ONE ROAD ENDS: ANOTHER BEGINS
Road rallying in its traditional – and arguably ‘purest’ form – stands on the brink of extinction. Yet rather than simply mourn its passing, the BTRDA’s focus on Targa rallies has met with unprecedented levels of entries – even in the depths of a pandemic.
Steve Retchless, a veteran road rally man who competed throughout the discipline’s golden era in the 1980s, retiring at the end of the decade but returning to the sport in 2005, explains: “I came into Targas kicking and screaming because of the lack of road rallies in the north of England where I’m based.
“We’ve got three or four motor clubs within a 50-mile radius from me, up in the north, who do scatter rallies in the summer, they do 12-cars in the winter and then maybe an odd road rally. But it’s very sparse.”
Just as the World Rally Championship led the revolution from the top down towards central service areas with fewer road miles, so Targa rallies are working upwards to bring the grassroots to a
