The 2017 MSA British Rally Championship was the 58th season of the British Rally Championship. It featuredure eight classes:
BRC 1 (R5, R4, Super 2000, Regional Rally Car) BRC Production Cup (N4) BRC 3 (R3) BRC 4 (R2) National Rally Cup (open class) Junior BRC (R2, drivers under 26 years old) Cadet Cup (R2, drivers under 25 years old) Ladies BRC Trophy
Calendar
The 2017 championship was contested over seven rounds For the first time, Ypres Rally, a Belgian event, was featured on the calendar.
Seven events were held on tarmac and gravel surfaces:
Round Dates Event Rally HQ Surface Website 1 17–18 March Border Counties Rally Jedburgh Gravel (website) 2 29–30 April Pirelli Rally Carlisle, Cumbria Gravel (website) 3 19–20 May RSAC Scottish Rally Dumfries Gravel (website) 4 23–24 June Ypres Rally Ypres Tarmac (website) 5 8–9 July Nicky Grist Stages Builth Wells Gravel (website) 6 18–19 August Ulster Rally Derry Tarmac (website) 7 14–16 September Rally Isle of Man Douglas, Isle of Man Tarmac (website)
Team and Drivers BRC1 Entries
Constructor Car Team Driver Co Driver Rounds Škoda Škoda Fabia R5 CA1 Sport Ltd David Bogie Kevin Rae 1–4 Fredrik Åhlin Torstein Eriksen All Thomas Preston Andrew Roughead 2, 4 Stuart Loudon 5 Macsport Rally Team Desi Henry Liam Moynihan 1–4, 6 Tiger Risk Rally Team Martin McCormack David Moynihan 1–4, 6 Ford Ford Fiesta R5 Dom Buckley Motorsport Tom Cave James Morgan 1 Garry Pearson Paula Swinscoe 2 Barry Mckenna Leon Jordan 5 M-Sport World Rally Team Keith Cronin Mikie Galvin All Alex Laffey Dai Roberts 1–2 Patrick Walsh 3–7 Spencer Sport Osian Pryce Dale Furniss 1–6 Euan Thorburn Rally Team Euan Thorburn Paul Beaton 1, 3 CA1 Sport Ltd Jamie Anderson Ross Whittock 1–5 Rhys Yates Andrew Roughead 7 Swift Group Matt Edwards Darren Garrod All Brettex Site Services Rhys Yates Carl Williamson 1–5 Alex Lee 6 Autotek Motorsport Eyvind Brynildsen Anders Fredriksson 2 Tiger Risk Rally Team James Slaughter Niall Burns 2, 4–5 Martin McCormack David Moynihan 5 Citroën Citroën DS3 R5 DGM Sport Jonathan Greer Kirsty Riddick 1–4, 6 Hyundai Hyundai i20 R5 BRC Racing Team Tom Cave James Morgan 2 Hyundai Motorsport 3 Dom Buckley Motorsport 4
BRC Production Cup Entries
Constructor Car Team Driver Co Driver Rounds Subaru Subaru Impreza WRX STI SW Motorsport Spencer Wilkinson Glyn Thomas 1–3
BRC4 Entries
Constructor Car Team Driver Co Driver Rounds Ford Ford Fiesta R2T Atherton Racing Gee Atherton Keaton Williams 1, 3, 5, 7 Ford Fiesta R2 Two 4 Motorsport David White Matthew White 1–2, 4–7
Junior BRC Entries Constructor Car Team Driver Co Driver Rounds Peugeot Peugeot 208 R2 Mc Connell Motorsport Marty Gallagher Dean O'Sullivan All Melvyn Evans Motorsport Meirion Evans Jonathan Jackson All Dean Raftery Rallying Dean Raftery Tom Woodburn 1 Peugeot UK Cameron Davies Caron Tomlinson 1–4 Michael Gilbey 5 DGM Sport William Creighton Liam Regan All Ford Ford Fiesta R2T MH Motorsport Callum Devine Keith Moriarty 1–3 Oscar Solberg Patrik Barth All Josh McErlean Aaron Johnston 5 Spencer Sport James Williams Phil Hall 1 Dale Bowen 2 Dai Roberts 3–6 Vauxhall Vauxhall Adam R2 Vauxhall Motorsport Junior Rally Team Arron Windus Aaron Johnston 1 Spencer Sport James Williams Dai Roberts 7 Citroën Citroën C2 R2 Macsport Rally Team Josh McErlean Damien Duffin 1–2, 6 Aaron Johnston 3 Opel Opel Adam R2 Opel Rallye Junior Team Chris Ingram Elliot Edmondson 4 Callum Devine Rallying Callum Devine Keith Moriarty 4–7
Cadet Cup Entries Constructor Car Team Driver Co Driver Rounds Ford Ford Fiesta R2 Armstrong Motorsport Fergus Barlow Max Freeman 1–3 MH Motorsport Josh Cornwell Richard Bliss 1–5 Tom Woodburn 6 Alex Waterman Harry Thomas 1–2, 4–7 Tom Woodburn 3 Nabila Tejpar Charley Sayer 1–3 Steve McPhee 4–5 Richard Bliss 6–7 Tom Williams Rallying Tom Williams Bryan Hull 1–5 Phil Hall 7 Ford Fiesta R2T Haper Adams Motorsport James McDiarmid Max Haines 1–2, 4–7 Vauxhall Vauxhall Adam Cup Major Motorsport Arron Windus Richard Crozier 2–3
Ladies BRC Trophy Entries Constructor Car Team Driver Co Driver Rounds Ford Ford Fiesta R2 MH Motorsport Nabila Tejpar Charley Sayer 1–3 Steve McPhee 4–5 Richard Bliss 6–7
Calendar changes On 7 January, the British Rally Championship management team announced via a press release that the 2017 Mid Wales Stages Rally, usually the opening round of the championship and held in March, would not take place. The reason cited was that a deal had been reached with Natural Resources Wales - the agency that runs Welsh government forests - over the fees payable to run a forest rally in Wales however a misunderstanding over the VAT payable meant that it would be unfeasible to run the 2017 event. The Border Counties Rally, based in Jedburgh and also round two of the Scottish Rally Championship was announced as a replacement event and the 2017 series opener.
Event results
Podium places and information on each event.
Round Rally name Podium finishers Statistics Rank Driver Car Time Stages Length Starters Finishers 1 Border Counties Rally(17-18 March) 1 Fredrik Åhlin Škoda Fabia R5 0:53:01.6 9 93.94 km 35 28 2 Tom Cave Ford Fiesta R5 0:53:40.2 3 Osian Pryce Ford Fiesta R5 0:54:09.0 2 Pirelli Rally(29-30 April) 1 Fredrik Åhlin Škoda Fabia R5 1:29:28.0 8 159.61 km 43 30 2 Osian Pryce Ford Fiesta R5 1:30:07.4 3 Martin McCormack Škoda Fabia R5 1:30:17.5 3 RSAC Scottish Rally(19-20 May) 1 David Bogie Škoda Fabia R5 1:09:47.1 10 119.58 km 37 27 2 Osian Pryce Ford Fiesta R5 1:10:35.6 3 Martin McCormack Škoda Fabia R5 1:10:49.0 4 Ypres Rally (23–24 June) 1 Keith Cronin Ford Fiesta R5 2:25:00.3 20 259.35 km 123 90 2 Matt Edwards Ford Fiesta R5 2:26:18.4 3 Osian Pryce Ford Fiesta R5 2:27:30.2 5 Nicky Grist Stages(8-9 July) 1 Fredrik Åhlin Škoda Fabia R5 1:45:50.2 20 188.48 km 28 17 2 Matt Edwards Ford Fiesta R5 1:46:37.7 3 Rhys Yates Ford Fiesta R5 1:47:58.2 6 Ulster Rally(18-19 August) 1 Keith Cronin Ford Fiesta R5 2:06:03.8 14 214.83 km 33 22 2 Fredrik Åhlin Škoda Fabia R5 2:06:59.2 3 Jonathan Greer Citroën DS3 R5 2:08:11.8 7 Rally Isle of Man(14-16 September) 1 Keith Cronin Ford Fiesta R5 1:51:16.0 21 229.82 km 23 17 2 Matt Edwards Ford Fiesta R5 1:51:38.6 3 Fredrik Åhlin Škoda Fabia R5 1:52:29.2
Drivers championship standings Top 10 positions Pos Driver BCR PIR SCO YPR NGS ULS MAN Pts 1 Keith Cronin 4 Ret 4 1 Ret 1 1* 129 2 Fredrik Åhlin 1 1* Ret 6 1 2 3 128 3 Matt Edwards 6 5 Ret 2 2 Ret 2* 94 4 Rhys Yates 5 6 Ret 5 3* Ret 4 70 5 Osian Pryce 3 2 2 3 Ret* RetDNP 66 6 Martin McCormack Ret 3 3 Ret* 4 4DNP 57 7 Jamie Anderson 7 8 7 4 5*DNP DNP 39 8 David Bogie Ret* 4 1 RetDNP DNPDNP 37 9 Alex Laffey Ret 9 8 8 Ret* 5 Ret 30 10 Callum Devine 14 11 13 7 6 Ret* 6 30 Pos Driver BCR PIR SCO YPR NGS ULS MAN Pts Points are awarded in each class as follows: 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1. Competitors may nominate one event as their 'joker', on which they will score additional points: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Competitors six best scores will count towards their championship total, including the final round. The final round of the championship will be a double-header for points as the rally is split into two point scoring rounds.
References