WRC will return to UK as Rally Scotland in 2027
Not since 2019 have we seen a WRC car campaign through a British forest - that all changes next year
While the FIA World Rally Championship must regard F1’s surging popularity (and the influx of OEMs and investment it has generated) with no small amount of envy, there is at least a new reason to be cheerful if you much prefer a bobble hat and muddy boots to the idea of sipping champagne in Port Hercules. After an eight-year absence, the WRC will finally return to the UK from 2027 in the shape of a brand-new Rally Scotland. Huzzah!
The new event has been developed in partnership with Motorsport UK, the result of a new strategy that will see the gravel-based stages established in Aberdeenshire and Moray. Reflecting the amount of time and effort (and money) involved in ensuring a return for top-level international rallying, the headquarters and service park will be located at the 10,000-seat P&J Live arena in Aberdeen, the largest indoor venue in Scotland.
Organisers point to the region’s strong transport links, but it will be the ‘dramatic landscapes and world-class forest roads’ that seize the imagination, not to mention the famously friendly Scottish weather. WRC fans will recall with glee the backdrop that Wales Rally GB provided before its final showing in 2019. When the organisers talk of making a comeback ‘to one of rallying’s most historic territories’, they are not underselling it.
“Rallying has always had a special place in the story of British motorsport and, for me personally, it has been a huge part of my life,” said Motorsport UK chairman, Dave Richards. “I know just how unique the atmosphere of a UK rally can be — the forests, the fans and the extraordinary community of volunteers and motor clubs who make these events possible. That’s why seeing the championship return to the UK is so meaningful.”
Naturally, the wider benefit is all about the usual economic windfall to the local area, with the Scottish Government and Aberdeenshire councils having played their part in securing the agreement. The latter is said to run for three years, meaning you’ll now have every excuse to make a motorsport-based pilgrimage to some of the UK’s best driving roads.
That’s assuming a smaller-scale Candidate Event, the vital next step in making Rally Scotland a reality, goes off without a hitch later this year. This is to prepare the ground and tick all the bureaucratic boxes ahead of a return to full-scale WRC-level competition, provided final approval is given by the FIA World Motor Sport Council. But that ought to be a formality. And what better time for it than 2027, with game-changing new regulations also in the offing? Best find that bobble hat.
You can have a drink just get someone else to drive (Simple!!)
Should not be drinking and driving anyway......
Anyone any ideas what the sample candidate event will be?
Ignoring the weird cynism, I'm genuinely chuffed about this. It's been a rough decade for the north east so more things like this is fantastic to see.
You can have a drink just get someone else to drive (Simple!!)
Should not be drinking and driving anyway......
Anyone any ideas what the sample candidate event will be?
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2mi walk from Dyce train station to P&J (for the special stages?) for those that absolutely must have a beer to watch motorsport. Plenty of decent transport links around there too and being on the east coast, Aberdeenshire is pretty dry so there's even a chance that the weather won't be awful.
A great event for the area so my sons are keen to make the trip up from central Scotland.
What is more likely to kill it is the piss-take admission prices, overcrowded spectator car parks, congestion on approach roads and the state in which spectators tend to leave the forests. The last time I went to Wales Rally GB (2013) there was so much crap discarded it would have taken weeks to clear up. The highlight was a gazebo.
I'm genuinely pleased we'll get another WRC event on these shores, but it's a shame to limit it to one location and not make it national, as in the old Lombard RAC days.
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