Two-Horse Races
2021 has been a year of down-to-the-wire-two-horse-race motorsport championships. Hamilton and Verstappen in F1, Rea and Razgatlioglu in World Superbikes, Edwards and Price in the British Rally Championship and of course Ogier and Evans in the WRC. All of these championships have been decided on the final event of the year.
Congratulations must go to Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia. They claimed their eighth and final World Rally Championship together on Rally Monza last month.
Going into the 12th and final round of the 2021 WRC the French pair were 17 points ahead of Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin. The Toyota team mates were head and shoulders above everyone else this year. After three days of swapping the lead they finished first and second in Monza. Ogier won the rally by 7.3 seconds claiming the title by 23 points. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville was third 31 points behind Evans. Toyota claimed the 2021 WRC Manufacturers Championship.
Sebastien Ogier has now semi-retired and will only compete on selected WRC events for Toyota next year, denying him the chance to equal fellow Frenchman Sebastien Loeb’s record of nine drivers titles. For co-driver Julien Ingrassia, Rally Monza was his final event, he has announced his immediate retirement.
In the British Rally Championship only two drivers were in contention this year. Welsh team mates Osian Pryce and Matt Edwards headed to the Ulster Rally, the seventh and final round, knowing that it would be a winner takes all situation. Pryce was ahead by 8 points but when dropped scores were taken into account, Edwards could take his third BRC title if he won the rally.
The Modern Tyres Ulster Rally moved to mid November as apposed to the usual mid August date due to COVID restrictions. Using the same stages just north of Newry as on the last event in 2019, the narrow lanes of McGaffins Corner, Bronte Homeland and Shinn Bridge proved to be tricky, damp and slippery. The three stages would be run three times with the final loop finishing in darkness.
Ninety nine cars started and sixty one finished the 93.78 stage mile event. Pryce and Edwards traded fastest times and the rally lead from the start. Such was the speed of the two identical Melvyn Evans Motorsport prepared Volkswagen Polo GTI R5’s that they were almost two minutes ahead of the rest of the field after stage seven. Then it all went wrong for Osian Pryce and Noel O’Suillivan. On stage eight the 13.47 miles of Bronte Homeland 3 they crashed out of the rally, the Polo ending up on its roof.
Following Pryce’s retirement, Matt Edwards and co-driver Darren Garrod were able to cruise to victory on the final test, eventually finishing 2 minutes and 31.2 seconds ahead of Northern Ireland Champions Jonny Greer and Kirsty Riddick’s Citroen C3 R5. The recently on-form Callum Devine was back in third after a huge stage one spin in his Fiesta R5. Best two-wheel drive finisher was Jason Black in his Toyota Starlet back in eleventh place. Although they finished second to Eamonn Kelly and Conor Mohan, Belfast crew William Creighton and Liam Regan won the Junior BRC title in their Fiesta R4.
For Matt Edwards this was his third successive British Rally Championship win, the first person ever to achieve this. Edwards finished 5 points ahead of Osian Pryce. To put the “two-horse race” into context, the next nearest challenger Matthew Wilson was a massive 53 points behind Pryce in third place. Next year the BRC will not be visiting the island of Ireland at all.
The Ulster Rally is hoping to return to its traditional August date in 2022 when it will be a round of the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship. It all depends on whether or not the World Rally Championship will be visiting Northern Ireland at that time. If that’s the case then the Ulster Rally organisers say they have contingency plans to move their event to a different date.
I would suggest that the “Ulster” tags on to the back of the WRC event as a National Rally. This would boost the entry as there will probably only be ten top category Rally1 hybrid cars competing and probably not very many in the supporting WRC2/3 categories.
As I indicated last month we should know by 15th December if the UK’s round of the 2022 World Championship will finally be ratified as Rally Northern Ireland. We are all holding our breath! More on this next month.
Rally Diary
Monday 27th December.
It’s Not The Boxing Day Rally
Organised by the Ulster Automobile Club this Targa Rally is based at Kirkistown Race Circuit in Co.Down. The traditional festive event was not held last year due to the COVID restrictions. A maximum entry of 120 cars are due to start around 9am. There will be over 15 tests. The UAC are appealing for marshals. All officials and marshals are required to sign-on remotely through rallyscore.net.
Wednesday 29th December.
Turkey Run Rally
Maiden City Motor Club are the organisers of this the final stage rally of 2021. Sponsored by mcevoy motorsport.com the five-stage single venue event is based at the famous Shackleton Complex in Ballykelly. A maximum entry of 80 cars are expected to start from 9.15am. We are providing rescue cover and marshals. Again please sign-on remotely at rallyscore.net.
Seasons Greetings to everyone ☃️
