Without that coverage, the sponsors would walk away and we would have to charge the poor spectators and competitors even more.

The media cover the event mainly because it is a round of the FIA World Rally Championship. If you do not believe that, just ask yourself whatever happened to Rallye Quebec, the Bandama Rally, the Press on Regardless or the Alpine Rally, each of which lost FIA status and sunk without trace. (Much the same tends to happen at national level: the modern versions of the Seven Dales Rally and the Circuit or Ireland cannot really be compared with the same events when they were rounds of the British Championship and thus appeared on
TV).

Once you accept the idea that being part of the FIA World Rally Championship is fundamental to the continuing success of the Network Q Rally, many aspects of the event cease to be negotiable. The compact route with every overnight halt in the same town, the relatively low competitive stage mileage, the service arrangements, even the Sunday finish are all laid down by the FIA; if we abandon those, we cannot remain part of the championship.

We cannot blame the FIA for the fact that the Rally does not use Kielder Forest: that, too, was a matter of economics.Cardiff wanted the Rally and made us an excellent offer; Newcastle (from where I guess you could easily run a World Championship Rally in Kielder) did not make a serious bid...

In closing, it is worth pointing out that NONE of the roundsof the modern FIA World Rally Championship cover a significant proportion of their host country. Rally Australia takes place in the immediate vicinity of Perth, which is a bloody sight further from Sydney, Melbourne and Bisbane than south Wales is from any part of Britain; the Rally of France is not only confined to an offshore island, but never strays more than 30 kilometres from Ajaccio, so is not even a Tour of Corsica any longer; Rally New Zealand is confined to a tiny part of North Island; I could go on, but I am sure you get the picture...

Colin Wilson, Motor Sports Association