The Motorsport UK British Rally Championship returns after a 15-month gap to kick start the 2021 season at Oulton Park with the Neil Howard Stages in assoc. with Graham Coffey & Co. Solicitors.
A bumper entry of 45 cars for the championship will compete on the first round of the championship to be entirely based at a race circuit. Using the main circuit and a combination of internal access roads and the circuits tarmac rally stage, 8 stages and over 50 miles of action await the crews.
Leading the field is double champion Matt Edwards, who will be attempting to make BRC history by becoming the first driver to win the title three years in a row. With a brand new VW Polo GTi R5 to hand after swopping from their previous Ford Fiesta, he will not have it easy as a host of drivers look to stop him from making history.
Rhys Yates returns in his Ford Fiesta Rally2 in a two car M-Sport team. The event also forms part of the Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship, and Yates won the previous round of this held at Snetterton. Buoyed by this, the main aim for Yates will be to claim his first outright BRC victory and make a solid start to his bid for the crown. His team mate is Seb Perez who will be making his BRC debut.
Osian Pryce will also return with a VW Polo GTi R5 as he looks to put his BRC experience to good use to claim this seasons title. Another BRC debutant will be Frank Bird, who will be dovetailing alongside a campaign in the GT World Challenge in a Ford Fiesta Rally2. After a solid start was stopped by the global pandemic in 2020, Ollie Mellors returns with his Proton Iriz.
A strong Irish contingent is lead by brother’s Josh and Sam Moffett. Josh will enter in his Hyundai i20 R5 while Sam will stick with his trusty Fiesta Rally2.
Junior British Rally Championship
The Motorsport UK Junior British Rally Championship also returns with a strong entry as drivers bid to not only win the title, but the chance of a WRC prize drive in 2022 behind the wheel of a Hyundai i20 N Rally2 on a European round.
Current Junior World Rally Championship competitor William Creighton leads the crews out on his Fiesta Rally4, fresh from an outing in Portugal last weekend. Creighton has previously been a JBRC runner up twice and will be looking to use the extra experience and seat time to help him land the crown ahead of 16 other drivers.
Finlay Retson returns after a up and down 2019 and former JWRC driver Ruari Bell is keen to use his experience on the world stage to good use. David Kelly also returns after a podium finish on last year’s one and only event the Cambrian Rally.
Whilst most crews will be competing in the up to date Ford Fiesta Rally4, Kyle White is approaching it from another angle and has entered in a older natural-aspirated Peugeot 208 to provide some variety to proceedings and could well be a dark horse.
