Road rally

A road rally is a car rally that takes place on the public road. It is a popular sport in the United Kingdom, especially Wales, and has traditionally been the core of the "grass roots" of club-based amateur motorsport. However it has declined in popularity since the 1980s and now stage rallies are probably generally more popular with amateurs. A very similar sport is the 12-car rally, which runs to broadly the same rules.

The attraction of the sport is that it is very cheap to compete, requiring relatively small levels of preparation, and is open to a wide degree of abilities. Its disadvantages are that for safety reasons they have to be run in very remote (generally rural) areas, and late at night. One reason for their decline has been the reduction in areas available for running the events, and the increasing burden on organisers to ensure that the rally will not cause a nuisance to any residents affected. There has also been a considerable number of rule changes since 1988 designed to reduce vehicle speeds, which has not been a popular development with some competitors.

Historically, all rallies were once road rallies. Gradually, events started to include a number of "special" stages which were often run off-road. In time these special stages started to comprise the majority of events, and as rallying became faster and more of a recognised sport, the number of competitive stages run on the public road dropped to zero. Thus stage rallying became the main form of rally as recognised by most people today. However, road rallies did not go away, but they became less attractive to commercial interests, and so became the amateur sport that still exists today. Because of their heritage, and in spite of efforts by some lobbyists, the sport remains fully legal and regulated by the sport's governing body, the Motor Sports Association. Note that some stage rallies are run on the public roads in many places, but the key distinction here is that such roads are closed to the public for the duration of the event. In the UK, however, closed roads are only available on the Isle of Mull, the Scottish Borders, and Northern Ireland. In Ireland and the Isle of Man, however, roads are routinely closed for sanctioned stage events. Road Rallies by contrast run competitively on the public road, but these are not closed to the public. Conflict is minimised by using rural roads very late at night (many events don't start until midnight).

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Wikipedia