Series 2011 season preview

The Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship has several new features for 2011, while maintaining the best elements of the British Isles' premier rally series.

In a move designed to give more prominence to the two wheel drive competitors, teams and manufacturers in 2011, two of the three British titles in the Championship will be allocated to these classes of cars, a two wheel drive only and Teams' Championship. The battle for the overall Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship driver and co-driver titles will almost certainly still be fought out in the Rally 4 class where lurk Group N Subaru, Mitsubishi and of course the Super 2000 screamers.

New for 2011, the Dulux Trade MSA Formula 2 Rally Championship* will be open to all two wheel drive cars and use the same scoring system as for the overall series but significantly all of these two wheel drive cars will get to run at the front of the four wheel drive field on each of the four gravel events. The four wheel drive cars will stay at the front for asphalt.

The Dulux Trade MSA British Teams Rally Championship which has been fiercely fought will be open to manufacturers and professional motorsport teams competing with two wheel drive cars only. All seven events (eight rounds) will count towards the final championship classification and the registration fee will be drastically reduced to encourage smaller teams. Prime space in the team's service area, featured team bio on the championship website and increased televised coverage will all add to the profile of the teams' participation.

Pirelli will continue to support the Star Driver competition in 2011, but the event nominations, one from each of the seven rallies will come from the two wheel drive cars only. The four wheel drive runners will not miss out though, as two drivers will be chosen to take part in the final, one from the gravel events and one from asphalt.

Sky Sports will continue to show its excellent Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship programme, but the coverage will be spilt 50/50 between two and four wheel drive crews, essentially giving equal prominence to both overall and the two wheel drive championships.

"There are several factors driving this change. We are having new dialog with UK car importers and manufacturers most of whom either have or are planning to homologate a two wheel drive rally cars and therefore we have a unique opportunity to engage with them and provide the right arena for them to participate in. These cars, driven on the limit, provide a spectacle which is exciting to watch and compared to current front running four wheel drive cars Group N4 cars, these cars are reasonably cost affective to run. They provide an excellent grounding for learning and developing skills working in unison with the new FIA WRC Academy and junior series which now focuses on these types of cars." said Mark Taylor.

-source: brc