Royal Automobile Club Rallies 1930s The inaugural event was the 1932
Royal Automobile Club Rally, which was the first major rally of the modern era in Great Britain. Of the 367 crews entered, 341 competitors in unmodified cars started from nine different towns and cities (London, Bath, Norwich, Leamington, Buxton, Harrogate, Liverpool, Newcastle upon Tyne and Edinburgh.) The Official Programme explained: ,
Hastings, 1937 RAC Rally Completing the routes held no other competitive element other than following them within the time schedules, which were deliberately made easy by the RAC so that everybody made it to Torquay. He completed the 100-yard slow driving test at an average speed of , which was found to be less punishing under the scoring system than Donald Healey found by being fastest in the acceleration test, completing it in 7.6 seconds. was the driver with the fewest penalties. Over the next few years the rallies finished at various towns including Brighton and Blackpool. The rally was run annually until 1939, after which the outbreak of the Second World War forced its suspension.
RAC International Rallies of Great Britain 1950s: Rallies of the Tests The first post-war RAC rally was the RAC International Rally of Great Britain 1951 and included an 1800 mile itinerary with tests of speed, hill-climbing and regularity. Although the rally still started from multiple points, the cars were convened at
Silverstone racing circuit for a high speed test, and from there followed a common itinerary around Scotland, Wales and England, finishing in Bournemouth. Cars had to be standard production models and sold in quantities greater than 50. Many motor manufacturers wanted to enter teams and pressed the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders to approve the event to remove taboo surrounding the event being only for privateers. The 1953 event was included as the third round of the inaugural
European Touring Championship and included nine tests and part of the route was a secret. The tests included acceleration and braking held at Silverstone, night driving at
Castle Combe, a night climb of
Prescott Hill, a speed test at
Goodwood and a new 'garaging' test at
Llandrindod Wells which involved driving into a garage and parking, leaving the garage on foot then proceeding to return and reverse out of the garage, all against the clock. An official winner was declared for the first time, Ian Appleyard, driving a Jaguar XK120. In 1954 and the years that followed, the rally received criticism for being "no more than a navigational treasure hunt" in comparison to the rallies being held in Europe at the time such as the Alpine or
Liege-Rome-Liege. but by 1958 no foreigner entered the rally at all. This didn't stop the award for best foreign driver being awarded, to
Paddy Hopkirk of Northern Ireland. For 1959, the rally was moved to November in the hope of making the rally more of a driving test in wintry weather, attempting to address concerns that the touring, regularity, road-rally wasn't necessary or worthy anymore.
1960s: Introduction of special stages In 1960, organising secretary Jack Kemsley negotiated with the
Forestry Commission to use a closed two-mile (3 km) gravel road named Monument Hill in
Argyll, Scotland as a speed test. Times were still converted to points for the purposes of the rally competition and were based on an average speed of 40 mph. Swede Erik Carlsson won the rally and was the only driver not to accrue any penalty points at all. His co-driver Stuart Turner is quoted on the Monument Hill stage in the 1987 book
RAC Rally by Maurice Hamilton, saying: "there is no doubt that was the point at which the RAC Rally shifted from a traditional "Find Your Way" on the public roads rally to the type of event we know today". This, with the introduction of special timing clocks and seeding of entries, secured the rally's future and appeal to international competitors, and the beginning of its reputation as one of the most gruelling and unpredictable fixtures on the calendar. By 1965 there was over 400 miles across 57 special stages held on a mix of
War Department roads, racing circuits and other private venues but the majority were in the forests. In 1966, the Forestry Commission increased the compensation requested for the use of its roads and the rally gained a sponsor in
The Sun newspaper to help cover the costs, which were already being assisted by Lombank. From 1965, penalties accrued on the public road sections were being applied in units of time instead of points, with the total time measured on the special stages classifying the results of the rally. The 1967 event was cancelled on the eve of the event due to the
outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, so competitors staged a mock rally at the
Bagshot proving ground as consolation for the press and television (ATV had been persuaded to provide major coverage with in-car cameras for the first time). In 1971, the event's full title itself changed to become known as the
Daily Mirror RAC International Rally of Great Britain. This deal lasted for two further events before finance company
Lombard North Central, then known as Lombank, took over title rights in 1974. The event became known as the
Lombard RAC Rally, and Lombard's name became synonymous with the event for almost two decades. In 1972
Unipart were sponsoring all the 72 individual stages. In 1971, ticketed 'spectator stages' were introduced and by 1975 had become an important part of the event's profile and source of revenue. These stages were usually short stints at stately homes or other public venues, such as
Chatsworth House and
Sutton Park. They were popular with spectators as they were closer to large population centres than the forests in Wales or Scotland, and organisers saw them help control the growing numbers of spectators crowding the forests. The first day became devoted to these stages, in 1976 over 350 miles of road sections for just 14 miles of simple stages. They were often referred to as "Mickey Mouse stages" because of the lack of challenge they offered. Competing driver and columnist Chris Lord used the term and said he understood their purpose, but they were putting drivers off entering. Speaking of itineraries, Roger Clark said he'd rather have longer road sections than have "Mickey Mouse" stages to break them up.
1980s The 1985 event was the longest RAC Rally to date, with a total length of , with 79 hours of driving and 33 hours of rest over six days. Following the death of
Henri Toivonen in 1986, limits on overall event length and stage length were put in place. Night stages were still permitted, however minimum break times prevented stages taking places through the night. There were 83 finishers out of 150 starters in 1986, compared to year of worst attrition in 1981 when only 54 of the 151 starters reached the end. This was in stark contrast to the early years: in 1938, there were only 6 retirements from 237 starters.
1990s During the 1990s, the length of the rally was gradually reduced, in line with other international rallies. 1989 was the last event to take place over 5 days, with 1995 the last event to take place over 4 days. The 1990 event was the first to allow crews to use
pacenotes, as previous editions did not allow crews to perform reconnaissance runs through the route beforehand. 1996 would be the last time to-date that forest stages would be run outside of Wales, with the opening leg taking place in Kielder Forest and the Scottish Borders.
Rallies of Great Britain In 1998, 'RAC' disappeared from both the name of the rally and its organising body (RAC MSA). Earlier that year the Club had begun a lengthy process of restructuring and altering its constitution in order to sell its commercial
motoring services operation to
Cendant. This sale was ultimately blocked by the state on monopoly concerns, but a sale was made early in 1999 to Lex Group. It's possible that 'RAC' was dropped by request of the existing title sponsor of the rally Network Q, who offered similar commercial services to both Cendant and Lex Group. It's more likely, though not explicitly proven, that use of
RAC branding was sold as part of the motoring services deal.
2000s: New formats ,
Cardiff In 2000, the WRC's commercial rights holder
International Sportsworld Communicators was sold to a consortium led by
David Richards, who revolutionised the series into a TV and spectator friendly series whilst cutting costs. One of the biggest changes implemented was to condense the rallies into a more compact area rather than touring the country, reducing 'dead air' road sections that provided little value to anybody. This was quickly followed by a reduction of services, ultimately to just one central service park; and the double-running of stages in a 'cloverleaf' format was supposed to provide more value for the organisers, competitors, media production and spectators. Additionally, all WRC rallies followed a format of starting on a Thursday evening or Friday morning, to finishing on a Sunday afternoon. The 2000 Rally GB could no longer start on a Sunday with a day of 'spectator stages' at the traditional stately homes or venues. Instead, tickets were needed for all special stages for the first time, and all stages were run on gravel 'in the forests', with the exception of a short head-to-head super-special held at a purpose-built spectator arena in
Cardiff Docks. The rally started and ended in Cardiff and at no point left South or Mid-Wales, the first time in the event's history it had not covered roads in England or Scotland. 2001 saw just one central service area employed at
Felindre, near
Swansea, then in 2002 every special stage was run more than once. After 10 years of sponsorship by Network Q, the Welsh Assembly became the title sponsor in 2003, helping to cement the rally's foothold in Wales. The 2005 rally included the first indoor super special stage at the
Millennium Stadium in
Cardiff. The rally was overshadowed by a death on the final day. On stage fifteen,
Peugeot driver
Markko Märtin crashed heavily into a tree, and while he was unharmed his co-driver
Michael Park sustained fatal injuries. It was the first death in the WRC in over a decade. The final two stages were cancelled and
Sébastien Loeb, who would have won the event and the championship, voluntarily incurred a two-minute time penalty in order not to win under such circumstances, leaving
Petter Solberg to be declared the victor. A memorial for Park was unveiled in Märtin's homeland of
Estonia and the damaged tree on the
Margam Park stage of the rally where he died bears a plaque in memorial of him.
2010s After being centred in South Wales since 2000, the 2011 edition of the rally started in
Llandudno in North Wales and then heading south towards Cardiff during the rally. From 2013, the rally was centred in North Wales, with a service park located in
Deeside, near
Chester. In 2016 an agreement was reached between the MSA and
Natural Resources Wales to continue to use Welsh forest stages for three years.
2020s Rally GB was one of several World Championship rallies cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in
2020, marking the first time in the history of the series that a round in Britain had not been held. A proposed move to
Northern Ireland was scrapped for 2021 after the prospective organisers failed to reach an agreement with local government to host the rally. As a result Rally GB was replaced by the Belgian
Ypres Rally on the 2021 calendar. Despite further attempts by Motorsport UK to organise a rally, it did not appear on the 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 or 2026 calendars. After a six-year absence from the schedule, Rally GB was resurrected as Rally Scotland for the 2027 season. == Character ==